You know, I really wanted to post a David Brooks watch item this week. In the midst of yet another journalistic shredding of Brooks' 2001 Red State/Blue State fabulism, the country's new fave public psuedointellectual mines his only vein in a hi-larious riff on the ideological divide, in the comic vein that makes Maureen Dowd look like Chris Rock.
But there's a quiz to administer, so onward and upward with ye trivia. Today's mind-melter:
In 1949, the year-end Publisher's Publishers Weekly* list of nonfiction bestsellers contained not one, not two, but three separate titles devoted to unveiling the mysteries of one particular subject. All were from different authors and different publishers. No how-to on this topic had ever cracked that list before 1949, nor has it since.
For what subject was 1949 the annus mirabilis, bestseller-wise?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a bottle of white-board cleaner and three neatly folded paper towels. No Googling or asking David Brooks. Only one guess per comment but comment as often as you like.
*Title correction courtesy of Soren P. Dant
Posted by BT at April 09, 2004 10:34 AMHow to cover up memos about terrorism for fun and profit?
Posted by: Gavin on April 9, 2004 10:40 AM(regaining equilibrium slightly)
How to knit your own sweater vest?
Posted by: Gavin on April 9, 2004 10:41 AMFishing?
Posted by: Gavin on April 9, 2004 10:41 AMLawn care?
Canning and preserves?
Posted by: Gavin on April 9, 2004 10:41 AMEnthusiasm is always appreciated. But none of Gavin's answers is particularly close to the mark.
Posted by: BT on April 9, 2004 10:46 AMHow to Stop Communism for Fun and Profit.
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 10:50 AMHow to Like Ike!
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 10:59 AMHow to Stomach Stalin!
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 11:05 AMHow to make argyle socks
Posted by: Sara on April 9, 2004 11:15 AMIs today some kind of anniversary in the history of knitting?
The title had nothing to do with either Cold War politics nor any of the myriad pastimes generally categorized under "Arts & Crafts."
Posted by: BT on April 9, 2004 11:17 AMPardon me -- titles.
Posted by: BT on April 9, 2004 11:18 AMFemale sexuality?
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 11:19 AMConversely, home ec?
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 11:20 AMThere is no apostrophe in Publishers Weekly, Mr. Book Man!
(which is YARDS away from Arts and Crafts.) But I'll guess again with: how to properly cower during nuclear war?
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 11:21 AMOr build your own fallout shelter. But maybe that falls under Cold War Politics.
Does anyone here know anything about Drupal?
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 11:25 AMDancing?
Posted by: Scraps on April 9, 2004 11:26 AMThe mysteries of Hawai'i
Posted by: teenidol on April 9, 2004 11:40 AMGosh, I thought I was really onto sumpin what with them female orgasms. I guess the only thing left is HulaHooping.
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 11:42 AMHula dancing?
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 11:44 AMCookin' with Spam, including putting a pineapple on top for your own cubic mini-luau.
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 11:45 AMEaster Island
(Now I'm going all "In Search Of" -- cue Mr. Nimoy.)
Posted by: teenidol on April 9, 2004 11:45 AMShroud of Turin
Posted by: teenidol on April 9, 2004 11:46 AMThirty years from now, the answer to this quiz will be "Solving Rubic's Cube."
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 11:46 AMShroud of Drupal
Posted by: teenidol on April 9, 2004 11:47 AMascii art
(something I really don't get)
Posted by: teenidol on April 9, 2004 11:48 AMI am in no freaking mood to laugh about Drupal.
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 11:51 AMClue:
Invented in Montevideo, Uruguay, by an attorney and an architect. Orginal name (quickly altered) meant "Little Basket."
Posted by: BT on April 9, 2004 11:54 AMSuccessful team codes for charades
Posted by: Scraps on April 9, 2004 11:55 AMContract Bridge (this is actually quite pretty in Spanish)
Posted by: Scraps on April 9, 2004 12:01 PMPyramid schemes?
Posted by: Sara on April 9, 2004 12:08 PMNo correct answers yet. More clues: invented in 1939 & spread through South America, but it took until the postwar period to get to the U.S., where it became such a craze that TIME, NEWSWEEK, and LIFE all ran big stories on its exploding popularity.
Posted by: BT on April 9, 2004 12:11 PMAre we talking about the "casserole"?
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 12:31 PMAt least one of the answers given so far is related to the pastime in question; the inventor of the craze had already found his interest in this former hobby too exhausting, and had in response invented something new.
Posted by: BT on April 9, 2004 12:36 PMNerfball?
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 12:46 PMHearts! I know there was a hearts craze.
Posted by: Scraps on April 9, 2004 12:50 PMThe precise origin of Hearts is a mystery, but it is by accounts I have read at least 50 years older than the pastime we are looking for, probably even codified in the 19th century. The craze for that game looks to have been an early-20th C. one.
Posted by: BT on April 9, 2004 01:01 PMcanasta?
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 01:03 PMCanasta?
Posted by: Scraps on April 9, 2004 01:03 PMhokey pokey?
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 01:04 PMLaura and Scraps owe each other some sort of mutually agreed-upon cola beverage, as their simultaneous hit upon the correct answer both jinxes them and garners the conjoined double-crown of this weeks winner.
The original proposed name was "Canastillo," but Segundo Sanchez and his bridge partner Alberto Serrato accepted the thoughts of other denizens of the Montevideo Jockey Club's card room and revised it to "Canasta." The idea was to alter rummy -- which, being less complex than bridge, would be for a working person a more manageable evening diversion (Sanchez had given up bridge because it distracted him too much from his legal practice) -- so that it became more bridgelike, containing less chance and more strategy.
Now, about David Brooks. What's it going to take to get the Times to realize how bad he is?
According to my Spanish-English dictionary, basket=cesto, so maybe cestito or cestillo, leading to my guess of "incest." But alas, I'm too late.
Posted by: Scott on April 9, 2004 01:21 PMThe only thing I really knew about Uruguayans: good at bridge.
Posted by: Scraps on April 9, 2004 01:21 PMDavid Brooks is unbelievably bad. It's not just that I often disagree with him--it's just poor writing, poorly argued. Was he really well-regarded before he took this job? Is he slipping under deadline pressure, or was he always this awful?
Posted by: Gavin on April 9, 2004 02:16 PMThe neologism "bobo" didn't tip anyone off? But you should see the man with a deck of cards...
Posted by: LAURA on April 9, 2004 02:24 PMBrooks. Must. Di . . . Stop Writing.