Monday Trivia VII

Burt Likko 23 Comments

The following deceased U.S. citizens had what in common when they were alive?

  • Joseph Campbell
  • Samuel Clemens
  • Thomas Alva Edison
  • Richard Feynman
  • Robert A. Heinlein
  • Burt Lancaster
  • Ayn Rand
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
  • Barry White
  • Frank Lloyd Wright

This is not an exhaustive list, by any means. I just picked ten who fit the criteria.

Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

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23 Comments

  1. I read Barry White’s name and I suspect that the answer has to do with beaning the Dalai Lama. Then I see Samuel Clemens.

    • Have you forgotten the incident where Clemens charged the mound after Rabbi Wise threw behind his head?

      • “Rabbi, is it right to throw a high inside pitch when the batter is crowding the plate?”

        “Oh yes! The strike zone does not just belong to the batter, it belongs to the pitcher as well. And to the catcher! A high inside pitch is a reminder of the commonality the three of you share.”

  2. I was going to say honorary doctorates, but IIRC, Fenynmann turned a couple of those down. So I suppose I’ll just say “doctorates”.

  3. Most of them got married (to their first spouse) in New York State, but not all of them.

    All of them seemed to have spent some part of the their professional lives working and living both in NYC and California – except that doesn’t seem to be true for Heinlein, and in any case seems to overly broad for a criteria.

    Half your list had a name change during their lives, in part or in total, but the other half went wire to wire with their birth certificate name.

    I got nuttin.

    • Heinlein lived in LA for a while. You might recall the introduction to “And He Build a Crooked House:, which goes on about how crazy Angelenos are:

      Lookout Mountain Avenue is the name of a side canyon which twists up from Laurel Canyon. The other Canyonites don’t like to have it mentioned; after all, one must draw the line somewhere!

      High up on Lookout Mountain at number 8775, across the street from the Hermit.the original Hermit of Hollywood.lived Quintus Teal, graduate architect.

      The hermit who lived across the street from 8775 was RAH himself, of course.

    • It hadn’t occurred to me, but yes quite a large number of them were. I wonder if there is any cause-and-effect relationship between the thing that unites them all and political libertarianism? Ayn Rand, of course, stands out there.

      • My first thought was something having to do with what happened to their parents but I immediately dismissed it. Hrm. Maybe I should ruminate…

        • Heinlein’s parents lived, as far as I know, quite uneventful lives in Missouri, and both lived to ripe old ages. Asimov’s parents, like Rand’s, came from Soviet Russia, but as far as I know weren’t scarred by it. Ted Williams’s father abandoned him, as a result of which he grew up quite poor. Katharine Hepburn came from money.

          I’m not seeing anything common in family history.

  6. Tuesday hint: More dead Americans who qualify for inclusion on this list:

    Isaac Asimov
    Andrew Carnegie
    Hubert Henry Harrison
    Katharine Hepburn
    H.P. Lovecraft
    Culbert Olsen
    Gene Roddenberry
    Carl Sagan
    James Dalton Trumbo
    Ted Williams

    I note the second consecutive occurrence of Ted Williams in trivia hints. Now I’m up for the hat trick too.

    • You can’t omit Jesus Christ or His Father. How could God deny the existence of God?

    • Ding ding ding ding ding ding! Props go to Chuck Welch this week. Good job!

        • I’m not convinced about Twain, either. He argued with God way too much to totally disbelieve in Him.

          • Mhm. And Edison’s views were more pantheistic deist than atheist. Still shocked that Barry White was an atheist.

        • Barry White??? This is devastating. I don’t know if I can ever again listen to “can’t get enough of your love, babe” or “love’s theme”. This is harder to take than the Beatles being more popular than Jesus. I’m just glad they’re is no cyanide in the house. The only thing to do is have a huge bonfire fueled by White’s CDs, LPs, cassette tapes, 8-track recordings…I’m still holding out hope that Barry was actually saying he didn’t believe in the god of Eros, Dionysus, and Bacchanalia–major crossing of fingers necessary for Barry in any case.

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