The Six Degrees of Separation Game.

[judiu]

Petula Clark is signed by Sony

Wheatus was signed by Sony but left in 2005 after a dispute, shortly followed by their album Suck Fony

and released a single called Truffles

Barry Humphries and pheasant

←

Sorry, but Petula Clark sang "Downtown".

Downtown are where a lot of the great restaurants are.

Great restaurants use truffles in their dishes.

ETA: Queen Juliana and rice.

Edited January 17, 2007 by judiu (log)

[insomniac]

Queen Juliana was queen of the Netherlands

where Indonesian food is prominent

and rijstafel a favourite way of eating rice

Muhammed Ali and courgettes

Edited January 17, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Jack Black and steamed rice

Jack Black starred in the 2006 movie "Nacho Libre". The movie is about a is a young man who was raised in a monastery in Mexico and now works there as the cook. Fueled by his passion for wrestling, he dons a mask and cape and picks up a partner to compete in a local Lucha Libre tournament to try for the $200 prize so he can buy better food for the kids and achieve respect.

One of the common Mexican side dishes is rice.

Rice can be cooked boiled or steamed.

[Domestic Goddess]

Hello Everyone! Good day

In Play:

Virginia Woolf and He Cai Dai Mao

And, who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?

←

I tried to google He Cai Dai Mao and came up empty. It kept giving me Chairman Mao's articles.

Latest game: John Wayne and foie gras

[annecros]

Good Morning!

Update:

In Play:

Virginia Woolf and He Cai Dai Mao

Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) and gravlax

Pablo Neruda and an icecream sundae

Barry Humphries and pheasant

John Wayne and foie gras

Muhammed Ali and courgettes

[insomniac]

In King of the Pecos John Wayne's foe is a lily livered cattle stealing land grabbing thief

Foie gras is made from liver, please yourself, duck or goose

Meatloaf and meatloaf

[Domestic Goddess]

Meatloaf and meatloaf

Despite his famous moniker, the singer/actor Meatloaf doesn't like to eat meatloaf.

[Pontormo]

Pablo Neruda and the ice cream sundae:

Neruda wrote a famous political poem entitled "The United Fruit Company" that condemned the formation of banana republics.

Banana splits are ice cream sundaes, are they not?

* * *

I hope this kind of challenge is allowed: while I cannot dictate how you solve the following, I would love to see you do this in six different steps with six different people named each time you reach the finale, i.e. five names beyond the first I provide.

If you are able to use two that I used in when coming up with my six degrees of separation, perhaps Janet* would award you a bonus point? It's up to her. Obviously, you don't have to guess how I made the associations. Since there are two fairly well known Americans who share one of the names I'm about to offer, either is fine, too.

So, the challenge: Toni Morrison and polenta.

Potential bonus point: include in your degrees Paul Simon and Mia Farrow.

*I am sending her the solution in a PM.

Edited January 17, 2007 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

Hello Everyone! Good day

In Play:  Virginia Woolf and He Cai Dai Mao

←

I tried to google He Cai Dai Mao and came up empty. It kept giving me Chairman Mao's articles.

←

Sorry, I was going for obscure, but not that obscure!

How about Virginia Woolf and Ba Bao La Jiang, instead?

[annecros]

Sorry I've been so busy today and haven't had time to look in. I have a deadline at my door today, but later in the week I should have some time to dig in and seriously play.

In Play:

Virginia Woolf and Ba Bao La Jiang (Ms. Woolf's tastes are tamed, a bit)

Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) and gravlax

Pablo Neruda and an icecream sundae

Barry Humphries and pheasant

Muhammed Ali and courgettes

Toni Morrison and polenta.(Potential bonus point: include in your degrees Paul Simon and Mia Farrow)

A couple of fun ones here!

[Toliver]

Hello Everyone! Good day

In Play:

Virginia Woolf and He Cai Dai Mao

And, who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?

←

I tried to google He Cai Dai Mao and came up empty. It kept giving me Chairman Mao's articles.

←

Through Googling I found a blog page where one of the public responses mentioned He Cai Dai Mao as a sort of mu shu dish with an omlette on top, which sounds sort of redundant, doesn't it? Needless to say I bailed on that puzzle, too!

edited to add that the Pablo Naruda puzzle was answered. To whoever originally posted it, was it correct?

Edited January 17, 2007 by Toliver (log)

[Pontormo]

In Play:

Virginia Woolf and Ba Bao La Jiang (Ms. Woolf's tastes are tamed, a  bit)

Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) and gravlax

Barry Humphries and pheasant

Muhammed Ali and courgettes (that's "zucchini" to some of us)

Toni Morrison and polenta.(Potential bonus point: include in your degrees Paul Simon and Mia Farrow)

←

I just removed one. To make life easier for Anne & Janet, perhaps solutions should include something eye-catching. Cf. the red bold font used to highlight my solution to the Neruda puzzle in a post I edited to draw attention to the solution.

NEW

Hieronymous Bosch and Olive Oil Bon bons

P.S.

Toliver, Judiu and others: It's my understanding that if a solution is logical it is correct. Period. All of us perceive connections based on our own experiences, knowledge and quirks, especially if we're not relying solely on googling the terms of the comparison.

As Anne said a while back, it's always interesting for someone who created a pair to see how differently a poster solving one of these puzzles arrives at an answer.

Edited January 17, 2007 by Pontormo (log)

[annecros]

Agreed Pontormo. If it is logical, it is correct and points are awarded. I like other's solutions. I like the banana split resolution, personally.

In Play:

Virginia Woolf and Ba Bao La Jiang (Ms. Woolf's tastes are tamed, a bit)

Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) and gravlax

Hieronymous Bosch and Olive Oil Bon bons

Barry Humphries and pheasant

Muhammed Ali and courgettes

Toni Morrison and polenta.(Potential bonus point: include in your degrees Paul Simon and Mia Farrow)

[insomniac]

In Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' a mother's maternal instincts cause her to her kill her baby, who had been referred to as the devil's child

Mia Farrow's maternal instincts in Rosemary's Baby lead her to save her baby, although she knows it is the devil's child

Rosemary, Sage, Parsley and Thyme is a renowned song by Simon and Garfunkel

Paul Simon sang Here Comes the Sun with George Harrison, a member of the Beatles, in a live performance in 1976

The Beatles song 'I am the Walrus' includes the words semolina pilchard, which is a substitute for the officer's name in the London Met Drugs Squad who arrested John Lennon

Semolina is the ingredient from which polenta is made

John D. Rockefeller and roast pork

Edited January 17, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[Pontormo]

Delete to correct myself. There are recipes for polenta, still, not just ancient, with semolina, so we do have a winner!

Edited January 17, 2007 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

Thrilling solution, I might add

I'm glad, especially, that it was based on knowledge of Toni Morrison who's one of the most impressive people I met as a young thing working in D.C.

FYI to show we made some of the same connections:

1. Toni Morrison wrote a novel called The Bluest Eye

2. Frank Sinatra is called Old Blue Eyes

3. Mia Farrow was married to Frank Sinatra & starred in Rosemary's Baby

4. Paul Simon sang "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme"

5. Mario Batali uses thyme in his all-purpose tomato sauce

6. Bill Buford wrote Heat about working for Mario Batali, and in so doing, masters a really good version of polenta.

* * *

So, Anne, what was your reason for pairing Neruda and the sundae?

* * *

NEW:

Sigmund Freud and strawberries

[annecros]

Thrilling solution, I might add

I'm glad, especially, that it was based on knowledge of Toni Morrison who's one of the most impressive people I met as a young thing working in D.C.

FYI to show we made some of the same connections:

1. Toni Morrison wrote a novel called The Bluest Eye

2. Frank Sinatra is called Old Blue Eyes

3. Mia Farrow was married to Frank Sinatra & starred in Rosemary's Baby

4. Paul Simon sang "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme"

5. Mario Batali uses thyme in his all-purpose tomato sauce

6. Bill Buford wrote Heat about working for Mario Batali, and in so doing, masters a really good version of polenta.

*  *  *

So, Anne, what was your reason for pairing Neruda and the sundae?

*  * *

NEW:

Sigmund Freud and strawberries

←

I didn't pair Neruda and the sundae! And no time to look it up.

I am definitely falling behind here, but watch your backs guys!

In Play:

Virginia Woolf and Ba Bao La Jiang (Ms. Woolf's tastes are tamed, a bit)

Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) and gravlax

Hieronymous Bosch and Olive Oil Bon bons

Barry Humphries and pheasant

Muhammed Ali and courgettes

Sigmund Freud and strawberries

[Toliver]

Muhammed Ali and courgettes

This is wild supposition on my part...

-Muhammed Ali fought George Foreman in the hyped "Rumble in the Jungle" which took place in Kinshasa, Zaire.

-Zaire is formerly a Belgian colony

-There is a large French-speaking community in Belgium

-Courgettes is the French word for zucchini

There has to be a simpler connection.

I thought about the phrase "floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee" that is associated with Muhammed Ali. Both insects could pollinate courgettes but that's stretching it a bit...

Interesting tidbit: zucchini are technically not vegetables. They're classified as fruit.

[insomniac]

The left panel of Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights' has been described as the inspiration behind Salvador Dali's 'El Gran Masdabador'

Ferran Adria has been described as the Salvador Dali of food

Jose Andres cooked at el Bulli

And as chef at the Minibar in Washington DC has on his menu olive oil bonbons

Howard Hughes and spam

Edited January 17, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[The Old Foodie]

Sorry Everyone - I've been a bit too busy to keep up. Thanks Anne for taking up the slack. I should have the decks cleared a bit later in the day - or tomorrow and will catch up.

[insomniac]

D.M. Thomas's 'Eating Pavlova' is a book about Freud on his deathbead looking back on his life

Pavlova is a meringue dessert which is controversially, and until this day, claimed as its own by Oz and NZ after a visit by the Russian ballerina

Pavlova is traditionally decorated with strawberries, altho Kiwis will say it's kiwifruit

Charles Lindberg and sushi

p.s. I'm sure Janet knows who owns pavlova??

Edited January 18, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[insomniac]

Hey Tolliver, you asked about my thinking behind Pablo Neruda and icecream sundaes

I heard an interview with Brian Keenan who had been a captive in the Lebanon for some years and two of the things that had kept him going had been the poet Pablo Neruda and llama farming with his fellow captive, John McCarthy, and one of his food dreams had been icecream sundaes.

but the sheer beauty of this game is the infinite variety of 'correct' answers

Edited January 17, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

I think I owe one challenge... Here it is...

Harry Houdini and mayonaise

[insomniac]

Harry Houdini was a freemason

the founder of the Mayo clinic, Charles Mayo was too,

mayo = mayonnaise

apparently Harry Houdini's father's nickname was 'Mayo'

..........small world

sorry, I'm being frivolous again

eminem and winkles

[The Old Foodie]

p.s. I'm sure Janet knows who owns pavlova??

←

Meringue type dishes have been around since medieval times, and we will never know who "invented" them. But - there is no doubt in my mind that the name 'Pavlova' is Australian. So - we own it, those Kiwis can make as many claims as they like - they are wrong. So there. On second thoughts it is such an awful sickly sweet thing I dont really care if they do want to claim it. We definitely own the Lamington (in Queensland that is).

Back to the work at hand.

Still in play:

Virginia Woolf and Ba Bao La Jiang

Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) and gravlax

Barry Humphries and pheasant

Howard Hughes and spam

Charles Lindberg and sushi

eminem and winkles

insomniac still ahead.

I am concerned that this scoring thing is putting some of you off the idea of joining in. Is it so? We can discontinue if that is the case as I am sure that the sheer love of the creative challenge will be sufficient for annecros, insomniac, Toliver, Domestic Goddess and the other few hardy souls who are in the thick of it here.