No. 263: "Exchanging Glances"
Despite a recent
clash of gunboats, yesterday a South Korean freighter delivered something to
the North Korean port of Nampo, the first part of a trade between the two
nations. What is being swapped for what?
Send
your answer by noon ET Wednesday to [email protected] .
Monday's Question
(No. 262)--"Wonder Bread?":
Michigan Gov. John
Engler says it "strengthens families, stabilizes neighborhoods, builds
communities, enhances self-sufficiency, and promotes personal well-being." What
does?
(Q uestion courtesy of Herb Terns. )
"Spouting platitudes."-- Daniel Radosh
"Money, of course."-- P. Mattick ( Bobby Ballard , Karen
Bitterman , and Matthew Singer had similar answers.)
"Taunting the poor."--Floyd Elliot
"Sounds to me like somebody's rethought his opposition to physician-assisted
suicide."-- Tim Carvell
"Really, is there anything Jack Daniels can't do?"-- Brian Danenberg
(similarly, Jeff Mecom )
Click
for more answers.
Randy's
Wrap-Up
"Deranged militias,
abandoned factories, and seething hostility to the poor, that is Michigan to
me." So concludes the winning essay in the state's annual ... No , wait, sorry.
That is Michigan to News Quiz participants. But to the 1960 edition of the
World Book Encyclopedia , it is so much more. It is the wolverine state,
"although scientists believe there were never many wolverines there," notes a
cranky Willis Dunbar, author of the World Book essay. Michigan is also
celebrated as the "Water Wonderland," because it has "four times as much
water-covered area as any state," a curious boast, giving the impression that
by the second paragraph, Dunbar is straining to find nice things to say.
Michigan--surprisingly submerged! Indeed, being excessively water-covered is
what sends most states whining to the federal government for emergency aid.
Still, it makes a nice license plate slogan--Michigan: more water-covered than
any of you bastards!--and it probably keeps down the wolverine population.
A Panacea You Can
Live in Answer
Owning a home strengthens, stabilizes, builds,
enhances, and promotes, said Gov. Engler, as he proclaimed June as
Homeownership Month, presumably weeks ago when we were all too preoccupied with
Kosovo and ourselves to notice.
As one of the month's many activities, the Michigan
State Housing Development Authority sponsored an essay and drawing contest,
"What My Home Means to Me," for 5- through 12-year-olds whose families
purchased a home in 1998 through a MSHDA funding and loan program. The Michigan
Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association also
contributed to the festive mood of the event.
For Timothy Noah's
contrary view on the salubrious effects of home ownership, click and .
Equal Justice
Extra
Over the past 24 hours,
authorities on two of America's most distant shores handed down punishments to
two miscreants, Capt. Joseph Hazelwood and Roughrider. A comparison:
Species of
Perp
Capt. Hazelwood: Human
Roughrider: Bull
Weight of
Perp
Capt. Hazelwood: Doesn't say, but he looks around
165, maybe 175
Roughrider: 1,700 pounds
Hurtful Slur From
Insensitive Critics
Capt. Hazelwood: Boozy incompetent
Roughrider: Dangerous ruminant
Place of
Crime
Capt. Hazelwood: Pristine waters of Prince William
Sound
Roughrider: Pristine streets of Long Island
City
Place of
Punishment
Capt. Hazelwood: Anchorage, Alaska
Roughrider: Queens, N.Y.
Crime
Capt. Hazelwood: Discharging 11 million gallons of
oil from the Exxon Valdez
Roughrider: Participating in unlicensed traveling
Mexican rodeo
Damage Caused by
Crime
Capt. Hazelwood: Despoiling 1,000 miles of
shoreline and killing tens of thousands of birds and marine mammals
Roughrider: None
Punishment
Capt. Hazelwood: One thousand hours of community
service over five years
Roughrider: Shot 20 times by cops
Punishment, More
Specifically
Capt. Hazelwood: Pick up litter in the summer
Roughrider: Die
Time Between Crime
and Punishment
Capt. Hazelwood: Nine years
Roughrider: A few minutes
Rejected
Alternative Sentencing
Capt. Hazelwood: Jail
Roughrider: Safely immobilized with tranquilizer
dart
Comments That Put
It All in Perspective
Capt. Hazelwood: "He'll be doing different things
each day. Tomorrow he could be cleaning parks."-- Fred Fulgencio, head of
Anchorage's community work service program
Roughrider: "I thought I
saw a horse running down the street, then all of a sudden I noted it had horns.
I said to my family, 'Honey, that's a bull.' "-- Sandra Davis,
eyewitness
Greg Diamond's Ongoing
Extra
Participants have until
Sunday to mock and deride the AFI's
Greatest Legends List of movie stars by devising a TV Guide -style
plot summary of a movie in which an unlikely yet equally ranked pair--for
instance Kirk Douglas and Lillian Gish are both rated No. 17--might have
co-starred.
Inspirational example:
No. 24 Watch of
Evil --An evil scientist (Edward G. Robinson) hypnotizes a woman (Mary
Pickford) and makes her think that he looks like a dashing leading man.
Well-known for the catch phrase "Nyaarh, your eyes are getting heavy,
nyaarh!"
Common
Denominator
Indifference to the poor, affection for drugs.
