December 9th Vocabulary Tournament Winner

Congratulations to Carolyn D'Aquila for winning our last Vocabulary Tournament of 2009! Props also to runners-up Kirsten, Jonathan, and David.



Go here for more photos.

Last Two Games of 2009!

There are only two more Chelsea Mind Games on the calendar for 2009 (or, at all, actually) -- after this, you'll have to find your own forum for intellectually dominating others and/or hitting on smart people.

December 2nd Math Bee Winner

Congrats to Rich Zwelling on his December 2nd Math Bee win!


From left: Runner-up Scott, winner Rich Zwelling, host Jen, 3rd place Tristan, and host Andrew.

Go here for additional photos.

November 25th Geography Winners

Congratulations to Pat McCarthy for dominating the Geography Bee! Contestants drew states and countries on the whiteboard, answered multiple-choice questions, and played a game called "That's a Dirty Lie," in which I tried to fake people out with statements such as "Uganda has a port at Kampala" and "Afghanistan had its first female head of state under Soviet rule." Our five finalists answered a series of rhyming questions (courtesy of co-host Eric Walton) about foreign currencies.


From left: 2nd place Jordan, host Jen, winner Pat McCarthy, host Eric, and 3rd place Trent.

Go here to see the rest of this week's photos.

November 18th Winners

Chelsea Mind Games is back for a limited, five-show run! We kicked off on November 18th, with Team Trivia. Congratulations to our winners, Team Kitten Mittens!



Here are a few sample questions from Team Trivia:

• What famous novel begins with the line "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
  
  
• From 1897-1908, how many stars were on the U.S. flag?
  
  
• The city of North Pole, Alaska, features what legendary person on its flag?
  
  
• What is the plural of “attorney-at-law”? (Spelling counts!)

(Answers: Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar," 46, Santa Claus, attorneys-at-law)

Were you at Team Trivia? I'll bet your photo is here!

Williamsburg Spelling Bee on NPR

Adults Put the 'Bee' in Orthography (streaming audio, 3:57) - from today's Morning Edition on NPR.

Spelling bees are not just for kids, as more and more spelling bees for adults sprout up across the country. A bar in Brooklyn, New York, has been hosting one for about five years. That bee attracts people just looking for fun and those who really know their stuff.

Thanks to reporter Ben Calhoun! Shout-out to Carolyn D'Aquila, winner of the bee attended by Mr. Calhoun.

We may no longer have Mind Games, but stop by the Williamsburg Spelling Bee anytime! (If, by "anytime," one means every other Monday).

Thesaurus T-Shirt

I thought you should know about this t-shirt!

July 15 Grand Finale

33 contestants and many spectators came out to the Chelsea Market for the final installment of our long-running intellectual game show.  Players completed challenges in geography, math, vocabulary, and trivia.

Winner: Carolyn D'Aquila

Runner-Up: Johnny Lu

Finalists (in no particular order):
Rich Zwelling
Tristan Higgs
Keith Burdette
Chris Wyant
Isaac Greenbaum

Winner Carolyn with hosts Soce and Jen

Soce with Johnny Lu's perfect-scoring answer to the challenge "Draw Panama, label its capital, and draw and label its border nations."

I should also like to point out that Carolyn D'Aquila has managed to win the Grand Prize at both the Williamsburg Spelling Bee and the New York City Spelling Bee. I had no idea she could also do math, which she did, both in completing her individual challenge and in nailing the following bonus question to put her over the top:

If a=1, b=2, etc., add the values of the letters in the name of the capital of Belgium. Divide by the cube root of 125. Add the number of Angelina Jolie's children who are not adopted. If the seasons were numbered 1-4 with fall as 1, winter as 2, etc., divide by the number of the season the word "hiemal" refers to, add the number for the season the word "vernal" refers to, and multiply your answer by the fourth digit of pi.  (Post your answers in the comments?  Carolyn knows!)

What fun looks like!

A new Mind Games someplace else? I shall keep you updated!

Click here for more photos.

xo,
Jen

The End of Mind Games; Long Live Mind Games

Chelsea Mind Games, sadly, has been canceled by Chelsea Market.

We lasted a year and a half! We gave out lots of silly prizes, and a smaller number of the more-coveted envelopes-of- cash-that-also-prove-you're-a-genius (the best kind of currency). And, of course, hundreds upon hundreds of smart people from all over the city — from ages 7 to at least 70 — came and competed, and, I think, enjoyed second dates free from the bar scene, and met people who wanted to discuss probability and combinatorics, and shouted out “Ouagadougou!” when asked for the capital of Burkina Faso.

I will keep you updated on what's next.

July 8 Geography Bee

Winner: Trent Williams

Winner Trent (2nd from right) with runners-up Noam and Sarah and hosts Jen and Abbi

Is it a principality? A sultanate? A federal democratic republic?

Click here for more photos.

July 1 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Tristan Higgs

Winner Tristan (tall, kneeling) with runners-up Chris and Brooke

Click here for more photos.

June 24 Team Trivia

Winners: Yellow Fever

Team Yellow Fever with hosts Michael and Jen

Click here for more photos.

June 24 Trivia: Sample Questions

Pirates

Name the pirate who captained the Queen Anne’s Revenge and was said to fight with lit cannon fuses in his hair to intimidate opponents.

Name the pirate knighted by Queen Elizabeth who later went on to serve as second-in-command in the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Name the two US Presidents to have fought declared wars against the Barbary Pirates.

In pirate lingo, what is a hogshead? 

In pirate lingo, what is “Davy Jones’s locker”?  

 

Jeans

The word “jeans” comes from the French word for the town of the Italian sailors who were known for wearing them.  What town?  

What denim dye was imported from India to Europe as early as the Greco-Roman era? 

What innovation did Levi Strauss and his partner Jacob Davis add to jeans and receive a patent for?  

From what language does the word “dungarees” come into English?

Why did the US Navy introduce bell-bottom trousers in 1817? 

Advertising Catchphrases

What “Tastes Good Like a Cigarette Should”? 

What is a relief when it goes “plop, plop, fizz, fizz”? 

“We’re number two; we try harder” 

"With a name like ________, it has to be good."

And a historical favorite: what company's slogan was once “Born in fire, blown by mouth”?

 

Answers: Blackbeard, Francis Drake, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, a keg, the bottom of the sea (death by drowning, etc.); Genoa, indigo, copper rivets, Hindi, to roll them up while washing decks or to take them off quickly if thrown overboard; Winston, Alka-Seltzer, Avis, Smuckers, Waterford Glass.

 

June 17 Math Bee

Winner: Rich Zwelling

Click here for more photos.

June 10 Geography Bee

Winner:  Trent Williams

Trent with hosts Abbi and Jen and runner-up Kate.

Click here for more photos.