Presidential Groundhog Day
Have you ever looked over a new Think Different quiz and decided not to play? Sometimes there are just too many questions where you can't even think of a single plausible answer. I mentioned this problem to my wife the other day. And she said, "Hey, Merv, why don't you do a quiz where you tell them the answers?"
I said, "First of all, did you just call me 'Merv'? And second, that's brilliant! I wonder why no one's ever thought of it before."
I really think there's money in this concept. I should look into it. Just remember, I was first. In the meantime, here's a Think Different where I'm giving you the answers.
The answers are as follows: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, George Washington. (If you're not sure what the common bond is, you might want to sit this one out.)
Each of those answers will work for each of the 13 categories. Here's SAMPLE CATEGORY 0 to show you how:
0. PRESIDENTIAL NAMES
- This president's first name was John
- This president's first name was James
- This president's last name was Adams
- This president's first name was George
- This president's first name was William
- This president's first name was Thomas
- This president's first name was Martin
- This president's last name started with "J"
Naturally, you want to avoid the sheep. But, pay attention here, you also want to avoid the GROUNDHOG. The GROUNDHOG is the number of times you have used your current answer (NOT including the letter) so far. Again, an example will help.
SAMPLE REPLIES FOR FIRST THREE CATEGORIES:
1. A. John Quincy Adams [Your GROUNDHOG for this category is 1, even if you use John Quincy Adams again]
2. A. Andrew Jackson [Your GROUNDHOG for this category is 1 even if you use Andrew Jackson again]
3. G. John Quincy Adams [Your GROUNDHOG for this category is 2 since this is the second time you have used John Quincy Adams as an answer. Note well that in this case the initial letter is irrelevant. Only the president being used matters.]
Your score on each category will be the number of people who gave the same answer (including the letter) MULTIPLIED by your GROUNDHOG for that category. That will encourage you not to give the same reply over and over and over.
There are three SPECIAL RESPONSES detailed below, making 13 different responses available. Since there are only 13 categories, it is possible to avoid the GROUNDHOG entirely.
THE RULES
1. DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS IN THIS THREAD! Send them to me by private message.
2. Deadline for submissions is 11:59:59 PM CST on Wednesday, February 8.
3. Please respond to each category with a letter and one of the following names: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, George Washington; or make one of the following SPECIAL RESPONSES:
- You may respond to ONE category by picking a letter and answering "TRICKY DICK". It is important that you pick a letter. Your score for that category will be the highest score received by a contestant who selected the same letter in that category and gave a correct answer. E.g. suppose you pick "D. TRICKY DICK" for a category. And suppose four contestants gave a correct answer for D, three of them saying "D. John Tyler" and one saying "D. Martin Van Buren". Of the three who said "D. John Tyler", one of them has already used John Tyler on a previous category, resulting in a GROUNDHOG of 2. That contestant will receive a score of 6 (3 people giving the same answer times his GROUNDHOG). So 6 is your score as well for choosing "D. TRICKY DICK". If you use TRICKY DICK on a letter that has no correct answers, you will earn a score of zero (0). So this could work out in your favor, if you're tricky enough. Otherwise, the exposure will bring you down.
- You may respond to ONE category with "SLICK WILLIE". There is no need to pick a letter. Your score will be the number of people including you who used SLICK WILLIE on that category. Are you slick enough to turn this to your advantage?
- You may respond to ONE category with "HONEST ABE". There is no need to pick a letter. This is equivalent to a DROP and receives a score of zero (0). HONEST ABE is the best policy.
- Your score on a category equals the number of people including you who gave your answer (including the letter) MULTIPLIED by your GROUNDHOG (defined above) for that category.
- Incorrect answers receive the "sheep" score (highest number of contestants giving the same correct response) plus 5, with that sum MULTIPLIED by your GROUNDHOG (defined above) for that category.
6. In the event of a tie, the earlier entry gets priority. (Hat tip to Paucle for that no muss solution.)
7. If you have questions or comments, send them to me via private message unless you are sure that what you say will not reveal answers, offer hints, steer players away from negbait, or in any other way spoil the fun.