Mind Games results for games taking place after April 1, 2009, are posted on the new Chelsea Mind Games blog.

April 1 Trivia

Winners: The Dwarf Giraffes

This month at trivia, winners answered questions about Greek mythology, converted from Fahrenheit to Celsius and Celsius to Kelvin, correctly told us Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, and even knew a little about Madonna. In the bonus round, teams were asked to try to list the most common 10 surnames in the U.S., in order -- 1 point for each in the correct slot, a half point for correct answers in any other slot. Who knew there were so many Moores?

In the "April Fools" round, contestants were asked flawed questions ("Where does the dodo bird live?"), and asked to point out the flaw. Read those questions here.


The Dwarf Giraffes! They won $40 cash and one family-size box each of Nerds candy.

Come out next week for the Vocabulary Tournament!

Click here for more photos.

March 25 Math Bee

Winner: Scott Matthews

Rich Zwelling won warm-up quiz this evening by placing many historical events in order and ranking the continents in order of population, among other tasks. However, everyone bombed the portion of the warmup quiz that asked contestants to identify famous women by their photos -- various individuals identified Shirley Chisholm as Michelle Obama, Sojourner Truth as Beyonce, and Gloria Steinem as Tina Fey. Oh, well. Lots of people, however, knew that a donnybrook is a fight, a dorp is a village, and a bodkin is a pointed object.

The math bee had 19 contestants, and several latecomers who had to be turned away -- please note that signup begins at 6:30 and ends either at 7:30 or when the list is full, whichever comes first! All games except trivia are maximum 20 contestants. (Team Trivia, which happen next week, is limited only by the physical space/chairs available).

Here is a sample question from this week's bee:

You are a musician. For every 80 cumulative minutes you spend talking on the phone to other artists, you end up selling $200 worth of beats. For every 30 minutes you spend performing live, you sell 5 CDs at $10 each. Each month, you must pay $1000 rent. Assume each month is 28 days, and all cumulative time built up resets at the start of each month. For the first four months, you talk on the phone with artists for 3 hours per week and perform 3 hours per week. For the second four months, you talk on the phone with artists 4 hours a week and perform 4 hours a week. For the final four months, you talk on the phone with artists for 8 hours a week and perform live 6 hours a week. Between gaining money from selling beats and CDs and paying money for rent, how much money do you end up gaining or losing over those 12 months?

Scott Matthews was up against some tough competition, but developed a solid lead in the final speed round and won the day (and $40 cash!)


Winner Scott Matthews (second from right) with runners-up Howie and Rich and hosts Jen and Soce (who is growing a mustache for a charity mustache competition).


Click here for more photos.

Come out next week for Team Trivia! Teams are 3-6 people -- bring friends or make new ones here!

March 18 Geography Bee

Winner: Colin George

This geography bee had a full slate of 20 contestants, with a few late arrivals turned away. Mind Games is getting really popular lately, so I recommend arriving early to make sure you secure a spot!

The warm-up quiz was ALSO won by Colin George, who won several free beer tickets -- no word on whether he consumed the beer himself during the geography bee or shared with friends under the assumption that sobriety would aid him in besting the competition in the main event.

During the geography bee, contestants told us what cities various baseball teams were from, answered questions about Ireland in honor of St. Patrick's Day, and identified New York landmarks from their cross-streets. The top performers from those challenges went on to a final round in which contestants were asked to draw a country, correctly placing the capital on the drawing.

Competition was fierce! Honorable mentions to Lindy, James, Chris, Albert, Vincent, Eric, and Jordan! We saw some lovely renditions of Malaysia, India, Belgium, and others. In the end, Colin George took home the $40 cash prize and clinched the night.

winners
From left: Host Meg Van Huygen, winner Colin George, 3rd place Joseph Borden, host Jen Dziura.  2nd place Joey Gatsis not pictured.

(Due to a recording error, I failed to recognize 2nd place Joey Gatsis at the event itself, but he came in second after drawing a beautiful depiction of South Africa, leaving an appropriate hollow for Lesotho and correctly spelling the judicial capital of Bloemfontein.  I have since redesigned the scoresheet to avoid errors of this sort in the future.  -Jen)


Click here for more photos.

Come on out next week for Math, or bring friends the week after for Team Trivia!

March 11 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: David Dickerson

Wow, we feel popular lately! Over 25 people came to compete in the Vocabulary Tournament! When we told those assembled that we were running out of spots, a few altruistic (pr perhaps merely ambivalent) individuals offered up their own spots so others could play. "It's like the Titanic and you're Leonardo Di Caprio!" The lesson? Arrive early to make sure you get a spot! Get on the list by 7:10 and I can't imagine you'd have a problem. Not that we don't like to be popular! In this month's contest, contestants used three difficult words in a sentence, completed a challenge involving two real words and one-made up word, and tried to provide words in response to prompts such as, "Six letters -- a coating that develops on statues with age" out of the letters in "SAINT PATRICK" (answer: "patina").

winners
From left: Host Jonathan Lill, winner David Dickerson, 2nd place Vincent Maggio, host Jennifer Dziura, and 3rd place Glen W.


Click here for more photos.

P.S. Jen is really into her Thesaurus T-Shirt.

March 4 Trivia Night

Winner: Stand By For Silence

Over 60 contestants jam-packed the Chelsea Market for our last trivia night.  After answering questions about Constitutional Amendments, the phylum porifera, the lyrics to songs from Doris Day to Akon, the combatants in The Football War and the War of Jenkin's Ear, and which way Broadway runs in different parts of town, the team "Stand By For Silence" conquered the day!  Two of its four participants, strangely, left to catch a bus just minutes before the winners were announced.  The remaining two members are pictured below, with hosts Michael Malice and Jen Dziura.




Click here for more photos.

February 25th Math Bee

Winner: Tim Miller

Here's a sample question from this month's math bee (scroll down for answer): For every 1000 people who get fired, the Dow Jones drops 1 point. Every time the Dow Jones drops 1/10 of a point, the stimulus package increases by $1 million. Every time the stimulus package increases by $1 billion, the government puts off the vote for another week. Right now, the government is planning on voting on the stimulus package in 10 weeks. How many people must be fired today so that the government won't vote on the stimulus package until 50 weeks from now?


Winner Tim Miller (left) with runners-up Jason and Rahul and hosts Soce and Jen.


Click here for more photos.

(Answer: 4 million)

 

February 18th Geography Bee

Winner: Jordan Auslander

A very competitive night with 20 contestants!  Contestants identified Mediterranean nations based on facts about those countries, told us in what nations or states you could find famous mountains, and unscrambled anagrams into country names (Moon Race = Cameroon, Meat In Trunks = Turkmenistan).


Winner Jordan Auslander with runners-up Daniel Kraft and Chris Newcomb and hosts Jen and Abbi.


Click here for more photos.

Febraury 11 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Faith Black


Winner Faith Black with hosts Jen and Jonathan and runners-up Dan and N-Dogg


Click here for more photos

Febraury 4 Team Trivia

Winners: Todd, Helen and Penny


The winning team with hosts Jen and Michael

Click here for more photos

January 28 Math Bee

Winner: Rich Zwelling

Soce opened the math bee with a freestyle rap performance about prime numbers. This month's bee featured a number of enjoyably topical questions, including this one (scroll down for answer):

As President, you just pass a $7 trillion economy stimulus package. 20% of the package is for public works, %30 of the package is for healthcare, 40% of the package is for education, 5% is for energy and 5% is for finance. Half of the public works, energy and finance money will go to needless pork, one third of the healthcare money will go to needless pork, and three-quarters of the education money will go to needless pork. How much money will NOT go to needless pork?


Winner Rich Zwelling solves a problem while other contestants solve on their own, hoping to win points if Rich were to miss his question.

winners
Hosts Jen and Soce with winner Rich Zwelling and runners-up Sam and Rob.

(Answer: 3.15 trillion dollars)

January 14 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Dan

This week, Jonathan and Meg tested their patrons on voluptutous (pleasing to the senses) words such as mysticete (n., a baleen whale), saturnine (adj., gloomy), and octothorpe (n., another name for the pound sign) and then, topically, challenged them to spell words out of the letters in WASHINGTON.  Perennial favorite Dan took first place, with Halina in second and Paul in third.  Winners took home books of crossword puzzles, and opening act Red Cavalry was good enough to donate three of their albums as well!

Winners

January 7 Trivia Night

Winner: This week's band, The Argyle Effect, plus friends!

This week's trivia bee featured guest host Abbi Crutchfield, wherein the super-ultra-mega-team -- mostly comprising opening act the Argyle Effect but also including significant others --took first place, but only after we learned about the life and death of Marcel Marceau and how many lashes Minnie Mouse has on each eye (three apiece!)  Everything's more fun with alliteration!

No photos this week -- you'll have to satisfy yourself with mere words!  Dastardly!

December 17th Math Bee

Winner: Venk Natarajan

We closed out a fine year of Chelsea Mind Games with a pretty hardcore little math bee!  Soce opened with a math rap about both Christmas and the special properties of zero.  Eight contestants battled for the win, with Venk proving to be the speed-round champion.  "I just do the calculations while you're still talking," he explained.


Winner Venk with hosts Jen and Soce and runners-up Rich and Syd


Click here for more photos.

 

December 10th Geography Bee

Winner: James Dalton

Tonight's musician, James Dalton, stuck around for the game and came in first!  This week's contestants answered questions and met challenges such as "British Columbia has a major city called Vancouver; what US state also has a city of that name?" and "Draw the flag of Poland."


Winner James Dalton (center) with hosts Jen and Meg and runners-up Trent and Dan.

James drew a highly imaginative flag of Poland, based on the design he said is printed on Polish money (see Meg holding up a laptop showing the actual flag of Poland). He didn't win any points for accuracy on that one, but he was so far ahead from the other rounds that he prevailed regardless:


Click here for more photos.

December 3rd Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Dassie O.


Winner Dassie with runners-up Penny and Gregory and hosts Jonathan and Jen


Click here for more photos.


November 26th Team Trivia


Winners: The Pangean Separatist Union

Click here for more photos.

November 19 Math Bee

Winner: Rich Zwelling

Here's one of the many questions Rich answered correctly this week (courtesy of co-host Soce): You begin a 10-year jail sentence. Because you are a successful business mogul, every year you spend in jail costs you 1 million dollars. If you choose to just sit it out, then after 4 years, they will cut your remaining jail time by 1/3 for good behaviour. If you decide to hire a lawyer for an extra 2 million dollars per year, then after 2 years, by what fraction do you need them to cut your remaining jail time by in order for it to cost the same as the first option? (Note: After those first two years are up, you no longer would be paying an extra 2 million per year to any lawyers).


Winner Rich Zwelling with runners-up Jacki and Meg and hosts Jen and Soce


Click here for more photos

Answer: 3/4. (The first option: After 4 years, you have 6 years left. They cut those 6 years by 1/3, which means you have 4 years left, for a total of 8 years, which costs you 8 million dollars. The second option: After 2 years, you have 8 years left, and you've spent 6 million dollars. You can only afford to stay in 2 more years, so you have to get them to cut it but 3/4 of the remaining jail time).

November 12 Geography Bee

Winner: Jordan Auslander

Contestants this week identified the cities behind their nicknames (the "New York of Alaska" being Juno, for instance), the nations behind their domain extensions (.hu being Hungary, etc.), and the official languages of places such as Suriname, Madagascar, and Aruba (hint: way more Dutch going on than you'd think). Our finalists competed in a "draw this country" round, rendering from memory respectable sketches of Chile, Portugal, and Vietnam.


Winner Jordan (center) with runners-up Penny and Gina and hosts Jen and Meg

Click here for more photos.

November 5 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Greg Gallagher

The highlight of this tournament was host Jonathan Lill's challenge to contestants to spell words (each with a particular meaning and number of letters) from "Barack Obama."  Such as: "three letter word for  sphere or planet" (orb) and "five letter word for spongy yeast cake" (babka).  Winner Greg Gallagher was victorious in this and several other challenges, taking home the first place trophy.


Winner Greg Gallagher (center) with hosts Jen and Jonathan and runners-up Trent and Dan


Click here for more photos:

Affiliated Event: October 25 New York City Spelling Bee

Winner: Robert Moy

Robert Moy takes the cake again in a Halloween-themed spelling bee with over 30 spellers!
The next NYC Bee will take place in early '09 -- check back in the new year for our updated calendar!


Two-time winner Robert Moy with hosts bobby and Jen


Click here for more photos:

October 22 Math Bee

Winner: Venk Natarajan

Venk didn't quite win by an order of magnitude, but it was close!  Here are a couple of fun sample questions from the bee (scroll for answers):

During my life I have used 230 candles on my birthday cake; one for each year, plus one extra each year for good luck. How old am I?

You have a freezer box that's 12" from left to right, 14" from front to back, and 15" from top to bottom and filled with 2000 1"x 1"x 1" icecubes in such a manner that all rows are completely filled with cubes except for the top row of ice cubes, which may or may not be completely full.  Throughout the party, people take ice cubes from your freezer, only taking from the current top row, and starting with the next row down (the new top row) once the previous top row is fully depleted.  In this manner, they take 1000 cubes.  By how many full rows has your pile of ice decreased?


Winner Venk Natarajan (middle) with hosts Jen and Soce and runners-up Syd and Johann


Click here for more photos.

(Answers: 20 and 6)

October 8 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Meredith Robbins

This woman knows all the words! The gentleman she showed up with knows almost all the words. We hope this worked out okay for them later on in the evening. Seriously, though -- this week's vocabulary tournament featured a fun challenge designed by host Jonathan Lill -- after two rounds of the usual "Which word means this?" and "Use this word in a sentence," contestants were asked to find words matching certain definitions within the word "THEATERS." Scrabble players must have had an advantage as they pulled out "a word meaning commence" (start), "a word for nipple" (teat), and many more.


Winner Meredith Robbins (2nd from right) with hosts Jen and Jonathan and runners-up Dylan and Meg


Click here for more photos.

October 1 Trivia Night

Winners: Romantic Bickering

This twosome (also known as "Team Fleshbot") bested three larger teams in a varied contest that asked them to name historical vice presidents, identify fonts, name the poet behind various famous poems, complete missing lines from anthems and lullabies, and fill in the life history of the late, great Paul Newman.


Winners "Romantic Bickering" with hosts Jen and Michael Malice.


Click here for more photos:

 

September 24 Math Bee

Winner: Viveca Gardner

Here's a fun question (courtesy Soce the Elemental Wizard) from this month's math bee:

You go out on a date.  At the end of the date, you and your loved one kiss!  After your second date, you kiss twice.  After your third date, you get in an argument and don't kiss at all. After your fourth date, you make up and kiss three times.  Fifth date leads to four kisses.  Sixth date leads to another argument with no kisses.  Keeping up this pattern, after how many dates will you have kissed at least 100 times total? (Answer at bottom).

Viveca Gardner dominated this month's math bee, especially killing in the speed round. Next math bee is October 22nd!


Winner Viveca with hosts Soce and Jen and runners-up Syd and Rich


Click here for more photos:

(Answer: 20).

Special Affiliated Event: September 20 Spelling Bee

Winner: Carolyn D'Aquila

Over 55 people and over 35 contestants came out for this past Saturday's bee at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe! Spellers breezed through "acknowledge" and "renown," persevered through "pomological" and "accipiter," and the final few pushed on through "schipperke" and "papeterie." Carolyn D'Aquila triumphed and took home an adorable bee-themed trophy and a Housing Works gift card.


Winner Carolyn D'Aquila with hosts Jen and bobby


Click here for more photos.

Visit the New York City Spelling Bee site.
http://www.nycbee.com

 

September 10 Geography Bee

Winner: Frank Chang

Frank wins again! However, he was sad to report that his job is making him work Wednesdays, thus giving everyone else a clear shot at next month's title. Congratulations, Frank, and we'll miss you!


Winner Frank Chang (left, kissing prize) with runners-up Bertis and Jordan and hosts Meg and Jen


Click here for more photos

 

September 10 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Myrna Kilkenny

Myrna took this week's contest over four rounds that asked contestants to construct sentences with three difficult vocabulary words, to choose a real word amidst a list of made-up ones, and -- in a very fun round designed by Jonathan -- to come up with specific three-, four-, and five-letter words constructed from the letters in the word "disestablishment" (for instance, a three-letter word for a young louse [nit], a four-letter word for the end of a loaf of bread [heel], and a five-letter word for a common herb [basil]).


Winner Myrna Kilkenny (second from left) with runners-up Max and Anne and hosts Jen* and Jonathan. 


Click here for more photos

*Note: Jen has no idea why she looks like the Incredible Hulkstress in that photo.  

September 3 Trivia Night

Winners: The Freeze Rays



Click here for more photos.

August 27 Math Bee

Winner: Tim Layman


Winner Tim Layman (middle) with hosts Soce and Jen, and 2nd place winner Keith (taller) and 3rd place winner Andy (precocious).


Click here for more photos.


August 20 Geography Bee

Winner: Rich Berger

The Geography Bee, after a brief flirtation with a team format, has returned to an individual competition format (like a spelling bee, but about The Entire World!) Rich Berger handily cleaned up in rounds asking him about major rivers (as in, "What is the major river that runs through Dublin?"), state flags (as in, "What state does this bizarre looking 18th-century design disaster belong to?"), and even in a round that stretched the very definitions of "geography" by asking questions about the moon. Musician Jim Parenti, who played before the bee, was an excellent sport for staying to compete.


Winner Rich Berger (center) poses with hosts Jen and Meg and tied-for-second-place finalists Chumma and Devin.


Click here for more photos.

 

August 13 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Ed Goldsmith


Winner Ed Goldsmith with hosts Jonathan Lill and Jen Dziura.


Click here for more photos.

August 6 Team Trivia

Winners: Team Venture


Winners Team Venture with hosts Michael Malice and Jen Dziura.


Click here for more photos.

July 30th Math Bee

Winner: Mark Levine At this mathstravaganza, contestants answered questions such as "A man is less than 70 years old. His current age is 5 times the sum of the digits of his age. 9 years from now the order of the current digits of his age will be reversed. How old is he now?" and "One day, you get 20 pieces of mail. 10 are important and 10 are junk. If you open up 2 of them at random, what are the odds (in fraction form) that they will both be junk?" (45 and 9/38) Winner Mark Levine knows all these things. Mark Levine knows all.


Winner Mark Levine (second from left) with hosts Jen and Soce, and 2nd and 3rd place winners David and Heath.


Click here for more photos.

July 23rd Team Geography

Winners: Strangers with PBR

This was our first foray into using a team format for the Geography Bee.  Many seemed to enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere, although the more competitive among the players were still able to come up to the front to represent their teams in the Final Drawing Challenge, in which one contestant from each of the top three teams was asked to draw a borough of New York.  Previous winner Frank Chang drew an admirable Queens, but, in the end, Strangers with PBR came into the drawing round with a winning margin of points, allowing a pretty decent rendering of the Bronx to give them the win.


Your Hostesses


Winning Team "Strangers with PBR"


Click here for more photos.

 

July 16th Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Wendi Hoffenberg

Wendi triumphed in Mind Games' most highly-attended Vocabulary Tournament ever, an event in which the highlight may have been one flummoxed contestant's attempt to use "obfuscate," "paltry," and "paragon" in a single sentence: I went to the store to get some obfuscate and walked down the paltry aisle, all in a store called Paragon.

Wendi had no such difficulties, finally triumphing in a round that asked each contestant, with the use of the whiteboard, to find "kangaroo words" -- synonyms hidden inside certain words, made up of letters appearing in that word in the same order. For instance, by crossing out letters in "unsightly," it is possible to spell the word's synonym, "ugly." Wendi nailed two out of three of these in a tough final round and won eternal verbal glory.


Click here for more photos.

July 9th Team Trivia

Winner: Tart Cherry Stompers

The Tart Cherry Stompers did indeed stomp! They knew the two nations that begin with "Z" (Zimbabwe and Zambia), what Gandhi famously said when asked what he thought of Western civilization ("It would be a good idea"), and various wonderful facts about Stockholm Syndrome, the Symbionese Liberation Army, Vichy France, the Trojan War, and the band Urge Overkill.

One fun round asked teams to identify what recording artist was behind each of the following songs proclaiming what "love is":

Love is a Battlefield (Pat Benatar)
Love is a Rose (Neil Young)
Love is a Cannibal (Elton John)
Love is a Dangerous Thing (Bruce Springsteen)
Love is a Contact Sport (Whitney Houston)


Winning team with hosts Michael Malice and Jen Dziura


Click here for more photos.

 

July 2nd Math Bee

Winner: Margaret Winchell

We didn't ask how old Margaret was, but we're pretty sure a bunch of adults got stomped by a high school student. She was lightning-fast and came to the fore in the speed round. Contestants competed to do speedy arithmetic in their heads, and then to answer questions such as, "What is the maximum number of times 5 lines can intersect?" and "Six Jell-o wrestling champions are going to compete in a tournament in which each wrestler wrestles each other wrestler three times. How many matches will be fought?"


Winner Margaret with hosts Soce and Jen


Click here for more photos.

 

Special Affiliated Event: June 28 Spelling Bee

Winner: Robert Moy

27 contestants and many more spectators came out to this second-ever NYC Spelling Bee. Contestants in the new "challenge" round got to select words for their fellow spellers to spell, and challenge they did, asking each other to spell "panegyrical," "ginglymus," "fastigium" and more.  An enthusiastic Robert Moy (presciently, perhaps) signed up first and, indeed, came in first.


Winner Robert Moy with hosts bobbyblue and Jen Dziura.


Click here for more photos.

 

June 25th Geography Bee

Winner: Frank Chang

CAN ANYONE BEAT FRANK CHANG?  Frank Chang was again victorious in a competition that asked audience members about the Wonders of the World (being that there is no Wonder of the World authority, there are a lot more than seven) and where various languages are spoken (Malagasy = Madagascar), and, finally, asked each of the five finalists to draw a particular country, also labeling its capital.  Some attempts were more successful than others:

japan
Japan

spain
Spain

winner
Winner Frank Chang with hosts Jen and Meg, in front of "Canada."  (We took several versions of this photo, and seriously, this is the best one.  It's not a photography bee).

photos
Click here for more photos.

June 18th Vocabulary Bee

Winner: Simon Astor

Contestants at this month's vocabulary bee correctly used words like "jingoist", "expeditiously" and "panache" in the same sentence, guessed that "pomivorous" meant "apple-eating" but had difficulty figuring out that "hippophagia" meant "horse-eating" (rather astoundingly) knew what a "puggree" is (a cloth band around a hat or helmet), and performed admirably in a speed challenge giving them a word and asking them for synonyms ending in -sion ("lack of emotion" = "dispassion"). Simon Astor leaped into the lead early with a gorgeously-delivered sentence, and maintained his lexical domination to the end.


Winner Simon Astor with hosts Jon and Jen.


Click here for more photos.

 

June 11th Team Trivia

Winner: Elrond Hubbard

Participants came in groups, in pairs, and alone to Team Trivia, cordially joining up into four teams to compete for the win. Sweet Soubrette opened the night, and then contestants hunkered down at their tables to answer questions in various categories including:

Presidential Politics:

  • What did John McCain say on The Today Show this morning was “not too important”? (bringing troops home from Iraq)
  • Name the Indian-American governor of Louisiana whose name has been bandied about as a McCain VP (Bobby Jindal)
  • If elected, Obama would be the first black president. Who was the first Episcopalian president? (George Washington)


Lesbians:

  • Name the actress who currently appears on The L Word, and who played a stripper/welder in a popular 1983 film. (Jennifer Beals)
  • In what year was the first openly lesbian representative elected to Congress -- or --what is her name or state? (Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin, 1998)
  • Gertrude Stein’s longterm partner published a French cookbook in 1954. What was her name? (Alice B. Toklas)

    Subways:


  • How many stops from 125th Street to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall, inclusive, on the 6? (20 -within 1)
  • Where, on the G, could you transfer to the A and C trains? (Hoyt-Schermerhorn)
  • What is the second to last stop on the Brooklyn-bound L? (105th St)
  • Name all 4 trains that stop at the Coney Island/Stillwell Ave stop? (D,F,N,Q)

    Lyrics:

  • Write down the next lyric after the Pussycat Dolls' "I’m telling you to loosen up my buttons baby" (but you keep fronting)
  • From Pink's "Stupid Girls," the next lyric after "What happened to the dreams of a girl president" (She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent)

Team "Elrond Hubbard" cleaned up, also gaining 6 points in a bonus challenge engineered by host Michael Malice, giving each team ten guesses to try to list 10 of the original 31 flavors of ice cream introduced by Baskin-Robbins in 1945.


Winners "Elrond Hubbard" with hosts Jen and Michael


Click here for more photos.

 

June 2 Math Bee

Winner: Keith Burdette

Contestants this month converged on Chelsea Market and conquered questions such as "You have three kinds of human teeth—front teeth, bicuspids, and molars. You are making a necklace in the pattern front, bicuspid, molar, molar. What is the 26th tooth in the pattern?" and "You are a serial killer who only kills on prime-numbered days of the month. If you are caught on July 22nd, how many people will you have killed that month?"  

Keith Burdette vanquished all math, also correctly telling us that the smallest integer that 16!/16 is NOT divisible by is 17 . Co-host Abbi Crutchfield hilariously offered numerical facts throughout the bee, and everyone was totally clear on the fact that if you walk 12 blocks to a booty call at 2 blocks per minute and do the walk of shame back home at 1 block per minute, your average walking speed is NOT 1.5 blocks per minute (it is 1.33 blocks per minute, which makes more sense if you think about the fact that you spent more time doing the walk of shame, even if the distance was the same). Not that anyone at the math bee would ever do the walk of shame.


Winner Keith Burdette with hosts Abbi and Jen.


Click here for more photos.

 

May 28 Geography Bee

Winner: Frank Chang

At this month's Geography Bee, contestants were asked world capitals (with an option to downgrade to a state capital for fewer possible points) and irregular demonyms ("What do you call a person from Montenegro?"), and were asked to draw various states.  Contestants took wild guesses, drawing Rhode-Islandish lumps and squarish Dakotas, mixing up South Carolina for North Carolina and Washington for Oregon, and in some cases drawing a very fine Oklahoma or Utah -- just backwards.  One man who was not daunted by these challenges was Frank Chang, who emerged victorious through three rounds and a final speed round in which the top three named as many former Soviet republics, Canadian provinces, or Eurozone nations as possible in under a minute.

winnergeo28
Winner Frank Chang with hosts Jen and Meg.

geobee
This rendering of Washington helpfully includes the Space Needle.

geobee 28
Click here for more photos.

Special Affiliated Event: May 24 Spelling Bee

Winner: Ashley Newman

The first-ever New York City Spelling Bee brought out 26 contestants and many more friends and spectators to the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in Soho.  Drinks were drunk, free popcorn was consumed.  It was a sesquipedalian bee, as spellers gave us p-a-r-a-c-h-r-o-n-i-s-m (a chronological error), q-u-a-d-r-u-m-s-n-o-u-s (having four hands), c-o-l-l-y-w-o-b-b-l-e-s (a stomachache), and many more.

Twelve spellers made it into the final round, one in first place and two tied for second.  After a suspenseful runoff between Geoff Cardillo and Jonathan Lill, prizes were awarded to Jonathan in 3rd place, Geoff in 2nd, and -- leading the pack with eight words correct over the course of the bee -- Ashley Newman in 1st.

Be sure to come out in June for the next installment of the New York City Spelling Bee.

beewarmerss
Jen Dziura and bobbyblue perform the New York City Spelling Bee Theme Song they co-wrote.

beewiners
2nd place Geoff Cardozo, host bobbyblue, 3rd place Jonathan Lill, host Jen Dziura, and Grand Prize Winner Ashley Newman.


Click here for more photos.

 

May 21 Vocabulary Tournament

Winner: Rich Zwelling

Chelsea Mind Games' second-ever Vocabulary Tournament brought out 15 contestants and a full crowd of spectators.  In round one, contestants used hard vocabulary words in a sentence ("The yeomanly sea captain, spying a bunch of bees on his ship, perspicaciously remarked 'Look at the apiary!'")  The sentence round is always enjoyable to behold because contestants, given three difficult words and asked to use as many of them as possible, often take a stab at unknown words, with hilarious results: as one contestant told us,  "There's a lot of pulchritude in my orange juice."

The next round asked contestants to identify words for professions, as in "What does a Resurrection Man do?" (robs graves) and "What does a chandler make?" (candles).  The third round asked for synonyms, and the top three contestants went on a to a final speed round in which they were asked to come up with words ending in -ate that met certain definitions (as in, drool = salivate, rob of energy = enervate, move in waves = undulate).


Emerging victorious was Rich Zwelling, who took home tickets to Comix as well as a copy of the Yo Momma Vocabulary Builder, source of such gems as "Yo momma is so sybaritic, she makes Liberace look ascetic!"


Winner Rich Zwelling with hosts Jen and Jonathan.


Click here for more photos.

May 14th Team Trivia

Winning team: Shogun Tampon

In the first-ever Team Trivia night, winning team "Shogun Tampon" (did they really have to name themselves that?) correctly told us -- among many other things -- that the cookie named after a 19th century novel heroine is a "Lorna Doone," that the 1980 "Billygate" scandal was about Jimmy Carter's brother Billy, that the train that goes to Rockaway Beach is the A, that the XYZ Affair of 1798 was about France, that the formerly scandalous political figure who graduated in 2006 from the London School of Economics was Monica Lewinsky, that Lil Mama's hit song is about lip gloss, that the Beatles' "Taxman" wants to tax "your feet" when you take a walk, and that the fruit referenced in Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" is "bananas" (or B-A-N-A-N-A-S).

Co-host Michael Malice, in a bonus question he insisted we "all know the answers to," asked teams to list, in descending order, the last 10 prices of stamps, of which Shogun Tampon was able to list five, all the way back to those halcyon days of the 34-center.

Hosts Michael and Jen with winning team Shogun Tampon, who won autographed copies of Ken Jennings' "Brainiac," plus tickets to Comix comedy club.

Kicking off the night, musical guest Schaffer the Darklord stunned the unsuspecting crowd with nerdalicious rap songs about grammar, his love of nerdy girls, and cats. Capping off the evening, author Judy McGuire of "How Not to Date" gave us salacious stories and wise advice, and gave a signed copy of her book to the winner of a bad-date storytelling contest.

Click here for more photos.

 

May 7th Math Bee

Winner: Jahan Sagafi

Our first-ever math bee brought out a great crowd and fifteen competitors who answered questions such as "If there is a 1 in 10 chance you'll be fatally run over by the A train, and a one in 5 chance you'll be fatally stabbed in front of your local bodega, what are the chances that you will EITHER be fatally hit by the A train OR be stabbed to death?" (The answer is 3 in 10 - click here for more questions).

Musician Katie Pawluk opened up the night, and then hosts Jen Dziura and Charlie Kasov threw out a mix of guessable questions and trickier questions, some of which allowed contestants to write on the board, and some of which required them to do the problems in their heads. After a tough bee, a quick-thinking Jahan Sagafi emerged victorious.

Jen Dziura and Jahan Sagafi, who received a copy of the book "Geek Logik" and tickets to Comix.

Click here for more photos

 

April 30th Geography Bee

Winner: Jeff Newman

Chelsea Mind Games' first-ever Geography Bee was a smashing, spatially-accurate success, with 16 competitors, another dozen or so spectators, and a five-year-old girl who really, really wanted to be behind a microphone.  Competitors named all the state capitals beginning with "b" (Boise, Bismarck, Baton Rouge), told us where the Little Mermaid sits (Copenhagen), and identified mountain ranges and Great Lakes with aplomb.

Erin and Her Cello started off the night:

Geography Bee co-host (and encyclopedia editor by day) Meg Van Huygen showed off her map-themed skirt:

And in the end, winner Jeff Newman took home the Boozes of the World Trophy (also known as Jameson's).  Behind him, second-place winner Jonathan Beatrice took home the Vodka Trophy (from Finland!).  Gregory Nissen took home Rum Trophy (from Barbados!)

Click here for more photos:

 

April 23rd Vocabulary Tournament:

Winner: M.G. Duke

M.G. Duke came in a clear winner with a perfect 10 (fives from both judges) in the "Use three hard vocab words in a sentence" round (his sentence was succint as well as unhesitatingly delivered, and even rhymed!) and a 5 of 5 in the synonyms round.  And a dip in the eponyms round ("Which word wasn't really named after a person?"), M.G. came back to conquer in the speed round: given one minute and a series of Latin and Greek roots, he named 21 words using those roots, for a total of 36 points overall!

M.G. Duke
M.G. Duke at the mic

More Photos:

All photos by Brian Van.