THE USM SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249 www.usm.maine.edu/planet
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2458515.35
2018-19: XCIII
"Sn, Hut!!"
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, February 1, 2019
Quiz XX: The Annual Super Bowl Quiz
DEDICATED TO THE REFEREES!
Yes, of course, we all boo and hiss them and don't wish to see them, unless
they go on strike and we watch their replacements. (If you want to avoid
seeing any referee, take a vacation to New Orleans.) That having been
said, referees are among the bravest citizens on our planet. Many years
ago I remember watching a rather displeased football player "disputing" a
call made by a referee who, in size comparison, was like a zebra fish
bobbing just outside the gaping maw of Moby Dick. I can still clearly see
this snorting, cussing, fuming, and screaming 1000 pound amalgam of
muscle,steel and fury waving his arms up and down and jumping in a
steroid-fueled, seismologist-traumatizing frenzy. (Imagine what a buffalo
would look like if a hypnotist had just convinced it that it could fly.)
The referee, in contrast, was the picture of serenity, like a museum
patron feigning interest in a toilet seat exhibit. Hands folded, eyes
focused calmly on his frothing nemesis, he remained admirably still, apart
from the involuntary bouncing in response to the rapid ground undulations
radiating away from the slightly perturbed linebacker. I marveled at
the official's courage and made the remark, "He's the bravest guy in the
world for standing there like that," to my brother and father. They, being
older, wiser and more accustomed to the nuances of the game, beheld the
spectacle tiredly. They both assured me that if the player had laid so
much as a single finger -which would have been all he would have required
for strangulation- on the referee, his career would have been destroyed.
Perhaps. Yet, that seemed a wafer thin protective barrier behind which
the referee was stationed. Madmen in the throes of intense emotion are
not well known for considering legal minutiae. Fortunately, the player
was eventually subdued -three cheers National Guard!- the disputed call was
sustained, and the referee remained valiantly on the field, no doubt keenly
aware that he was always within stampeding distance of ten metric tons of
unbridled rage should he fall out of favor with the mountain giants over
whom he yielded what most fans consider despotic control.
Shish boom bah!
It is time yet again for the Super Bowl: an annual, over hyped event in
which the locally revered, but globally reviled, Patriots confront yet
another foe that is doomed to an ignominious defeat. (Well, except, of
course, for the Eagles last year and the Giants a couple other times). As
everyone in New England -even those embroiled in the witch trials- knows,
the Patriots are ably lead by the seemingly immortal Tom Brady, who's has
been elevated in the social consciousness from the status of dynamic
heartthrob to a triumph of Japanese robotics. We celebrate the
Super Bowl with our annual Super Bowl Quiz. We don't offer many choices,
but we do offer a different question format: Each question consists of
three parts: (a) The touch down question, worth six points
(b) the extra point question, worth one point
(c) the two point conversion question worth, well, um, two points
How many points can you score?
(1) Touch down question: Which two teams are competing in this Sunday's
Super bowl. (NO, you won't get half credit because I gave away half of the
answer in the previous paragraph.)
(a) Extra point: In which city are they playing the Super Bowl
this Sunday?
(b) Two point conversion: Have the two teams played each other
in the Super Bowl before?
(2) Touch down question: Which Super Bowl is Sunday? (Roman Numerals
or Arabic numerals accepted)
(a) Extra point: Which Super Bowl between 1 - 100 will consist
of the greatest amount of Roman numerals?
(b) Has the NFL always used Roman Numerals to enumerate the
Super Bowls?
(3) Touch down question: Which famous former quarterback is going to be
offering color commentary during the Super Bowl? (Hint: he retired from the
NFL about two years ago)
(a) This quarterback has become quite well known as a commentator
because.....
(b) For which NFL team did this quarterback play?
(4) Touch Down Question: How many Super Bowls have gone into over time?
(a) Which was the latest Super Bowl in which this happened?
(b) Which team won that game?
(5) How much will a Super Bowl Advertisement cost this Sunday per half
minute?
(a) Ten years ago, the advertisement cost was about how much less:
-20%
-35%
-50%
-65%
(b)How much for a 1 second ad on Sunday? (Probably won't be any)
(6) Which NFL team has won the most Super Bowls?
(a) How many have they won?
(b) Which team has won the second highest number of Super Bowls?
(7) Tom Brady has more Super Bowl rings than any other quarterback. How
many does he have?
(a) Name one of the two quarterbacks who has one fewer ring than Tom Brady?
(b) Who is the other only NFL player to have the same number of rings as
Tom Brady? (Honestly, this question should be worth 21 points.)
(8) Name two of the four NFL teams that haven't yet appeared in the Super
Bowl
(a) Which team went to four consecutive Super Bowls, only to lose them all?
(b) Which is the other team to go to four Super Bowls, although not
consecutively, only to lose them all?
Three point field goal question # 1 : About how much does the Lombardi
Trophy weigh?
Three point field goal question # 2: About how much would the Lombardi
Trophy weigh on the moon?
ANSWERS
(1) New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams
(a) Atlanta
(b) Yes. That was Tom Brady's first Super Bowl (around 1910). The
Patriots vs. the St. Louis Rams, same team, different city
(2) Super Bowl LIII (53)
(a) LXXXVIII (88)
(b) No. They used the Arabic numerals 50, instead of L. (How much do
you want to bet that they'll use 100 instead of C and 500 instead of D?)
(3) Tony Romo
(a) He has an uncanny ability to predict the play before it happens. The
Wall Street Journal studied his predictions over the last season and gave
him a 61% accuracy rate
(b) Dallas Cowboys
(4) 1
(a) Superbowl LI
(b) New England Patriots!
(5) $5.25 million
(a) 50% less
(b) $175,000
(6) Pittsburgh Steelers
(a) 6
(b) New England Patriots have won 5. If they win on Sunday, they'll be
tied with the Steelers
(7) 5
(a) Terry Bradshaw (4) and Joe Montana (4)
(b) Charles Haley (pass rusher who won Super Bowl rings playing for the
49ers and Cowboys)
(8)Houston Texans, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns
(a) Buffalo Bills
(b) Minnesota Vikings
Three point field goal question # 1: 7 pounds
Three point field goal question # 2: 1.16 pounds
|
