questions I'd like to see in a rare entries contest

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These have all been asked before, just not together.

0. Name a currently produced regular M&M color
1. Name one of the disciples of Jesus
2. Name a chemical element whose symbol is a single letter
3. Name one of the seven deadly sins
4. Name a letter that is considered to be a vowel
5. Name a top-level Internet domain whose first letter is U.
6. Name an independent country, part or all of whose territory
(including dependencies) is on a time zone whose difference in hours
from Universal Time is not an integer.
7. Name an english word that contains exactly 2 letters in alphabetical
order
8. Give one of the names normally used to distinguish the different
golf clubs in a set from each other. Names containing a number are
excluded.
9. Name a sports league which has suspended or cancelled either part or
all of its regular season since midnight on January 1st, 1970 and then
continued regular play the following season.

and for a common entries contest, more things like:
0. Name a character from Gone With The Wind
1. Name a currently produced regular M&M color
2. Name one of the seven deadly sins
3. Name one of the pillars of faith of Islam
4. Name a living descendant of Prince Charles
5. Name a book of the new testament
6. Pick a non-integer number between 1 and 10 excluding "e" and pi
7. Give the common name of an animal native only to South America
8. Name a character from the Iliad excluding Helen of Troy, Achilles,
and Ajax.
9. Name a deceased president of the United States excluding Lincoln,
Reagan, and Washington.


just some thoughts while waiting for a large compile to finish...

swp

 

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swp wrote:
> These have all been asked before, just not together.

Don't just suggest it! Run the contest yourself - we all enjoy them. It's
easy if you restrict it to the newsgroup. It only becomes mad if you run it
on a website as well (2,800 entries for one of my earlier ones).

Good luck.

--
Kev
www.brainbashers.com

 

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Julie wrote:
>swp wrote:
>> These have all been asked before, just not together.
>
>> 0. Name a currently produced regular M&M color
>
>As opposed to an irregular color, right?

that would be as opposed to a "peanut" M&M. Perhaps they call them
"plain" where you live? Would that be clearer?

>
>> 1. Name one of the disciples of Jesus
>
>Can I name him "Constable Barnsworthy?"
>

yes. it would be wrong, but you are free to do so.

>> 2. Name a chemical element whose symbol is a single letter
>
>Does it have to be an English letter?
>

no. the chemical element is the answer, not the symbol for it.
equivalent answers rule would apply here if you choose to use cyrillic
or arabic or (simplified) chinese. of course, I will insist on all
answers being in plain text in ASCII or ISO 8859-1: no HTML,
attachments, Micro$oft character sets, etc. Failure to comply will
result in either chastisement or assimilation by the microsof ,,, er,
borg.

>> 3. Name one of the seven deadly sins
>
>Just one? Can't I have more? Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?
>

no. you may have only one. but you may practice it repeatedly.
please don't pick gluttony....

>> 4. Name a letter that is considered to be a vowel
>
>Does it have to be an English letter?
>

no. that's part of the joy of a question like this.

>I like these questions. You should run this as a contest. Or,
>alternately, if you want me to set up the code for it, you could
>administer it, though I only do it with web-based code, and a lot of
>people prefer e-mail for these.
>

could you set it up to email me their answers? that way it could be
both!

>> 5. Name a top-level Internet domain whose first letter is U.

rats! no snappy remark on this one. might have to drop it and
substitute another...

>> 6. Name an independent country, part or all of whose territory
>> (including dependencies) is on a time zone whose difference in hours

>> from Universal Time is not an integer.
>
>My brain doesn't count as an independent country, does it?
>

not yet. apply to the UN in the usual manner. it will probably take
less time than the route Yasir Arafat took for getting a Palestinian
homeland. If he had just filled out the right forms 40 years ago the
world would probably be a better place. What a concept! Better living
through bureaucracy!!

>> 7. Name an english word that contains exactly 2 letters in
alphabetical
>> order
>
>Szyzgy (you didn't say which alphabetical order )
>

hmm. might have to reword this to specify that the word be exactly 2
letters long AND have both letters in alphabetical order. As opposed
to reverse alphabetical order.


and what exactly did you have against question #8? don't you like
golf? or at least wandering around the countryside in bad pants
chasing after small white spheres with dimples?


>> 9. Name a sports league which has suspended or cancelled either part
or
>> all of its regular season since midnight on January 1st, 1970 and
then
>> continued regular play the following season.
>
>Damn. I don't think my brain counts as a sports league either.
>

not yet. however on this one, you cannot apply to the UN for this one.
Mr Branson or Mr Allen may be a better choice. They like to speculate
and have the monetary resources to pull it off.

>--julie
>

I will begin the contest on March 4th or 5th if you send me that code
by then. Otherwise I'll do it by email only starting on March 6th. It
will run for ... 19 days or so. (I want time on the weekend to score
it and not interfere with watching the NCAA Men's Basketball
tournament.)

For those who care, the above question slate will be modified for the
actual contest and will include a copy of Mark Brader's rules in a
slightly modified format. By "slightly" I mean that I will probably
take rule #7 and make it rule #0 as it should be. The text is in the
public domain, where it belongs, and imitation is the most sincere form
of flattery.

Of course, I hope that Kevin Stone (IQ: 150-ish) will run the common
entries contest outside of his usual web site offering.

swp

p.s. once again my time waiting for the 2-million (+) lines of code to
compile is well spent on google...

 

[Julie]

Archived from groups: rec.puzzles,rec.games.trivia (More info?)

swp wrote:
> These have all been asked before, just not together.
>
> 0. Name a currently produced regular M&M color

As opposed to an irregular color, right?

> 1. Name one of the disciples of Jesus

Can I name him "Constable Barnsworthy?"

> 2. Name a chemical element whose symbol is a single letter

Does it have to be an English letter?

> 3. Name one of the seven deadly sins

Just one? Can't I have more? Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?

> 4. Name a letter that is considered to be a vowel

Does it have to be an English letter?

I like these questions. You should run this as a contest. Or,
alternately, if you want me to set up the code for it, you could
administer it, though I only do it with web-based code, and a lot of
people prefer e-mail for these.

> 5. Name a top-level Internet domain whose first letter is U.
> 6. Name an independent country, part or all of whose territory
> (including dependencies) is on a time zone whose difference in hours
> from Universal Time is not an integer.

My brain doesn't count as an independent country, does it?

> 7. Name an english word that contains exactly 2 letters in alphabetical
> order

Szyzgy (you didn't say which alphabetical order )

> 9. Name a sports league which has suspended or cancelled either part or
> all of its regular season since midnight on January 1st, 1970 and then
> continued regular play the following season.

Damn. I don't think my brain counts as a sports league either.

--julie

 

[Julie]

Archived from groups: rec.puzzles,rec.games.trivia (More info?)

swp wrote:
> could you set it up to email me their answers? that way it could be
> both!

Yes, but doing so wouldn't let you use it as a database. If you wanted
that set-up, you could just have them e-mail you directly anyway.

>>>5. Name a top-level Internet domain whose first letter is U.
>
> rats! no snappy remark on this one. might have to drop it and
> substitute another...

I ran out of wit. Actually, I probably ran out of wit a few questions
before that and was just running on fumes

>>My brain doesn't count as an independent country, does it?
>
> not yet. apply to the UN in the usual manner. it will probably take
> less time than the route Yasir Arafat took for getting a Palestinian
> homeland. If he had just filled out the right forms 40 years ago the
> world would probably be a better place. What a concept! Better living
> through bureaucracy!!

I don't think all the Palestinians would fit inside my room.

>>>7. Name an english word that contains exactly 2 letters in
>
> alphabetical
>
>>>order
>>
>>Szyzgy (you didn't say which alphabetical order )
>
> hmm. might have to reword this to specify that the word be exactly 2
> letters long AND have both letters in alphabetical order. As opposed
> to reverse alphabetical order.

And spelled correctly. Oops. Syzygy. Not Szyzgy. Eek.

> and what exactly did you have against question #8? don't you like
> golf? or at least wandering around the countryside in bad pants
> chasing after small white spheres with dimples?

I was hoping to file an extension on question #8.

> I will begin the contest on March 4th or 5th if you send me that code
> by then. Otherwise I'll do it by email only starting on March 6th. It
> will run for ... 19 days or so. (I want time on the weekend to score
> it and not interfere with watching the NCAA Men's Basketball
> tournament.)

Best to go ahead without me; I can get the code written by the middle of
next week, but there is no chance that I will have it done by the end of
the week. I know this is in direct opposition to the concept of usenet,
and the internet in general, but my -paying- work takes precident

--julie

 

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Archived from groups: rec.puzzles,rec.games.trivia (More info?)

I'll spend a few hours on Saturday setting things up. Should be a fun
exercise of my long dormant web skills. Database, report generator,
web forms, validation, user logins, player logins, frames, yeah its all
coming back to me now...

Your request for an extension on question #8 is hereby granted, much
like the one you will need for your taxes this year.

> my -paying- work takes precident
"Paying" work takes precedent? (Your spelling is showing through
again.) And since when did that ever come before your guitar? Nice
web site by the way.

I'll post a link for what I make on Saturday morning, for comment and
critique and hopefully useful suggestions. It'll be a slap-dash job,
but should be functional.

Work beckons ... strategic signals intelligence waits for no man.

swp

"If you aren't reading this in google groups, why bother with the
internet at all?" -- Richard Buus

 

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swp wrote:

>> my -paying- work takes precident

> "Paying" work takes precedent?

If you're going to correct someone, at least do it correctly. The word
should be precedence.

--
Kev

 

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In article <38rc6cF5pm1oiU1@individual.net>,
"Kevin Stone" <newsaccount@HotPOP.com> wrote:

> swp wrote:
>
> >> my -paying- work takes precident
>
> > "Paying" work takes precedent?
>
> If you're going to correct someone, at least do it correctly. The word
> should be precedence.


I thought it was "press Sid dense." At least my spell-checker thinks
that's okay.

--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

 

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On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 10:38:13 -0500, Harold Buck wrote:

> In article <38rc6cF5pm1oiU1@individual.net>,
> "Kevin Stone" <newsaccount@HotPOP.com> wrote:
>
>> swp wrote:
>>
>> >> my -paying- work takes precident
>>
>> > "Paying" work takes precedent?
>>
>> If you're going to correct someone, at least do it correctly. The word
>> should be precedence.
>
>
> I thought it was "press Sid dense." At least my spell-checker thinks
> that's okay.
>

Now, now. Let's not be setting precedents. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Julie]

Archived from groups: rec.puzzles,rec.games.trivia (More info?)

swp wrote:
>>my -paying- work takes precident
>
> "Paying" work takes precedent? (Your spelling is showing through
> again.)

I get letters screwed up when I am under a lot of stress

>And since when did that ever come before your guitar? Nice
> web site by the way.

Thanks

Work is really the chief precident at the moment. Until the music
becomes paying work, it's taking second fiddle (no pun intended ) to
a fairly major contract I'm doing right now.

--julie