2012 Summer Hiatus Challenge -- Round 3 Instant Replay Thread

[econgator]

Please consider accepting my "glen" for the R3D6 4-pointer? (Thank you!)

That's a toughie ... a glen is a valley, but the Welsh word for glen is glyn. Hmmm ....

[fowlerism]

I learned the word "cwm" from Boggle, and the film How Green Was My Valley. Now that I think about it, How Green Was My Cwm just doesn't sound as good.

[Woof]

I learned the word "cwm" from Boggle, and the film How Green Was My Valley. Now that I think about it, How Green Was My Cwm just doesn't sound as good.

I learned cwm from the Guinness Book of World Records, which listed it as the only word in the English language (a stretch) to have no vowels (also a stretch). For the record, the longest word record listed in that edition was for pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

[jpahk]

I learned cwm from the Guinness Book of World Records, which listed it as the only word in the English language (a stretch) to have no vowels (also a stretch). For the record, the longest word record listed in that edition was for pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

that is not even the longest loanword from welsh to have no vowels other than w (which, of course, is a vowel in welsh, pronounced "oo"). a crwth is some kind of stringed instrument like a lyre, and a hilarious play in scrabble against an unsuspecting opponent.

in scrabble, anyway, "nth" is a word and it certainly has no vowels. same for "hmm" and "shh" and several 2-letter words too. i believe the longest scrabble word with no vowels is "tsktsks".

[dhkendall]

I learned cwm from the Guinness Book of World Records, which listed it as the only word in the English language (a stretch) to have no vowels (also a stretch). For the record, the longest word record listed in that edition was for pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

that is not even the longest loanword from welsh to have no vowels other than w (which, of course, is a vowel in welsh, pronounced "oo"). a crwth is some kind of stringed instrument like a lyre, and a hilarious play in scrabble against an unsuspecting opponent.

in scrabble, anyway, "nth" is a word and it certainly has no vowels. same for "hmm" and "shh" and several 2-letter words too. i believe the longest scrabble word with no vowels is "tsktsks".

How about "twyndyllyngs"? Granted a) it has "y"s, which my be cheating on the "no vowel" rule, and b) might be too long for inclusion in the Scrabble dictionary.

Regardless, "cwm" is one of my favourite words, and I like taking the opportunity to play it in Scrabble when I can. Unfortunately, the people I play against either are too smart and/or have played too many games against me to be impressed.

[econgator]

How about "twyndyllyngs"? Granted a) it has "y"s, which my be cheating on the "no vowel" rule, and b) might be too long for inclusion in the Scrabble dictionary.

You could get it with a wild card, but there's only two 'y's.

[alietr]

Can someone tell me what the point was in hiding blanks on their person? Wouldn't someone notice that more than two blanks were played?
What was this guy thinking?

[Woof]

I'd guess that the two blanks were from the set that they were playing, do the cheater could control both blanks in the game.

[jpahk]

i've seen the story poorly reported in many places, but stefan fatsis, a writer who was competing in the tournament himself (you might recognize him as the author of word freak), has the accurate details on slate.

[whoisalexjacob]

Here's me: "A low spot between two hills... well, that sure sounds like a valley, but since an 8-year old could also give that answer, there must be a technical or regional term that he's looking for... I guess I clam." Hehe, I never learn.

[OrangeSAM]

i've seen the story poorly reported in many places, but stefan fatsis, a writer who was competing in the tournament himself (you might recognize him as the author of word freak), has the accurate details on slate.

Also a participant in Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast with J! contestant Mike Pesca.

[teapot37]

Also, I need help determining whether the 10-point answer here in R3D5 was an answer or a CLAM.

Do you mean teapot's? He does ? for "don't know, ain't guessin"

Correct. That's an "I dunno".

[Swift'sSecondCourse]

My answer to the R3D6 4-pointer was "vale". That counts, right?

[plasticene]

I'd guess that the two blanks were from the set that they were playing, do the cheater could control both blanks in the game.

That's right. After the completion of each game, the 100 tiles are typically arranged in four 5x5 squares on the board so that the next players at that board can quickly verify that all 100 tiles are present. (Sometimes a single 10x10 square is used, but that poses the danger of accidentally forming a 9x11 rectangle and failing to notice a missing tile. That may have been what happened at last year's World Championship, when a missing tile at the end of a game caused a big uproar.)

Once both players arrive at the board and are ready to play, they pick up all the tiles and put them into the bag. What the cheater was apparently doing was making sure that as often as possible, both blanks were on his side of the board, so that he could palm them instead of returning them to the bag, then use them at his leisure. The kid really had an extraordinary amount of chutzpah. He clearly had cheated in his astounding performance at the 2011 Nationals, but there was no proof, and I guess no theory as to how he was doing it. His mediocre performance in tournaments since last year's Nationals seemed to me like a tacit admission that he had cheated, but was turning over a new leaf. Apparently not.

By the way, Jason Keller played fantastically in this tournament. He was the 26th seed and finished 11th; he led after 20 rounds, but then went 3-8 in the last 11 games, facing an extremely strong lineup. He's been a respected player for a while now, but this really solidifies his standing. (Seven of his games were annotated, in case you'd like to check them out.)

I was the top seed in the second division and finished fourth. It would have been nice to win it, but I was thrilled to rebound from 13th place by winning my last three games.

[DadofTwins]

Too many @#&! Biblical categories in this SHC.

Doesn't seem to be much more than the amount they show on J!

Besides, keep in mind that (if I recall), DoT is a pastor. I'm sure if I was running the SHC, people would complain about the number of geography categories.

Dhkendall is correct. I try to calibrate SHC categories to how frequently they appear on The Show.

Thejeopardyfan is correct about my occupation, but I try to let that influence how I manage the game moreso than how I write clues.

The early landing of this year's Bible categories was luck of the draw. Every week there is one category in the "Bible/Mythology/World Religions" genre, and within that genre one category devoted to New Testament/Christianity and one devoted to Old Testament/Judaism. This year they happened to fall in weeks 1 & 3. Anything else Bible-related will come as TOM in other genres, most often Art & History (and occasionally Literature).

There also might (or might not) be a comparative religions-type category ahead that, again, might or might not call for some Bible knowledge. But I can't make any promises one way or another. Spoilers, and all.

On another note, I'm reviewing the "category title punctuation" clue for a possible replacement.

[gnash]

This is wrong. As the ellipsis ("...") does not appear on your list, I conclude you counted every dot as a period. But an ellipsis is not three periods; it is a distinct punctuation sign. So the actual number of periods is 3473 minus 3 times the number of ellipses. Since the ellipsis is quite common, this probably means both are less common than the ampersand. (...)

The point about an ellipsis being a separate glyph is debatable; you can form it as three periods or its own symbol. I couldn't find an image of a jeopardy category with an ellipsis in it, so it's hard to say. However, typing the single-symbol ellipsis is somewhat difficult unless you're in a word processor that auto-corrects three periods to an ellipsis symbol. Not sure whether Jeopardy questions and categories are written/input in a modern word processor.

To clarify, my point had nothing to do with typesetting, but with the actual meaning of symbols. Thus it is not relevant to it whether you graphically represent an ellipsis with three periods (having full spaces around them) or with a distinct glyph (generally more narrowly spaced). The relevant issue is that an ellipsis is a distinct symbol, with a distinct meaning, which cannot be reduced to three periods. This is always true, regardless of how the ellipsis is typeset. (If an ellipsis could be reduced to three periods, how would you explain the non-existence of a symbol consisting of two periods?)

Introducing typesetting in the discussion would be confusing to say the least. Let's say you have a text in a word processor that has ellipses represented as a distinct character, but then you change the font to Currier. Does the distinction between an ellipsis and three dots disappear? Similarly, a properly typeset text has wider spaces after periods ending sentences than after periods ending abbreviations. Are those different glyphs? Are they different symbols? The usual convention is that a period is used for both functions, i.e., that it is the same symbol. Opening and closing quotes would also depend on the font...

[DadofTwins]

Music people, I need help with a ruling.

The intended answer for "Musical meaning of the punctuation mark used on Twitter to signify a “hashtag.”" was "sharp/raise the pitch a half-step" or equivalents. One player answered "diesis," a term I wasn't familiar with. After researching it, I'm still not sure if it fits the clue, as I think -- I think -- "diesis" is notated differently and indicates a smaller musical interval than sharp.

So, music people, is "diesis" equivalent (or at least equivalent enough to justify points)?

[plasticene]

Music people, I need help with a ruling.

The intended answer for "Musical meaning of the punctuation mark used on Twitter to signify a “hashtag.”" was "sharp/raise the pitch a half-step" or equivalents. One player answered "diesis," a term I wasn't familiar with. After researching it, I'm still not sure if it fits the clue, as I think -- I think -- "diesis" is notated differently and indicates a smaller musical interval than sharp.

So, music people, is "diesis" equivalent (or at least equivalent enough to justify points)?

Diesis should be accepted. The Wikipedia article notes that the word has two distinct meanings, one of which is a very small interval relating to different ways of tuning, and the other "an accidental (see sharp)." The wording doesn't make clear whether diesis is just another word for an accidental (a sharp, double-sharp, flat, or double-flat sign), or if it refers specifically to the sharp sign, but this page shows that it's the normal Italian word for a sharp sign, so I think that settles it.

[immaf]

DoT, can we get a ruling on W.H. Harrison as an answer for the pesky R3D2 question? (First president not to run for re-election?) I was negged by the scoring app, but your official answers say "maybe".

[DadofTwins]

"First President not to run for re-election" is vague enough, I think, to warrant an RQ for any answer other than Polk or Tyler. I think I also need to do an RQ on the ampersand.

The race at the top of the week is close enough to justify waiting until those RQs come in before we declare a winner for Round 3.