That was unexpected.
Apr. 20th, 2007 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saxikathLast night, the Brattle Theater, Harvard Bookstore, and Houghton Mifflin sponsored an event called a "Define-a-thon." It's like a spelling bee, except that instead of being asked to spell a word, you're given a definition (or a request for synonym or antonym) and four choices of words, and have to pick the one that matches. So you might be given the defintiion "ill-repute" (there was more to it than that, but that was the gist) and asked whether this was the definition for oblast, obsequiousness, obliquity, or obloquy. As in a spelling bee, if you're right you stay in, if you miss one you're out. Or you might be asked which of the words was the best synonym for recalcitrant or antonym for cacophonous.
They did two heats of 20 contestants each. The first time around in each heat, the "level 1" questions were all pretty easy. I think only one person of the 40 total missed a word in this round. The next several go-rounds they used "level 2" questions, which varied -- some seemed noticeably tougher than others. (And you really needed to know your science!) Once the field had been winnowed down to fewer than 10 or so, they went to the "level 3" questions, which got very tough (though again there was a lot of variation -- some I knew right away, some were much more obscure). At the end, the winners of the two heats went head-to-head in a best-three-out-of-five showdown.
A number of Boston-area NPL folk came, including
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hahathor, luckylefty, Ucaoimhu, D. Ness, Aesop, Lucis, and Eric. (All of whom competed except for Lucis and Uc. luckylefty was in the first heat, the rest of us in the second.) The first heat was won by a charismatic woman named Brandy, with
luckylefty runner-up. The second was won by... ...well, me. And I ended up winning the whole thing.
That's right, I demonstrated my wordgeekiness in front of the entire Brattle Theater full of people. (100 people? 200? I'm terrible at crowd estimation.) I got lucky in the questions I was asked -- there were a number of words other people had to guess that I would have gotten wrong, but most of the ones I got I actually knew. (I think my knowing "ballista" particularly surprised the host.) The ones I didn't know, I was able to eliminate a couple of the answer choices and make a reasonable guess. My biggest scare actually came early on -- my second word, my first in level 2. The definition was something like "a small anchor with three prongs," and the answer choices included two I could eliminate right off, and then grapnel and stanchion, both of which I'd heard but neither of which I was entirely certain of. Fortunately, I guessed correctly.
There was a film crew from CBS Sunday Morning, working on a story about word games, and an interviewer from the Boston Globe (City Weekly section, a week from this Sunday, apparently), and they took a photo of me, the runner-up, the host, and a couple of the Houghton Mifflin people to go in Publishers Weekly, of all things! (I hope I don't get in trouble for being in a photo that touts one of my company's competitors...)
So, yeah, I'm a geek. As if you didn't know that. But it was fun!
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Date: 2007-04-20 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-04-20 12:47 pm (UTC)The final showdown was supposed to be best of five, but in the first three rouns,
Incidentally, Brandy got into the finals with the following definition: "A restaurant or tavern, usually below street level, that serves beer." Brandy clearly struggled with this, and appeared to take an educated guess. Of course, everyone who had spent time drinking and listening to bands in Kenmore Square 10 or more years ago knew the answer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rathskeller_(Boston,_MA)).
The Host?
Date: 2007-04-20 12:47 pm (UTC)Congratulations!
Re: The Host?
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Date: 2007-04-20 03:11 pm (UTC)Why'd I know that? Some combination of an interest in medieval history and spending time in the SCA years ago.
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Date: 2007-04-20 03:20 pm (UTC)So was there a prize for winning (besides the glory)?
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Date: 2007-04-20 02:27 pm (UTC)Let me know when the next of these is. I might need to enter.
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Date: 2007-04-20 02:47 pm (UTC)I didn't know "grapnel," but thanks to my kid's elementary school principal, I've been exposed to "stanchion." Who the hell tells the parents to stay "behind the stanchions" when nobody calls those thingies (http://www.stanchiondepot.com/) by that name? Well, nobody but the people who sell them. And buy them.
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Date: 2007-04-20 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-04-20 03:08 pm (UTC)You need to play more D&D. :)
Congrats! You are an official Word Fiend.
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Date: 2007-04-20 04:51 pm (UTC)That was my exact immediate thought! :)
Though often spelled as 'grapple' in the lists.
Congratulations, saxikath, well done!
I bow to your superior wordsmith skillz
And long to play a game like that myself!
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Date: 2007-04-22 09:48 am (UTC)No matter--it's the place for geeky posts. :-)
Hey Kath--you ought to write this sucker up
And send it off to Crax for him to print.
(And after that, we might just get around
To finally recruiting Steve himself.)
...oh yes, and I should add: congrats! congrats!
I have an icon that matches yours!
Date: 2007-04-20 03:10 pm (UTC)Congradulations! Oh, and I have stories about codes at nero last weekend I should share with you... *grin*
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Date: 2007-04-20 04:29 pm (UTC)(And I'd love to see you in Into the Woods.)
Oddly, I know ballista, stanchion and grapnel
Date: 2007-04-20 07:24 pm (UTC)you rock!!!
Date: 2007-04-20 05:20 pm (UTC):D
Unexpected to you, maybe....
Date: 2007-04-20 06:25 pm (UTC)What did you have to guess on other than stanchion/grapnel? You seemed pretty confident on everything else (including some toughies like usufruct and glebe), except the final question, where it seemed like you didn't know what a psaltery was, but knew all three other answers were wrong.
Congrats!
Re: Unexpected to you, maybe....
Date: 2007-04-20 08:05 pm (UTC)I didn't know "jugenstil" (or however you spell it), but was able to deduce it by eliminating the others. (Two didn't sound German, and the other was "weldschmerz" (or however that is spelled!), which I can't define but knew I'd heard before, where I wouldn't have heard the architectural term. And I also figured the "stil" part was cognate to "style," making it translate roughly to "young style," which sounded plausible.) And I do know approximately what a psaltery is -- I had just been listening to make sure none of the others was an instrument.
"Usufruct" I did know -- I've always liked that word since encountering it somewhere along the line. If you'd asked me to define "glebe," I doubt I'd've been able to, but in context it seemed familiar, and I knew none of the others were right.
I liked your "Is 'tapestry' one of my options?" moment particularly, btw.
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Date: 2007-04-20 08:50 pm (UTC)And congratulations! (I'd've gotten the "ill-repute" stuff wrong, but at least I know ballista. And grapnel. All the attack words, evidently.)
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Date: 2007-04-20 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 11:51 pm (UTC)And believe it or not I've never actually SEEN Into the Woods. I'd love to see you in it!