Sheep VI: Greener Pastures (2025)

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Prior seasons of Sheep, including How to Play, can be found here.

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Scoreboard

Link here

Week 8: Food

Greetings Sheep enthusiasts! We have a lot to get through today, so no pre-meeting chit-chat, we all know each other so no introductions, and look at that, the person running the meeting has already launched the Zoom, successfully muted the room, and is sharing slides. It’s an end-of-March miracle!

In our final week, on the topic of Food, the winner is Hygge Dragon, or as she’s known in the IRL, Margaret Hofstadter. Lady Hofstadter is a preschool teacher in New York City, so she probably has the immune system of Superman (fun fact, Superman has single-domain antibodies, just like llamas and sharks!) Congrats Margaret, and I hope you will be serving up some sheep-related curriculum to match your snazzy new t-shirt!

A programming reminder that if you want to add or remove an email address to the Sheep Google Group, you can do so here.

Okay, to the results, and the season-long winners!

1) Name a food you eat with your hands.

Pizza           83

Hamburger       76

Sandwich        62

French fries    33

Taco            17

Finishing the season in 10th place, we have Kevin Shaeffer. Kevin would like us all to know that “I’ve had one hole-in-one (ed. note, presumably not referring to putt-putt), met Mark Cuban twice (ed. query - firm handshake, or dead-fish?), busted out of a hospital to see a Taylor Swift concert in Madrid (ed. surmise - it would be funny if you attended the concert while still in a hospital gown, preferably accompanied by one of those little stands holding an IV bag), and don’t understand the number of people who would rather move to Canada instead of Italy (yes, I know that wasn’t the question, clearly).” 

2) Name a topping for a hamburger.

Cheese     151

Ketchup     80

Lettuce     39

Tomato      21

9th place goes to Andrew Jolley, who hails from a family of Sheep-royalty, really, as both mom and sister were weekly winners last season. Speaking of royalty, Andrew just found out that he was accepted into a joint-degree history program at William & Mary and St. Andrews University in Scotland, the latter of which is currently attended by Lady Louise Windsor, who is 17th in line to the throne – maybe we can get a princess to play Sheep! Andrew also passes along a very fun fact: they don’t use an apostrophe in “Andrews” because the school was established before the apostrophe was invented! 

Speaking of which, the Sheepmaster will be in Scotland next weekend (Edinburgh) so any and all pro-tips for things to do, places to eat, etc. are welcome!

3) Name an ingredient to add to a salad to make it interesting. 

Crouton     66

Cheese      55

Nuts        28

Dressing    26

Avocado     23

Bacon       19

Big debate in the Sheep household as to whether a crouton is an essential ingredient for a salad, or rather an optional add-in. The former is the correct answer. 

Coming in at the ocho we have Michelle Crockford, congrats Michelle! Turns out Michelle is not the only member of her family to land in the top ten – foreshadowing! Between her clan and the Jolley-folk, I like to imagine a Sheep-based Capulets and Montagues, the story of Baa-meo and Ewe-liet, playing out in NoVa.

4) Name an ingredient to add to pancakes to make them interesting. 

Chocolate chips    129

Blueberries        112

Maple syrup         37

In 7th place we have DNABethylation (nice!), better known as Beth Burton. Beth is a new Broadie, recently joining the Claussnitzer/Neal labs as a postdoc. As Beth notes, “I have, in the last calendar 365 days, defended my thesis and earned my PhD from UPenn, started this job, and now finished top 10 in Sheep. Clearly, my Sheep finish is my ultimate achievement.” Won’t get any disagreements from the Sheepmaster! P.S. you should do a CRISPR screen. Everyone should do a CRISPR screen. 

5) Name a pizza topping. 

Pepperoni    291

Cheese        16

Mushroom       4

Landing in 6th place, we have Michelle’s other half, Michael Chaney. Michael is no stranger to winning at Sheep, having taken best-in-flock honors in week 6 last season. Indeed, he’s been on quite the run of late, having also been recognized as the best Oh Hell! player in local circles. 

6) Name a food that is green.

Broccoli    105

Lettuce      95

Spinach      66

Tara Doubman lands in 5th place. An engineer by trade, Tara credits this year’s success with not overanalyzing things and finally learning to go with her gut. Although I hope the analytic part of her brain remains on when designing bridges and stuff! 

7) Name something people put ketchup on.

French fries    186

Hot dog          85

Hamburger        42

Karen Zusi-Tran, of the Broad coms department, played her way to fourth place this year. KZT passes along that “I was once attacked by a wallaby because it thought I was carrying snacks. (Reader, I had no snacks.)” 

So, valuable lesson for the flock: always carry snacks. In case you need to distract a wallaby. 

8) Name a type of red wine.

Cabernet Sauvignon    122

Merlot                104

Pinot Noir             69

Coming in third is Luke Bastian. A model of consistency, Luke also took the bronze last year! He notes that his wife stole the Sheep shirt he received last year, so he was really hoping to get a new one. I’d say you earned it, congrats Luke! And while we’ve already met some Lords and Ladies of Sheepland, there’s only one ruling family, and Luke right here is The King. 

9) Name a food associated with New York City. 

Pizza      212

Bagel       71

Hot Dog     21

I see why pizza won, but bagel should be the right answer. 

She entered the week in the lead, but her chosen screen name this week – “Choked in Week 8 (and on food, no less!)” – proved to be prescient. I hope our silver medalist Karen Minn can still look back on this season with deep pride, having not only won in week 4, but also scoring within 0.4% of the winner, a real Alydar of a finish. Congrats Karen! 

10) Name a celebrity chef.

Gorden Ramsay    246

Bobby Flay        16

Guy Fieri          9

And thus, it should come as no surprise that our overall winner this year is the Queen of Sheep herself, Abby McGee!!! Abby won both week 2 and week 6 this year, and came in 9th overall last year, so while it would be premature for any GOAT talk (RAM talk?), they are definitely starting to clear out some space for a new pedestal at the Sheep Hall of Fame. Where is the Sheep Hall of Fame you might ask? Well, passing along this very helpful map to help you narrow down your options! 

Full results available here, including all the answers to the weekly tiebreakers. 

Okay, time to sign off! Be good to each other, be good to yourself, and we’ll see you next year!!!

Baa,

The Sheepmaster

Week 7: Famous Folks

This week’s winner is Snorris, better known around the Broad as event-planner extraordinaire Sara Bowen – congrats Sara! My office used to share a wall with Sara, but I moved, which saddens me, because the Broad events team are some of my favorite people – planning the first Broad retreat to be held at the Hynes Convention Center, a big upgrade, was quite the experience that I remember fondly to this day! 

Sara is currently on vacay, so I will play Two Lies and a Truth on her behalf, although if I’m lucky, it will actually be Two Truths and a Lie, or if I’m very very lucky, Three Truths and no Lies!

1) An events-planning connection once resulted in Sara scoring awesome seats to the Super Bowl, and at one point she made direct eye contact with Tom Brady and screamed “you got this!” causing Tom to first blink, then look at her with smouldering intensity, then give her a long-distance fist-bump, and then lead the Patriots back from a 28 - 3 deficit. 

2) At the age of 16, Sara left her diary in the seat-back pocket of a plane while on a flight to Nashville. The next person to sit in that seat found it and was immediately inspired to write the songs Cruel Summer, Red, and Getaway Car. 

3) Sara returned from maternity leave some time in the recent-ish past, and examination of pictures on her phone (with her permission, obvi) revealed this new baby to be “very cute” according to the consensus of people in the room at the time. 

As for the reasons for optimism, many references to cats & dogs, kids & friends, and springtime & baseball. Indeed, maybe try to fill every day by checking at least some of those boxes. I’ll give MeganS the short-and-sweet closer on this one: I've survived 100% of my hardest days

To the results!

1) Alex ____

Trebek       188

Rodriguez     30

Jones         21

I can hear in my mind, with perfect clarity, Johnny saying “and here’s the host of Jeopardy! ALEEEEXXXX TreBEK!” 

Indeed, someone who passed way too soon, of pancreatic cancer, which is one of the worst cancers out there. But there is far more hope today than there has been ever before! First, with amazing progress in chemistry, finding ways to actually drug the King of “Undruggable” proteins, KRAS. Further, using mRNA technology, there are promising early-stage clinical results showing patient-specific vaccines eliminating pancreatic tumors – funding for which is, amazingly / horrifyingly, receiving science-delaying scrutiny from the RFK Tin Foil Committee, because the grants contained the words “mRNA” or “vaccine” in the proposals. Everyone needs to know that, and should be livid about it.  

2) Jamie ___

Foxx          136

Lee Curtis     84

Oliver         51

The appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis in “The Bear” as a total and complete nutter was definitely a nice surprise of finally binge-watching that show. But what was even more of a surprise was finally having Hulu so we could watch “The Bear” and entering “Bear” into the search bar and watching the first thing that popped up, because of course that’s what you do. Well, if you do that, you will find yourself watching a scene that begins with a man waking up to an alarm clock, then getting into a kinda-fight with someone whom we can assume is his wife, and then the wife biking to work, and the man surreptitiously trying to catch up to her (because he knows her bike route, we surmise) and then him donning a bear costume to surprise her with a birthday cake (because she’s biking through a wooded trail, and aha, this has something to do with the name of the show!), and yet the whole time you’re watching this you’re thinking “huh, I thought The Bear was about a restaurant” and then as it keeps going you’re thinking “why does the guy have a British accent” and “wait, why is this guy driving on the wrong side of the road” and suffice it to say, by the time “Watch Handmaid’s Tale next?” pops up on the screen, only then do you realize that you have not been watching a very long opening scene backstory for “The Bear” but in fact have been watching a short film entitled “Bear” and so you should go watch that right now for some unintentional comedy. 

3) Chris ____

Pratt        72

Evans        70

Rock         66

Hemsworth    64

Lot of Marvel energy in this one. The whole first 20 movies, or whatever it was, that ended with the whole Thanos thing was, IMHO, pretty darn well done for what it was. Very satisfying. But after that, yeesh. Disappointing. 

4) Sam ___

Adams        83

Smith        81

L Jackson    33

Rockwell     20

Altman       20

Elliott      16

Sioux City Sarsaparilla? That’s a good one. 

Of my various favorite movies, I showed my daughter Jaws waaaay too early. I showed her Star Wars at the right time. And I still don’t know when I’m going to show her The Big Lebowski.

5) Jennifer ____

Aniston     130

Lopez        87

Lawrence     51

Coolidge     19

Even including the less-popular Jennifers, every single answer began in the first half of the alphabet. Does this have meaning?

6) Amy ___

Poehler      109

Adams         72

Schumer       67

Winehouse     53

I once rented an apartment in Davis Square, Somerville, from Amy Poehler’s uncle. If you find yourself in Davis Square, go to Diesel Cafe, which is still my platonic ideal of a coffee shop, and The Burren is a great Irish pub. I once spent a semester in grad school tutoring the GREs for Kaplan (oye) so I could afford a ticket to see Bruce Springsteen play a solo show at the Somerville Theater in Davis Square. Finally, if you need the Best Dentist In the World, she’s right there in Davis Square, Dr. Lorna Lally. 

7) Emma ____

Stone       150

Watson      133

Thompson     22

Every Emma mentioned was in the final two-thirds of the alphabet! From this, I can confidently conclude that there are, on Planet Earth at this exact moment, exactly ZERO pairs of siblings named Jennifer and Emma. That’s just math!

8) John ____

Lennon        52

Doench        41

Cena          28

Travolta      27

Oliver        26

Adams         21

F Kennedy     17

It would be very interesting to give this list to someone who doesn’t play Sheep and ask them to describe what they think it is ranking. Or better yet, if this list is somehow one of the few things that survives the New Dark Ages, like the manuscripts copied by Irish monks, I’m gonna be feeling pretty good about my place in history!

9) George ____

Washington    164

Clooney        88

Harrison       18

10) George ____ (Yes, this duplication is intentional! Will you double-down on your first answer? Make a second guess? You choose! Note, questions 9 and 10 will be tabulated *separately*)

Washington    117

Clooney        64

Bush           35

Harrison       17

Fun fact, 70% of the flock chose to select a new George rather than keep their original George. So keep that in mind next time you’re playing Rock-Paper-Scissors! Although also keep in mind that if one were to stage a Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament with all 8 billion people on Planet Earth, someone would, by pure dumb luck, win 33 consecutive matches (log2 of 8 billion). The wrong response would be to conclude that is a person who is preternaturally good at Rock-Paper-Scissors. Please keep that in mind next time you hear boasting from successful gamblers, whether on Wall St. or otherwise. 

All totals here. Last Sheep of the season headed to your inbox soon – it’s a nailbiter at the top, with KM in the lead by a mere 44 points!

Week 6: By Request

This week’s winner is no stranger to the winner’s circle, having placed first in Week 2 – say congrats, again, to Abby V. McGee! Abby’s fun fact is that she recently visited Dubai, but still hasn’t missed a week of Sheep, and indeed, has now vaulted into first place overall with two weeks left! 

And yes, the emails were a bit out of order this week due to travel, so Week 7 is already out, link here. 

To the results!

1) Name a candy bar.

Snickers     202

Hershey's     48

Kit Kat       20

Twix          17

A lot of pro-tip life advice came in the form of what one should always do:

• Always do the groceries in one trip

• Always have a pen, paper, and knife in your pocket

• Always have an extra pair of socks

• Always keep a spare tire

• Always look both ways before crossing the street

• Always pack a few days before travel 

• Always use the bigger bowl

• Always wear sunscreen

• Always write it down

2) Name a country people want to move to. 

Canada    161

Italy      33

USA        30

France     19

Wonder what the answers to this question would have been, oh, half a year ago…

• You can do the 9 math times table with your hands. Hold both hands open in front of you and start from the left. 9 x 1, drop the first finger = 9 fingers. 9 x 2, drop the second finger from the left = 1 and 8 fingers for 18 and so forth

3) What is a common response to the question: "If you were an animal, what animal would you be?"

Dog     101

Cat      68

Lion     42

Bird     42

Not sure this one is true, but I like it anyway: 

• The ducks at the park are free and you can take them home. 

Hey, free duck!

4) What's the best 80s teen comedy?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off    93

The Breakfast Club          81

Goonies                     32

Saved by the Bell           21

Sixteen Candles             18

I think this is the right answer, personally speaking. A movie that ages very well, I’ll add, in that my GenZ teenager very much likes it too. And for the record, Saved by the Bell was a TV show, not a movie. Just sayin’.

Many tips for use in the kitchen:

• Break the bottom off of cupcake and put it on top over the icing to make a sandwich that's easier to eat <3

• If you drink coffee and like it iced, freeze an ice cube tray with your regular brew (or chai!) so that when you add it to your coffee to keep it cold it doesn't get watered down.

• Butter toast and then rub the toast along an ear of corn. Tasty, evenly buttered corn, and tasty bread!

• You can freeze cookie dough balls and bake them from frozen in a toaster oven for instant small-batch freshly-baked cookies. Heavy cream and eggs last weeks but milk does not.

• Hold a (previously lit) match between your teeth when chopping onions to avoid the tears.

• You can buy a can of frosting and a bag of unfrosted animal crackers for DIY dunkaroos. You will quickly learn why dunkaroos came in such small portions

• To cut a circle of parchment paper for the bottom of a cake tin, keep folding a sheet into a long triangle, put the tip in the middle of the pan cut off any overhang and unfold

• A cup of lentil soup has 15g fiber. Make it with red lentils. Other kinds of lentils are so far inferior it’s not even funny.

Indeed, what are lentils if not a good source of amusement?

5) Who is a good author to lie about reading in order to look smart?

William Shakespeare    43

Leo Tolstoy            35

Ernest Hemingway       25

James Joyce            23

Fyodor Dostoevsky      22

Critical to know, especially with a rental car:

• The little arrow on the fuel gauge tells you which side of the car to pump the gas.

I mean, if you’re not going to eat them, then I suppose this is as good a use as any:

• Throw a few of those silica packets in your toolbox. It'll help prevent your tools from rusting.

6) Name a book you read in high school. 

To Kill A Mockingbird     88

The Great Gastby          54

The Catcher in the Rye    43

Lord of the Flies         20

All excellent options, and I’ve read all four (unlike when they announce Best Picture nominations, for which I’ve ever seen, max, like, two). 

• The McGill Big 3 are exercises that significantly help most people's back pain! (2 members of the flock mentioned this)

• Don't eat yellow snow (no fewer than 4 people suggested this)

Just to be clear, Sheep Industries LLC is not a provider of medical advice.

7) Name a Saturday Night Live cast member.

Kenan Thompson    63

Tina Fey          47

Will Ferrell      38

Kate McKinnon     33

Colin Jost        31

I am, apparently, exactly one day older than Kenan Thompson. He’s been on SNL for a record 22 seasons, starting in 2003!

I very much endorse this, although actually sticking to it requires a level of discipline for “saying no” that can be hard to muster:

• Build in a 10-20% capacity gap into your weekly schedule so you can meet demands when the inevitable waves hit. Then you'll actually have some weeks that don't run you into the ground! :)

8) Name a creature, real or fictional, with an odd number of some body part. 

Unicorn     76

Cyclops     67

Starfish    51

Cerberus    20

Octopus     18

Good point by one astute Sheep player:

• i am sure it was not intentional, but HEAD or TAIL are body parts and it is hard to find a living animal with even number of heads or tails :)

9) Name a way to say "hi" that is not "hi" 

Hey           134

Hello         110

What's up?     16

Some bedroom advice:

• Invest in quality bed materials. The return on investment for a good night's sleep is high.

• Make your bed while you are still inside it and then slide out

Not sure how that last one works

10) Name a flower associated with spring. 

Tulip       160

Daffodil     84

Daisy        25

Crocus       20

This seems like a good note to end on:

• My four most important phrases: I was wrong, I am sorry, I don’t know, and I need help

Be good to each other!

Week 5: Wordle-ish

Greetings Sheepsters, and a reminder that today is only 23 hours. I promised to myself I would not comment on daylight savings time any further, lest I get into a lather. I’ll just let Jonah Ryan do the talking for me. 

This week’s winner, according to the Sheep staff historian, is making his third trip to the winners circle, having been Best in Flock twice in Season III; he also came in 7th overall in Season IV. So give a hearty baa to Sherlock Holmes, aka, James Patti!!! We sent our Sheep staff reporter to check in with James, and here’s what we found:

Hello Lord Sheepmaster, My carrier pigeon was previously occupied carrying news of the coming Canadian Tariff war to our southern allies, so I hope this email finds you (well). I am James, the great mouse-slayer, formerly of the TIDE clan of House Broad, and now battle the physiology and anatomy of the Homo sapiens in medical school. In my grueling battle of medical school, my resources have dwindled, and I now sheepishly (pun intended) request the following signal be sent to the masses, for hopeful replenishments. 

10 / 10 no notes, Sherlock! And for those interested, the original (non-photoshopped) version of this pic is actually a nice story. 

To the results!

1) S T E _ _ 

STEAM    129

STEAK     52

STEEP     45

STEAL     40

STEPS     17

Very excited to report that the Sheep staff brewmaster has finally finished, and we are pleased to release Sheep: The Beer. If you’re wondering why it is brewed in Richmond, VA, and maybe that is a sign this is really just a coincidence, well, have you ever heard of the excuse “for tax purposes”??

2) _ _ _ I O

RADIO    183

AUDIO     54

MARIO     26

POLIO     22

PATIO     18

If you’re in need of a good laugh, find yourself the audiobook version of Glory Days by Simon Rich. It is narrated by none other than John Mulaney, and his reading of this essay about the video game character Mario is fall-off-your-chair funny. 

3) _ _ O C K

CLOCK    181

STOCK     42

FLOCK     38

BLOCK     36

SHOCK     28

Not taking the bait about clocks. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent. 

4) _ A T E _ 

LATER    125

WATER     77

HATER     18

At my desk I have the “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation,” a little book that George Wasington’s transcribed a copy for himself at about age 16. It includes many gems, including:

In visiting the Sick, do not Presently play the Physician if you not be Knowing therein. 

Good advice! I am 100% going to work in the phrase “if you not be Knowing therein” next time I rise at a scientific seminar to ask a question (well, it’ll be more of a comment). 

5) _ _ I N G

BRING    57

STING    51

THING    45

GOING    38

FLING    26

DOING    19

BEING    19

Good bye thing, you sing too long

6) _ _ L L Y

SILLY    109

RALLY     29

LILLY     29

JOLLY     23

BULLY     23

BELLY     19

JELLY     18

Speaking of silly, I am very glad to see Mike Myers return to SNL to mock Elon Musk. 

7) Q U _ _ _ 

QUICK    103

QUIET    100

QUEEN     60

QUEST     18

“The Quest of the Quick and Quiet Queen” could be a good children’s book. 

8) _ _ O U D

CLOUD    219

PROUD     83

ALOUD     34

Some cloud fun facts: 

• The word “cloud” comes from the old English words “clud” or “clod” meaning lump of land or lump of rock, which in the 13th century was extended to apply to the lumps of water in the sky.

• They’re heavy. An average cumulus cloud (fluffy white cloud) weighs the same as a jumbo jet - about 500 tonnes.

• We invented the word that describes the smell of rain: petrichor. Or, to be more precise, it’s the name of an oil that’s released from the earth into the air when the humidity increases before rain begins to fall.

9) G R E _ _ 

GREEN    163

GREAT    154

GREED      9

10) B L A _ _ 

BLACK    232

BLANK     61

BLAST     26

There is probably some fundamental reason why a color won out for these two, but I do not know what it is. I dunno, colors are some of the earliest words we learn as toddlers?

Full results and season standings here. With this week’s win, Sherlock Holmes has moved into 6th place, just behind KBZT. AVM is stalking in third, while TD&J swings out wide to the outside in fourth, Last week’s winner, KM, is on a tear, coming in second place this week and jumping into second place overall, a mere 18 points behind the leader, week 2’s second place winner, Lbastian. 

Week 4: One More Please!

Well, the thermometer tickled 50˚ today in Boston, and the birds are certainly announcing that longer days are approaching, so hey, hope springs eternal, right? RIGHT?!?! 

Many Americans are going through a lot of turmoil right now for doing nothing more than attempting to serve their country, whether it be in our air traffic control towers, courtrooms, laboratories, national parks, VA facilities, or countless other unglamorous but critical roles that keep this all together. I appreciate you, and I think most other Americans do too, and I hope that more family, friends, and neighbors will get comfortable saying it out loud – not only because what you’re going through right now is heartless (which kinda seems like at least partially the point, unfortunately) but also is just an egregious societal own-goal in service of… I’m not even sure what. I think the lack of a destination that anyone actually wants to get to will, ultimately, be this moment’s undoing, but we’re all going to need each other. Indeed, as the Lorax says, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not!”

Speaking of someone who most certainly makes the world a better place for all in her orbit, this week’s winner is Karen Minn! Karen is a former Broadie who, in her words, “still loves the Broad” but would like us to know – and this is also a quote – “nothing about her” and instead wants to dedicate this win to Stacey Donnelly. Stacey, who has been with the Broad since Day One, is calling it a career, and to paraphrase Chief Brody, “we’re going to need a bigger rack” in order to hold all the hats that she has worn over the years. By virtue of her many years of distinguished service, Stacey has achieved Lifetime Platinum Status, so she will receive free shipping on all orders placed through SciQuest, half-priced PhiX spike-ins on all WGS runs, and continued access to the Broad Hot Tub and Spa (non-peak hours only, $50 for each companion, up to 3 guests). She will, however, continue to need to perform two-factor Duo Authentication in order for her coffee machine to work, even in Florida. So I guess we have double-congratulations this week, to Karen & Stacey! 

To the results!

1) Apple, Orange, Banana, and ___ ?

Pear          106

Grape         101

Strawberry     75

I like to imagine a lot of Sheepsters carefully examining still life paintings this week before answering. 

2) The letter L, the letter E, the letter S, and the letter ___ ?

T    197

S     78

R     13

I find it so fascinating that some people took this question to finish a word (LESS) while more decided to add a fourth letter, like Wheel of Fortune or Wordle guessing. 

3) Blue, Green, Red, and ___ ?

Yellow    282

Orange     23

Purple     14

This week really lends itself to amusing Venn diagrams, which is a form of humor that I very much appreciate but for the life of me I cannot conjure one myself. So here’s one from the internet (see below):

4) Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, and ___ ?

Spain          209

France          50

Netherlands     22

Kinda speaking of the above, I cannot for the life of me come up with a mental Venn diagram for why Spain was such a popular answer here. I mean, Portugal touches Spain, but Belgium does not nor does Denmark (or “Germany’s Little Hat Feather” as I’m pretty sure the Danes like to fashion themselves). I dunno, maybe just an extreme form of recency bias, tying it to the third clue?

5) Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, and ___ ?

Illinois    88

Indiana     72

Kansas      44

Michigan    39

Idaho       19

How Idaho ended up here I will never know, because it is not near all the other states mentioned. I wanted to illustrate this with a map, so I asked ChatGPT to come up with one: “Here is the map you requested, showing the contiguous United States with Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio in black; Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Indiana, and Idaho in blue; and all other states in white. Let me know if you need any modifications!”

(see below)

What a glorious future we have ahead of us when AI is running the government!

6) Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and ___ ?

New York         211

Chicago           47

San Francisco     19

I really don’t see how the proper answer to this question isn’t Washington DC. New York is nothing like any of those other three cities! It is way way bigger, and has way worse sports teams! I’d bet a sizable fraction of people who live in Seattle, Boston, or Philadelphia would be pretty happy living in one of the other three, but would very much not want to live in New York. I dunno, maybe this question is more from the standpoint of tourism, like, here are places to visit in the US? But then DC should be on that list too! 

7) Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day, and ___ ?

Father's Day    84

Christmas       80

Memorial Day    70

4th of July     37

Okay, I think I’m onto something with the “people ignore the first two clues and only look at the third when answering” hypothesis. What it needs now is a clever acronym. Speaking of which, one of the best acronyms in science is CRISPR, a very powerful technology that has, among other things, given us a cure for sickle cell disease (*cough* save the NIH *cough*). But back when they were just genomic curiosities, their original name was SRSRs, for Short Regularly Spaced Repeats (Mojica et al., Molecular Microbiology, 2000) and were redubbed Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats by a team from the Netherlands, who “enjoyed pleasant discussions with Francisco Mojica of the University of Alicante, Spain, about the renaming of CRISPRs” (Jansen et al, Molecular Microbiology, 2002). Would the field have taken off if it was still limping along with the SRSR nomenclature? Someone from the multiverse will need to let us know!

8) Lithium, Helium, Oxygen, and ___ ?

Nitrogen    123

Hydrogen    118

Carbon       59

Nitrogen gas is over 75% of the Earth’s atmosphere, and its bubbles are tinier than CO2, which somehow makes coffee taste better (maybe?) Liquid nitrogen is super fun to play with so long as you avoid accidental frostbite!

9) Gmail, Excel, Zoom, and ___ ?

Slack         118

Word           72

Teams          44

Powerpoint     40

I still don’t get Slack. I don’t get what’s so great about going through the day sending and receiving short messages with zero impulse control. At least for email, generally speaking, decorum requires the sender to write in full sentences, so the sender needs to think a complete thought before trying to unload their problem onto you. Indeed, may the heavens help you if you send me an email with the subject line “quick question” and then let forth with a query like “Hey Sheepmaster, what are your thoughts on the lasting impact of the Enlightenment?” That is not a quick question. A quick question must be quick to answer not simply quick to ask. I am glad we all agree on this now. 

10) James K Polk, Chester A Arthur, Franklin Pierce, and ___ ?

Abraham Lincoln      54

Millard Fillmore     38

Grover Cleveland     29

George Washington    19

Not lyin’, I very recently enjoyed a podcast about James K Polk. But my favorite answer to this question was provided by one member of the flock: 

For some reason, I was under the impression that there have been both a Chester A. Arthur and a Chester B. Arthur who have held the office of President. I was sure I'd heard the name Chester B. Arthur just as often, if not more often, than Chester A. Arthur. But after hitting submit, I checked Google, and I was wrong. There is no Chester B. Arthur of note, President or otherwise. I was sure I had heard the name, and then it hit me:

I was thinking of famous actress Bea Arthur.

So Week 4 is in the books, with a tip o’ the hat to my daughter, who contrived the 3 + 1 theme. And we’re halfway through Sheep VI! Five folks have cracked the 6,000 point barrier thus far: the husband-and-wife duo of lbastian & AVM; this week’s winner, KM; KBZT, who finished 6th in Season IV; and finally mrdan1209. Keep up the good work, and for everyone else, it's still (mostly) anyone’s game!

Week 3: Kids These Days

Maybe you spent this week reflecting fondly on your own childhood, or observing the children who currently run your own household, or maybe you’re an empty-nester and this was all very wistful. Regardless, no one did a better job of channeling the group energy better than Doug Alan, a software engineer at the Broad (and yet other GPPer! I swear, there aren’t that many of us!) Doug last won in 2022, on the topic of Time. Congrats Doug!!

Results for Week 3 and current leaderboard for the season are available here. Please note that the ‘Unique ID’ is how I keep track of who you are week-over-week, so if you have a burner phone or a middle initial that you sometimes use sometimes don’t, or whatever, your results might be spread out over multiple rows. So, in column I of the Season Total tab (the only column with edit access), please indicate what Unique ID you will use going forward and what other Unique IDs should be merged into that one. 

Finally, our sheepollster, a poor man’s Steve Kornacki, shares some more demographic information:

Where do you currently live?

Boston & nearby: 47.28%

Suburb of Boston: 15.47%

Elsewhere in Massachusetts: 4.01%

Elsewhere in New England: 4.58%

US, but elsewhere in the Eastern Time Zone: 16.33%

US, Central Time Zone: 2.58%

US, Mountain Time Zone: 0.57%

US, Pacific Time Zone: 8.31%

Elsewhere in North America: 0.29%

Outside North America: 0.57%

Okay, on to the results!

1) Name a SONG that kids learn to sing

ABC Song                       193

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star     53

Wheels on the Bus               28

I have been trying, and failing, to commit the NATO phonetic alphabet to memory (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, etc.), but maybe I’d do better if someone could come up with a catchy tune?

2) Name a specific item on a KID'S MENU

Chicken Fingers / Nuggets    275

Mac & Cheese                  41

Grilled Cheese                 9

Probably not the most important thing out there, but sometimes I’ll see age limits on who can order from the kids menu. Is that legally enforceable? Probably not, right? And I can’t fathom that the person taking the order gives a hoot, so why is it printed there? What corporate-type bothers to come up with stuff like that? 

3) Name a specific FOOD that kids DO NOT like to eat

Broccoli           252

Brussel Sprouts     53

Spinach             14

There was a time when the President of the US, George HW Bush, said that he didn’t like broccoli, and this was considered news. It even has its own wiki page. For those under the age of 40, I mention this to point out that life doesn’t have to be like this <gesticulates wildly> and politics was once extremely boring. And maybe one day it will be boring again!

4) Name a specific THEME for a kid's birthday party

Princess     112

Superhero     54

Dinosaurs     51

I once had kids dressed as witches play a game that involved throwing a ping-pong ball into red solo cups that contained homemade butterbeer and the 7 year olds had a very good time with this. 

5) Name a CARD GAME that kids like to play 

Go Fish    186

UNO        131

War         13

A much better version of Go Fish is Authors, which is no harder to teach kids (nor, despite what the internet says, do you need a special deck). Although be forewarned, it is definitely the sort of game that gets harder to play once your brain hits 40 and your working memory has about 2 bits of RAM remaining. 

6) Name SPECIFIC OBJECT that kid is likely to LOSE

Gloves / Mittens    100

Stuffed Animal       30

Hat                  27

Water bottle         25

Shoe                 21

Sock                 20

Tooth                18

Middle school lost-and-found piles consist almost exclusively of water bottles. 

7) Name something kids are AFRAID of

Dark       256

Monsters    50

Spiders     10

Something Under the Bed is Drooling is a great Calvin and Hobbes book.

8) Name specific ILLNESS that kids often get.

Cold                       137

Flu                         55

Chicken Pox                 42

Ear infection               35

Strep Throat                29

Norovirus (Stomach Bug)     20

If there is any one who has not experienced at least one of these in the past 4 weeks please show yourself out, because the rest of us hate you :)

9) Name a specific need for an ARTS & CRAFTS project

Glue                         142

Crayons                       40

Construction (paper)          27

Popsicle Sticks               24

Paint                         22

Colored markers / pencils     18

Scissors                      18

Personally, I think the right answer was obviously Patience, and/or A Willingness to Throw Things Out Lest Your Entire Home Become Knee Deep in This Stuff.

10) Name SPECIFIC OBJECT that was once common but which kids these days are UNFAMILIAR with

Corded / Wall / Dial Telephone    107

Cassette Tape                      29

Floppy disc                        27

VCR                                24

CD                                 19

I like Gary Gulman’s observation that “to me, the phone is just this seldom-used app on my phone… and if you use it on me…”

See ya next week!

Week 2: Animals

Greetings all! We have a Sheep-first this week, I believe, with a husband-and-wife team tied atop the leaderboard. I use the term “team” loosely, as they are both extremely competitive and there is zero chance of collusion. Indeed, a text from last week: “I always feel like I do pretty well and then I see his score and get so mad. Now he’s putting on his winning Sheep shirt from last year. SMH.” Well, be mad no more, Abby McGee, as you will soon be sporting your own Sheep tee. Congratulations! The tiebreaker was “How many different breeds of dog can the average person name in 30 seconds?” and the average answer was 11.2, and Abby guessed 11, while Lbastian – who also finished second last week! – guessed 13.

To the results!

1) Name an animal with claws.

Cat      166

Bear      91

Tiger     45

For the more detail-oriented folks who asked, my python script outputs all answers that received at least 5% of the total for a category, or the top three answers, whichever is greater. 

2) Name a mythical animal.

Unicorn    232

Dragon      95

Pegasus      7

And for those interested in knowing a bit more whom you’re playing against, 18% identify as Generation X, 28% as Generation Z, and 49% as Millenials, with then a handful of Boomers and Alphas. 

3) Name an animal that is an herbivore (eats plants)

Cow               148

Bunny / Rabbit     44

Giraffe            32

Deer               32

Panda              26

Elephant           21

Horse              18

For the ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ there were a lot of interesting things in there. First, by far the most common truth theme, noted by FIFTEEN members of the flock, was that they either had or had not ever broken a bone, including one near-miss while sneezing. I guess those are experiences that stay with us. For the record, I have broken a bone, when someone from Flagship Pioneering, a VC firm, plowed into me with his car. Jerk. 

4) Name an animal that is stealthy.

Fox                                        93

Cat                                        77

Leopard                                    39

Panther / Mountain Lion / Puma / Cougar    39

Owl                                        24

Tiger                                      18

I am never again asking a question that might prompt a big-cat-based answer, as figuring out what are synonyms for the same animal or actually-different-enough is quite the task with much second-guessing. 

5) Name an animal that is found in Massachusetts

Squirrel    97

Deer        70

Turkey      69

Coyote      23

This reminds me of one of favorite SNL skits, with Adam Sander as Joe Romano. “See different looking squirrels.”

6) Name a specific literary character who is an animal.

Winnie the Pooh    132

Peter Rabbit        43

Charlotte           21

Hedwig              19

Aslan               18

MILNE, the author of Winnie the Pooh, is essentially immortal now, as that is apparently a very useful name when constructing a crossword.

7) Name an animal that jumps.

Kangaroo          246

Frog               47

Bunny / Rabbit     46

Some additional Truths that people shared:

“I was a childhood frozen yogurt model”

“The King of Jordan once gave me a sword as a gift”

“I have tasted Marilyn Quayle's chocolate chip cookies”

“I met Britney Spears at performing arts camp”

“I had hundreds of gerbils as pets when I was growing up “

“I once opened for Bon Jovi at the Boston Garden”

“One time I unknowingly asked Dustin Pedroia if anyone’s ever told him he looks like Dustin Pedroia”

8) Name a type of jungle cat.

Tiger                                      131

Jaguar                                      98

Panther / Mountain Lion / Puma / Cougar     44

Leopard                                     37

Lion                                        28

But I think my favorite of all was “My uncle ruined an FBI sting by sitting on a bugged couch.” Big uncle energy there! 

9) Name an animal that is a mascot for a sports team.

Eagle           209

Bear (Bruin)     47

Tiger            21

I have to imagine recent events skewed this! Any team that can get pressure on the QB with only 4 D-linemen is really really hard to beat. 

10) Name a surname (i.e. last name) that is also the name of an animal.

Fox     167

Bird     54

Wolf     49

Link to all scores here. Enjoy the rest of the long weekend, or if you’re in the northeast and go to public school, vacation week!

Week 1: Spaces

Welcome all to the results for Week 1 of Sheep VI, Spaces! The winner this week is Spencer Shah, which is the 11th time a current or former member of GPP has come out on top. Spencer arrived at Broad following his undergrad career at Rice University in Houston, and he grew up in the ‘burbs of Philly, so he’ll be rooting for the Eagles this evening. Congrats Spencer!!

A lot of people reading this email have heard that late Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a notice of massive funding cuts, effective immediately, as proposed on page 388 of Project 2025. Whether this is even legal is very much in doubt, so I’ll comment only on the wisdom of this decision. And give the Sheep results – if you can’t speak up when emailing out the results of a quirky, word-based game to internet friends, well, when can you? 

1) Name a famous park

Central Park    264

Yellowstone      33

Fenway Park      33

First, some background. If you are a careful consumer of the news, you may have seen that the new policy is a cut to “indirect” rates – which are also sometimes known as “overhead” or “F&A” – and not “direct” rates, which is the stated justification for why this won’t decimate actual research. But this is disingenuous boloney (or bologna, if you prefer). The distinction between “direct” and “indirect”’ is basically an accounting function devised to make the system more efficient by letting the scientists focus on science. 

2) Name a famous field

Wrigley Field      240

Fenway Park         30

Field of Dreams     19

“Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa”

To give one toy example, let’s say that Dr. Lawrence is a physician-researcher at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee (I visited St. Jude once, they are lovely people). She has an idea for how to identify new drug targets for the specific type of brain tumor she studies, so she applies to the NIH for a grant to do this work. 

3) Name a famous stadium

Yankee Stadium           103

Gillette Stadium          95

Fenway Park               66

Wembley Stadium           24

Madison Square Garden     18

Fenway made it into the top three for park, field, and stadium!

In addition to describing the why and how of her study, the NIH requires Dr. Lawrence to submit a detailed financial estimate for the aspects for which she is the right person to do the budgeting – how many chemicals she’ll need to buy, how much cell culture media she’ll need, how many people it will take to get it done, etc. etc. Dr. Lawrence knows the science, so Dr. Lawrence can provide these costs, and, importantly, other scientists can review this budget – these are the direct costs. 

4) Name a famous square

Times Square        230

Harvard Square       33

Tiananmen Square     31

But Dr. Lawrence, I can assure you, knows nothing about how much it costs to heat the building and manage the IT system. This is the F, facilities, of “F&A.” Nor is it an effective use of Dr. Lawrence’s time to build her own little accounting team to keep track of this money moving around (this is the A, Administration). Of note this financial tracking is mandated by the NIH to ensure tax dollars aren’t being misallocated, and believe me, they do scrutinize this!

5) Name a famous hill

Bunker Hill     192

Capitol Hill     61

Beacon Hill      36

Notting HIll     18

So, rather than distract Dr. Lawrence from executing her scientific study, the NIH says don’t worry about it, you do your day job. Instead, we’ll work with your institution as a whole to determine these Facilities & Administration costs that aren’t directly related to Dr. Lawrence’s specific scientific project, but that are necessary for *any* science to be done at St Jude. These are the indirect costs. The key point is that both the direct and indirect costs are necessary for Dr. Lawrence’s experiments to happen.

6) Name a famous mountain in the United States

Denali (McKinley)    141

Washington            86

Rushmore              41

Rainier               31

The top of Mt. Washington is in the running for the worst weather on planet earth, once recording a wind gust of 231 miles per hour!

To understand why it came to work this way, we need to go back about 80 years, when World War II demonstrated the potential of the US scientific enterprise, with academic research institutions leading the way. MIT played a critical role in developing radar, “virtually ending the air raids on London.” And the first demonstration that a nuclear chain reaction was possible happened underneath the football stands at the University of Chicago (a group led by Enrico Fermi, an Italian immigrant), a critical step in the Manhattan Project.  

7) Name a famous desert

Sahara    307

Mojave     16

Gobi       13

For the dozen or so people who entered apple pie or ice cream, please note that dessert has two s’s – remember, you always want more dessert!

Importantly, these breakthroughs came together because of an organized, active partnership between the government and scientists. And no one person was more critical to fostering this new connection than one of the most important people of the 20th century that few have heard of, Vannevar Bush (not related to the father-son presidents). Bush wrote a report in 1945 entitled Science, the Endless Frontier, which argued for maintaining this government investment in science that arose out of necessity during WWII. This report led to the creation of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and large investments in the NIH (which already existed, but was a very small agency) would soon follow.

8) Name a famous trail

Appalachian Trail    236

Oregon Trail          55

Freedom Trail         31

And indeed, one of the reasons you don’t have dysentery, unlike those on the Oregon Trail, is scientific progress!

The results have been nothing short of amazing. Every $1 spent by the NIH generates $2.46 in economic activity across all 50 states, that’s a pretty good ROI! Ozempic, Keytruda, and pretty much every other drug got its start with basic research funded by the NIH and then progressed via clinical trials run through research hospitals. Blowing a 30% funding hole in that economic and health engine, which is exactly what these cuts will do, is an egregious own-goal. 

9) Name a famous forest

Amazon          171

Redwood          71

Black Forest     37

Sherwood         29

None of this, until now, has been even remotely controversial. Indeed, here’s Newt Gingrich with an op-ed in 2015 entitled Double the NIH Budget:

But when it comes to breakthroughs that could cure — not just treat — the most expensive diseases, government is unique. It alone can bring the necessary resources to bear. (The federal government funds roughly a third of all medical research in the United States.) And it is ultimately on the hook for the costs of illness. It’s irresponsible and shortsighted, not prudent, to let financing for basic research dwindle.

10) Name a famous fictional planet

Tatooine          125

Krypton            94

Arrakis (Dune)     50

Note to self: Look into possibilities for becoming a moisture farmer on Tatooine

I’m a nerd, and I’m surrounded by nerds. These are really smart, dedicated people and I guarantee you want them spending their time thinking about the disease they’re trying to cure or technology they’re trying to build or whatever, not thinking about how to keep the lights on. So please, call your Representative, call your Senators. They need to hear that this is important to their constituents regardless of what party they or you are from. 

Okay, thanks for reading. Here’s a link to everyone’s scores – some very creative names in there! Week 2 will be in your inboxes by tomorrow at 9am, promise!