Who Used To Own It? - Round Four
Round Three Answers
1) Uganda - Great Britain
2) Angola - Portugal
3) Madagascar - France
4) Sierra Leone - Great Britain
5) Tunisia - France
6) Tanzania - Germany
7) Zanzibar - Great Britain

Round Three Scoring
Skeeter 3/7 = 43%
The Guy 2/7 = 29%
C. 2/7 = 29%
K. Steeze 2/7 = 29%

C. went with the scattergun strategy, guessing Great Britain for the whole board, only to second guess herself and switch Sierra Leone, one of the three former British colonies in the round, to France. I think we can all smile at the humor inherent therein. The most contentious part of the round was, unsurprisingly, the "tricky" queries of Tanzania and Zanzibar. Skeeter's perplexed non-answer to No. 7 was correct, Zanzibar is a part of the modern nation-state of Tanzania (Zanzibar is the zan in Tanzania), but remember the Round Two example of Somalia, a composite of the colonies of Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland. The Kaiser's Germany controlled the continental landmass of today's Tanzania, while the islands of Zanzibar were part and parcel of the British Empire. In Who Used To Own It? we are always looking for the Scramble for Africa/pre-1914 suzerain.

And both Tanzania and Zanzibar were clearly labeled Tricky; so, some skulduggery should have been suspected.

Round Four
But first and foremost Who Used To Own It? is meant to be educational and entertaining. I am most grateful for the 33% increase in participation between Rounds Two and Three, and would be thrilled by a continued growth in popularity in Round Four. Have fun and good luck!

1) Zimbabwe

2) Morocco

3) Togo

4) Rwanda

5) Ghana

6) The Congo (Congo-Brazzaville, not D.R. Congo [Zaire])

7) Benin

No tricks, just honest historical curiosity.

Project OSPREY: The Last Angry Bracket
9-7 on the second day, 19-13 overall in the first round. Only one of my two twelve seed over five seed upsets materialized, but 'twas the more important of the pair: Villanova, my dark horse Final Four pick, 75-69 over Clemson*.

Go 'Nova!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Less Than Jake, "She's Gonna Break Soon" from Anthem (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Though I've owned Anthem since its release in 2003, only recently did I get around to downloading and watching the video for "She's Gonna Break Soon," starring none other than Alexis Bledel. Wow, a Less Than Jake song about disenchantment, "it really comes as no surprise."

*The Villanova-Clemson contest did not conclude until nearly half past midnight; so, clearly, this post was not published at 11:59 P.M. But, I have long rejected the arbitrary nature of "midnight" as the beginning of a day. The dawn, or an hour more or less in line with the average sunrise, seems a far more sensible time to commence a new day. I must resort to the falsehood of "11:59 P.M." to resist the midnight tyranny. Hmmm, there might be a potential science fiction novel in that phrase, The Midnight Tyranny. I wonder....