Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 April 29

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April 29[edit]

Unknown numbers[edit]

There is a game where someone must guess a number of 4 unknown and different digits, and for doing so he chooses radom numbers of 4 digits. When doing so, the player is informed of good attempts (number of digits from the proposed answer that match the ones in the result) and regular attempts (number of digits that are part of the result, but somewhere else). For example, if the unknown number is 1234, the number 6284 would have 2 good attempts, 0123 would have 3 regular attempts, and 1723 would have one good attempt and 2 regular ones. With such results, the player may be able to slowly guess the unknown number.

Does someone know the name of this game?

It would be great if someone also knows strategies for it, but the name is enough, with it I may search strategies myself around the web MBelgrano (talk) 03:18, 29 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's a bit like Mastermind, but that game uses coloured pegs. -- Flyguy649 talk 03:26, 29 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
One name for the game is Bulls and Cows, and yes, it's more than a little like Mastermind. Another game of the same family is Jotto, played with words instead of numbers or colors. --Anonymous, 04:28 UTC, April 29, 2010.
On Speak & Math, it was called "Number Stumper". --Hence Piano (talk) 10:00, 30 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fire on the Mountain[edit]

Our article on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" states that that song incorporates bits from "Fire on the Mountain," which it says is a traditional bluegrass fiddle tune from the early 19th century. Our Fire on the Mountain disambiguation page lists three songs by that title: one by The Grateful Dead, one by the Marshall Tucker Band, and one by Hanson. Are any of those the same as the traditional bluegrass tune? The disambig page does not mention the traditional one. The Hero of This Nation (talk) 22:25, 29 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently not, they all seem to be songs written by the respective bands although they may well be influenced by the bluegrass tune. Here is a page about the Greatful Dead song and it contains some details about the bluegrass tune. This has some information about its origins. meltBanana 00:20, 30 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The original Appalachian string song contains some varient of the "Fire in the mountain, run child run/devil's in the house of the risin sun/chicken in a bread pan scratchin at dough/Tell me does your dog bite, no child, no." Aspects of that song, either that chorus or verses or the tune itself, appear in Devil Went Down to Georgia as well as the songs by all of the other groups. It's not uncommon for one song to crib bits from other songs; its been done for hundreds of years. Beethoven taking bits of Rule Brittania for his Eroica Symphony. The Verve sampling a symphonic version of a Rolling Stones song for Bittersweet Symphony. Led Zeppelin taking bits of Robert Johnson songs in like, everything they did. It always happens. --Jayron32 03:19, 30 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This site describes "Fire On The Mountain" as "A popular session tune in both bluegrass and old time circles." Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:16, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Jayron, could you provide a cite for Beethoven quoting Rule, Britannia in the Eroica? I've never heard of it, and apparently nobody's bothered to tell our dear friend Google either. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 08:58, 30 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
He used it (with a bunch of other stuff) in Wellington's Victory, according to that article. Adam Bishop (talk) 13:34, 30 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I picked the wrong "Beethoven piece about the Napoleonic Wars". He did write a few... --Jayron32 20:23, 30 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Curly[edit]

Who is this Curly person that The Simpsons character make fun of with immature noise like Mel Gibson was doing who who before he was shooting the senators? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.119.37 (talk) 23:55, 29 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming you are referring to "Beyond Blunderdome", it is Curly Howard from the Three Stooges. ---Sluzzelin talk 01:00, 30 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]