Botticelli, March 2012. Game 2: Z

Per suggestion in the first March thread, I’m starting a new thread to make it more obvious to lurkers that a new game has begun.
I’m also stealing Le Ministre’s excellent summary for the OP.

Welcome to the next round of Botticelli. For those unfamiliar with the game, here’s a very good summary - Botticelli. A couple of specific things to add -

  1. No research is allowed - this includes all search engines and internet encyclopediae. This is on the honour system, naturally.

  2. Please mark your questions clearly as to whether they are Indirect Questions (IQs) or Direct Questions (DQs)

  3. It does speed up the game to ask more than one question in the same post; however, we’ve found that it works best to adopt a limit of 3 questions at a time from each participant.

  4. Initials can be from first, last or middle names. (And which name the initial represents is a good DQ, by the way.)
    Z

IQ1: Early in your career, did you play a bicycle as a musical instrument on the Steve Allen show?

IQ2: Are you one of Stephen King’s favourite authors, despite the disparity in your two genres?

IQ3: Are you the title character of Richard Strauss’ most famous orchestral tone poem? (Well, the first two minutes are famous, anyway…)

IQ3: I am not Zarathustra of “that song from 2001” fame.

Take DQs for the other 2.

IQs:

Did Sean Connery appear in a movie featuring your name?

Did your dad decide he couldn’t do his job after you were kidnapped?

Did you not get a top job because of your earlier issues with an employee?

I’ve been watching the past couple of games of this, and I must say, I’m fascinated by it. I don’t think I can participate though, so I’ll just observe.

But I do think I can hit Le Ministre’s IQ2. Can I get a crack at it before the answer is given?

Have a go!
Just think of anyone reasonably famous whose first or last name starts with a Z.
Then pose an IQ…

IQ1: Were you a Russian (later Soviet) chess Master?

IQ2: Were you a President who fled after a theft?

IQ3: Were you a German chess problem composer who had a composition theme named after him?

IQ1: It was Frank Zappa at the age of 17. (That wasn’t research - it has been floating around several friends’ FaceBook pages for a while.)

IQ2: Zane Grey, author of dozens of westerns, is a big favourite of Stephen King. King name drops Grey in the intro to ‘Night Shift’, among many other places.
DQ1: Are you real?

DQ2: Are you male?

I don’t know what happens in official tournament play - my own opinion is that as long as the chooser has already given up on a question and as long as the DQ goes to the questioner who stumped the chooser in the first place, there’s no harm done. However, it’s much more entertaining to be the erudite one who stumped the questioner in the first place. In other words, why not just get in the game? The more questioners, the more fun. There’s nothing to stop you from participating except your lack of available time in real life.

Definitely best to let the person who asked the IQ supply the answer, once the chooser/“It” has indicated he or she doesn’t know it.

But by all means, start asking some IQs of your own! The more, the merrier when it comes to players.

Okay, let’s see what I can manage. I’ll try two IQs for now:

IQ1: Did you record a song about lycanthropes?

IQ2: Did Samuel L. Jackson play you in a Bruce Willis action movie?

I am not Zardoz.

Take DQs for the other 2

IQ2: I am not Zachary Taylor? Only ‘Z’ president I can think of, although I don’t remember any theft story. Most likely this IQ isn’t about a US president.
Take 2 (or 3, if I’m wrong) DQs.

No
Yes

Not Warren “Werewolves of London” Zevon
Not Zeus from Die Hard With A Vengeance. I can’t remember his last name, but I do remember the Jesus/Hey Zeus bit.

Summary
Z

  1. Not real
  2. Male

IQ1: Is your pseudonym based on your own first name and the first name of a poet whom you admire?

IQ2: Does your best known series centre around the struggle for political supremacy of a realm of which our reality is but a shadow?

IQ3: Are you a major conductor who was born in Mumbai?

Correct as to Zardoz.

The second is Zoe Bartlet, the President’s daughter in The West Wing.

The third is Zoe Baird, President Clinton’s nominee to be Attorney General, whose nomination was dumped due to tax/immigration issues with her nanny, IIRC.

DQs:

Last name begin with Z?
Contemporary? (That is, if he were real, would he be alive now?)

IQs:

Did Mariette Hartley play you early in her career?
Was a major Western Hemisphere landmark named after you?
Were you a monarch in an unpleasant alternate universe?

Correct on both.

So “not real” and “male,” eh? Okay, more IQs:

IQ1: Are you a character in a Scott McCloud comic book?

IQ2: Are you a character once played by Bobcat Goldthwait?

IQ3: Are you a character once played by Harvey Lembeck?

IQ2: I am not Zachary Taylor? Only ‘Z’ president I can think of, although I don’t remember any theft story. Most likely this IQ isn’t about a US president.
Take 2 (or 3, if I’m wrong) DQs.

I was thinking of:

  • Znosko-Borovsky (first chess international in 1906 as Russian; won Paris 1930)

  • Zaphod Beeblebrox was President of the Galaxy when he stole the spaceship ‘Heart of Gold’

  • Zepler was a German chess composer. The doubling theme is named after him.

DQ1: Are you American?

DQ2: Have you appeared in a film?

DQ3: Are you a villain?

IQ1: Not Robert Zimmerman AKA Bob Dylan
IQ2: Not Roger “Chronicles of Amber” Zelazny
Take a DQ for #3

No
Hmmm… He would not be alive now because he dies in the story; however, had the story ended differently, yes, he could still be alive now.

Not Spock squeeze Zarabeth from the Star Trek episode “All Our Yesterdays”
Don’t know #2 - Take a DQ
Guess time: Not General Zod? I know DC did all sorts of alternate universe stuff. Perhaps Zod was a monarch in one of those? DQ for you if I’m wrong.

3 DQs for you.

No
Yes - I should add that although I am fictional, the film in which I appeared was not.
No

Summary
Z

  1. Not real
  2. Male
  3. Last name does not begin with Z
  4. Could be alive today had I not died in my story
  5. Not American
  6. Appeared in a non-fiction film
  7. Not a villain

Absolutely right on Bob Dylan and Roge Zelazny. #3 is Zubin Mehta, who is perhaps best known as the conductor for the Three Tenors, but who has had an amazing international career.

DQ: European?

(Table talk)

WHAT?!? How does that work?

IQ1: Does your job require you to wear a suit, be discreet and carry sunglasses?

IQ2: Did your invention takeoff, but then crash and burn?

IQ3: Didi you lose to Steinitz in the first World Championship match?

Correct as to Zarabeth - nicely done!
Pike’s Peak was named for explorer Zebulon Pike.
Zod was never actually a monarch. I was thinking of Queen Zara, ruler of a fascist alternative Great Britain in Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta.

DQs:

European?
Best known for your appearance in the film?

IQs:

Were you a man who changed depending on who he found himself with?
Did you have a black female assistant for your greatest achievement?
Did you fall in love with the daughter of your mentor’s enemy?

IQ1: Not Agent Zed from the Men in Black movies.
Take DQs for the other 2.

no

To the best of my knowledge, my character’s story has never been adapted into a stand-alone fictional narrative film. However, my character has appeared in a documentary, so I felt it would be inaccurate to say “no” and misleading to simply say “yes”

Summary
Z

  1. Not real
  2. Male
  3. Last name does not begin with Z
  4. Could be alive today had I not died in my story
  5. Not American
  6. Appeared in a non-fiction film
  7. Not a villain
  8. Not European