A Hastily Constructed Friday Quiz; Between the Screeches
It doesn't seem likely that my duties as child-comforter will stand much interruption tonight. Even a gap in the carrying/swinging/rocking long enough to type this hurried note is a perhaps foolish gamble, a last handful of chips ...
...hear that? There she goes.
OK, really fast. What international conflict...
...damn it...
....is considered -- bloody hell-- responsible for the popularization of the cigarette in the English-speaking world? Bonus point: what woman, whose actions during this conflict made her legendary, went on to do groundbreaking work in statistics?
First correct answer posted to comments wins an extra helping of the desperate, last-minute contribution we'll be bringing to a "'potluck breakfast" tomorrow morning at Helena's soon-to-be preschool (and which is why this Friday Quiz is really being posted on a Thursday). No Googling or-- the hell with the funny stuff; I'm typing this with one free hand, after all, and Imogen's barely tolerating that. One guess per comment, please, but comment as often as you like.
OK, sweetie...Daddy's all done...sssshhhh....sssshhhh.....
Comments
Hmm.
It seems too obvious, but let's get it out of the way: WWI
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 10:38 AM
Nope.
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 10:40 AM
First matches, now this... I predict next week's quiz will be concerning Bob Hope.
Um, would it be the Boer WAr? And would Flo Nightengale be the statistician lady in question?
Posted by: bootsy3000![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 10:47 AM
BTW, I hear cigarettes are really good at calming babies down... Nature's pacifier, dude!
Posted by: bootsy3000![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 10:48 AM
Bootsy misses the main -- but stumbles into bonus territory!
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 11:32 AM
Hey, Bootsy, are you guys part of the whole hideous Queens power-out?
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 11:36 AM
Oh rats! Must be the Crimean war, then, eh?
Yep, we were most definitely powerless to fight against the Bloombergian Media Machine... Heckuva job, Connie! Everything came on, rather rudely, at 3AM last night.
Posted by: bootsy3000![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 11:54 AM
Yeah, Crimea, I guess.
Say, wombat, being in the book industry and all, could you tell me, or direct me to, a list of the most frequently assigned books in American high schools?
I'm willing to live with the most frequently sold (non-textbook) books to school systems as a reasonably highly correlated estimate.
Posted by: boxjam![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 12:45 PM
The Crimea indeed. Into the Valley of Correctitude rode the Bootsy3000!
Florence, incidentally, was raised by a statistician and used her early training with him to develop methods of analyzing and displaying data concerning seasonal rates of infection among soldiers. She called the method a "coxcomb", and it is, apparently, an early example of "circular statistics."
Now, as for Boxjam's question; I don't think I have any way of answering that for you, sadly. I regret to reveal such an embarassing gap in my pretentions to literary omniscience, but there it is.
Posted by: BT![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.wombatfile.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 21, 2006 02:04 PM