Internet Challenge

My Answers

	SPORTS: Babe Ruth once held the record for the most homeruns in baseball. How many homeruns did he hit AND how many times did he go to bat to establish this record? Entered +"Babe Ruth" +homeruns +record into AltaVista Found a number of sites stating 714 career homeruns. Repeated text search with +"Babe Ruth" +714 +"AB" Found The Greatest of Them All at www.phillynews.com. G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB Avg. 2503 8399 2174 2873 506 136 714 2209 2056 1330 123 .342 Ans: 714 homeruns in 8399 at-bats. BONUS ans: Only two of these homeruns were grand slams! Note that a page from the same source shows the career stats for Hank Aaron, who really held the record for the most homeruns in baseball prior to 1998, albeit in many more at-bats... G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB Avg. 3298 12364 2174 3771 624 98 755 2297 1402 1383 240 .305 Confirmed by repeating text search with +"Babe Ruth +714 +8399 See Hall of Famers: Babe Ruth, a page that reports statistics excerpted from "The Baseball Encyclopedia," 8th Edition, (c) 1990.
	ANIMALS: What colored eyes, according to breed standards, disqualifies a viszla from being show quality? Entered +viszla +eye into AltaVista Found nothing of value! Tried www.akc.org for the American Kennel Club. Good guess! Entered +viszla +host:akc.org into AltaVista Found only a minor entry. Tried +"breed standards" +host:akc.org Found that www.akc.org/text/ contains a file defining the AKC breed standards for vizsla in vizsla.htm. Ans. Color of the iris should blend with the color of the coat. Yellow or any other color is faulty. Note the misspelling of the breed name in the problem statement! Explains lack of success on initial try... Entered +vizsla +eye into AltaVista Confirmed at Official CKC Breed Standard for the Vizsla at Vizsla Canada Eyes: they should be almond shaped, bright and intelligent in appearance. The colour is in harmony with or darker than the colour of the coat; they should be moderately deep set. Fault: Light yellow, green, blue or "Pop" eyes.
	ENTERTAINMENT: In what city did the television sitcom Three's Company take place? Entered "Three's Company" into AltaVista Nothing really good came up near the top of the list. On a hunch, tried +"Three's Company" +California Found abstract that mentioned Santa Monica, but link was dead or incorrect... Fixed link!! Plot Summary from Three's Company Online Three's Company originally focuses on the life of three roommates ( Jack, Janet, and Chrissy ) living in a small apartment in Santa Monica, California. Ans: Santa Monica, California. Also of note: Three's Company entry at The Internet Movie Database
	SPECIAL EVENTS: The millionth visitor to this library received a signed copy of "My Turn", some jelly beans, and a weekend getaway. Searched with numerous Internet search tools and could not make much progress! Decided to visit the UD library's Networked Databases Selected Lexis-Nexis Searched General News Topics for Topic: library, Additional Terms: jelly bean Found article from July 24, 1997 Thursday, METRO issue of The Orlando Sentinel What began as a Southern California vacation for Ocoee resident Tom Murnane turned into a personal meeting with his political idol - former President Ronald Reagan. The judicial process supervisor for the Orange County Sheriff's Office earned the honor after becoming the 1 millionth visitor to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. ... The family was given balloons, a jar of jelly beans with the presidential seal - the ex-president loves the candy - lifetime membership to the library, T-shirts and flowers. Ans: Reagan Presidential Library. Checked out the Orlando Sentinel site for additional articles; they had a searchable archive but only the article above was found. I had guessed that the Reagan library was the answer but could not find any reference to the millionth visitor at any of the following Reagan library sites! Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and Museum Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library, presented by the PRESIDENT consortium Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
	ENTERTAINMENT: Cher starred in it on Broadway and Film. What is it? Checked out Cher listings from Yahoo! search on Cher. Found Cher Dedication site. Checked out Cher's Filmography page; document search for Broadway yielded: Ans: Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean Originally a Broadway play, Jimmy Dean was later made as a film. Reviews for the play weren't favourable so Cher was surprised when she was approached to make it into a film. Entered "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean" +Broadway +Cher into AltaVista. Confirmed at Martin Beck Theater chronology at BuyBroadway site.
	ENTERTAINMENT: What are the first two words in Funny Girl starring Barbra Streisand? Checked out Streisand listings from Yahoo! search on Streisand. Looked over A Streisand Homage, Barbra Steisand Music Guide, and BJSweb. At 11pm on Sat. 1/30, decided to e-mail two of the web site owners directly with the following message: Subject: First two words of Funny Girl? As part of an Internet Challenge, I've been asked to find the first two words of Funny Girl. Can you help? Thanks in advance. At 12:30pm Sun. 2/1 recieved the following note from the owner of BJSweb: At first I thought your subject line was a joke. Any Streisand fan worth his salt knows the opening line to FUNNY GIRL: "Hello, Gorgeous!" (Barbra comments to her reflection in a mirror in the Ziegfield theatre.) Ans: Hello, gorgeous! Confirmed at 2pm by owner of Barbra Steisand Music Guide If you mean the first two words spoken in the film, they are "Hello, gorgeous." Many thanks to David Pimentel and Mark Iskowitz.

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Last updated Feb. 2, 1998.
Copyright George Watson, Univ. of Delaware, 1998.