The Eiger Sanction and The Loo Sanction were pretty good.
Not Studs Terkel and not Hunter Thompson.
I give up.
One last hint - in addition to other awards, I was the first recipient of the prize which is named for me. It is a literary prize awarded by Rockefeller University to scientists deemed to have accomplished a significant literary achievement: it “recognizes scientists as poets”. Other recipients have included Freeman Dyson, Oliver Sacks and Richard Dawkins.
I’ll reveal myself late evening my time tomorrow night if no one has guessed correctly by then.
IQ: Do you share your name with an astronomical phenomenon?
We’re at 20 DQs asked and answered, so I don’t think we get to ask any more IQs.
Here’s my “Are you Firstname Lastname” question: Are you Neil DeAndre (sp?) Tyson, the NYC-area astronomer and pop scientist?
No, I’m not Neil DeGrasse Tyson - he’s still very much with us.
Though you’re in exactly the right ball-park…
No. That would be a DQ at a different stage of the game. I’m curious to know of whom you’re thinking.
Phooey, I’ve already guessed and I know it’s the author of The Lives of a Cell, if that’s any help to anyone else.
Nebula. (Probably not named after a person)
I got nuthin’.
Well, Prof. Pepperwinkle has got it, whether the name was said out loud or not. I’m Lewis Thomas, who wrote essays in the New England Journal of Medicine. Those essays were collected into the books* The Lives of a Cell; The Medusa and the Snail* and Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. He won the National Book Award three times in both the Arts and Letters category and the Science category.
He fits chronologically between the heyday of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, and later works by Richard Dawkins. He was a contemporary of Carl Sagan, though Thomas’ subject matter and approach were remarkably different. He was also unafraid to take on politically divisive topics, such as the question of nuclear proliferation.
So, I’ll leave you folks to debate whether Lewis Thomas is as famous as Botticelli, and I await your decision as to whether I should start the next round, or whether Prof. Pepperwinkle (who did, after all, get there) should start the next round.
Prof should IMO.
I agree. The Professor should start the next round–he got closer than any of us.
I’ve never heard of the guy.
So what’s next, Prof?
Thanks, all! Next up…
I am U!
IQ: Is your autobiography considered the best among the Presidents?
I’m not Ulysses S. Grant.
I’ve heard of Lewis Thomas, but have never read his stuff, although I hear it’s quite good. Congrats, Prof.
IQs:
Are you a contemporary black actress and model?
Were you a black actress and model in the Seventies?
Did you commit adultery with the Duchess of Cornwall?
Take 2 DQs for #1 and #3. I am not Leslie Uggams.
IQ1: Are you a litigious spoon bender?
IQ2: Are you a British king?
IQ3: Do you survive The Flood?