FED PHRASE GAME (Early Edition)
Wednesday 11 April
by Gwaptiva
There has been a lot of debate over the years about the veracity of the claim that Chez Diesel's is the social center of the Solar system. Yes, it is reasonably central. Yes, it is a sociable enough place, but there are those that suggest that there is no scientific basis for such a claim. Supporters of the claim saw their argument strengthened when the results of a hastily arranged poll showed that the majority of people chose the roof garden of the famous establishment as the location for this week's Fed Phrase Game Roadshow.
A big crowd gathered on the roof to enjoy the lovely view. Cloudbase, Sean, Larsmalgren, Sephorin and defending champion Supermayman turned up to play, with Occy and Ryuken dropping in to watch. Just as the game got underway, Mayman was called away but his place was quickly snapped up by Oddball. After a quick explanation of the Crooner Code applicable to the Roadshow edition of the Phrase Game, and after spinning to determine the order of play, Sephorin started the afternoon's proceedings, looking for a three-word Place. She had no problems whatsoever, probably because it is one of the most famous places in Dataspace, and Ernie's Entertainment Emporium scored her 2200 points.
After the celebratory fireworks had died down, Larsmalgren started the second phrase, consisting of three words and being in the category of Famous Persons. However, he found out that there are some nasty fields on the wheel, and a Bankrupt turned the game over to Sean. He started off well enough, finding five consonants and one vowel, but then stalled. Oddball found that the first word was "Empress" and not "Express" as Sean had hoped, but then struggled to find her name. As did everybody else.
Turn after turn, a player would spin the wheel, guess a consonant and still the board would show
E M P R E S S W U _ E T _ A N
Finally, after a little clue, Oddball figured out that the answer had been staring him in the face all along, and after adding some points by correctly guessing Z, solved the phrase as Empress Wu Zetian. Interest in this once-powerful woman has recently been rekindled due to her appearance on one of the collector edition cards issued by Clive's Collectibles on Castillo. This month's card, for instance, features the last emperor, Ming the Merciless and is for sale for just one (1) slithy tove. [No, Gwaptiva, Clive's Collectibles does not pay commission - ed.]
Sean got round three underway, trying to solve a six-word phrase in the category Objects. He lost his turn on the first spin, however, so Oddball set off trying to solve the phrase, until he got stopped in his tracks by a spin of Bankrupt. He added a few letters, but turned over to Sephorin, who invested all her points into buying vowels, and then Bankrupted. Not lost much, but this did give Larsmalgren the chance to take the points. And he did. After his initial spin had lost him his turn, he now spun 100 points, but still collected 750 of them when he correctly solved "a mural of the rising sun".
With Sephorin well in the lead, Oddball started the fourth puzzle. However, as it turned out, the new category introduced by the makers of the show was popular, but did give the game away a little too easily. Don't expect the category Famous Vegetables to return too soon, because Oddball spun up 2100 points and went on to solve The Singing Asparagus.
The target to beat, going into the final puzzle, was now Oddball's 3050 points, and Cloudbase had first crack at it. The phrase consisted of four words, yet again in a new category: Fed Songs. Cloudbase couldn't get anything going though; Sephorin added a couple of letters, and Larsmalgren had a terrible debut discovering the fickleness of the wheel, losing his turn straight away. The others couldn't get anything going, and even Sephorin's attempt to buy a vowel failed due to the lack of Es in the phrase. Lars once again spun up Lose a Turn, which must surely be the worst luck ever for a debutant. Sean then seemed to have the solution in sight, but this turned to be an illusion, as he stumbled at the final hurdle.
Cloudbase, knowing he couldn't win, gallantly offered Sephorin the chance for victory, but when she indicated she had no idea what the solution was, he solved it himself as "Cosmic Girl by Jamiroquai", one of the songs the jukebox on Mercury churns out at nauseam.
This settled the final result, Oddball winning the game. Sephorin came in a creditable second, with Cloudbase sneaking into third on the last phrase.
Next week, we will be playing the Phrase Game again, somewhere in Fed. Come all at 4.00pm eastern on Wednesday (that's 9pm UK time, 22:00 CET), and see if you can... beat... that... wheel!
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