Happily, I’ve gotten some interest in the idea I had about reading the works that had been adapted into Best Screenplay Oscar nominees. I’ve also gotten a couple of suggestions. Actually the first person to respond, a co-worker, was confused by what I wrote. That confuses me. Does anyone else need clarification?
Another co-worker is interested but thinks we should just read the winners of Best Adapted Screenplay, not all the nominees. (I suppose if we get done we could do the other nominees then.) Furthermore, once she discovered that the most recent winner was “The Social Network” (adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires), she asked that we start with “Precious,” which won the previous year. 🙂 Also interested: My aunt, my mom, and maybe my sister and uncle. And I want you! Let’s get reading, although I still think I will wait to start watching the movies until after I get back from Europe (early October). So the first two books will be the Mezrich book above and the novel Push, by Sapphire. If you’re ready for the next book after those, just keep going and ask me if you want to know what it is.
Strangely enough, this is one of the questions in the Summer Hiatus Challenge this week: “Larry McMurtry won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for this 2005 cowboy romance starring Heath Ledger.” Which makes me think, “Oh, no, I have to read that?” Has anyone reading this already read the book in question? What did you think?
Another weird coincidence related to the Summer Hiatus Challenge: Some clues from two episodes I just watched were somehow related to clues in the Challenge. This clue came from the Challenge category Opera: “This Rossini title character planned to kill Gessler with the second arrow had the first arrow missed its target.” Related clue from Jeopardy! (category Where There’s a Will): “Set in 1307, this 4-act opera has long been the apple of my eye.”
From the Challenge, in 3-D Art and Artists: “This school, which taught German Modernist architecture during the Weimar Republic, was run at various times by Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.” And these two clues from Jeopardy! (both in Architects): “Walter Gropius founded this innovative design school at Weimar in 1919” and “In 1929 he created the “Barcelona Chair”, a chair of curved steel bands cantilevered to support cushions.”
How about this clue from the Challenge (category British Literature): “This author of Lord of the Flies won the Booker Prize for his 1980 novel Rites of Passage.” And this one from the show (category Where There’s a Will): “His island-set 1954 novel divided characters into 2 groups; hunters & fire-keepers.”
From the Challenge, category U.S. Cities: “This city named for Ceclilus Calvert started as a tobacco port at Locus Point in 1706.” From the show, category The 13 Colonies: “Last name of the family that regained control of Maryland from the Crown in 1715.” (I didn’t get this one right in the Challenge, but I did watching the show!)
My point is that participation in the Challenge can help you study for Jeopardy! As for the past champs participating in the Challenge, only scores from Monday and Tuesday have been posted so far. So, for those two days, of 20 responses:
correct incorrect no response
Bill MacDonald (Rex Kramer) 20 0 0
Paul Wampler (paul5562) 17 0 3
Nick Condon (njcondon) 17 0 3
Buddy Wright (aggiebud) 17 1 2
Ryan Chaffee (mrbungle) 15 1 4
Megan Barnes (Rafferty Barnes) 15 1 4
Stefan Goodreau (seaborgium) 13 1 6
Liz Murphy (emurphy) 13 3 4
Alison Stone Roberg (Asphodel) 12 0 &nb
sp; 8
Hans von Walter (hanzz) 10 3 7
Me (thejeopardyfan) 10 3 7
My recent Coryats:
originally 10-27-05: Jennifer Furlong 1000 Joey Bland 20400 Jeff Pandin 11400 Me 16600
originally 2-23-11: Carlee Jensen 3800 Erin Hart 20400 Raynell Cooper 14400 Me 36200
My Coryat score the first time I played this one was 29200! I went 26/30 in Double Jeopardy on this episode today. And by the way, I saw a lot of Raynell during the National History Bowl/unofficial Jeopardy! reunion.
