Botticelli, April 2012 - Le Ministre de l'au-delà, chooser; initial Q

Well, the last time we had a T was almost a year ago, so we’ll go with that.

The letter for this round is T.

IQ1: Are you a game show host raised in Winnipeg?

IQ2: Are you a surrealist poet?

IQ3: Are you the composer of the 40 voice motet ‘Spem in Alium’, and the namesake of a contemporary choir which specializes in Renaissance music?

I am neither Alex Trebek nor T.S. Eliot (?). You get a DQ for the composer of Spem in Alium, and a second if you were thinking of a poet other than Eliot.

Well, I wouldn’t have called Eliot a surrealist, but what the Hell. Consider it fouling one off…

Spem in Alium is the most famous work of Elizabethan English composer Thomas Tallis. It’s partly famous for the scope of the work - 40 parts is a lot to keep straight, and it is usually performed by 8 five-voice (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone and Bass) choirs. Tallis is also the source of the name for the Tallis Scholars, led by Peter Phillips.

DQ: Are you male?

IQ1: Was your big ‘win’ declared a bit prematurely?

IQ2: Were you a star player for the ESU Sandcrabs?

IQ3: Did your suspension lead to the worst defeat in your sport’s history?

I am:

  1. Male

I’m not Thomas Dewey or Tank McNamara. Take a D for #3.

IQ3 - Ty Cobb, who’s suspension for assaulting a fan in 1912, led his Tigers teammates to ‘striking’ the next game. Using fill-ins, the Tigers lost 24-2 the next day.

DQ: Are you a real person?

I am:

  1. Male
  2. A real person

IQ1: Did you speak the line “to infinity–and beyond” in a movie?

IQ2: Did you disappear in Malaysia in 1967?

IQ3: Was your name turned into a verb indicating religious observance on the sports field?

I’m not Tim Allen or Tim Tebow. Take a DQ for #2.

Number 2 was Jim Thompson, a businessman in the silk trade. He is one of those mysterious disappearing people (like Jimmy Hoffa or Judge Crater). Thompson mysteriously disappeared after going for a short walk, and has never been heard from or seen since.

DQ: Are you alive today?

I am:

  1. Male
  2. A real person
  3. Alive today
  1. Were you in command of the Big Red One during the invasion of North Africa?

  2. Were you famously “blinded” back in the 80s?

  3. Are you not paying your crew to dance around like some Kansas City faggots?

I am not Thomas Dolby or Taggart from Blazing Saddles. Take a big red DQ for #1.

Terry de la Mesa Allen commanded the Big Red One.

Is your fame related to any of the Arts - acting, music, painting, etc?

I am:

  1. Male
  2. A real person
  3. Alive today
  4. Famous in a way that relates to the arts

IQ1: Did you cause people to dial 867-5309 and ask for Jenny?

IQ2: Did you, together with your friends, tell us angry young men that we were fooling ourselves?

IQ3: If I knock on your door and ask for Dave, will you tell me that he’s not there?

I’m not Tommy Tutone, Shaw, or Chong.

I am a little miffed about the Styx song stuck in my head now.

IQ1: A bandleader, were you getting sentimental over us?

IQ2: Were you a chronicler of the agreements and disagreements between fathers and sons?

IQ3: Are you a poet associated with the Dadaist movement?

I’m not Tommy Dorsey, but that’s all I know - two DQs for you. Was the poet the same one you asked about earlier?