Before I address the season as a whole or go as far as announcing the winner, I feel that I have to take the bull by the horns and address the elephant in the room, not to appear as a chicken. Most of you probably was not even aware that an elephant snuck in to your phone or your computer, so I will explain. On day 13 we had a question with the answer “Carboniferous”. As it turns out, Carboniferous in almost all languages but English is called the Carbon period/time. I decided not to not to give a point for this, because that made the question incredibly easy and definitely not suitable for a day 13 question. Many felt that this gave the English an unfair advantage, because they were well aware of the name of the period in their native tongue, but not in English. I stuck to my guns, mostly because I felt that it would ruin the season if I gave everybody a point. The thing is, that I usually do allow different language answers as long as I can verify that they are correct, so it seemed very much out of tune that I decided not to do it this time. I made an erroneous judgement call and if I could do it over again, I would probably have bit the bullet and given everyone a point. Okay enough about that, because it is time to talk about the season as a whole. Evie Levens was behind the questions this time around and she did a bang-up job with a difficulty of almost exactly 50 (52). Well done Evie and thank you for an excellent set of questions. Okay one final thing about question 13. The whole debacle was in no way, shape or form Evie’s fault. I should have made a different ruling and I probably should have caught the language issue in the first place and reworded the question. With a difficulty of 52 it was possible that one or two players would have a perfect season. And as it turns out that was exactly the case. David Beck and Dan Palethorpe both managed to get that hard to come by perfect season. The tie-break (which was closed to the top contenders only this time) was identifying directors/director couples who had won the Palme D’Or more than once. The question gave 8 possible correct answers. David and Dan both landed on 3 points each so that meant another tie-break round. This time, the topic was films that won the Palme D’Or from 2000-2009. In this category Dan outdid David 5-1 which means that Dan is our new champion. This is Dan’s 8th championship and he is now tied for second place in the hall of fame. I think that calls for a celebration. Please give him a standing ovation!
The answers to the final three days of the season are: _________________________
Day 12 of 14 Category: Literature This English writer, born in 1903, is known for his satirical novels such as Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934). His first work, published when he was 24 years old, was an autobiography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 1928, he married a woman with whom he shared a first name. Following their divorce eight years later, he converted to Catholicism. Who is this writer?
Answer: Evelyn Waugh
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Day 13 of 14 Category: History of Earth Divided into the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian, this geologic period spanned 60 million years following the Devonian period. This was a time of early amphibians and reptiles, and GIANT insects. With a name that translates from Latin as "coal-bearing", it is the fifth period of the Palaeozoic era. What is the name of this geologic period? Answer: Carboniferous (Carbon Period)
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Day 14 of 14 Category: Pop Art Painted by Roy Lichtenstein in 1963, 'Drowning Girl' is a significant pop art work. It depicts a woman amid ocean waves with tears in her eyes. A thought bubble tells us that she would rather sink than call who for help?
Answer: Brad __________
Hall of Fame
Tony Moore 18 (Season 111) Laruchka Budelinik 8 (Season 85) Duncan McDonald 8 (Season 123) Dan Palethorpe 8 (Season 124) Allie Livesley 7 (Season 87) Sisira Mark Anthony 7 (Season 119) Mette Mølgaard Pedersen 6 (Season 14) Jens Andersen 4 (Season 107) Kathryn Hutchinson 4 (Season 108) Dorian Willems 4 (Season 113) Sarah Jane Bodell 3 (Season 84) John Robinson 3 (Season 104) Bob Thompson 3 (Season 112) Sander van der Heyden 3 (Season 122) Morten Mølgaard Pedersen 2 (Season 4) Jonas Ravn 2 (Season 15) Nick Cuthbert 2 (Season 21) Remi Nikolai Nissen 2 (Season 23) Adrian Allen 2 (Season 32) Michael Clark 2 (Season 37) Bjarke Hansen Christensen 2 (Season 70) Kasper Fuhlendorff 2 (Season 72) Isuru Anuradha 2 (Season 88) Ananthakrishnan Harikrishnan 2 (Season 98) Ida Rud 1 (Season 9) Troels Leth 1 (Season 13) Inge Støttrup 1 (Season 16) Karen Friis Clausager 1 (Season 26) Andy Rowe 1 (Season 27) Tine Kristensen 1 (Season 33) Andrew John 1 (Season 34) Franz Eichhorn 1 (Season 46) Thomas Kolåsæter 1 (Season 52) Chris Grandison 1 (Season 64) Mads Theodorsen 1 (Season 92) Bastian Fischer 1 (Season 94) Bob Douglas 1 (Season 102) Rishabh Gupta 1 (Season 103) Indika Jayasinghe 1 (Season 114) Gert-Jan Dugardein 1 (Season 116) Dhruv Sharma 1 (Season 117) Ronny Swiggers 1 (Season 120)