By Randy Cohen
Keith Butcher, a Denton, Texas, government official, asks, “What is saggy? What is baggy? Saggy is where you can see underwear. What is baggy? I think that’s the big issue right now.”
What is saggy and baggy?
by noon ET Wednesday to e-mail your answer (newsquiz@slate.com).
Responses to Monday’s question (No. 99)–“You’re Entitled”:
The list is: “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “The Rare Coin,” and “The Metaphysics of Oscar Hammerstein.” List of what?
“Mimi Rogers’ best movies–yeah, those in which her breasts are given a real run for the money by her wide and crazy eyes.”–Bill Franzen
“Orrin Hatch’s cocktail party answer to the question ‘What would you want with you if stranded on a desert island?’ “–Beth Sherman
“What three pamphlets, placed under one of the legs, kept John Paul Sartre’s dinner table from wobbling?”–Chuck Lawhorn
“Books so engrossing that Betty Currie was unable to retrieve them from a surprisingly voracious Monica Lewinsky.”–Scott Lemieux (Leslie Goodman-Malamuth had a similar answer.)
“First three numbers in the president’s new cabaret act at the Algonquin Hotel intended to ‘restore Americans’ faith in the integrity and sobriety of the office of the presidency.’ “–Danny Franklin
Click for more responses.
Randy’s Wrap-Up
The metaphysics of Oscar Hammerstein? OK. And the biochemistry of Lorenz Hart. The world can–and probably should–be divided by any dichotomy, so consider: Rodgers and Hammerstein or Rodgers and Hart? The former offers “A Cockeyed Optimist,” “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” “My Favorite Things,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning”–direct, rural, sentimental. The latter has “I Wish I Were in Love Again,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “This Can’t Be Love,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” and “Falling in Love With Love”–ironic, urban, rueful. Ask yourself: If he were opening in the big room at Caesar’s, What Would Jesus Sing?
THE Answer
Sermons.
All were advertised in Saturday’s New York Times “Religious Services” column for, respectively, Presbyterian (Dr. Speer preaching), Interdenominational (Father Reginald Redlon), and Unity (Eric Butterworth) churches. Also on tap: “Sweet Temptation, Deadly Sin,” “You Are Set Free,” and “Discipleship Through Death.” Also gleaned from the ads:
Cafe St. Barts serves lunch and dinner seven days.
The traditional Latin Mass at Ave Maria Chapel features overflow accommodations on traditional Latin closed-circuit television.
You can check out all the Unitarian Universalist action at www.allsoulsnyc.org. Other faiths with Web sites–Christian Science, Episcopal, Presbyterian.
Anniversary Extra
At the risk of being overly self-referential–i.e., self-referential–mention should be made of reaching “News Quiz” 100, a genuine challenge to the news quiz record set by Roger Maris some 30 years ago. There are so many memories–Tina Brown (our Nixon), Rudy Giuliani, the hack reference box score, My Giant, free-range rug shampoo, and the discovery of “buggering Republicans,” a punch line so universal it seemed like comedy penicillin. While it was, of course, enormously gratifying to be named one of the 100 Greatest News Quizzes of the 20th Century, such honors are arbitrary and subjective in a way actual cash can never be. But, of course, what really make it fun for me are the surprising and amusing responses of the quiz participants and the occasional unexpected note from a long lost friend who, presumably, will eventually calm down and give up any idea of litigation. And that’s the greatest reward of all. Thank you all for playing.
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