Fortunately, they didn't ask for five

Well, I'm a little embarrassed, because I don't have any trivia misses to give you. The reason is... we didn't miss a single question last night. Not one. Not even the final. Obviously, we won. So instead of the misses, I'll give you a few that I can remember, and make up a few more.

1. Which war began the same year that the U.S. government began printing paper money?
2. Name at least four of the seven Noble Gases.
3. What New Orleans dish gets its name from the Bantu word for okra?
4. What was in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
5. Who has more 300-strikeout seasons: Pedro Martinez or Roger Clemens?

Hey, Remember the 90's?

It turns out there's a new crew writing trivia nights, and they're still working on coming up with ideas, so they built on last week's "90's sitcom trivia" with the slightly-more-general "90's trivia" night last night. The bad news for you: that stuff is pretty much right in our wheelhouse, so we didn't miss a question the whole night until the final. The bad news for us: it's right in everybody's wheelhouse, so the three teams that actually did answer the final question passed us. The first question is last night's final; the next three are bonus questions I came up with.

1. On April 1, 1990, minimum wage was raised from $3.35/hr to what new rate?
2. What venue hosted the first indoor game in FIFA World Cup history?
3. What talk show debuted on WLWT-TV in Cincinnati in September of 1991 as a replacement for The Phil Donahue Show?
4. Which Spice Girl announced her departure from the band on May 31, 1998?

Time's fun when you're having flies

Yesterday, we had a "winter event," or at least what passes for one in South Carolina. Five inches of snow fell at my house, more than last year at this time, which was more than, well, apparently any day in the eight years previous. As a result, the area bus line suspended service until 10:00 in the morning. No way am I taking my own car out in a mess like that, so I spent my morning at home.
The most jarring upset to my morning schedule was walking the dog. Ginny generally wants to get out the door as soon as she gets up, which is around 6:00 these days. Yesterday, however, she slept until almost 7:00. I got bundled up, got her downstairs, got the leash on, opened the door... and she took one look at the Great Outdoors and decided she didn't want to go for a walk after all.
I know that the walk takes up a good chunk of my morning schedule (30-40 minutes, if we get a full walk in), but I hadn't really appreciated that time until we didn't do it. I ate a leisurely breakfast (usually it takes about three bites), did the readings that I had planned to do at school, washed the dishes that I normally save for when I got home, started a load of laundry... and it still wasn't 7:30.
There was a point to this story, but it has slipped my mind.

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

After denying us our right to answer random questions for nearly a month, trivia night finally returned last night. Upon arrival, we were informed that it was "90s sitcom trivia night," which was all well and good, until they started asking questions about shows that were not sitcoms. Alternatively, maybe I need to start viewing 90210 in a whole new light. TV trivia also means a fresh glut of questions about Saved By the Bell, which invariably are passed on to you, the reader.

1. Who was the youngest child on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air?
2. What is A.C. Slater's full name (i.e., what does "A.C." stand for)?
3. We all know what ZIP code Brandon and Brenda Walsh lived in, but what city were they Walshes originally from?
4. What is the street number of the Melrose Place apartments?
5. What town did Pete & Pete live in?
Final:
6. What score did Zack Morris get on the SAT?

Better Late Than Never

With the New Year over a week old, it seems like time to list this year's Resolutions:

• Get the PhD.
• Brown-bag it more. I'm spending close to $40 a week going out to lunch.
• Less red meat. Less butter. Less sugar. Sigh.
• Way less pizza. In particular, I will avoid the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet at Todaro's, in deference to my long-suffering arteries.
  
• Stop using sponges to clean the dishes, as they are, apparently, nothing more than slightly soapy bacteria farms.
• Make it to 400 on the 1001 Movies You Must See list. That will require just under 140 movies. I think I can do it.
• Ride the bus more. I've already paid a hefty "transportation fee" to fund the bus system, I might as well get what I've paid for. As a bonus, half-hour bus ride + Google Video + iPod touch = 1-2 movies a week.
  

More resolutions (maybe) if I think of them.

Happy New Week!

Here we are, nearly a week into the new year, and the Preschool is ready to open back up.
While some corners of the blogosphere take an intentional holiday break, mine is due mostly to the fact that I visit my parents around Christmastime, and the internet connections up there are... well, let's just say that this post would likely take several hours to finish, and I have better things to do (for example, walking the dog through the huge cornfields behind Mom's house). And yes, Christmas was now two weeks ago, but I've been playing with my presents.

Anyway, content should start up again any day now. Expect trivia on Thursday (or Friday, depending). Perhaps a list of New Years Resolutions. I have an idea for the cooking posts that I might try. It is, as usual, very exciting. Stay tuned, people.

Nothing To Fear If You've Got the Gear

Soap: check.
Towels: check.
Hose: check.
Old clothes: check.
Running shoes: check.
Leash: check.
Escape routes blocked: check.
Reward treats: check.

If bathing the dog is this much fun, I can't wait for kids.

We couldn't name the Seattle Seven, either

One of tonight's questions was, "what award is given to the winner of the Notre Dame - USC football game?" (See last week's similar question). Of course, no one on my team attended or cares about either of these schools, so we didn't know. We were prepared to submit something perfectly silly ("Rodney Peete's Appendix," if you cared), until the caller announced that they would be "lax about the spelling." We debated briefly about what could be both difficult to spell and related to football, or Irish, or Trojans, and decided that "The Golden Shillelagh" was a suitably hilarious answer. As you, my trivia-savvy readers, no doubt already know, we were exactly right. The moral of the story is to listen closely to everything the caller says.
We were in first place until the final question, but couldn't answer it. Serves us right for not watching enough TV. Sadly, Pirates vs. Ninjas trivia was postponed, so you get normal questions. Even more sadly, this was the last trivia night this year, so I'm missing my main source of content for a month. Guess I'll have to dredge up some new puzzles.

1. What is the economic term for a system in which a product has many suppliers, but only one buyer, who is then free to set the price (note that this is the opposite of a monopoly)?
2. Name all five members of the Jackson Five. (Without going through the previous trivia posts, I am fairly sure we've missed this before.)
Final:
3. Who is Woody Woodpecker's arch-nemesis?

Why did Constantinople get the works?

An irritating fourth-place finish at trivia tonight. Irritating, because we were supposedly tied for first going into the final question, and we were told that only two teams got that question right, including the team that was tied with us. Turned out, someone claimed a score discrepancy, and was ahead of us all along. Not much to do about that, I guess.
There was a question about the original location of New Amsterdam. Thankfully, there were no questions about Chuck Norris, though there was a category that referred to him. Next week: Pirates vs. Ninjas trivia. Don't pinch yourself; you're not dreaming.

1. What "trophy" does the winner of the Colorado State - Wyoming football game receive? (as an example, the winner of the Stanford-Cal game receives The Axe.)
2. What Christmas present does Ralphie want in A Christmas Story?
3. What was the name of Pete's Dragon?
4. What nickname did Frank Sinatra and Whitey Ford share?
Final:
5. Each king in a standard deck of playing cards is based on an historical king. Who are the four kings? Extra credit for matching them with the suits, though this was, apparently, not required.

The answer to every question is "turkey"

Obviously, trivia is off this week. I considered coming up with theme questions (What bird did Ben Franklin originally propose as the national bird of the U.S.? What do you call three consecutive strikes in bowling?), but you'll get enough of that soon; one of the next two weeks will be Pirates vs. Ninjas trivia.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

You could even add cranberry sauce

I spent yesterday on the road, but today we get a very very special Thanksgiving Day ROTW. If you're coming here at 1:00 to get any recipes for today, you're in trouble, but what to do with all that leftover turkey? You could make soup. You could make sandwiches. Heck, you'll probably make soup and sandwiches, and still have leftovers. Here's another idea, which incorporates our second-favorite food here at the Preschool: risotto.
Thanksgiving Risotto

6 cups stock (turkey if you've got it, chicken if you don't)
2 T. butter or oil
1 medium onion, diced small
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt and pepper
1/2 pound or more cooked turkey, shredded
1/2 cup leftover vegetables (corn is great, carrots and cauliflower is okay, green bean casserole is risky)
1 4-8 oz. package mushroooms, sliced

heat the stock and hold at a simmer.
melt the butter (or heat the oil) in a large, heavy bottomed pan over the same heat level you're using on the stock. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the rice and stir until every grain is coated with oil and is slightly toasted. Add the wine; stir until the liquid is absorbed, then add salt and pepper to taste.
Add the stock by ladlefuls (about 1/2 cup at a time) and stir the rice constantly, adding more liquid whenever the stock is absorbed (this process will take 20-30 minutes). After ten minutes, add the mushrooms and continue stirring. When the mixture becomes creamy and the rice grains are no longer crunchy, stir in the turkey and vegetables. Cook five more minutes to heat the turkey and vegetables. Serves a whole lot of people.

Do the Truffle Shuffle

We're continuing a very special Thanksgiving Week here at BOAD (I'm trying the acronym thing here, maybe it will catch on) with multiple days of recipes. Today we're dipping into our favorite genre: the cookie. This year, we've got a five-hour drive on Wednesday, which gets us to Dad's place too late to have a proper supper, but too early to go to bed on an empty stomach. The solution, clearly, is snacks; and, as long as you're going to snack, you might as well have cookies. Dark brown sugar and dark chocolate give this cookie a deep, complex flavor. I've tried several strategies (the shortening, chilling the dough, etc.) to get (1) the cookies to bake high and (2) the chunks to hold their shape. I've met with limited success. One important point is to keep the chunks fairly large. Small pieces of chocolate melt quickly and blend into the dough - not that that's a terrible thing. You could also add pecans or walnuts to this recipe.


Cranberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon grated orange zest (optional)
1 cup dried cranberries
4 - 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate (60% - 70% cacao), broken into pieces


Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, vanilla, water, and orange zest, and mix until fully combined. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients, then add the cranberries and chocolate chunks and stir until incorporated. chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Form the dough into two-tablespoon balls, and arrange the cookies on a greased or lined baking sheet. Bake until cookies begin to brown at the edges, 12 to 14 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for two minutes, then move to racks and cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Be My Sweet Potato

The Recipe Of The Week fell by the wayside sometime over the summer, but with Thanksgiving looming, it's time to bring it back. This was inspired by a soup at a Southwestern restaurant in Winston-Salem.


Sweet Potato Soup

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small to medium onion, diced
1 small clove garlic, pureed (to do this, mince the garlic, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, then use the flat of a knife or back of a spoon to crush the minced garlic to a jelly-like consistency)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter or extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon (or less) brown sugar
salt and pepper
4 oz. mushrooms (any style you like; I use cremini), sliced or diced
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup whole milk or half & half (optional)

melt two tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan or stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion. When the onion becomes translucent but not browned yet (about 2 min), add the sweet potatoes, garlic, chili powder, and brown sugar. Cook, stirring, until the onion and potatoes are well-browned (10-15 minutes). In a second pan, sautee the mushrooms with the remaining tablespoon of butter and thyme over medium-low heat, until the mushrooms just begin to brown (8-10 min).
Transfer the onion-potato mixture to a blender or food processor and puree. Return the sweet potato puree to the saucepan and add the stock, milk and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook until the soup is heated through. Serves 2-3.

Watch This Space

We missed a total of six questions at trivia this week. Unfortunately, the Triviatrix did not have a hard copy of the questions, and I didn't write down the misses (because I was expecting her to have a hard copy). So, I'm working from memory here.

1. True or false: there is no complete video of Super Bowl I.
2. How many U.S. Presidents are NOT buried in the United States? (Yes, this question is as dumb as you think it is.)
3. The island of Corsica is a territory of which European nation?
4. What was the first song known to have been sung in outer space (i.e., on a NASA mission)?
5. The yo-yo is based on an ancient weapon from what Pacific island nation?
Final:
6. Which of the three Apollo 11 Astronauts did NOT walk on the moon?

Oops!

I have managed to lose the last two sets of trivia questions between the time I left the restaurant and the time I got a free moment to blog. That's the reason for the lack of questions lately. They will return this week, along with another formerly regular feature.

Conan The Librarian would not be pleased

Won a tiebreaker to pull out second place at trivia night this week. I might have won, but for the first question coming out of halftime, which asked the first name of retired U.S. General Schwarzkopf. Norman, it turns out, is his middle name, which I probably should have remembered.

1. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, what book is most often stolen from libraries?
2. How many full-length Police Academy films have been made?
3. How many Astronauts have walked on the moon?
4. What Revolutionary War general was known as the "Swamp Fox?"
5. How many contestants begin each season of Survivor?
6. What category is classified by the numbers 900-999 in the Dewey Decimal System?

edited to add: Oh yeah, and:
7. What's Schwarzkopf's first name?

The DUE date vs. the DO date

Wednesday night was exam night for my precious snowflakes, and I should have been prepared for the horror. When three students asked me before the exam review, "Does the final replace our lowest exam grade?" (answer: Yes, just like the syllabus says, and like I have said in class after the first two exams ), and then another one asked the same question as soon as we began the review, and then another asked the same question at the end of the review, that should have been a red flag. But I still wasn't ready for the looks of sullen despair, the frequent heavy sighs, the people handing in the test and trudging out thirty minutes early with most of the answers still blank (an aside: leaving early without even attempting to answer all the questions astounds me, and not in a good way. If you are ever in a class I teach and pull this crap, pray that you are not on the borderline between two grades, because you WILL get the lower one). I also was not ready to have to wake a student from a mid-test nap, but that's another story.
After an hour of post-test grading, I couldn't take any more, and went home for a rest. That's when I made the mistake of checking my messages, two of which were from a student who was absolutely flabbergasted that there was an online homework assignment due that night, and was not at all in the mood to work on more material half an hour after the exam.
Now, I should mention that all the homework is online, there's instant feedback if you do something wrong, and if you do miss a question, you can try a "similar exercise" until you get it right. Basically, there's no excuse for getting a low homework score, which is fine by me, because I consider homework to be practice for the exam, and this particular setup is excellent practice. I don't happen to agree with our coursewide due dates, which delays the due dates for several sections until after the exam which includes that section (I think it defeats the purpose of using homework to prepare for the exam; see previous sentence), but it's not a battle I've felt like fighting. Besides, most students are doing the assignments as soon as we cover the material, and sometimes beforehand - the assignments have been available since the beginning of the term.
That's really the thing that wound me up about these messages. I didn't reply, of course - the student was obviously just venting some post-exam frustration - but when the assignment (with due date displayed) available the entire semester, and when we've covered this particular section a full week before the exam, how is one still surprised to find it's due that night?
The final sentence of the second message asked, "from now on, can we be assigned the homework problem sets on days that we don't take a test on?" After several days of mulling this over, I have decided that the student is right, the assignments shouldn't be due right after the exam. I will thus be going against the course policy (with the permission of the coordinator, of course) and changing the due dates for two of the sections.
To the day BEFORE the exam.

There must be a "One Light" pun to be made here

U2 has a concert starting in 17 minutes, and they must cross a darkened catwalk to reach the stage. All four men begin on the same side of the catwalk, and at most two can cross at a time. The band has only one torch (you know, a flashlight), and whoever is crossing the bridge must have the torch with them. Each band member walks at a different speed, and any pair crossing must walk together at the slower man's pace.
Bono takes 1 minute to cross the catwalk.
Edge takes 2 minutes to cross the catwalk.
Adam takes 5 minutes to cross.
Larry takes 10 minutes to cross.
For example: if Bono and Adam cross together, they will take five minutes to cross. If Bono comes back with the torch, he takes only one more minute.

Without throwing the torch or using Bono's superpowers (which, as we all know, include bioluminescence) or any other weird tricks, can all four band members get to the stage in time to start the show?

Some of us had track meets on Saturdays!

I feel trivia night has de-volved over the last year. I loved Saved By The Bell as much as anyone (anyone who didn't really like SBTB, that is), but enough already. Of course, as much as I complain, you would think that, knowing that three or four questions will be about 80s and early 90s cartoons and teen shows, I could brush up. You'd be right, of course, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to take time out of my other activities to study up on Beast Wars and Chuck Norris.
Actually, there was some decent trivia this week, particularly in the second half. The misses:

1. If you saw the short "Mathnet," what show were you watching?
2. What planet did the Thundercats settle on?
3. On Saved By The Bell, what was the name of the beach club where the gang worked?
4. In Beast Wars, what is the name of the Maximal ship?
5. How many men in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer each year?
6. How many U.S. Presidents were born British subjects?
7. What artist's 1997 album was the top selling album of the 1990s?
8. What is the dot over a lowercase i called?

This post has no title - the Duke of Cornwall took it

Mother is in town this week, and with her help, we cruised through the first half of trivia. Unfortunately, the halftime question was "list the exact scores of Clemson's first three home football games." Now, I enjoy football, and I do like that I attend a school with a decent football team, but once the game ends, I couldn't care less what the actual score was. Apparently, I am alone in this, because a large number of teams had scores which would indicate they knew the scores of these games. We could have placed if we knew the answer to the final question, but we didn't.

We got #3 right, but I liked the question.

1) Louis Braille invented a system of writing for the blind. Was Louis Braille blind?
2) How many Noble Truths does Buddhism recognize?
3) What is the better-known title of the man who is also Duke of Cornwall?
Final:
4) In what year did Mississippi ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolishes slavery?