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2010 Prognostication Quiz, #6 Soccer

FIFA World Cup

One of the two pre-tournament favorites, Spain needed two overtime periods to finally score the only goal of the game and beat the Netherlands. In one of the more bizarre human- (or mollusk-) interest stories surrounding the tournament, Paul the Octopus (pictured above) correctly picked eight World Cup games, including the final.

The answer to Question 6 of the 2010 Prognostication Quiz is therefore B. Spain.

Siete personas chose Espana to prevail:
Rachel H.
Russell
Larry
Adrian
Matthew
Grant
Ellen

That's an especially sweet point for Matthew, who won last year's quiz but has been shut out of this year's scoring until now.

Death


We've also had a spate of recent deaths. Lena Horne, Martin Gardner, and Robert Byrd have all gone on to meet their maker. (Isn't there a saying about such things coming in threes?)

This means that F, N, and P are added to correct answers to Questions 13-15.

Janette, Marcus, and Jan picked Mr. Gardner.

Mary C. and Peter II picked Ms. Horne.

Larry, Russel, Rich, Rachel F., Megan, Keila, Stephanie, and Craig picked Mr. Byrd.

Stephanie is the only person to have predicted two of the four deaths that have happened thus far. She also picked Harry Morgan to kick it in 2010. Perhaps someone should let him know that this is very likely to be his year.

Leader Board


Craig's decision that we would lose our senior Senator has allowed him finally to catch up with Ryan. I predicted that after his 4-0 start, Ryan would give in to the hubris, and that certainly seems to have come true. Given Craig's lead in the tiebreaker if trends continue to the end of the year, he has overtaken Ryan for first place on the leader board:

4 Craig
4 Ryan
3 Rachel H.
3 Russell
3 Larry
3 Beth K.
3 Ron
3 Janette
2 Mary C.
2 Zhiqi
2 Marcus
2 Stephanie
2 Rich
2 Beth Z.
2 Adrian
2 Nad
2 Janet
2 Topher
2 Keila
2 Gloria
2 Missy
1 Pamela
1 Cameron
1 Jan
1 Megan
1 Liz
1 Leanne
1 Matthew
1 Mary A.
1 Grant
1 Valerie
1 Christopher T.
1 Michael A.
1 Zoe
1 Eric
1 Polly
1 Carol
1 Rachel F.
1 Ellen
1 Katie
1 Peter
1 Cherie
0 Diane
0 Ekrem
0 Mike F.
0 Kevin
0 Tina
0 Todd
0 Sarah
0 Ben
0 Chris C.
0 Peter II
0 Jeff

Craig and Ryan will march in lockstep for the next three questions, as they both picked C, D, and E. They also both picked D on the Death question. That means Craig's only chance to advance on Ryan before November is if Sherwood Shwartz passes. Ryan will advance on Craig if Mitch Miller or Barbra Billingsley bite the big one. The six people with three points will be trying to catch up in the mean time.

After coming in dead last for 2009, Rachel H. is doing rather well for herself this year. This is all the more impressive since she blew a raspberry to inspire with her answers: she picked all B's. Three of the six questions have thus far had that answer, though, giving her three points and a high spot on the leader board. How far can she go?

Comments

  1. Anonymous3:01 PM

    Dear Michael- There is something special about the octopus and the spanish flag, but am a longing for a new picture of your handsome son or something other than the freaky octopus. Please post soon.... Beth Kelly

    ReplyDelete

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