Whoops, I got a 2 for Stroganoff, 3 for Uganda.
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 16:51 (three years ago) link
how in the fuc am i supposed to defend this
https://i.imgur.com/gCcK45C.jpg
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 21:34 (three years ago) link
hope for another velocity of money question?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 21:37 (three years ago) link
invite them over for dinner
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 21:41 (three years ago) link
I faced the rundle leader yesterday, who ended up forfeiting. I know that other players often voice dismay at forfeit wins, but it's lifted me into the middle of the pack out of the relegation zone.
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Thursday, 4 March 2021 16:59 (three years ago) link
i shouldn't complain bc i've been on a hot run but i boned myself out of a 9(6) yesterday by misreading "formally" as "formerly"
― na (NA), Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:05 (three years ago) link
Saw people talk about that on the LL Message Board.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:10 (three years ago) link
And some of us who read it correctly were still thrown off by the word "formally."
(I feel like "formally" must have been included to guide people away from Seward's Folly, but it created the impression that the question was looking for something other than the common name of Alaska.)
― jaymc, Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:15 (three years ago) link
yeah, i kinda hedged my bets with "Alaska Territory" which was taken. Having a lucky start to my season so far and cracked the top five.
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:30 (three years ago) link
let me tell you, i spent half the day trying to figure out the clay question and was deeply happy when my subconscious spat up "potsie"
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:33 (three years ago) link
After I submitted and read the question again and saw his last name I felt kind of bad.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 4 March 2021 19:02 (three years ago) link
Also I put the Gadsden Purchase, although I probably spelt it wrong, was hoping that was when they bought Alaska.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 4 March 2021 19:03 (three years ago) link
Also knew it was Alaska, took "formally" to mean I was supposed to say something else, got hosed
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 5 March 2021 18:46 (three years ago) link
I thought yesterday's was gonna be hard and my 5/6 was a sure win, but no! How did all those people know Olivia Newton-John and semaphore? I was lucky to escape with a tie, lots of eggroll in my rundle.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 5 March 2021 18:47 (three years ago) link
i slightly misread the question and put "alaska purchase" but they gave it to me
― little johnny juul (voodoo chili), Friday, 5 March 2021 18:50 (three years ago) link
I guessed Dolly for the ONJ question, but semaphore was the first visual communication system that popped into my head, and the word looked appropriately Greek.
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Friday, 5 March 2021 18:59 (three years ago) link
props to monty python for teaching me about semaphore
― little johnny juul (voodoo chili), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:02 (three years ago) link
5/6 for me too. for some reason i confused diebold and dominion.
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:05 (three years ago) link
the "(and appropriately so)" on semaphore was more confusing than helpful
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:06 (three years ago) link
i got ONJ based solely on her being in the biggest movie musical in 1978. once i remembered her, the country music stuff sounded familiar, like i had heard she was originally a country artist at some point, but i never would've gotten it based just on that info.
― na (NA), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:10 (three years ago) link
itt: many people who have never been mellow
― little johnny juul (voodoo chili), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:22 (three years ago) link
NA that was my ON-J experience exactly.
I still don't get what work "and appropriately so" was doing for semaphore.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:25 (three years ago) link
flagbearer and signal flag i guess
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:29 (three years ago) link
i interpreted that as just being that someone doing semaphore is literally bearing (holding) the signal (flags)
― na (NA), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:34 (three years ago) link
Knowing a couple of hundred Greek roots yields an inordinate amount of points over a few years of quizzing. Sem- = sign, as in semiotics (the study of signs) or semantics (signification); phero/phor = carry/carrier, as in phosphor (light-carrier), metaphor (over-carrier), pheromone (carrier-hormone), Christopher (Christ-carrier).
"and appropriately so" I took to indicate that practitioners of semaphore need to quite literally carry their signs with them.
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 5 March 2021 19:34 (three years ago) link
xpost exactly
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 5 March 2021 19:35 (three years ago) link
otm
only really thought of ON-J because i'd just posted a photo of her with joe torre and phil niekro on the baseball board
― mookieproof, Friday, 5 March 2021 19:39 (three years ago) link
let's throw knuckleball, knuckleballwe're gonna throw knuckleball, knuckleball
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 5 March 2021 20:30 (three years ago) link
Good shout -- I don't think I gave much thought to it, but if I had, I would've "translated" sem- as "meaning," as in "polysemous." Off to see if there are any Anki decks that have Greek roots.
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Friday, 5 March 2021 21:54 (three years ago) link
Yeah, the "meaning" interpretation of sem- is also reasonable for most derived compounds I can think of, I didn't mean to imply the path from "sign" was obvious or anything.
Oh and consider doing some Latin roots as well; often very close to either ancient Greek or modern English (phero=fero, sem-=sign-); not free lunch, but lunch at massive discount.
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 5 March 2021 22:03 (three years ago) link
Sometimes it feels like a cheat code really; another very boring cheat code is to actually, once and for all, cram the mapping from atomic numbers to names of chemical elements. For some reason, setters all over the world seem loath to write a question on an element without including the atomic number. I feel this is bad question setting, but it's not like I'm gonna refuse the points. (You probably kinda knew this already, but unless you've actually done the job, I'm not sure you realize how free-lunch this bit feels.)
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 5 March 2021 22:09 (three years ago) link
re: atomic numbers and elements, not so much in LL though? (I've tried studying those a couple times but gave up pretty quickly.)
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Friday, 5 March 2021 23:34 (three years ago) link
never heard of anki, is it free/safe as a download?
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 6 March 2021 00:14 (three years ago) link
well i see it is. anybody wanna give me a primer on using it?
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 6 March 2021 00:23 (three years ago) link
You can either download decks you find that you like or create your own.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 March 2021 00:29 (three years ago) link
A lot of them are hit or miss but they have star ratings, if that helps.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 March 2021 00:30 (three years ago) link
The Ultimate Geography deck is entirely responsible for me getting at least three Africa questions right, so if recommend that if geography is something you want to bolster.
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Saturday, 6 March 2021 19:04 (three years ago) link
Also, you use it like this:
Once you've imported a deck, you study a small set of cards each day (or as often as you can), and press the button that corresponds with how easy that flash card was. (You don't generally need to actually enter the answer into the app, because the idea is to work your memory, and topping in the answer would take up too much time.) The easier the question, the longer it'll be before the app shows you that card again, while harder questions will show up more often. And that's it.
Making a deck of your own is much less straightforward.
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Saturday, 6 March 2021 19:09 (three years ago) link
One think I can't remember how to do in Anki is how to reset the deck when loaded so it offers up the appropriate number of cards to review.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 March 2021 22:19 (three years ago) link
I made a deck of my own once, and it was inded a little tedious. I think one can make simple decks pretty easily though, using CSV files for example.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 March 2021 22:21 (three years ago) link
copy, will try it out!
6/6 yesterday, was rather pleased with myself for figuring out the hockey mask.
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 6 March 2021 22:29 (three years ago) link
My experience in A tends to be losing when I get 4 or fewer, tying when I get 5, and winning when I get 6. The talent pool is diluted enough to avoid relegation from A most of the time, tho I’m only just now back in after 3 seasons in the wilderness.
― Canon in Deez (silby), Saturday, 6 March 2021 22:33 (three years ago) link
I'm happy to be in C for precisely that reason
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 6 March 2021 22:45 (three years ago) link
Heh, no comment
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 6 March 2021 22:55 (three years ago) link
Okay, just downloaded that Ultimate Geography deck, really nice, thanks! Any other decks you recommend?
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 7 March 2021 02:16 (three years ago) link
This off-season I created my own deck that complements UG, featuring the largest cities and head of government (I got burned on the AMLO question) for every country, enough I could share. I should note a couple caveats: it hasn't paid off yet, and the volatility of politics means that it needs frequent updating (which fortunately isn't hard).
― RZA Minnelli (Leee), Sunday, 7 March 2021 07:30 (three years ago) link
So Q6 was a gimme for me, just popped right into my head, seems like it was a popular culture reference for a long time, wonder if there is an age cutoff.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 11:46 (three years ago) link
Like I can hear his name being said in my head, by Bugs Bunny, by my favorite WBGO DJ. Not 100% those two ever actually referred to him but still.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 12:10 (three years ago) link
Lash Larue had at least one Dell comic, so that was my reference point.
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 14:20 (three years ago) link
I got it right, but it didn't come to me right away. My first thought was "Lasso" (which was the MCW), and then when I came back to the questions later, "Lash" came to mind and sounded better.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 14:28 (three years ago) link