Pet rocks
- the popularity of collecting them was very brief
- the activity was somehow worthy of an eyeroll
- stands as stark testimony to this country’s materialism, affluence, and gullibility
Quintessential conspiracy theory
Aliens at Area 51
- Area 51 is in a secluded desert area perfect for alien experimentation
- Area 51 hosts mysterious military tests (airplanes or UFOs?)
- Area 51 is a tourism draw with Extraterrestrial Highway, Alien Research Center, and Alien Cathouse (alien-themed brothel), among other places to visit
- Area 51 is used in pop culture: Independence Day, Roswell, video games, etc.
- Area 51 is actually there to distract us from the real Area 51, which is called Area 52.
Quintessential character actor
Donald Pleasence
- in a ton of movies and TV
- at one point, had lowest Bacon Number
- played both good and bad guys
- the kind of guy who you see in EVERYTHING
Next:
Quintessential Special Effect movie
The original Star Wars
-Release in 1977, one of the first movies with amazing visual effects
-Set the standard for all future special effects
-Won the Best Visual Effects Oscar
-Had a great plot in addition to the special effects
-Spawned a whole movie franchise with great special effects
Quintessential pop music group
The Beatles
- screaming teenage girls
- Top 40 hits
- lasting legacy despite the band breaking up
- hair style fad
Quintessential news magazine
Time
- Person of the Year is an observed yearly event
- Largest circulation of any weekly news magazine
- Inverted sentence structure is the rule
- signature red border
next: Quintessential footwear
Gym Shoes
- Global athletic footwear market size was over $64 billion in 2017.
- Numerous name brands are well known: Nike, Converse, Reeboks, etc.
- Shoes are diversified into wearer’s need: running shoes, basketball, wrestling, cross trainers, toe shoes, etc.
- People wear them anywhere, work, home, and even when dressing up
Quintessential American military jet
The F-14 Tomcat
- Has a cool name
- Extremely cool looking
- Not much exported, and so largely just American; Iran had a few, but that’s it
- Main aircraft in “Top Gun,” the most popular jet fighter movie
Quintessential Hallowe’en costume
Ghost
- easiest costume to make
- kids can pretend to be supernatural killers
- it’s fun to make OOooOOooOOooOOoo noises
- when the wind blows, you look like you’re floating
- too many ghosts standing around a bonfire looks like a KKK rally
quintessential robot
R2-D2
Super intelligent but witty and mischievous
Lotsa little gadgets and add ons
Communicates in beeps, whistles and wurps
Saves the day
Loyal and dedicated to its mission
Benevolent
Quintessential representation of entropy
Natural log of number of microstates multiplied by the Boltzmann constant
- expresses entropy as dimension energy divided by temperature
- extensive property of a thermodynamic system
- plays a central in information theory, which is key in lossless data compression
next: Quintessential monument
[ASIDE] Nice one! Here is, IMO, a good simple explanation of that[/ASIDE]
The Abu Simbel Temples
- One-two punch of a story: built in antiquity, relocated by moderns.
- See the trunkless legs of stone, and shattered visage in the desert sand?
- “Nothing beside remains,” says Shelley’s famous and meaningful poem.
- Oh, wait: there’s a big fine one right next to it! Sort of a package deal.
- Which, for bonus points: is a monument to him; but also a monument of him.
- And built during his reign, which I figure is another bonus point.
Quintessential murder weapon.
Actually, I Chinese Roomed it. I copied and pasted from Wikipedia and hoped it came out correct.
Huh, didn’t mean to bring this to a halt; I figured it’d maybe come down to the literal smoking gun versus the literal knife in the back — with an argument to be made that, while knives and guns have other uses, the sinister garrote only ever means one thing; plus the question of whether ‘blunt instrument’ is too broad to count as a category, and a case for poison as the all-time classic.
All kinds of possibilities, really. But, if not: quintessential fairy tale?
since TOWP has already engaged in bit of his own analysis on the question of murder weapons, let’s go with the blank canvas and choose the quintessential fairy tale…
Red Riding Hood,
- it was written (well, collected really) by the Grimm Brothers
- the story involved an innocent young girl
- it featured talking animals (a wolf)
- earliest versions have disturbing sexual undertones
quintessential tycoon
Cornelius Vanderbilt
- the term “tycoon” was brought back from Japan by Commodore Perry and first applied to Vanderbilt
- embodies the “rags to riches” distinction as he came from humble origins and a mediocre education
- pioneered the railroad industry and American transportation infrastructure
- led Pacific/Atlantic transport across Nicaragua prior to the Panama Canal
- founded Vanderbilt University
quintessential computer
The Chinese Room
Passes the Turing Test
Central to debate about whether “artificial intelligence” exists by questioning the meaning of both words in that phrase
Proof of principle demonstrated in this thread ( if you believe the prior poster who invoked it ;))
Quintessential socially awkward moment.
Oly, I wouldn’t lie about my knowledge of entropy. 
I live by the motto “Fake it till you make it.”
re: Quintessential socially awkward moment.
The Freudian Slip
- exposes our hidden nature for a brief moment
- leads to humorous anecdotes that are often sexual in nature
- considered a classical psychoanalysis case
- Freud analyzed his own error in identifying a fresco painter in the first formal study of the condition
next: Quintessential hoax
Cardiff Giant
Complex plot conceived, planned and carried out as a.way to humiliate someone and win an argument
Later adapted into a successful profiteering venture
Drew on people’s vanity and proclivity to deceive themselves and defy logic amd common sense in order to avoid the cognitive dissonance resulting from pointing out the obvious absurdity on an accepted “fact”
Fully exposed by the perpetrator, not because he was outed, but to prove his point
But then Co-opted by PT Barnum, the quintessential American huckster/hoaxer, who was shortly thereafter charged with creating a fake of a fake, or a hoax of a hoax, if you prefer
And PT Barnum beats the rap
You can see the body in Cooperstown, NY
Quintessential once huge now defunct corporation.