Secret Spot · Puzzle #8 · Wednesday, October 7
Secret Spot: the answers
Five prompts, one answer each, and the fewer surfers who said yours, the more it scored. Here are the prompts with the answers we expected to be most common, and the rarest. Play today's Secret Spot, or play this day as practice (never counted).
1. Name a rice dish
Any dish built on rice grains counts: fried rice, pilafs, risottos, porridges, puddings, sushi, rice balls and sticky-rice cakes. Noodles, breads and pancakes made from rice flour or batter don't (pho, dosa). A regional version counts as its dish (Yangzhou fried rice is fried rice).
Most common
- Sushi
- Paella
- Fried rice
Rarest
- Teurgoule: Normandy's teurgoule rice pudding bakes for hours, until a thick caramelised crust forms on top. Source: Wikipedia, “Teurgoule” (CC BY-SA)
- Risalamande: Denmark's Christmas dessert risalamande is rice pudding mixed with whipped cream and chopped almonds. Source: Wikipedia, “Risalamande” (CC BY-SA)
- Kiribath: In Sri Lanka, kiribath, rice cooked in coconut milk, is often eaten for breakfast on the first day of each month. Source: Wikipedia, “Kiribath” (CC BY-SA)
Before the crowd came in: the answers we expected to be most and least common, from how well known each one is.
2. Name a hairstyle
Each hairstyle counts once; other names are the same (a fauxhawk is a mohawk, a wolf cut is a shag, locs are dreadlocks). Braids in a named style count on their own (cornrows, box braids); facial hair doesn't count.
Most common
- Mullet
- Bob cut
- Braid
Rarest
- Pouf: Marie Antoinette made the towering pouf the look of French noblewomen in 1775. Source: Wikipedia, “Pouf” (CC BY-SA)
- Lob: A lob is a 'long bob', cut somewhere around the shoulders. Source: Wikipedia, “Lob (haircut)” (CC BY-SA)
- Devilock: The devilock was invented by Misfits bassist Jerry Only in the late 1970s. Source: Wikipedia, “Devilock” (CC BY-SA)
Before the crowd came in: the answers we expected to be most and least common, from how well known each one is.
3. Name a surf spot
A surf break, or a beach or town famous for its waves. Each break counts once, by any of its names (Jaws is Peʻahi). River waves and tidal bores count; wave pools don't. Spots that share a name count once (Ocean Beach is Ocean Beach).
Most common
- Malibu, California
- Banzai Pipeline
- Huntington Beach, California
Rarest
- Belharra: France's Belharra reef breaks so rarely that most winters it doesn't break at all. Source: Wikipedia, “Belharra” (CC BY-SA)
- Chicama: Peru's Chicama is the world's longest left-breaking wave, and the first wave anywhere protected by law. Source: Wikipedia, “Malabrigo (Peru)” (CC BY-SA)
- Hoʻokipa: Maui's Hoʻokipa is one of the world's best windsurfing spots, and its name means "hospitality" in Hawaiian. Source: Wikipedia, “Hoʻokipa” (CC BY-SA)
Before the crowd came in: the answers we expected to be most and least common, from how well known each one is.
4. Name an insect
Insects count as people name them, and species join their insect: a monarch is a butterfly, a fire ant is an ant, a honey bee is a bee. Spiders, ticks and centipedes are not insects.
Most common
- Fly
- Ant
- Bee
Rarest
- Cockchafer: The cockchafer, a big European beetle, is nicknamed the Maybug. Source: Wikipedia, “Cockchafer” (CC BY-SA)
- Velvet ant: Velvet ants aren't ants at all: they are wasps whose wingless females look like big, hairy ants. Source: Wikipedia, “Velvet ant” (CC BY-SA)
- Mud dauber: Mud daubers are wasps that build their nests out of mud. Source: Wikipedia, “Sceliphrini” (CC BY-SA)
Before the crowd came in: the answers we expected to be most and least common, from how well known each one is.
5. Name a chemical element
Each element counts once, by its name; spellings like aluminum and aluminium, or sulfur and sulphur, are the same.
Most common
- Carbon
- Gold
- Helium
Rarest
- Americium: Many household smoke detectors hold a tiny bit of americium. Source: Wikipedia, “Americium” (CC BY-SA)
- Astatine: Nobody has ever seen a solid lump of astatine: any visible sample would vaporize from its own heat. Source: Wikipedia, “Astatine” (CC BY-SA)
- Iridium: Iridium is named after iris, the Greek word for rainbow, for its many-colored compounds. Source: Wikipedia, “Iridium” (CC BY-SA)
Before the crowd came in: the answers we expected to be most and least common, from how well known each one is.