Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

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mrparadise
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by mrparadise »

twelvefootboy wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:20 pm
alietr wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:06 am GOLF hole?!?!

The oldest surviving of a certain type of hole still in use in the United States is widely believed to be in the West Virginia town of White Sulphur Springs, and dates from 1884. What type of hole is it?

This is a good question, but the clue needs some work, ergo, 10% get rate. Obviously you can't say "nine holes" or even give it away as a sports category. I think something like "certain types of holes" might be a less misleading. A couple of problems with the clue:
1) I think the clue implies that the ORIGINAL hole in the ground survives. No chance unless there were some very forward looking preservationists. For the non-golfers: the physical hole is moved around frequently to even out the wear and to change the playing characteristics. Generally, the layout will rotate with 6 easy locations, 6 average ones, and 6 difficult pin placements.
2) There is some ambiguity in that a "golf hole" almost always implies the entire real estate from tee to green. In that regard, this clue is accurate. The wording of the clue implies a literal hole in the ground.

I rarely criticize the commish, but this one probably didn't turn out as he wanted. It's still a fair question but the commish doesn't write trick questions on purpose to my limited experience. I would have known the approximate decade that golf arrived for a sports question but this sounded like a business/industry clue.

BTW, the "New Course" at St. Andrews was built in 1895. The Old Course dates to the 1400's, and the 1750's in the exact format today. :lol:.

I wracked my brain over this for a long time but the best I could do was oil well and I was pretty sure that wasn't it. On the reveal I probably shocked the neighbors, I know I shocked my wife. I was especially distraught (yes, distraught) because I've been a golfer for 50 years plus and I damn well should have gotten this. 1884, White Sulpher Springs WV, a kind of hole? Why, that's the Greenbrier, of course! Never played it (yet) but it's a famous resort with three famous courses and a ton of American golf history. The problem was that I started off thinking about holes as things that go down into the ground, like oil wells, coal mines, sink holes, swimming holes and I couldn't extricate myself from that rabbit hole.

As the tall fella points out, most golfers think of a "golf hole" as the entire tee to green, 100-600 yards of real estate, not the 4 1/4" circular "cup" that's sunk 6" or so into the ground. Still, golfers should have figured this one out without breaking a sweat. I'd be curious as to how many of 10% that got it were non golfers. I'd wager very few.

Maybe the question could have been worded more artfully but I don't think it's a trick question. As with many LL puzzlers, getting there requires thinking out of the box or in this case climbing out of the rabbit hole. I don't know about you but I keep having to relearn this lesson.
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SBurrus
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by SBurrus »

classicroadster wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 8:24 am
alietr wrote: Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:06 am GOLF hole?!?!
That was all that made sense to me given that I figured a mine, well, or anything like that wouldn't fit the clue, the Greenbriar resort is in WV, and the year of 1884 was when golf was being introduced to the US. A bit of a guess, but when I thought of it, it made total sense.

I lived in Beckley, WV from 1990 to 1994, just 45 minutes from the Greenbriar, but I didn't make the connection when I saw that clue. I did know about White Sulphur Springs (they had a great pancake restaurant I would frequently visit) and so I answered thermal springs.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by econgator »

Apparently that Meghan Trainor song is more popular that I would have guessed. I wouldn't have gotten it if you had spotted me "that ba..."
mrparadise
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by mrparadise »

econgator wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:00 am Apparently that Meghan Trainor song is more popular that I would have guessed. I wouldn't have gotten it if you had spotted me "that ba..."
If you'd spotted me "that bas..." I would have gone with basket or maybe even bastard. If you spotted me bass it would have been between bassoon and bassinette. Shockingly, my opponent gave me zero and I prevailed with a 9 (5). It was needed.
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Volante
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by Volante »

mrparadise wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:09 am
econgator wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:00 am Apparently that Meghan Trainor song is more popular that I would have guessed. I wouldn't have gotten it if you had spotted me "that ba..."
If you'd spotted me "that bas..." I would have gone with basket or maybe even bastard. If you spotted me bass it would have been between bassoon and bassinette. Shockingly, my opponent gave me zero and I prevailed with a 9 (5). It was needed.
Even J! puts that song in the top or second row (there are clues with higher values, but they're different songs)
http://j-archive.com/search.php?search= ... mit=Search
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by classicroadster »

two teenage daughters = instaget on Meghan Trainor. Didn't hurt that she performed at the Rockefellar tree lighting show the other day. I got 4 on the day, missing the Hindu one (NHO it) and Guggenheim, which I am a bit upset at myself about. I dismissed the guggenheim museum thinking it more of a classic museum (I've never been to any of them). I should've simply thought about the actual building being somewhat high art in themselves. Tied in regular rundle 4(4)-4(4).
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by alietr »

Anyone else think this has been a particularly easy season? Unless the questions get dramatically harder, I'm on pace to break my all-time TCA by 7 points. It would be a definite outlier.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by mahatma »

alietr wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 5:00 pm Anyone else think this has been a particularly easy season? Unless the questions get dramatically harder, I'm on pace to break my all-time TCA by 7 points. It would be a definite outlier.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by seaborgium »

alietr wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 5:00 pm Anyone else think this has been a particularly easy season? Unless the questions get dramatically harder, I'm on pace to break my all-time TCA by 7 points. It would be a definite outlier.
I was about to say I've been having a better-than-usual season more likely due to better-than-usual defense, but I looked at my stats and I'm on pace for over 117 TCA, whereas my best TCA for a prior season is 113.
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econgator
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by econgator »

alietr wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 5:00 pm Anyone else think this has been a particularly easy season? Unless the questions get dramatically harder, I'm on pace to break my all-time TCA by 7 points. It would be a definite outlier.
A little. I'm on pace for 96 TCA, which is one short of my high and 9 over my average.
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twelvefootboy
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by twelvefootboy »

econgator wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 6:07 pm
alietr wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 5:00 pm Anyone else think this has been a particularly easy season? Unless the questions get dramatically harder, I'm on pace to break my all-time TCA by 7 points. It would be a definite outlier.
A little. I'm on pace for 96 TCA, which is one short of my high and 9 over my average.
Down here on the dumb end, it seems pretty even, but perhaps with more variance. I've had 3 days with only 1 right, and four days with four right. No bagels yet, at least. I've regressed after a good LL86 which had a lot of science questions. I'm about 4 CA behind at this point, but I also frittered away about 4 of them with RTFQ and bad coin flips where I changed from the correct answer. Yeah, Minsk and Ibiza were first guesses :(. I'm projecting to the mid 60's TCA, off of 71 last season.
Disclaimer - repeated exposure to author's musings may cause befuddlement.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by This Is Kirk! »

classicroadster wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 12:14 pm Guggenheim, which I am a bit upset at myself about. I dismissed the guggenheim museum thinking it more of a classic museum (I've never been to any of them).
The bit about Guggenheim having lived in the U.S. and Europe was a big hint on that one since her namesake* museums are in NYC and Bilbao, Spain.

I've also NHO the Upanishads.

* well, family namesake, anyway. The New York museum is officially the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum.
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Lefty
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by Lefty »

This Is Kirk! wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:14 am
classicroadster wrote: Fri Dec 04, 2020 12:14 pm Guggenheim, which I am a bit upset at myself about. I dismissed the guggenheim museum thinking it more of a classic museum (I've never been to any of them).
The bit about Guggenheim having lived in the U.S. and Europe was a big hint on that one since her namesake museums are in NYC and Bilbao, Spain.
I never really second-guessed my immediate reaction of Gertrude Stein, though it did seem slightly off in several respects. In defense of my having missed, though, let me point out that the "gallery" of the clue is not the big museum now on Fifth Avenue, which, like the Bilbao museum, was named for her uncle Solomon. I'm kind of annoyed that my opponent threed me on it, despite my respectable percentage in art, and despite the fact that he himself knew the answer, but he did, and it won him the match.

I've seen "All about that bass" enough now between Sporcle and maybe Jeopardy that it's engrammed. I'm not actually sure, to this very moment, whether it's about a guitar, a musical range or a fish, though I suspect it is not the last.
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This Is Kirk!
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by This Is Kirk! »

Lefty wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:50 am In defense of my having missed, though, let me point out that the "gallery" of the clue is not the big museum now on Fifth Avenue, which, like the Bilbao museum, was named for her uncle Solomon.
After looking this up I agree, but I do think the U.S./Europe thing was intended as a hint to point us toward Guggenheim.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by Lefty »

After having just sort of congratulated myself on my musical with-itness, I see the headline "How did Bad Bunny become the world's biggest pop star?" and I realize I still have a ways to go.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by StevenH »

I lucked into a 3(2)-1(2) win yesterday. I went the right way between Turks and Turk, but I didn't realize that the media company was not called "ReutGers." It didn't make a difference, but that still stings.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by alietr »

This Is Kirk! wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:57 am
Lefty wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:50 am In defense of my having missed, though, let me point out that the "gallery" of the clue is not the big museum now on Fifth Avenue, which, like the Bilbao museum, was named for her uncle Solomon.
After looking this up I agree, but I do think the U.S./Europe thing was intended as a hint to point us toward Guggenheim.
You missed the one in Venice, which is specifically named for her. I was there many years ago, and that's how I knew that one:

https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/
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This Is Kirk!
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by This Is Kirk! »

alietr wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 8:16 am
This Is Kirk! wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:57 am
Lefty wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:50 am In defense of my having missed, though, let me point out that the "gallery" of the clue is not the big museum now on Fifth Avenue, which, like the Bilbao museum, was named for her uncle Solomon.
After looking this up I agree, but I do think the U.S./Europe thing was intended as a hint to point us toward Guggenheim.
You missed the one in Venice, which is specifically named for her. I was there many years ago, and that's how I knew that one:

https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/
Interesting. Didn't know that one existed!
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by Johnblue »

Yes, the one in Venice was why I immediately knew it was her. I agree that this season seems a bit easier.
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Re: Learned League 87 -- Nov/Dec 2020

Post by morbeedo »

8/12 on the Mid-Season Classic. Sub-optimal moneying but good enough for a Top 10% finish and Rundle qualifier - though not a great overall finish for Taiga (64th place!)

Surprised that Marbury v. Madison played harder than Wagyu

Got credit for Beider Manhoff (for Baader Meinhof)

I might have pulled Hawkeye and The Velvet Underground with a little more time.
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