I'm sorry, but I can't resist. Here are answers from today's Jeopardy! episode that I answered but none of the contestants could:
What is Sweden?
Who is Sugar Ray Robinson?
Who is William Holden?
What is pituitary?
Who is Keats?
Who is Androcles?
What is Old North Church?
These have no meaning, or very little, to anybody else but me.
Sweden was the answer to the following clue: In 1912 the king of this country called Jim Thorpe the world's greatest athlete, to which Thorpe replied, 'Thanks, King'.
William Holden's photograph was shown in a visual clue and he was said to have co-starred in the film Sunset Boulevard. Still, no one knew him.
Nobody knew that the person who wrote a poem called "Endymion" was John Keats.
Androcles was a fill-in-the-blank answer to the title of a play by George Bernard Shaw, "_________ And The Lion".
In the Final Jeopardy category, U.S. Historical Locations, the clue was that President Gerald R. Ford kicked off the Bicentennial Celebration by lighting a third lantern here.
One person wrote the Washington Monument and one person wrote Independence Hall. Apparently they didn't recall Paul Revere's ride and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow having written "One if by land and two if by sea / And I on the opposite shore will be / Ready to ride and spread the alarm / Through every Middlesex village and farm" and later in the poem "A second light in the belfry burns!".
I continue to be baffled as to why I remember facts like these. I continue to be thankful to my high school English and history teachers. I am also a pretty good guesser.
Thank you for your continued patience with my little obsession. Until we meet again.
Friday, April 28, 2023
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Of all the things I’ve lost I miss my mind the most, Episode #17,643
Getting old is such a drag at times, but it's better than the alternative. I saw that Harry Belafonte died this week at the age of 96. Carol Burnett is being honored on NBC-TV tonight at the age of 90. Even Tony Danza --Tony Danza -- is 72. Elvis is dead and I don't feel too well myself.
That's not true. I'm joking. I feel fine. That having been said, I could keel over tomorrow afternoon. I could keel over in the next five minutes.
Know something? So could you.
So we keep putting one foot in front of the other and count our blessings and hope for the best.
Today I couldn't think of the name of an actor. I could see his face as plain as day but his name had taken a hike. He was in a movie with Steve Martin, something about rascals, no, scoundrels, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was the title. I even remembered that his real name was Maurice Micklewhite, but his actor name would not come to me. I finally resorted to googling Maurice Micklewhite, something I would not ordinarily do, and there it was, Michael Caine.
Of course. Michael Caine, who I discovered is also 90.
I think I have identified the problem. We are slowly aging off this planet. That's all right. We keep on, boats against the current, being borne ceaselessly into the past.
If you recognize that, and can name the work it's from, and its author, it's very likely that you too have become a member of the old folks club. Young folks don't care.
That's not true. I'm joking. I feel fine. That having been said, I could keel over tomorrow afternoon. I could keel over in the next five minutes.
Know something? So could you.
So we keep putting one foot in front of the other and count our blessings and hope for the best.
Today I couldn't think of the name of an actor. I could see his face as plain as day but his name had taken a hike. He was in a movie with Steve Martin, something about rascals, no, scoundrels, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was the title. I even remembered that his real name was Maurice Micklewhite, but his actor name would not come to me. I finally resorted to googling Maurice Micklewhite, something I would not ordinarily do, and there it was, Michael Caine.
Of course. Michael Caine, who I discovered is also 90.
I think I have identified the problem. We are slowly aging off this planet. That's all right. We keep on, boats against the current, being borne ceaselessly into the past.
If you recognize that, and can name the work it's from, and its author, it's very likely that you too have become a member of the old folks club. Young folks don't care.
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Old musicians never die, they just decompose
George Frederick Handel, who died in 1759, has been decomposing for a long time now. But when he was still around and composing, one of the most stunningly magnificent pieces of music ever to flow from his or anyone else's brain hand quill pen is Zadok The Priest. He composed it for the coronation of George II in 1727 and it has been performed at the coronation of every British monarch since then except for Edward VIII who abdicated before his planned coronation. The ninth time was at the coronation of Elizabeth II in June 1953. The performance just a couple of weeks from now on May 6th at the coronation of Charles III will mark the tenth successive coronation at which Handel's Zadok The Priest will have been performed, covering a period of nearly 300 years.
I was going to include a link here so that you could listen to the piece but I decided instead to let you find it for yourself or just wait until you hear it live on May 6th. I can't keep spoon-feeding you everythingc can I? No, I cannot. I have my reputation as a curmdgeon to maintain.
Changing subjects, John Harington of Exton (1561-1612), not to be confused with John Harington of Stepney (1517-1582), wrote the following:
"Treason doth never prosper: What's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
thereby inspiring among other things a book about the state of American affairs in 1964 by John Stormer called None Dare Call It Treason that made the rounds during the Lyndon Johnson vs. Barry Goldwater presidential election. There was a second book not inspired by John Harington written by J. Evetts Haley that same year called A Texan Looks At Lyndon. Both books were roundly condemned by the left and called 'hate speech' but they rang true to this Texan's ears.
That's enough for this time. I don't want to wear you out.
I'm a pretty old musician myself. I may start decomposing soon.
Don't hold your breath.
I was going to include a link here so that you could listen to the piece but I decided instead to let you find it for yourself or just wait until you hear it live on May 6th. I can't keep spoon-feeding you everythingc can I? No, I cannot. I have my reputation as a curmdgeon to maintain.
Changing subjects, John Harington of Exton (1561-1612), not to be confused with John Harington of Stepney (1517-1582), wrote the following:
"Treason doth never prosper: What's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
thereby inspiring among other things a book about the state of American affairs in 1964 by John Stormer called None Dare Call It Treason that made the rounds during the Lyndon Johnson vs. Barry Goldwater presidential election. There was a second book not inspired by John Harington written by J. Evetts Haley that same year called A Texan Looks At Lyndon. Both books were roundly condemned by the left and called 'hate speech' but they rang true to this Texan's ears.
That's enough for this time. I don't want to wear you out.
I'm a pretty old musician myself. I may start decomposing soon.
Don't hold your breath.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Angles and Saxons and Jutes, oh my!
I have never played Wordle, a game invented by a man named Wardle (it's true). The other day on her blog, Rachel complained that the word of the day was one she had never encountered before. When she looked it up, the word turned out to be not even an English word but--gasp!--an Americanism (Rachel lives in the UK). A commenter mentioned that it had begun life as an acronym.
The word was snafu.
I have been familiar with snafu for at least 75 of my 82 years because my Dad served in the United States Navy during World War 2, which is where and when the term originated. The phrase the acronym represented is Situation Normal, All F***ed Up (expletive deleted because this is a family blog). At our house it was modified to Situation Normal, All Fouled Up because we didn't use gutter language.
Many Anglo-Saxon words one hears or sees in print nowadays never appeared in print when I was young nor were they uttered in public, but times have changed. Anything goes now because, as I see it, a great coarsening, a great deterioration has occurred in the last 60 years.**
The Norman Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, drove many Anglo-Saxon terms into disrepute and disuse as the Normans, who were French, imposed their culture on the inhabitants of Britain. They stayed verboten until fairly recently, and the re-emergence of the old terms has been, to my way of thinking, a great step backward.
I do not begrudge the English the reclamation of their own language, but to many in other parts of the world many words remain vulgar and unacceptable. I may be in a minority of 1, but if I ruled the world many words that just happen to be Anglo-Saxon in origin would be eliminated. Most of the words describe body parts and bodily functions or are derogatory epithets. You will never find any of them on my lips or in this blog. They include:
a-words (2)
b-words (4)
c-words (3)
d-words (1)
f-words (2)
m-words (1)
n-words (1)
p-words (3)
q-words (1)
s-words (2)
t-words (1)
TOTAL: 21
There are probably more.
If you found this post irrelevant, curious, shocking, intolerant, laughable, stupid, hopelessly old-fashioned, or some other combination of words of your own choosing, I don't care.
For the record, you are also entitled to your opinion.
**I am aware that the Supreme Court of the United States in 1959 declared that such books as Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic Of Cancer, and Fanny Hill were not obscene but had redeeming social value. They are entitled to their opinion. It doesn't change mine.
The word was snafu.
I have been familiar with snafu for at least 75 of my 82 years because my Dad served in the United States Navy during World War 2, which is where and when the term originated. The phrase the acronym represented is Situation Normal, All F***ed Up (expletive deleted because this is a family blog). At our house it was modified to Situation Normal, All Fouled Up because we didn't use gutter language.
Many Anglo-Saxon words one hears or sees in print nowadays never appeared in print when I was young nor were they uttered in public, but times have changed. Anything goes now because, as I see it, a great coarsening, a great deterioration has occurred in the last 60 years.**
The Norman Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, drove many Anglo-Saxon terms into disrepute and disuse as the Normans, who were French, imposed their culture on the inhabitants of Britain. They stayed verboten until fairly recently, and the re-emergence of the old terms has been, to my way of thinking, a great step backward.
I do not begrudge the English the reclamation of their own language, but to many in other parts of the world many words remain vulgar and unacceptable. I may be in a minority of 1, but if I ruled the world many words that just happen to be Anglo-Saxon in origin would be eliminated. Most of the words describe body parts and bodily functions or are derogatory epithets. You will never find any of them on my lips or in this blog. They include:
a-words (2)
b-words (4)
c-words (3)
d-words (1)
f-words (2)
m-words (1)
n-words (1)
p-words (3)
q-words (1)
s-words (2)
t-words (1)
TOTAL: 21
There are probably more.
If you found this post irrelevant, curious, shocking, intolerant, laughable, stupid, hopelessly old-fashioned, or some other combination of words of your own choosing, I don't care.
For the record, you are also entitled to your opinion.
**I am aware that the Supreme Court of the United States in 1959 declared that such books as Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic Of Cancer, and Fanny Hill were not obscene but had redeeming social value. They are entitled to their opinion. It doesn't change mine.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Recent Triple Stumpers I Knew plus other topics
Who is Thor Heyerdahl?
What is Point Barrow?
What is jacuzzi?
What is Hong Kong?
Who is Calvin Coolidge?
What is Blithe Spirit?
What is sympathy?
If you do not watch Jeopardy!, these answers may seem easy but the clues are not always obvious. For Calvin Cooldge, for example, the category was "Vermont" (other answers in the category included what is skiing?, what is maple syrup?, what is Green Mountains?). This clue was a visual one, a photo of a house, while the emcee said, "In this house on August 2, 1923, this man was told that he was president of the United States." One contestant guessed William Howard Taft (who was president from 1909 to 1913). One contestant guessed Herbert Hoover (Coolidge's successor). One contestant guessed Warren G. Harding (Coolidge's predecessor). If one knew that 1923 was not a traditional inauguration year following an American presidential election it might have suggested that the former president died in office, an additional clue to figuring out the answer.
Thor Heyerdahl is the Norwegian who sailed on a raft from South America to the islands of Polynesia (it wasn't part of the clue but he wrote about his trip in the book Kon-Tiki). Point Barrow in Alaska is the northernmost place in the United States. Hong Kong is "a city in China whose name consists of two syllables that rhyme" (other answers in the category included the words hobnob and pinyin). What you might be offered in the play called "Tea And ________" is Sympathy. Blithe Spirit is the name of a play by Noel Coward whose title was taken from a description of a bird in a poem by Shelley.
Apparently no one ever had to read "To A Skylark" which begins 'Hail to thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert'.
On to other topics.
1. A recent addition to my list of pet peeves is people who call fentanyl fentanol.
2. Today, April 4th, turned out to be a red-letter day in the rhymeswithplague household; we finally took down the Christmas decorations (the Nativity scene on the foyer credenza, the Dickensian Christmas village of 15 homes and community buildings spread rhrough two rooms with lots of little wintry figures on several feet of cotton batting for snow). We've never taken this long before. This year is a new record. We did manage to remove the wreath from the front door in January.
3. Speaking of Christmas, one of my favorite Christmas carols is the 17th-century French carol "Quelle Est Cette Odeur Agréable?" which became the English carol "Whence Is That Goodly Fragrance Flowing?" even though Google Translate translates the original as "What Is That Pleasant Smell?"
4. In his sermon two Sundays ago our young pastor Justin stated that the King James Version of the Bible is the only English version that has Jesus saying "In my Father's house are many mansions" in John 14:2, that all the others have 'rooms' or 'dwelling places' or 'abodes'.
I immediately went into Reaganesque "trust, but verify" mode. To put it in a better light spiritually, St. Paul wrote that the Bereans "were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they...searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so".
When i got home I entered John 14:2 into Biblegateway.com and asked to see every English version. There were 62 entries (I counted) and eight (8) of them said 'mansions'. The one that surprised me most among the eight was the Douay-Rheims (the Catholid version) of 1582, which preceded the KJV by 29 years.
This has been another day/week in the life of yours truly, rhymeswithplague. You are now free to comment on any of these subjects that piqued your interest or to ignore them all.
What is Point Barrow?
What is jacuzzi?
What is Hong Kong?
Who is Calvin Coolidge?
What is Blithe Spirit?
What is sympathy?
If you do not watch Jeopardy!, these answers may seem easy but the clues are not always obvious. For Calvin Cooldge, for example, the category was "Vermont" (other answers in the category included what is skiing?, what is maple syrup?, what is Green Mountains?). This clue was a visual one, a photo of a house, while the emcee said, "In this house on August 2, 1923, this man was told that he was president of the United States." One contestant guessed William Howard Taft (who was president from 1909 to 1913). One contestant guessed Herbert Hoover (Coolidge's successor). One contestant guessed Warren G. Harding (Coolidge's predecessor). If one knew that 1923 was not a traditional inauguration year following an American presidential election it might have suggested that the former president died in office, an additional clue to figuring out the answer.
Thor Heyerdahl is the Norwegian who sailed on a raft from South America to the islands of Polynesia (it wasn't part of the clue but he wrote about his trip in the book Kon-Tiki). Point Barrow in Alaska is the northernmost place in the United States. Hong Kong is "a city in China whose name consists of two syllables that rhyme" (other answers in the category included the words hobnob and pinyin). What you might be offered in the play called "Tea And ________" is Sympathy. Blithe Spirit is the name of a play by Noel Coward whose title was taken from a description of a bird in a poem by Shelley.
Apparently no one ever had to read "To A Skylark" which begins 'Hail to thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert'.
On to other topics.
1. A recent addition to my list of pet peeves is people who call fentanyl fentanol.
2. Today, April 4th, turned out to be a red-letter day in the rhymeswithplague household; we finally took down the Christmas decorations (the Nativity scene on the foyer credenza, the Dickensian Christmas village of 15 homes and community buildings spread rhrough two rooms with lots of little wintry figures on several feet of cotton batting for snow). We've never taken this long before. This year is a new record. We did manage to remove the wreath from the front door in January.
3. Speaking of Christmas, one of my favorite Christmas carols is the 17th-century French carol "Quelle Est Cette Odeur Agréable?" which became the English carol "Whence Is That Goodly Fragrance Flowing?" even though Google Translate translates the original as "What Is That Pleasant Smell?"
4. In his sermon two Sundays ago our young pastor Justin stated that the King James Version of the Bible is the only English version that has Jesus saying "In my Father's house are many mansions" in John 14:2, that all the others have 'rooms' or 'dwelling places' or 'abodes'.
I immediately went into Reaganesque "trust, but verify" mode. To put it in a better light spiritually, St. Paul wrote that the Bereans "were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they...searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so".
When i got home I entered John 14:2 into Biblegateway.com and asked to see every English version. There were 62 entries (I counted) and eight (8) of them said 'mansions'. The one that surprised me most among the eight was the Douay-Rheims (the Catholid version) of 1582, which preceded the KJV by 29 years.
This has been another day/week in the life of yours truly, rhymeswithplague. You are now free to comment on any of these subjects that piqued your interest or to ignore them all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)