WITWIS 2013 - Round 1
Here are the rules to this game.
Clue: Hot dog.
+100 points for any guess, even if it is wrong.
+100 points for the first guess, even if it is wrong.
+100 points for the correct answer.
+100 points for the first correct answer.
For example, the first person to send me a correct answer would get at least 300 points (any guess+correct answer+first correct answer).
Got it, the key is to not sleep for the duration of the game and constantly refresh this page so as to get in the first guess every time a new city's first clue is posted. Let's break out the coffee and chocolate.
P.S. Your avatar freaks me out.
Got it, the key is to not sleep for the duration of the game and constantly refresh this page so as to get in the first guess every time a new city's first clue is posted. Let's break out the coffee and chocolate.
Not entirely true. Last time Ian changed the scoring every round to give people a chance to get back in it... depending on the cumulative score.
P.S. Your avatar freaks me out.
It's not just you....
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Last time Ian changed the scoring every round to give people a chance to get back in it...
Yup. I'll adjust the scoring to keep things interesting.
P.S. Your avatar freaks me out.
Yeah it kinda freaks me out, too. I started using the same game-neutral user pic on all of my accounts. I wanted a distinctive picture that people would remember.
I gotten responses from five people so far. Three people currently have scores of exactly 100. A new round begins May 1, so send me your guess soon if you haven't already. (Looking at Lisa.)
A new round begins May 1, so send me your guess soon if you haven't already. (Looking at Lisa.)
Yeah, yeah. You just want to roll your eyes some more at Lisa's outlandish guesses. Well, you know, Stabguy could perfectly well decide to visit Addis Ababa! Wouldn't everybody go to Addis Ababa if given the chance?
I gotten responses from five people so far. Three people currently have scores of exactly 100.
Which means someone got over a hundred for being the first to guess and someone got over a hundred for getting it right. The odds don't look good for me. There doesn't happen to be a city with a statue of a hot dog in it? (inside joke from last game)
There doesn't happen to be a city with a statue of a hot dog in it? (inside joke from last game)
It may indeed be helpful to examine previous WITWIS games to help guide you.
Phi wasted no time. He correctly answered just 2 hours into the round with, "It's totally Frankfurt in Germany." Gerund wasn't far behind, correctly answering just an hour and a half later. Congrats to both of you for answering so quickly and decisively.
Here are the standings:
phi - 400 points
gerund - 200 points
methodical - 100 points
aurel - 100 points
cheese - 100 points
lisa - 100 points
True story: Right before I started Round 1, I mentioned to my wife, "I finally came up with a clue for Frankfurt for WITWIS. Do you want to hear it?" She replied, "I know nothing about Frankfurt, so unless the clue is 'hot dog' I won't be able to relate."
Dang, I thought it was St. Louis because that's where the hot dog got its name. Now thinking of hot dogs is making me hungry.
Dang, I thought it was St. Louis because that's where the hot dog got its name. Now thinking of hot dogs is making me hungry.
It's always challenging for me to gauge the difficulty of a WITWIS problem. For this one, I was thinking along the lines of looking it up on Wikipedia to learn about hot dogs. "The word frankfurter comes from Frankfurt, Germany, where pork sausages similar to hot dogs originated." Of course, I have no idea how phi and gerund reached Frankfurt as their answer (or why phi was so certain in the answer), but it would be nice to hear about their thought processes, if they are willing to share...
...it would be nice to hear about their thought processes, if they are willing to share...
The first thing that came to my mind was something I remembered from GTA IV, where a hot dog vendor was yelling across the streets and his hot dog cart said Franks/Frankfurters.
My second guess would have been Chihuahua, Mexico, because a chihuahua is a dog and Mexico is, well, you know, hot. So Chihuahua is both hot and a dog. But I thought this was too far-fetched, so I sticked with my first guess.
I read "Hot dog" and my mind immediately was like: "place where the hot dog originated". I'm actually not bad at this type of puzzle.
I'm back from my driving tour of central Europe. We didn't really stay in Frankfurt. All we did was fly into the airport and rent a car there. Ian added Frankfurt to the game as a well known starting point, so everyone would have an idea what part of the world to search for lesser known destinations like Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
It's funny that some of you guessed New York City since that was our last stop before Frankfurt. In fact, we probably spent more hours in NYC (both going and coming back) than we did in Frankfurt. Though don't expect a point adjustment!
I didn't take any photos in New York or Frankfurt. Here's one from the Salt Lake City airport:
We rented a mid-size car in Frankfurt which turned out to be a Ford Fiesta 5-door hatchback that took diesel. It was big enough to hold our luggage and adequate for driving on the Autobahn, which was the first thing I did after traveling for nearly 50 hours without sleeping in a real bed. 
It was only a 2 hour drive to Rothenburg. I got off the Autobahn and tried to follow the Romantic Road from Tauberbischofsheim to Rothenburg but took a wrong turn at Bad Mergentheim (bad indeed). So I let the navigation system take over and it led us along some one lane roads through pastures. Quite a wild ride!