GreekGeek

I normally don't like runaway games, especially when it's obvious early on that they're going to happen, but I did like Matt's story about 4 years of Latin and 2 years of Spanish not being enough to act as the family translator in Spain. I thought he was going to say he tried to do it with the Latin alone!

I've been part of a caroling group in the local mall and on the church steps. Never gone door to door though,

Out of all the guest hosts who are not White Guys, I liked Bill Whitaker best. Robin was my favorite female guest host. LeVar wasn't bad, but he was a bit shouty for my taste.

I had the pleasure of seeing two of his one-man shows, The World According to Me and Brand New. I couldn't believe that was over 30 years ago! My favorite routines of his were the "Jews and Gentiles" ones. I don't know if he could tell those same jokes today. I know that his politics shifted rightward in recent years.

Good theory, but it was John who said Prudence. Rachel said Mr. Bennet.

I thought she sounded extra excited when someone other than Matt gave the correct answer. I was surprised FJ was a TS, and I'm not even a Jane Austen buff. Rachel had the correct book, at least. No idea who "Prudence" was supposed to be.

Let's see, we could have a wise head librarian, a trivia buff with a head for obscure facts, a fashionista anxious to prove that librarians aren't boring and dowdy, an old guy/gal who worked there since the days of index card catalogues, a wannabe author writing a novel or a screenplay about the place... Or is the staff fairly normal and it's the patrons who are weird?

Try searching YouTube by the date.

Fun read, isn't it? Where else can you find out that Tiberius had acne and Claudius drooled and got a runny nose when he got angry? It was my one TS tonight.

Same here! "We Can Work It Out" was the only song in that category I knew. I was sure Billy Joel's "Movin' Out" would be there.

Family Feud is my post-J! guilty pleasure, rather than Wheel of Fortune. It can be fun to try to guess the more obscure answers, and to see what kind of euphemisms the board comes up with for "sex" or "breasts" or "penis", etc.. But I know what you mean about Steve Harvey. I ranted about him in the "Actors, hosts...You can't stand" board. It especially irks when he knocks on the podium: "OK, X family... [knock] there are two answers left...[knock] and if either is there...[knock]..." Yes, I stumbled across it a couple of times while channel surfing. There was a question to the effect of "The last time Mr. Hyde took the potion, he didn't turn into Dr. Jekyll, he turned into Dr. ____." Of course my first thoughts were Phil and Oz, neither of whom was on TV in 1976. I finally thought of Dr. Joyce Brothers. And, yes, some of those questions make us cringe now. I just happened to watch one with the silly "Indian" talk: "Young brave heap modern, him apply war paint with _____"

It was one of those Easy If You Know It questions. People may have heard of Charlotte's Web, but you would need to know more than that to come up with Wilbur the pig. Now I'm laughing at the thought of a Sweeney Todd/Little Shop of Horrors crossover. I wondered why Andre threw "Barbershop" in there, and then you reminded me there is a horror musical set in a barbershop.

I got Morpheus, Stearns, jeted and jetted, Covent Garden, Thanatology, Elijah, Samuel, summer soldier, and FJ. What did you have against Andre?

I got those as well as "Phaedra," but I would question the reference to her as a "minor character" in Euripides' Hippolytus. I haven't counted who has more lines, but one could make a case for her as the main character, despite the play's title.

I don't think so, since "hypnotic" is derived from the Greek word for sleep, and the clue specified a Latin derivative. Oops, I forgot that part of the clue!

I got Rod Serling, decongestant, Spain, and George Sand. I wondered whether "tranquilizer" would have been acceptable rather than "sedative." I guessed Harvard beets instead of hasty pudding. I only realized my mistake when "figgy pudding" was revealed. (Now I have "Now bring us some figgy pudding..." running through my head.) 😖 A couple of people in the Guest Host thread commented on the raspy quality of George's voice. I haven't listened to him elsewhere lately, so I don't know if that's just the way he sounds nowadays or if he had a cold or something.

I know that he was horrible to his wife and cheated on her with an actress. I'm not familiar with other examples of his jerkitude, though.

Dickens could be a real jerk to his women characters who weren't sweet and girly-girly, or perfect loyal wives or motherly figures. Take Louisa Gradgrind in Hard Times. Sure, she was a cold fish, but that's how she was raised to be. She's married off to the pompous blowhard Bounderby, who is twice her age, is tempted to cheat on him, and has a breakdown when her feelings become too much for her. Is she allowed to divorce Bounderby, find someone nicer and closer to her own age, and get a happy ending? Nope, she's doomed to spinsterhood at twenty-two.

I was wondering if anyone else would cry foul on this. Also, although the Hulu series isn't the sensation it was back in 2017, it's still around, so I wasn't expecting two to have no idea and the third to bungle the title. I also knew Sandwich, neon, and platinum blonde.

Likewise! I also knew Rouen, Kerouac, and Margaretha. I thought Sanjay's pronunciation of "Rouen" was off--something like "Row when." I thought of how beautifully Alex would have pronounced it. 🙁

Same for me regarding U2. I guessed Kiss though I was sure it was wrong. Weirdly, according to The Insider, Springsteen has never had a #1 hit! The closest was "Dancing in the Dark," which peaked at #2.

I wasn't paying attention at the beginning: Did Sanjay explain in the "two i's" category that the only vowels in the word were two i's? I wondered why "vigilance" wasn't an acceptable answer until he explained it after the fact. (Granted, I'd never heard of the night before a holy day called a vigilance, but if you could "burn the night oil" while staying awake...") I did know coal, dulcet, the Killer, Neil Diamond, Lourdes, dura mater, and UVA (from the famous rotunda in the background, like the one at the Jefferson Memorial and Monticello). Apparently everybody in the world except me knew FJ, though.

I apologize if you're being sarcastic and I'm explaining something you already know, but in Brave New World, people are Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons (and can be plus or minus any of these) Alphas are the smartest and Epsilons are the stupidest. Early on, we hear Betas getting brainwashed to be glad they're not Alphas, because they don't want to work as hard as Alphas do, and at the same time they get to look down on the others. I've always been a big fan of BNW. There was a huge George Orwell revival when 1984 finally arrived, but I always thought Huxley came much closer to predicting aspects of life today: artificial insemination, sexual promiscuity, drugs, mindless entertainment. Plus, he (and C.S. Lewis) had the misfortune to die on the same day as JFK.

I knew those too, apart from Lost, plus "Chronicle of a Death Foretold." I never got into Lost, and thought I had the last laugh on people who followed it faithfully for years only to be frustrated at the end. And I too loved Spencer's hair. It would have been nice to have a few more days to look at it, but good for Courtney for pulling it off at the end. I didn't have high hopes for her when she missed that Odyssey DD. I thought Dr. Gupta did fine also. There haven't been any guest hosts I haven't liked except for Oz, and even he doesn't fill me with "I'm never watching the show again if they pick him!" rage.

One of my students starts every sentence with "So, basically..." He's a sensitive kid so I don't call him out on it, but it can be either amusing or extremely irritating, depending on my mood.