TD 218: My Favorite Things

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Woof
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by Woof »

And on to the finale, otherwise known as Moving Day...

12. Language. Name a one-syllable word in the English language that ends in "ough" (14 possible answers)

Totally unintentionally, I've placed the question with the highest value multipliers as the last, meaning that the largest potential for movement occurs now (how exciting!). Lesson learned: we all think that our wordplay answers are excellent choices. Are we right? Let's see...

SHEEP 14- slough
barandall800 (4)
BoK (2)
clprez (2)
debramc (4)
dhkendall (5)
econgator (2)
gloriacelemente (5)
ihavejeoprosy (4)
Peachbox (5)
PowerofHoodoo (5)
teapot37 (5)
This is Kirk! (2)
Turd Ferguson (4)
Vermonter (3)

8- bough
Blue Lion (5)
CheezeWhiz (4)
dnbguy (5)
gamawire (4)
jgamer (5)
lpmastor (4)
mennoknight (4)
sarah0114 (5)

5- dough
bleezy (3)
ElendilPickle (5)
Ivoirians (4)
Magna (5)
TheyCallMeMrKid (4)

4- cough
dott888 (3)
sillymonkey (4)
whatisbishkek (5)
Woppy T (3)

4- trough
goforthetie (3)
StevenH (1)
tjconn728 (2)
Tpmorrison (4)

3- lough
geolawyerman (4)
mitchparov (4)
Rackme32 (4)

3- rough
Abraxas (-1)
bkburner (2)
Sherm (2)

2- chough
immaf (5)
Vanya (5)

2- plough
Creed Bratton (5)
Leander (2)

Singleton! through
MarkBarrett (4)

Incorrect Answers
borough - hbomb1947 (5) (not one syllable)
enough - Bamaman (4), Peggles (5) (also not one syllable, at least as I say it)

Unused Answers
sough
tough :shock:
though :shock:

Statistics
Average of positive multipliers: 3.85
Number of zeroes: 0
Number of -1s: 1
Peggles
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by Peggles »

I can't believe I missed the part about one-syllable. I'm my own worst enemy.
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MarkBarrett
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by MarkBarrett »

Singleton! through
MarkBarrett (4)

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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by dhkendall »

Woof wrote: SHEEP 14- slough

dhkendall (5)
"Slough". Well, that describes what happened to me on this question ...
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by Woof »

And now it's time to begin the awards ceremony. We'll start with a few honorary awards recognizing particularly noteworthy achievements.

The Hugo Gernsback Award for Alternate Reality goes to:
Leander

for getting the lowest score ignoring multipliers with a 65. Well done! Now, if only the rules hadn't been written the way they were...

The Niccolo Machiavelli Prize for best use of multipliers goes to:
Vanya

for managing the smallest differential (34 points) between non-multiplier and with-multiplier scores. This prize recognizes that unique combination of guile, clever plotting and dumb luck that goes into such an achievement. Again, well done!

And, finally, the Wrong-Way Corrigan Trophy for the most disastrous use of multipliers goes to:
hbomb1947

His creative use of the multiplier feature resulted in a modest increase of 194 points to his score, thereby catapulting his score to stratospheric heights. The unique combination of miscalculation and bad luck is hereby recognized with this genuine 24-karat tin trophy. Give it a place of prominence on the bookshelf, Hbomb!

And, finally, the coveted Croix de Woof, awarded to those few intrepid souls who managed to skirt past all the negbait and come up with 12 correct responses on this TD.

Well done, indeed, Magna and Vermonter

Wear those medals proudly, gentlemen, and be sure to trot them out every Dec. 3 when the grizzled veterans of TD 218 gather to reminisce and compare wounds.
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by Woof »

And now on to the awards ceremony...

In places 49-21, we have those folks who ran afoul of the multipliers and saw their scores balloon. Each of you will receive a home version of TD 218 to torment your (soon-to-be-ex-) friends and relations with:

331 Bamaman
330 hbomb1947
323 mennoknight
303 bleezy
287 Blue Lion
282 barandall800
272 Peggles
259 sarah0114
256 Peachbox
230 dnbguy
230 ElendilPickle
230 Creed Bratton
227 teapot37
227 PowerofHoodoo
219 dhkendall
216 gamawire
215 CheezeWhiz
208 whatisbishkek
208 debramc
208 Abraxas
203 tjconn728
203 immaf
199 gloriacelemente
195 Turd Ferguson
190 Magna
180 BoK
179 bkburner
179 geolawyerman
179 sillymonkey
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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In places 20-11, we those players who managed a number of good choices, but who were undone by 1-2 less-than-ideal choices. Valiant effort, folks! We have for each of you a copy of the James Beard Foundation "Top Restaurants in America" guide to help you on that next night out on the town:

178 Woppy T
177 Sherm
177 MarkBarrett
177 Rackme32
170 mitchparov
170 dott888
168 Ivoirians
164 ihavejeoprosy
162 Vermonter
157 TheyCallMeMrKid
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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In places 10-4, we have those folks who just barely missed out on a podium appearance despite all-round excellent efforts on their parts. For each of them, an autographed First Edition copy of Alexander Shulgin's classic "Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved." Feel free to PM me if any questions arise about the procedures described in the last 200 pages:

154 lpmastor
153 clprez
143 econgator
142 Tpmorrison
136 goforthetie
131 This is Kirk!
131 StevenH
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Woof
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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And, now, it's for our podium appearances. Receiving the Bronze Medal, with a score of 129, we have the player who led through much of the game. Let's give a big round of applause for jgamer!!

Just missing out on the top spot with a score of 109, we have the winner of the Hugo Gernsback Award and Silver Medalist, Leander!!!!

And, in a stunning come-from-behind victory, winning with a score of 104, the Niccolo Machiavelli Prize winner and Gold Medalist, our very own Vanya!!!!

Congratulations to all three of you, and my most hearty thanks to all for playing. I hope that you enjoyed the ordeal that was TD 218.
Last edited by Woof on Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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Round 12 scores without multipliers
Leander 65
Vanya 70
mitchparov 72
dott888 74
StevenH 77
Vermonter 78
Sherm 81
This is Kirk! 81
econgator 83
Abraxas 84
Magna 84
BoK 86
goforthetie 86
sillymonkey 86
TheyCallMeMrKid 90
Woppy T 91
jgamer 92
immaf 95
Tpmorrison 95
Creed Bratton 97
ihavejeoprosy 97
gamawire 98
Ivoirians 101
clprez 102
tjconn728 102
whatisbishkek 102
bleezy 104
CheezeWhiz 104
teapot37 105
lpmastor 108
bkburner 110
MarkBarrett 110
sarah0114 110
PowerofHoodoo 111
debramc 112
gloriacelemente 112
geolawyerman 113
Turd Ferguson 116
dhkendall 117
Rackme32 117
Peggles 120
ElendilPickle 121
mennoknight 124
barandall800 126
Blue Lion 126
Peachbox 129
dnbguy 136
hbomb1947 136
Bamaman 157
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MarkBarrett
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by MarkBarrett »

Thanks for a fun game and congrats to the winners. If I had a fireplace I might use my prize as kindling. Drugs & fancy restaurants in the same TD? There outta be laws. :)

Spago and Aleve gave me no shot at a clean sheet. Well done Magna and Vermonter getting the Croix de Woof right up there in prestige with the Croix de Candlestick.
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by goforthetie »

Congrats to Vanya, Leander and jgamer for navigating this minefield!

And a big thanks to Woof for a job well done, even if I am still kicking myself for Alinea. The James Beard question was used on a TD a few years ago, and I knew I went with French Laundry for a semi-sheepish answer back then, but I thought I had regretted that I hadn't gone with Alinea, rather than relieved.
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by Leander »

Thanks for putting this together. I am quite amazed I could do so well while giving a totally incorrect answer for the pharmaceuticals question.

I really liked the multiplier aspect of this. I hope someone uses it in another TD.
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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Woof wrote:In places 20-11, we those players who managed a number of good choices, but who were undone by 1-2 less-than-ideal choices. Valiant effort, folks! We have for each of you a copy of the James Beard Foundation "Top Restaurants in America" guide to help you on that next night out on the town:

178 Woppy T
177 Sherm
177 MarkBarrett
177 Rackme32
170 mitchparov
170 dott888
168 Ivoirians
164 ihavejeoprosy
162 Vermonter
157 TheyCallMeMrKid
I could really use that book, since I got that question wrong, and have never heard of any of the correct answers. Do you need my mailing address? Or if you want to just give me your credit card number I can order it for myself.

Thanks for a fun game!
Sheepin' it real.
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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Woof wrote: And, in a stunning come-from-behind victory, the Niccolo Machiavelli Prize winner and Gold Medalist, our very own Vanya!!!!

Congratulations to all three of you, and my most hearty thanks to all for playing. I hope that you enjoyed the ordeal that was TD 218.
Mr. M was already my hero.

My ignorance of Coen brothers films pays off.

Thanks, Woof!
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by sillymonkey »

Thanks for such an enjoyably challenging game on several levels. The wide variety of topics was interesting, and even though some were pretty hard, almost all were gettable.
I especially enjoyed the multiplier element: how well can I evaluate both my confidence and the psychology of avoiding sheep?
It turns out that I did quite well on the multipliers, although two of them would look wrong to an outsider: I gave my 0 weight to the drug question, but got a correct, non-sheep answer. Since I had no confidence in that answer, I shouldn't have changed that weight. I got a wrong answer on the countries visited question, which I weighted at 5. It turns out that if I had played it safe on that question (rather than hunting for a non-tourist country), and changed nothing else, I would have finished very near the top.
Anyway, even though I spent much of the reveal time in the basement, it was a really fun challenge, and it was nice to crawl out of the hole into the top 1/2!
Thanks again - great game!
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Woof
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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goforthetie wrote:Congrats to Vanya, Leander and jgamer for navigating this minefield!

And a big thanks to Woof for a job well done, even if I am still kicking myself for Alinea. The James Beard question was used on a TD a few years ago, and I knew I went with French Laundry for a semi-sheepish answer back then, but I thought I had regretted that I hadn't gone with Alinea, rather than relieved.
As I mentioned in the reveal, I was shocked that Alinea hadn't won, and this just underscores the point you were making in another thread about subjective lists in TDs. I try to avoid them because of the semi-arbitrary nature of such lists, but went with this one because of objective nature of receiving an award, an event that is often publicized. Still, Alinea has been widely regarded as one of the top restaurants in the world and Grant Achatz has been profiled in the New York Times magazine, among other places. How it can have failed to win the JBF award is beyond me, especially in light of this year's award to The Slanted Door, a restaurant that was great a decade ago but has, by most accounts, slipped in quality over the past few years. Then again, we have the same disagreements about the Oscars and we ask TD questions about them, too. :?:
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Woof
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

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sillymonkey wrote:Thanks for such an enjoyably challenging game on several levels. The wide variety of topics was interesting, and even though some were pretty hard, almost all were gettable.
I especially enjoyed the multiplier element: how well can I evaluate both my confidence and the psychology of avoiding sheep?
It turns out that I did quite well on the multipliers, although two of them would look wrong to an outsider: I gave my 0 weight to the drug question, but got a correct, non-sheep answer. Since I had no confidence in that answer, I shouldn't have changed that weight. I got a wrong answer on the countries visited question, which I weighted at 5. It turns out that if I had played it safe on that question (rather than hunting for a non-tourist country), and changed nothing else, I would have finished very near the top.
Anyway, even though I spent much of the reveal time in the basement, it was a really fun challenge, and it was nice to crawl out of the hole into the top 1/2!
Thanks again - great game!
Thanks. This is exactly what I was hoping to achieve with the multipliers. I am planning on doing some meta-analysis of the multipliers, which I will post in this thread.
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by StevenH »

Big thanks to woof for a super fun game! And congrats to Vanya on the hard earned win!
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Re: TD 218: My Favorite Things

Post by Blue Lion »

Despite my bottom-feeder finish, I enjoyed this game immensely. Many thanks, Woof, for an ingenious game. The multipliers add an extra level of strategy to the game and call for even more thinking, and even more chances to make costly mistakes. And congrats to the winners, who avoided making those mistakes.
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