I regret to inform you that this week's quiz has absolutely nothing to do with All Hallow's Eve, Samhain, Mischief Night, or the El Dia de los Muertes. If you crave some seasonally-appropriate gothicky quiz fun, you might go here. Now, onto today's time-waster:
From a young man's list of "things to think about" put together shortly after he took his university degree:
"...to find whether the earth moves; the weather wheel;... several new ways of graving and etching; to weave many ribbons at once with only turning a wheel; improvements in the arts of husbandry;...a pavement harder, fairer, and cheaper than marble; divers new engines for the raising of water; ...a way of embroidery for beds cheap and fair; ...divers new musical instruments; a speaking organ; probable ways for making fresh water at sea; to stay long under water;...easier ways of whale-fishing; new cyphers;... anatomical experiments; to measure the height of a mountain only by journeying over it; a compass to play in a coach or the hand of a rider; to perfect coaches for ease, strength and lightness."
He became quite famous, but not for accomplishing any of these.
Who was this thoughtful person?
General principles of the quiz: First correct answer to comments is the winner. (This week's prize is a post-Halloween fright featuring the singing of both Kevin Bacon and Scott Bakula. ) Googling or other search-engine use is unsporting. You may post as many guesses as you like, but only one per post, please.
Oh, and one hint: it's not Leonardo. Nor anyone he knew.
Posted by BT at November 01, 2002 10:38 AMGalileo
Posted by: Jonathan on November 1, 2002 11:33 AMJules Verne
Posted by: Jonathan on November 1, 2002 11:34 AMIsaac Newton.
Is anyone else awake out there?
Charles Darwin?
Posted by: Gavin on November 1, 2002 11:47 AMStrom Thurmond?
no, nope, nuh-uh, negatory, and LOL.
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 11:54 AMJosiah Wedgewood?
Posted by: bootsy on November 1, 2002 11:58 AMHenry Adams.
Posted by: KF on November 1, 2002 12:17 PMOr maybe Ben Franklin.
Posted by: KF on November 1, 2002 12:18 PMThis is the dead giveaway:
He became quite famous, but not for accomplishing any of these.
!!!
George W. Bush
Posted by: scott on November 1, 2002 12:21 PMThomas Jefferson
Posted by: boxjam on November 1, 2002 12:26 PMTo get him out of the way: Ben Franklin?
Posted by: Gavin on November 1, 2002 12:32 PMWhoops, slippery update.
Posted by: Gavin on November 1, 2002 12:32 PMWedgewood is an ingenious guess.
But you're all still off the mark. I was going to offer my guess as to what GW Bush's post-collegiate list looked like, but then I realized that it's one of those jokes left for all of us to complete in our minds...
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 12:58 PMKotaro Honda? Seiko?
Posted by: bootsy on November 1, 2002 01:04 PMJohn Quincy Adams?
(You know, this week I'm certain it isn't Bob Hope. . .)
Posted by: scott on November 1, 2002 01:29 PMHerman Melville
Posted by: Jonathan on November 1, 2002 02:02 PMHenry of Navarre
Posted by: Jonathan on November 1, 2002 02:06 PMJohannes Kepler
Posted by: Jonathan on November 1, 2002 02:07 PMPeter the Great
Posted by: Jonathan on November 1, 2002 02:08 PMAlexander G. Bell
Posted by: boxjam on November 1, 2002 02:34 PMHint: his most famous achievements were the indirect result of (appropriately for the Wombat File quiz) a disaster.
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 02:36 PMMoses.
Posted by: boxjam on November 1, 2002 02:58 PMSir Walter Raleigh.
Posted by: boxjam on November 1, 2002 03:01 PMHe's also slightly less famous than anyone named yet, at least around these parts. But he should be known to many of you.
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 03:07 PMAnother hint: his epitaph reads "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice."
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 04:23 PMAaah... you've all given up, haven't you?
**shrugs, turns, walks away**
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 04:41 PM**looks back over shoulder furtively**
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 04:41 PM**turns quickly back and keeps walking**
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 04:42 PMAlexander Fleming (inventor of penicillin)?
Posted by: Gavin on November 1, 2002 05:03 PM**turns around and cups hands to mouth**
Nope! Sorry, Gavin! Good guess, though!
Posted by: BT on November 1, 2002 05:16 PM"He's also slightly less famous than anyone named yet, at least around these parts. But he should be known to many of you."
Well, that leaves it to the smart people.
Oh, that poet guy that wrote about the charge in Crimea - Tennyson?
Posted by: boxjam on November 1, 2002 05:38 PMI was on the cusp of figuring it out when I just had to had to cheat. ALL OF YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS ONE. Well, all of you in the RHS, or in the Big Green Tribe.
Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit! More clues for you that TIpper will never disclose, what with his clue-parsimony - it's not John Soane, it's not Inigo Jones, and it's not Brunelleschi.
Posted by: bootsy on November 1, 2002 06:02 PMGee, thanks bootsy. Since all of you are on the subway, I have a chance to guess in peace. "If you require a monument, look about you." Big Green Tribe. Interest in cheap pavers.
Sir Christopher Wren? Entombed, if I understand correctly, in a church of his own design?
Posted by: Jonathan on November 1, 2002 06:13 PMUh, Stephen Daedalus? Or was he too busy forging in the smithy of his soul the uncreated conscience of his race to think about such pedestrian matters?
Posted by: KF on November 1, 2002 09:33 PMI was gonna guess me until I saw the tombstone thing ('cause that's not what mine says).
Hawthorne?
Posted by: teenidol on November 2, 2002 08:37 AMJonathan and his classical erudition have cracked it; after perfecting the first working barometer (see here-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/art/wren_christopher.shtml), Wren went on to become the foremost architect of Restoration London, and incidentally the designer of a nice old building at the alma mater of many of those who played along today (but, of course, you knew that already...)
Posted by: BT on November 2, 2002 11:15 AMI'm embarrassed to ask, since everybody else already seems to know, but...
what disaster was associated with Wren's greatest accomplishment?
Posted by: boxjam on November 4, 2002 03:26 PMIt was the Great Fire of London that got Wren the commission to rebuild St. Paul's cathedral:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/architecture/stpauls_gallery/
...as well as about 52 other churches in London. Wren had, I understand, grand plans to fully rebuild London on a new model, which were never fully realized.
Posted by: BT on November 4, 2002 06:58 PMparenting advice
domestic discipline
troubled teens
summer camp
summer camps
out of control
http://www.parentshelpingchildren.com