h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On average, half of all false teeth have some form of radioactivity.

In 1970, the Super Bowl featured celebrity entertainment for the first time, rather than featuring college marching bands. The act chosen perform during the half time show was Carol Channing.

oh..entertainment. i was wondering what it was.

Superbowl. Isn't that on sometime about now? Apparently one team are thought of as the equivalent of Man U, Chelski, Arsenal and Liverpool rolled into one, while the other has all the cachet of Wigan Athletic... a hopeless mismatch, according to the papers. (Hmmm, sounds like any FA Cup final involving Premier League talent v. a lowly Div One side... what odds could I get on the outfit nobody's fancying very much to cause an upset?)

What do the teams have to do to get there, btw? Is it the culmination of a set of elimination cup-ties, like the FA Cup, that whittle sixty-four teams down to thirty-two and then sixteen, eight, four, two... or does some other principle apply?

Seems you are about 24 hours late or so...
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/02/03/superbowl.ap/index.html


What do the teams have to do to get there? There are play-offs before the Superbowl, so I reckon there is some kind of league system first and then the top teams of the leagues have to face each other in the play-offs?

Y.

the short answer is that there are two leagues or conferences in the us competition. at the end of the season the winners of each conference play off in the superbowl.

so it's like the premiership champions playing the champion of div. 1???

No Taff. Because of the size of the US, it is split into East & West, with each having a "Premiership". You can't expect fans of the NY Giants to travel to LA one week and Dallas the next.

I think

so its east champ v west champ

cept the conferences aren't strictly geographical. *chuckle*

also has stuff to do with franchises etc.

Yeah, well. The principal's the same.

not really. both conferences have teams from all over the country. it is a consequence of competing competitions (franchises). and yes, that is an ugly construction.

on a tangent

does any body else in the world play in the world series or is it just USA

That's a good question.

Before we get into that whole thing, let me mention that the world series was named after a newspaper called The World.

the one superman worked for?

wasn't that the Planet?

The New York World never had anything to do with baseball championships. That is an urban legend dating back to the early 1990's.

http://www.snopes.com/business/names/worldseries.asp


Camel hair brushes contain NO camel hairs. More likely that's squirell tail hair you're brushing with (or maybe bear, sheep or Asian pony).

my kids' brushes are made in china. i haven't ruled out the possibility they are made from the hair of executed prisoners.

do they have squirrels in china?

wow, so it WAS like the sort of FA Cup final where lowly Sunderland are told they have no chance against mighty Man United... then go on to win the thing... it's things like this that leave a lovely warm glow and reassure you there is still some life in top-class professional sport! (Ie - the Man U's and the Chelski's don't have to win EVERYTHING because those b@stards have cornered all the money and 90% of the resources - there is still room for an unfancied lowly outsider to pull off an upset!)

and I speak as a despairing follower of the fortunes of (i) Wrexham Town and (ii)Stockport County...