This year, 16 Delta flight attendants, chosen from about 1,300 who have so far submitted entries in a wine essay-question contest, will attend the weeklong wine seminar taught by Mr. Chase and other international wine experts at the Chateau de Rochegude near Avignon.
A 30-question trivia contest before the race determines in what order the participants will begin the staggered start (a few minutes separates the groups of teams), and a series of brainteasers must be solved if the contestants want to figure out the race's precise route.
The latter result is applied to questions of contest design and more general forms of relative performance payment.
It is not a question of contesting the heart-rending nature of this moment.
But there is still no question that the contest drew its worldwide audience partly because it presented two conflicting national idols.
Mr. Alda, who has long had a deep interest in science, played a key role in the founding of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, and the center turned his question into a contest.
"The first thought that came to mind was, How's the surf going to be?" It was also a question for the contest planners, who stand to gain from the marketing exposure that only New York can deliver if all goes well, but risk embarrassment and ridicule if the Atlantic enters a late-summer flat period.
Party officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, had been contacting uncommitted superdelegates, encouraging them to prepare to go public and resolve any last question about the contest between Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Question: Is the contest too esoteric?
An open question in this contest remains, however: Is the MSE really the trouble maker, or is it the independence assumption?
