Shakespeare Teacher Special Feature
Well, I’m off to the Shakespeare Teacher conference. I’m very excited about attending, but it means that I may have to step away from the blog for a few days. I’ll post when I can, but I’ll probably be more interested in blogging about the conference than in keeping up with my regular features.
But what if I could leave behind just one post that combines all of my regular features for the week? Why, we’d just have to call that a Shakespeare Teacher Special Feature! Here’s how it breaks down:
- I. Please find below eight brand-new riddles. This should more than satisfy fans of the Thursday Morning Riddle. Each answer will be one word. Please tell us which number you’re solving and your one-word answer.
- II. Once the riddles have been solved, place the eight one-word answers in the Venn Diagram below, using the numbers as guides. This will be your Conundrum. Can you guess the rules? Venn diagram explanation and sample here.
- III. The answer to Circle A (Riddles 1,3,5,7) will be a place. To stand in for the fact vs. fiction Headline Game, can you name three fictional television shows (of at least four seasons each) that are set in this real-life place?
- IV. The answer to Circle B (Riddles 2,3,6,7) will be a question. This is the Question of the Week. Once the games are done, feel free to discuss this question in the comments below. I have already registered my opinion elsewhere on the blog.
- V. The answer to Circle C (Riddles 7,4,6,5) will be a historical person. I was able to link this person to Sir Francis Bacon in four degrees, though that shouldn’t stop you from posting a longer response, or looking for a shorter one. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, March 22.
Use the comments section below to register any and all answers, discussion, and comments. I won’t be around much the next couple of days to moderate this, so please work together. If someone posts an answer you think is right, go ahead and say so and offer some words of encouragement. Also, feel free to pass this along to anyone you think may be interested. Here is the direct link.
If this is all too overwhelming or confusing, then just enjoy these eight riddles, and I’ll be back soon to talk about something simple, like Shakespeare.
The Riddles:
1. I act Maynard G. Krebs, and I Gilligan feign;
I’m the Mile High hub; leaving on a jet plane;
With the dinosaurs gone, I’m the last to remain;
And peppers, ham, onions, and eggs I contain.
2. I’m a weave, or the shirt type for which it is known;
I’m the college of Thatcher and William Gladstone;
I’m an unabridged lexicon, standing alone;
And I’m also the clay that preserves a fish bone.
3. I was first worn by Chaplin before his divorce;
I’m a race to be run by a three-year-old horse;
When in cars, I’m a wreck; when on skates, I use force;
And the kids on their soap boxes follow my course.
4. I’m the former first lady of all New York State;
A Nobel-winning chemist who won for a date;
A survivor on Lost with too sudden a fate;
And an ex-Cheney aide who is now an inmate.
5. A brigade made of Wolverines served my command,
When the Sioux and Cheyenne boldy tried to expand.
But the Little Big Horn didn’t go quite as planned,
When I stood up to Sitting Bull – that’s my last stand.
6. If you’re bringing me home, it can be quite a slog;
You can link me to Hoffman or to Skip the Dog;
I’m a fried strip of meat from the gut of a hog;
And a regular feature right here on the blog.
7. I am not Robert Browning, but captured his soul;
I am Stanton, and Hurley, and Taylor, and Dole;
Though I lost that which Shakespeare in Love from me stole;
It was won back by Helen for playing my role.
8. Both the lion and lamb are my two weather guides;
I’m the music of Sousa; the steps it provides;
When in basketball, madness; in history, strides;
In the middle, a novel; Beware of the Ides!
Who are we?
UPDATE: Riddles 1-6 and 8 solved by Andrew. Riddle 7 solved by DeLisa. Circles B and C solved by Annalisa. See comments for all answers.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:00 am
1. Denver
2. Oxford
3. Derby
4. Libby
5. Custer
6. Bacon
7. Oscar
8. March
Right?
March 15th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I believe number 7 is Elizabeth.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
But the others seem right on to me – the early bird gets the worm, Mr. Andrew!!!! Good going!!!!!
March 16th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Circle C is Custer’s Wife: Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon Custer.
I think.
March 16th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Damn! Look at all of you.
Andrew: All correct except for 7!
DeLisa: Correct on 7!
Annalisa: Correct on C!
I’m still in DC, having a great time at the conference. More later.
March 19th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Question on Group B?
Who are some (gratuitously theoretical) candidates that might have written Shakespeare’s plays other than Shakespeare? (As if.)
March 19th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Asked and answered. Way to go, Annalisa!
Actually, the Question of the Week is “Who wrote the plays of Shakespeare?” with Shakespeare being one of the possible answers.
I guess I should have made one of the riddle answers “Shakespeare” to make this clearer – especially since the Oxford riddle didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. It’s much better than the first draft of it, though:
We’ll just call that the bad quarto version and leave it at that.
So anyway, feel free to discuss who wrote Shakespeare’s plays – I agree with AL that it’s Shakespeare, but have at it.
Also, this week’s Six Degrees is, as AL says, Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon Custer. Enjoy!
I know my clues were for “Libby” but had trouble coming up for a riddle for “Libbie” and I couldn’t resist using the riddle to get another dig at the Bush administration. Forgive me.
Circle A still open as well.
Thanks to all who participated in this, either here in the thread, or silently. I’m just getting back from DC, and getting ready for this evening’s class. We’re doing conflict resolution through drama tonight, which always takes up the whole 100 minute class period and still feels rushed, but I may need to talk about the Shakespeare in American Education conference for a bit.
But when I get home tonight, do I watch the new 24 or last night’s Slings & Arrows, which is now waiting for me on the DVR?
March 19th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
WATCH S&A!!!! It’s powerful stuff indeed….
March 19th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Anonymous is DeLisa btw… :-)
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Answers
I. Thursday Morning Riddle
1. Denver
2. Oxford
3. Derby
4. Libby
5. Custer
6. Bacon
7. Elizabeth
8. March
II. Conundrum
Circle A (Denver, Derby, Custer, Elizabeth): Colorado
Circle B (Oxford, Derby, Bacon, Elizabeth): The Authorship Question
Circle C (Elizabeth, Libby, Bacon, Custer): Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon Custer
III. The Headline Game
The three shows I was thinking of were Mork & Mindy, Dynasty, and South Park. I would have also accepted Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and Everwood.
IV. Question of the Week
The plays were written by Shakespeare.
V. Six Degrees of Sir Francis Bacon
Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon Custer > Ulyssess S. Grant > Abraham Lincoln > William Shakespeare > Sir Francis Bacon
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Now Delovely DeLisa and I had tried Colorado (as in “cities in” but the only Custer I could come up with was Custer County, so I didn’t think it would count!) And I could only think of one Colorado-based TV show: Mork & Mindy! What are some others?
DeLisa and I were trying to think backwards: sets of TV series in various places (Airport names came close; Boston and London came close; Chicago even came close) and then see if we could work backwards to the location.
This was a FABULOUS amalgamation – it stuck with me all week and into last weekend!
March 24th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Wow! Thanks for the feedback. I had a lot of fun putting it together, and I’m really glad that it continued to be worked on over the week, and that three different people contributed to the solution.
And yeah, Custer is a county in Colorado while the other three are cities, but I was just going for a general “places in” thing. The three shows I was thinking of when I posted the challenge were Mork & Mindy, Dynasty, and South Park. I later discovered that Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and Everwood were also set in Colorado.
Delovely DeLisa… Now there’s a nickname with staying power!