No. 195: "Suggestive Gestures"
Last week, the British government received a letter offering advice on
an ongoing investigation. From whom; suggesting what?
by noon
ET Tuesday to e-mail your answer to [email protected] .
Thursday's Question
(No. 194)--"Unaffordable":
After a call from Ford Motors, Greg Bradsher of the National
Archives said, "You have to think in terms of corporate memories. There is
probably no one around who knows anything about this stuff." What stuff does
Ford need help remembering?
"Henry's first minivan, the 'Ford YellowStar.' "-- Beth Sherman
"The
schematic of the rather messy, and sadly unsuccessful, 'pudding-filled
airbags.' "-- Danny Spiegel
"Robert
McNamara's gentle, charming wit. It's for a miniseries."-- Greg
Diamond
"The
brief yet tumultuous reign of Generalísimo Franco as Ford CEO."-- Tim
Carvell
"I can
see where this is going, Randy. Yes, Ford cooperated with Hitler, but it was
Chevy that made 19 zillion truck ads with Bob Seger's 'Like a Rock.'
"-- Chris Kelly
Click
for more answers.
Randy's
Wrap-Up
A year ago, when News
Quiz debuted,
Slate
was free. Now, to commemorate our first
anniversary, in an act of incredible corporate generosity that is every bit as
good as providing health insurance (I'm sure that Mr. Gates will make this sort
of thing more available should Microsoft prove profitable),
Slate
is once again free. I like to think of it as my personal gift to News Quiz
participants. (And the high concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere that
sustains life on this planet--hey, it's on me!) Enjoy. Because, at the risk of
sentimentality, it's the News Quiz participants that make it fun for me. We've
come a long way together from Strom Thurmond's ass (which, while not free, is
surprisingly affordable), and if online technology were not in its infancy,
right about now I'd be buying you all a round of free-range rug shampoo. Maybe
next year. Thanks for playing.
Professionally
Researched Answer
Ford can't remember if it profited from its German
operations under the Nazis, so it has hired historians to help it recall. A key
detail--did it lose control of German subsidiary Ford Werke before or after the
United States entered the war?
It is Holocaust litigation, not the love of
learning, that has sent several corporations into the archives, notes Barry
Meier in the New York Times , including General Motors and Deutsche Bank,
both of whom hired prominent historians. However, the natural bias of their
corporate employers can make academics uneasy.
"Among certain corporate historians, there is an
ideology that corporations are unfairly maligned and that they are less
powerful than they are made out to be," says Professor Michael Pinto-Duchinsky
of England's Brunel University.
On the other hand, the
pay is terrific, notes researcher Miriam Kleinman, who works the other side of
the street for a class-action law firm: "Some of those people have limousines
picking them up."
Tim Carvell's
Anniversary Extra
A guest extra marking the first year of News
Quiz.
Granted this corner of the quiz to fill how I
choose, I'm going to live the dream of every participant who's ever had an
especially good answer rejected: I'm going to run my dozen favorites that
Randy, in his "wisdom," callously spurned.
"Covered with festering sores, of course."
"A saucy Margaret Thatcher, fresh from the hairstylist."
"Tom DeLay, polling the constituents, if you catch my drift."
"They don't."
"Michael Kinsley's pale, puffy ass."
"CLINTON GETS OFF," the New York Post .
"A pissed-off Barbara Lippert."
"That new Irish film, Wanking Ned Devine .
"The Korean War."
"Casey Silver, explaining his decision to green-light Babe: Pig in an
Abattoir.
"John Ehrlichmann, describing what he liked best about Pat Nixon."
"Miss Tori Spelling."
Common
Denominator
Ford's miserable anti-Semitic founder.
Strong second: Ford's
unexpectedly flammable Pinto.
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