IWS #199 Results

[digamma]

The Questions

It is August. Vacation time. In the US, you may get a week off to hit the beach with the family. If you're in Europe, well, see you in September. Can you be with Stupid as he gets some nice R&R?

1. Stupid loves the beach, but Hawaii is a long way away. Name a beach vacation destination in the United States other than the Hawaiian islands.

12 Florida
7 Myrtle Beach
6 Miami
4 Daytona
1 California
1 Venice Beach
1 Pensecola
1 Virgin Islands
1 Jersey Shore
1 Outer Banks

Stupid likes general locations, so those who went with specific cities or towns in Florida missed out on the #1 answer.

2. Stupid is part of the typical American family. Wife and 2.4 kids. Stupid is packing up the car to head on vacation. How long (as a time value, not distance) is Stupid willing to drive to get to his vacation spot?

14 10 hours
5 5 hours
4 8 hours
3 1 day
2 6 hours
1 3 hours
1 2 days
1 12 hours
1 16 hours
1 4 hours
1 15 hours
1 500 miles

The nice round number and full day of driving wins. I would have likely gone with 8 hours because of the whole standard work day thing. I would have been wrong.

3. Stupid is at his wit's end. The kids have had to go to the bathroom 14 times, he's listened to the Wheels on the Bus on repeat for a solid two hours, his wife is asleep and a bird just dropped a huge splat on his windshield. How much is Stupid willing to pay on a per ticket basis to fly to his next vacation?

17 $500
7 $250
4 $300
4 $200
2 $100
1 $100

Stupid is a bigger spender than I would have thought. An even $500 per ticket carries the day.


4. Stupid's favorite movie is European Vacation. He loves the beginning where the Griswolds win the European vacation as a prize on Pig in a Poke. What game show might Stupid go on to win a European vacation today? (And yes, Russ, he's going to pork her.)

18 Price is Right
13 Wheel of Fortune
1 Who Wants to be a Millionaire
1 Jeopardy!
1 Wipeout
1 Deal or No Deal

If I were redrafting this question, I would have left out the word "today" and said something like "What real life game show..." I'm not sure if that brings in some other options or not. When writing the question, I had Wheel in mind, and in particular the old version of Wheel where you got to spend your money in the revolving show room.


5. Stupid is whipped. He not only took his wife on a honeymoon, but then got suckered into taking her on a babymoon. Now she's convinced him to take a Staycation to get some things done around the house. What is Stupid's #1 item on the Honey-Do list?

13 Painting (Paint the House)
9 Cut Grass/Mow Lawn
2 Clean Gutters
2 Clean Garage
1 Take out Trash
1 Remodeling
1 Fix things
1 New bathroom tile
1 Clean house
1 Landscaping
1 blowjob
1 Have sex with her
1 Divorce

Stupid is willing to drop 2 large on airline tickets but won't hire a painter or a yard guy. This one required some interpretation, but the specificity of some of the answers required individual treatment. If you don't like the rulings, take it up with the next arbiter.


6. Stupid has made it. He's sitting drinking his favorite cold beverage, in a rocking chair on the front porch of his beach house. What song plays quietly in the background?

19 Margaritaville
3 Dock of the Bay
2 Stairway to Heaven
1 Freebird
1 Call Me Maybe
1 All I wanna Do
1 Summertime
1 It's 5:00 Somewhere
1 Holiday Road
1 Don't Worry, Be Happy
1 Summer of 69
1 Wheels on the Bus
1 Pina Colada Song
1 Wish you were here

I think I swayed this one too much to Margaritaville by including the phrase "drinking his favorite cold beverage."

The Tally

You guys do need a vacation...

Alf	68
spleen1015	126
nilodor	756

Take Friday off...

LoneStarGirl	1,638
Sun Tzu	2,808
sterlingice	3,672
panerd	4,788
Purdue Brad	5,096

Headed to Wally World--hope it is open

Coffee Warlord	17,472
Dark Cloud	18,144
Suburban Rhythm	26,208
MIJB#19	27,216
kcchief19	41,496
cuervo72	51,714
claphamsa	57,460
QuikSand	79,560
jbergey22	81,396

They've got their hush puppies on...

Abe Sargent	101,745
Crimson Fox	102,816
CU Tiger	151,164
DanGarion	167,076
tyketime	209,304
chesapeake	272,935
Raiders Army	325,584
StLee	385,320
General Mike	529,074
B & B	719,264
Ben E Lou	906,984

Life's a beach...(so close)

Pyser	1,410,864
radii	1,742,832
albionmoonlight	1,965,132
Chief Rum	2,068,416
wade moore	2,111,508
mauboy1	2,987,712

The Undisputed King of Vacation--Now get to work on IWS #200

Desnudo

3,619,728

[wade moore]

:grumble:

Totally missed the idea of going with Florida and getting the generality. I'll blame myself for that.

But $500?! I won't spend that much for *MY* airfare, let alone $500 each for a family of 4.4. outside of I guess some "roundness" to it, this really makes no sense to me - but I guess I'm outthinking stupid.

Ohwell, close but no cigar on this one.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah I just can't hang with stupid.

[sterlingice]

Might be my worst showing ever. I think I need a vacation

SI

[wade moore]

Oh - and I thought this was a very well constructed IWS fwiw.

[Pyser]

question 5 tripped me up. garage wasnt a good answer. rest i did great on. oh well.

good questions

[Sun Tzu]

Who else guessed Stairway? My hats off to you, good sir.

[Ben E Lou]

Heh. I guess I've lived too near the beach all my life. Even 6 hours (which was my guess) seems like forever to drive for vacation. I was thinking "leave straight from work at 5, 6 hours of driving plus an hour to eat/stretch legs/gas, get there by midnight. Anything later than that, and it's time to fly."

Didn't occur to be as non-specific as "Florida." I went with Miami Beach there, mainly because "beach" was used twice in the sentence.

Nailed all the others.

[cuervo72]

Went with Miami also.

I was the one with 15 hours. If you drive from MD/DC to Orlando (or Daytona) in one shot...

And I should have gone with Margaritaville. Was in my short list. But man, I can't stand it.

[Alf]

Dead last ! I'm so good at those.

[albionmoonlight]

People are getting really good figuring out the "round numbers" thing.

Of course, I thought that I was tapping into that with my "1 day" driving answer.

Good contest.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by digamma

5. Stupid is whipped. He not only took his wife on a honeymoon, but then got suckered into taking her on a babymoon. Now she's convinced him to take a Staycation to get some things done around the house. What is Stupid's #1 item on the Honey-Do list?

13 Painting (Paint the House)
9 Cut Grass/Mow Lawn
2 Clean Gutters
2 Clean Garage
1 Take out Trash
1 Remodeling
1 Fix things
1 New bathroom tile
1 Clean house
1 Landscaping
1 blowjob
1 Have sex with her
1 Divorce

Every Honey-Do list I've ever been handed listed the things I was expected to do...so this answer leads to so many questions.

[DanGarion]

FLORIDA! WHAT FRICKEN EAST COAST BIAS!

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by wade moore

:grumble:

Totally missed the idea of going with Florida and getting the generality. I'll blame myself for that.

But $500?! I won't spend that much for *MY* airfare, let alone $500 each for a family of 4.4. outside of I guess some "roundness" to it, this really makes no sense to me - but I guess I'm outthinking stupid.

Ohwell, close but no cigar on this one.

Ditto on the $500. That's crazy flight money to be willing to spend to avoid a drive. But so says Stupid.

That suggests to me that maybe as we're getting older, FOFC is getting a little more affluent. Or at the very least, they're getting more affluent at a greater rate than I am.

This was my best performance in a while. Something to build on!

[Abe Sargent]

Ah well, easy come, easy go

[mauchow]

I missed out on round number on the freakin' tickets. I went $300 and obviously the answer was $500. That was my only miss. D'oh! That could have been #2 for me! OH, well!

[korme]

I can't believe Margaritaville cleaned up so well.

[korme]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Heh. I guess I've lived too near the beach all my life. Even 6 hours (which was my guess) seems like forever to drive for vacation. I was thinking "leave straight from work at 5, 6 hours of driving plus an hour to eat/stretch legs/gas, get there by midnight. Anything later than that, and it's time to fly."

Didn't occur to be as non-specific as "Florida." I went with Miami Beach there, mainly because "beach" was used twice in the sentence.

Nailed all the others.

A midwesterner like myself is used to taking spring break road trips to Panama, which is like 16~ hours

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by digamma

I think I swayed this one too much to Margaritaville by including the phrase "drinking his favorite cold beverage."

Stupid's "favorite cold beverage" isn't beer?

[MIJB#19]

And to echo others, this was a good IWS. Not one I was likely to win, but that shouldn't matter.

[sterlingice]

We've had a pretty good run of IWSs lately. I know I've gotten back into them for a bit

SI

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by korme

A midwesterner like myself is used to taking spring break road trips to Panama, which is like 16~ hours

And you actually drive that far? Wow.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I was actually disappointed the second question specified time. Would have been very interesting to see the time/distance breakdown in the answers people submitted.

[Sun Tzu]

You know...it would never occur to me to list an entire state as a "beach getaway."

[sterlingice]

Ok, Desnudo's vacation has been long enough. Time to get to work on IWS #200

Seems like a round number like that should have a numerical theme.

SI

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Ok, Desnudo's vacation has been long enough. Time to get to work on IWS #200

Seems like a round number like that should have a numerical theme.

SI

[CrimsonFox]

[Desnudo]

Ah sorry guys! I missed this for some reason. I guess my ten hour drives from Dallas to Gulf Shores with a screaming baby really paid off.