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All Things Are Relative

“All things are relative.” 

Or..so the sages would have us believe.

I once had a teacher who loved to say, “All things are as they should be.” (However, a close friend tells everyone he meets, that the word “Should"...‘should’ be removed from our language, since it just causes angst and anger among those of us who over-use it.)

Here are some example, in my opinion, of things that just “shouldn’t” be...or are "as they should be."


1.  Do you know that not one single every produced and released by the Beatles, has ever sold more copies than “Tik-Tok” by Ke$ha? This was her debut single. Here’s where the “all things are relative” comes into play. There are more people “acquiring” (including ‘purchasing’) music today, than in the late ‘60’s – therefore numbers can be relative. But, God help me…more than any Beatle’s single? This just seems against the laws of nature.

2.  In 2012, one out of every seven Americans had at least 10 credit cards.  Are you kidding me?! With all the hue and cry about the economy, it appears that lots of people haven’t either felt enough pain…or…they are continue the personal laissez-faire financial attitude that helped drive us off the fiscal cliff.

 

Considering that these millions of American don’t see how they are trivializing their own finances, I therefore think this fact falls in the trivia category.

3.  NY Yankee first baseman, Joe Pepitone (the first professional ballplayer to bring a hair dyer into the clubhouse) was born in Brooklyn on October 9, 1940. Big deal? However, another baby born on the same day, across the pond in Liverpool, UK, turned out to be John Lennon (the first pop singer to be assassinated).

 

Now that’s an interesting coincidence. Or, perhaps it is “as it should be.”

4.  Most people know that Edgar Allen Poe
is associated with dark themes, death and lost love. He’s considered the originator of the detective crime novel. But, few – even deep admirers – know that he was considered somewhat of an expert on sea shells. due to a constant need for money, Poe produced an updated adaptation “A Manual of Conchology,” that was released in 1839, under the title “The Conchologist’s First Book.”

For his effort, Poe was paid $50. In today's economy, that would be worth $1,190.50. 

Poe’s novel, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” (which was never very popular) gives readers insight into his love of sea shells. And Poe followers have found a mild influence (by the novel) on Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.

Mr. Poe seems to have been more than a heavy drinking novelist and poet who lived in the dark shadows in which his characters typically resided. He also worked in "other" modes of expression, to pay the bills. He might have been the Jack Kerouac of his day. But, like modern writers, there is more to them, than their popular novels. J.D. Salinger worked as the entertainment director of a cruise line. Kurt Vonnegut managed a car dealership for Saab. And, John Steinbeck hated his work as a construction worker on Madison Square Garden.

5. Did you know that zucchini isn’t a vegetable? Now, what it is came as a verbal surprise. I didn’t expect to hear/read the following. It is actually an immature fruit – the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower. Well…OK. I can live with that. Speaking of food, what’s with the ever-growing number of reality TV cooking shows? My wife won’t appreciate this, but the cooking programs, while they allow cat fights to occur between warring chefs (or chef wannabes), that often display down-and-dirty back-stabbing and self-acclaimed ego dysfunction leading to melt-downs and sobbing, the food produced is a hell of a lot more entertaining and intellectually mouth watering than anything Project Runway produces. So…what are the top 5 reality cooking shows (as of January 2013)? Is it “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Iron Chef America,” “Sweet Genius,” “Top Chef,” “MasterChef,” “The Next Iron Chef,” “Chopped,” or “Restaurant Wars?” Yes, we listed 8. Three didn’t make the top 5 list. Here goes: #1 goes to “Top Chef.” The Quickfire and Elimination challenges are very popular with viewers. Winners can walk away with $200,000 and a feature in “Food & Wine Magazine.”

 

#2 on the list is “MasterChef,” which features amateur cooks. Starting off with 100 wannabe chefs, who prepare what they call their signature dishes, only 14 make the final competition. Three judges, including Joe Bastianich, Graham Ellio and the infamous (yet sedated) Gordon Ramsay, make the final decision. #3 goes to the often-wild “Hell’s Kitchen.” If you’re into verbal abuse and lots of “bleeping out” of cuss words, this is the show for you. Gordon Ramsay runs a tight ship with brutal truths – even devastating assessments that leave competing aspiring chefs in the dust – and on the floor. #4 on the list is “The Next Iron Chef.” It appears the student has surpassed the teacher. While a spin-off of “Iron Chef America,” this show has moved its parent to a lower position on this list. Two contesting chefs go head-to-head in “Kitchen Stadium,” coming up with recipes that often include some off-the-wall key ingredients. And finally…there is the #5 TV cooking shows. And the honor goes to ”Chopped.” If you recall the reality show, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” you’ll recognize the host of “Chopped” – Ted Allen. Starting out with four chefs, elimination rounds, revolving around mystery ingredients in wicker baskets, provide enough culinary challenges and opportunities for one winner to eventually emerge. Each episode features all new contesting chefs, who prepare their dishes for a panel of three experienced chefs and food reviewers.

 

The other shows mentioned, didn’t make the Top 5 List. Who cares?! I don't. Maybe you do. I find too many of these shows seem frightenly similar. Perhaps they are all “relative,” and their repetitiveness “as it should be.” But I find them a definition of hell. - - - - Just a few thoughts. They be "as they should be," or perhaps they "shouldn't" have happened. I’ve been wrong before. But, I do know that they are trivial.

Happy New Year from GT

Picking the “Person of the Year” Isn’t All that Easy or Flawless

Happy New Year! We at Guerrilla Trivia wish you and yours the very best for a great 2013.

Back in 1927, TIME magazine initiated a tradition that has survived criticism and adulation. The first selection of “Man of the Year” was the young dashing pilot, Charles Lindbergh. Over the years, the selections have typically been a single person. However, groups and multiple individuals have been chosen.

So…many Americans were pleased to see President Barack Obama selected as the TIME “Person of the Year” (for the second time).  Of course, there were plenty who weren’t. You can’t please everyone.

It must be a tough job, filtering out pros and cons, trying to fathom successes and failures, deciding who fits the definition of what qualifies one to be that special person.  So, what are the qualifications?

Back in 2001, Jim Kelly, TIME editor, interviewed on the Web, gave this classic definition of who qualifies: “…the person who most affected the events of the year, for better or for worse.” In 1938, Adolf Hiter made the cover (published Jan. 2, 1939) “before all his crimes became known to the world. When Hitler made ‘Man of the Year,’ the illustration was of him playing the Organ of Death with skeletons all over it. It was not meant to be an honor to Hitler. The reaction to it was surprisingly mute.”

The selection of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 was controversial, and a few hundred people canceled their subscriptions. Women have been Person of the Year: Wallace Warfield-Simpson, who married the King of England; Queen Elizabeth has been Woman of the Year; Madame Chaing Kai-Shek and Cori Aquino also made the cut. In 1975, all American Women were the choice.

Here’s the list of the chosen few:

1927	Charles Augustus Lindbergh
1928	Walter P. Chrysler
1929	Owen D. Young
1930	Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1931	Pierre Laval
1932	Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1933	Hugh Samuel Johnson
1934	Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1935	Haile Selassie
1936	Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson
1937	Generalissimo & Mme Chiang Kai-Shek
1938	Adolf Hitler
1939	Joseph Stalin
1940	Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1941	Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1942	Joseph Stalin
1943	George Catlett Marshall
1944	Dwight David Eisenhower
1945	Harry Truman
1946	James F. Byrnes
1947	George Catlett Marshall
1948	Harry Truman
1949	Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1950	American Fighting-Man
1951	Mohammed Mossadegh
1952	Elizabeth II
1953	Konrad Adenauer
1954	John Foster Dulles
1955	Harlow Herbert Curtice
1956	Hungarian Freedom Fighter
1957	Nikita Krushchev
1958	Charles De Gaulle
1959	Dwight David Eisenhower
1960	U.S. Scientists
1961	John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1962	Pope John XXIII
1963	Martin Luther King Jr.
1964	Lyndon B. Johnson
1965	General William Childs Westmoreland
1966	Twenty-Five and Under
1967	Lyndon B. Johnson
1968	Astronauts Anders, Borman and Lovell
1969	The Middle Americans
1970	Willy Brandt
1971	Richard Milhous Nixon
1972	Nixon and Kissinger
1973	John J. Sirica
1974	King Faisal
1975	American Women
1976	Jimmy Carter
1977	Anwar Sadat
1978	Teng Hsiao-P'ing
1979	Ayatullah Khomeini
1980	Ronald Reagan
1981	Lech Walesa
1982	The Computer
1983	Ronald Reagan & Yuri Andropov
1984	Peter Ueberroth
1985	Deng Xiaoping
1986	Corazon Aquino
1987	Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1988	Endangered Earth
1989	Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1990	The Two George Bushes
1991	Ted Turner
1992	Bill Clinton
1993	The Peacemakers
1994	Pope John Paul II
1995	Newt Gingrich
1996	Dr. David Ho
1997	Andy Grove
1998	Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr
1999	Jeff Bezos
2000	George W. Bush
2001	Rudolph Giuliani
2002	The Whistleblowers
2003	The American Soldier
2004	George W. Bush
2005	Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono
2006	You
2007	Vladimir Putin
2008	Barack Obama
2009	Ben Bernanke
2010	Mark Zuckerberg

Did you notice which U.S. Presidents made it twice?

How quickly we all forget. Do you remember the cover selection for 2011?

Who would have been your choice for 2012?