Learned League 74 - Official Thread

[hbomb1947]

Kicking myself for missing Julia Child. Those French ladies sounded familiar - I have the cook book and read the memoir a few years ago. Ended up with a 0(0)-0(0) tie- a first!

Chaplin was obvious to me but I’ve spent a lot of time watching him

I put Betty Friedan, WTF?

I got my first WOOOOF win yesterday in that mini-league.

What's a WOOOOF win?

[RichmondJ]

OK, how could the MCWA on the Julia Child question have been "Spock"? What would make 11% of the contestants answer him for a question looking for an American author? That's more than weird in my book.

Dr. Benjamin Spock, not pointy ears Spock.

[KellyLasiter]

Kicking myself for missing Julia Child. Those French ladies sounded familiar - I have the cook book and read the memoir a few years ago. Ended up with a 0(0)-0(0) tie- a first!

Chaplin was obvious to me but I’ve spent a lot of time watching him

I put Betty Friedan, WTF?

I got my first WOOOOF win yesterday in that mini-league.

What's a WOOOOF win?

I accidentally put too many O's, but it's a W 0(0)-0(F). I got none right, but won because my opponent forfeited.

[Bamaman]

I guessed Rachael Carson for the book's author. Silent Spring was published in 1962, so I wasn't too far off.

[acthomas]

I guessed Rachael Carson for the book's author. Silent Spring was published in 1962, so I wasn't too far off.

Same. Seemed like a reasonable guess for an important book of that era.

[Woof]

Kicking myself for missing Julia Child. Those French ladies sounded familiar - I have the cook book and read the memoir a few years ago. Ended up with a 0(0)-0(0) tie- a first!

Chaplin was obvious to me but I’ve spent a lot of time watching him

I put Betty Friedan, WTF?

I got my first WOOOOF win yesterday in that mini-league.

I'm still sadly deficient in that category #ARundleProblems

[Woof]

OK, how could the MCWA on the Julia Child question have been "Spock"? What would make 11% of the contestants answer him for a question looking for an American author? That's more than weird in my book.

Dr. Benjamin Spock, not pointy ears Spock. I nearly WAG'd Spock myself, even though I was fairly sure his book was much earlier (1946 as it turns out). I thought my eventual guess of Rachel Carson had a decent shot, but alas my abysmal food and drink knowledge strikes again.

D'oh! (I went with Steinem.)

And I had a similar thought, guessing Helen Gurley Brown (although I didn't think she had any co-authors for Sex and the Single Girl -- and she didn't).

I was surprised that that question played as hard as it did yesterday given that Julie and Julia lent prominence to those names. Live and learn. Instaget of instagets for me as my son cooked Boeuf Saute a la Bourgingnon out of that book on Sunday.

[MinnesotaMyron]

Kicking myself for missing Julia Child. Those French ladies sounded familiar - I have the cook book and read the memoir a few years ago. Ended up with a 0(0)-0(0) tie- a first!

Chaplin was obvious to me but I’ve spent a lot of time watching him

I put Betty Friedan, WTF?

I got my first WOOOOF win yesterday in that mini-league.

What's a WOOOOF win?

W 0(0)-0(0)F. You always score a win against a player who forfeits, unless you also forfeit yourself.

[RandyG]

The Graduate (7%) ??? Is this just a statistical outlier that so many players happened upon this as a guess, or am I missing some possible connection?

What award-winning film starred an actor whose name at birth was Issur Danielovitch; included a feature role for an actor born Bernard Schwartz; and was written by a man who had recently won an Academy Award under the pseudonym Robert Rich?

ETA: This is funny. Someone just posted on the LL message board that he answered the scandalous novel question: Charles Webb/The Graduate

[This Is Kirk!]

The Graduate (7%) ??? Is this just a statistical outlier that so many players happened upon this as a guess, or am I missing some possible connection?

What award-winning film starred an actor whose name at birth was Issur Danielovitch; included a feature role for an actor born Bernard Schwartz; and was written by a man who had recently won an Academy Award under the pseudonym Robert Rich?

I'll bet lots of people were thinking "hmm, Bernard Schwartz sounds like a Jewish name. What famous actors from that time period are Jewish but have a name that doesn't sound Jewish? Oh yeah, Dustin Hoffman!"

[georgespelvin]

Question 4 in the 1960s ML yesterday was:

"Mother died yesterday, or maybe today," he once wrote. He never had the chance to write, "I died in 1960." Who was he?

My response: Norman Bates

Because "Psycho" came out in 1960 I really thought that I was correct. After I saw what was correct, I thought that should be the Best Wrong Answer. Instead, all I get is existential dissatisfaction, albeit not enough to get hit by a train over.

[morbeedo]

Dodged a bullet yesterday. Talked myself out of several correct answers, but luckily the outcome would have been the same in all matches - 2 wins and 1 loss

Guessed Britten but left it blank, didn’t make the connection figured no way it’s right
Knew ‘I am not your negro’ but wrote Baldwin (that picture though?!)
Guessed toast changed it to black coffee
Had Medina changed it to Mecca
Thought RKO but wrote United Artists

Gotta get my head back in this!

[KellyLasiter]

Dodged a bullet yesterday. Talked myself out of several correct answers, but luckily the outcome would have been the same in all matches - 2 wins and 1 loss

Guessed Britten but left it blank, didn’t make the connection figured no way it’s right
Knew ‘I am not your negro’ but wrote Baldwin (that picture though?!)
Guessed toast changed it to black coffee
Had Medina changed it to Mecca
Thought RKO but wrote United Artists

Gotta get my head back in this!

I keyed on the wrong word for the Britten question--I thought the name would have to do with war, not with Britain, and wrote Guerra, who sounded vaguely familiar and is apparently a real guy, but I know of Britten and didn't even think of him for that question. Guessed toast and changed it to eggs. I'm stinking it up in these Mini-Leagues!

[1stlvlthinker]

Dodged a bullet yesterday. Talked myself out of several correct answers, but luckily the outcome would have been the same in all matches - 2 wins and 1 loss

Guessed Britten but left it blank, didn’t make the connection figured no way it’s right
Knew ‘I am not your negro’ but wrote Baldwin (that picture though?!)
Guessed toast changed it to black coffee
Had Medina changed it to Mecca
Thought RKO but wrote United Artists

Gotta get my head back in this!

I keyed on the wrong word for the Britten question--I thought the name would have to do with war, not with Britain, and wrote Guerra, who sounded vaguely familiar and is apparently a real guy, but I know of Britten and didn't even think of him for that question. Guessed toast and changed it to eggs. I'm stinking it up in these Mini-Leagues!

Ahhh, I was wondering how "Britten" was appropriate to the war. I put "Cannon"

[This Is Kirk!]

After MD 4 I have a .938 DE and only 1 unforced point allowed in the 60s mini league. I'm also 4-0 and leading my group. I know there's no way I can sustain that performance.

[Woof]

After MD 4 I have a .938 DE and only 1 unforced point allowed in the 60s mini league. I'm also 4-0 and leading my group. I know there's no way I can sustain that performance.

Ditto, Kirk. I have played perfect defense in 3 of the 4 match days (though my one miss was giving up a 5(2)). I wish that I could be this good in regular play. Coupled with the difficulties my opponents are having in defending me (my TV, film and pop music %ages are misleading for a '60s ML), it makes for a prefect storm in my favor. I expect this house of cards to come tumbling down at any moment.

[mcsheffrey]

I keyed on the wrong word for the Britten question--I thought the name would have to do with war, not with Britain, and wrote Guerra, who sounded vaguely familiar and is apparently a real guy, but I know of Britten and didn't even think of him for that question. Guessed toast and changed it to eggs. I'm stinking it up in these Mini-Leagues!

Ahhh, I was wondering how "Britten" was appropriate to the war. I put "Cannon"

"Battle" for me. Seemed like a reasonable guess for a surname.

I loved when I came up with Medina and then put it together with the wordplay at the end of the clue. 'Funky' + 'Cold' + 'Medina' ... it's been a while since I had a reason to think about Tone Loc.

[KellyLasiter]

I'm finding the film one incredibly hard to defend. At least with the other two, I can kind of sort things into categories, but that one's film and film and film and film and film. It's kind of a stretch to apply them to the opponent's strengths, especially since it's a weak area for me and I often don't know the answers myself.

[RandyG]

Dodged a bullet yesterday. Talked myself out of several correct answers, but luckily the outcome would have been the same in all matches - 2 wins and 1 loss

Guessed Britten but left it blank, didn’t make the connection figured no way it’s right
Knew ‘I am not your negro’ but wrote Baldwin (that picture though?!)
Guessed toast changed it to black coffee
Had Medina changed it to Mecca
Thought RKO but wrote United Artists

Gotta get my head back in this!

I keyed on the wrong word for the Britten question--I thought the name would have to do with war, not with Britain, and wrote Guerra, who sounded vaguely familiar and is apparently a real guy, but I know of Britten and didn't even think of him for that question. Guessed toast and changed it to eggs. I'm stinking it up in these Mini-Leagues!

Ahhh, I was wondering how "Britten" was appropriate to the war. I put "Cannon"

On "Britten" I also initially focused on the war part -- Battle? -- then just stepped back and thought about British composers of semi-recent vintage. Benjamin Britten? Arguably the best well-known. Yeah, that kinda fits part of the clue. Seems like a much better guess than a total WAG.

"Mother died yesterday, or maybe today" is not the opening to The Stranger.... rather "Mother died today, or maybe yesterday". Awkward question in many ways.

Surely there were vast numbers of us who went back-and-forth on Shepard/Glenn/Shepard/Glenn.... only to discover that both were accepted. I went with Glenn because he satisfied 2/3 of the clue; Shepard only 1/3.

[acthomas]

I'm finding the film one incredibly hard to defend. At least with the other two, I can kind of sort things into categories, but that one's film and film and film and film and film. It's kind of a stretch to apply them to the opponent's strengths, especially since it's a weak area for me and I often don't know the answers myself.

At the risk of giving my opponents ammo -- I've been doing it mainly on the basis of "the older it is, the more points I assign".