Botticelli October 2011

  1. Real
  2. Male
  3. Not American
  4. First name begins with “C”
  5. Dead
  6. European
  7. Not born in the 20th century
  8. Not from a Romance-language country
  9. Not born between 1700-1900
  10. Not known as any kind of artist
  11. Born in the BC era
  12. Known for political or military deeds
  13. Not a scientist or intellectual
  14. Not Greek
  15. Not Roman
  16. A royal or an aristocrat
  17. Not Asian
  18. Had my ups and downs with the Romans
  19. A prominent general or warrior
  20. Have not entirely escaped Hollywood’s attention

Correct as to Caligula.

Charles Martin Hall is the founder of ALCOA.

Charles Emerson Winchester is the Boston doc, from MASH*.

I’ll reserve my DQs for a moment. I don’t think the Asian question should be counted among our twenty DQs; you already said he’s European.

Did the hero/inventor of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” share your name?

True, and it was pretty clear he was not a Roman from #8.

Correct on Chuck.

Krekor Ohanian became Touch Connors, then adopted the first name of Mike before starring in Mannix.

Gary Collins was the name shared by the actor and receiver.

DQ’s (if I still have the opportunity to ask):

  1. Were you considered a barbarian?

  2. Were you from Scandinavia?

I know Ian Fleming and Dick Van Dyke, but not the character. Ask a DQ.

Dick van Dyke played Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Caractus was a royal/warrior who battled the Romans in what’s now Britain.

If it wasn’t him… I got nuthin’

You have seniority in earning the DQ’s, so I think I will condense not Asian/European and not Romance/not Roman into just two questions, answer your pair, and then declare the “endgame” underway.

  1. That’s a tough one, but I will answer “no” and give my justification later.

  2. Not Scandanavian.

  3. Real

  4. Male

  5. Not American

  6. First name begins with “C”

  7. Dead

  8. European

  9. Not born in the 20th century

  10. Not Roman or from a Romance-language country

  11. Not born between 1700-1900

  12. Not known as any kind of artist

  13. Born in the BC era

  14. Known for political or military deeds

  15. Not a scientist or intellectual

  16. Not Greek

  17. A royal or an aristocrat

  18. Had my ups and downs with the Romans

  19. A prominent general or warrior

  20. Have not entirely escaped Hollywood’s attention

  21. Not an unargued, full-on Barbarian

  22. Not Scandinavian

Endgame!

I am not Caractacus.

Was it the guy who lured those two legions to their doom in the forests of Germany? Dunno his name. Someone else can use it as their “Are you ____?” final question, if you like.

Sounds like you mean Herman, or Arminius, as the Romans knew him.

Or Varus. Augustus, in his old age, would weep in the night, crying out “Oh, Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!”. (Well, in Latin…) I can’t think of a ‘C’ associated with Varus, though. Surely he wasn’t Caius Varus, was he?

It could be a Celt from what is now Britain (because of the ‘not from a Romance-language country’, this couldn’t be a Celt from what is now Spain, right?), it could be a Gaul from what is now Germany (but not a Gaul from what is now France or Belgium…) or it could be a Slav. I’m rather suspecting it might be someone mentioned in Julius Ceasar’s campaigns. Wish I could have asked that as a DQ.

My apologies for the lame question about ‘Asian’, by the way - in the heat of my hunch about Cyrus, I had read that as ‘not European’.

I guess I will give the answer after midnight tonight, Dope time, or a bit later.

Well, I’m stumped.

Ok, I am Cunobelinus, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. I am the father of Caractacus, who was Astorian’s guess, so if close counts in horseshoes and Botticelli, I nominate him to run the next game.

I wasn’t sure if Mr. C rated as a barbarian, but I don’t think most of us were brought up to consider the Britons that way. I recall Gibbon explaining that the Romans stopped in the vicinity of Hadrian’s wall because further north, it was all naked barbarians not worth the conquering. I’m not sure what the Scots say. Also, his kingdom was pretty well defined, which is not the typical barbarian way.

Well done, AppallingGael!

Just for the record, the Scots are immensely proud of having been seen as too barbaric to be worth conquering.

Has anyone else heard of Cunobelinus?

Not by that name, but I’ve heard of Cymbeline. Might have got it if I’d been thinking more about Shakespeare and less about Herodotus. (It’s been, what, about 20 years or more since I read Cymbeline and it’s one of the few Shakespeares that I’ve never seen.)

I will humgly (very humbly, since I didn’t actually solve the previous puzzle) accept the invitation and go with the letter…

A

IQ: Did you write the line “declining a Charlotte Russe, accepting a fig”?

IQ: Did you write a book called She Was Nice to Mice?

IQ: Did you host a show called Double Dare?