By Randy Cohen
Pro golfer Jim Colbert attributes his recent success to something he put in his shoe. His colleague John Huston set a PGA scoring record after he put the same thing in his bed. What is it?
by 5 p.m. ET Monday to e-mail your answer (newsquiz@slate.com).
Responses to Wednesday’s question (No. 105)–“Location, Location, Location”:
Declining to let his location be used as the setting for a Hollywood project, Richard Bing said: “The script presented a kind of context, environment, that was not appropriate. The negatives kind of outweighed the positives.”
What location? What project?
“The location: Times Square. The project: ‘Times Square, a Retrospective.’ “–Peter Lerangis
“Disneyworld; ‘S&M Crack Whores on Parade.’ “–Floyd Elliot
“San Francisco; ‘Any more of them goddamn Chris Columbus movies.’ “–Andrew Solovay
“Congregation Beth-You-Is-My-Woman-Now, Lex and 97th; ‘Hooked Nose Bagel Eaters on Parade at the Million Youth March.’ “–David Rakoff
“Richard Bing’s home; Universal Pictures’ upcoming Richard Bing, the Fat, Ugly, Wife-Beating Bastard, Blows Babe, the Talking Pig.”–Tim Carvell
Click for more responses.
Randy’s Wrap-Up
There is nothing more revolting, when bicycling through Central Park, than to be inconvenienced by a film crew. “We’re making a movie,” announces a grinning production assistant, merrily and mistakenly assuming that this news will please me. It does not. If I wanted to live in Universal City, I’d move to Universal City. And yet, there is no denying the idiot pleasure of seeing my own neighborhood in a movie, even in The Mirror Has Two Faces. Unlike Richard Bing, I don’t distinguish between good projects and bad: I’d boot them all out of the park, even as I enjoy seeing my street on-screen in any of them. I believe that’s why God created Canada: as a convenient and inexpensive way to simulate my block. And yet, Bing’s rebuff of a distasteful project brings credit to him and his institution, based as it is on a confusion of fiction and nonfiction, a thoroughly modern view generally associated with the literature departments of universities and the news divisions of TV networks.
But seriously–Professor Rose Morgan?
NYU Know the Answer
Location: New York University. Project: Felicity, a sitcom on the WB about a college kid in the city for the first time, as many of you knew. The substitute location is the fictional University of New York.
Anita Gates notes in the Times that Bing, an NYU spokesman, could rattle off the names of shows that had met NYU’s demanding standards, including The Cosby Show, The Nanny, Friends, and Everybody Loves Raymond. Of course, they were all on real networks.
Manimal, a 1983 NBC series, featured a professor who solved crimes by turning into various animals. His university? Oh yes. And tenured.
Holiday Shopping Extra
Know your readers: The following items along with their prices are mentioned in ads or articles in today’s New York Times.
Pants–$590
(“Textures of Autumn. Leather jeans in khaki.”)
Table lamp–$1,470
(“It’s a zany twist on a machine-age shape,” says its designer, Kip Saucier. Available in mahogany, maple, and natural python.)
Wristwatch–$14,950 to $200,000
(“The artists of Piaget have created a timeless and enduring masterpiece.”)
Airplane–$2.3 billion
(Defense Secretary William Cohen said of the tactical utility of this B-2 stealth bomber, “It’s the equivalent of saying we’re going to send a Rolls-Royce down into a combat zone to pick up groceries.”)
Disclaimer: All submissions will become the property of Slate and will be published at Slate’s discretion. Slate may publish your name on its site in connection with your submission.
