The Best Interpretations of Gore's Drawings
[From the Fray Editor: Soooo---Which diagram could equally well be the Sydney Opera House or one of those aluminum scooters (because Al made us get rid of our Suburbans)? Or it could be a schematic of one of these films: Independence Day, Play it forward ("it's based on me you know"), or The Blair Witch Project (design for the fetish)? Yes, it was No 3. But you worked hard at all of them--you paid attention and you did well. Here are the best answers. And one hint (from someone who has read more of these than you): Keep scrolling back up to look at the pictures, don't rely on memory.
Drawing No. 1: Most popular answers were DNA, tax relief ("the line is wavy because the top 1 percent are alcoholics"), lines of coke, and form letters. We also liked: warming up his pen, instructions on where to place the ingredients of a joint before rolling it, Al Gore's political one-liners or his musical influences: Abbey Road. Stay at home Mom says it's about education: "Bush is setting the bar too high. I think it should be about here… or here… or even here."
And Tom Bruner says: "The first one describes, in great detail, how some people have different names from others. Some are longer, some shorter, and some harder to pronounce. Some are on the right, some the left. Nonetheless, all will need the help of government because they aren't very smart."
Drawing No. 2: Brought to mind the Internet, the Canals of Mars, metro systems, Humpty Dumpty and a Native American dreamcatcher. We were haunted by Otto's claim it was "a microscopic view of the back of Gore's hand," and Randy Shields' "it's the Gore plan to straighten out the whole longitude, latitude thing"--part of an excellent entry.
Drawing No. 3: Made you think of slingshots and missile defense systems, instructions for Yo Yos, or a Daddy-long-legs on a mirror. Billy Goodman said "they all used to go fishing till there was nothing left to catch"--read his whole entry. In our favorite, Piasa has Al Gore saying, "If Cheney shoots down Lieberman on all five points, Lieberman can always go in for a kiss."
Drawing No. 4: Pizza was the popular choice here, along with maps of the White House. Mandi78 says it is: "How Al Gore eats a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup during the State of the Union address." Len Turner goes with "an affirmative action baseball field (level) which allows every player to be on base at the same time" (the second picture is a triple play). DSM has a rather touching theory about the scariness of the Senate.
Kirk Esler says this: This shows the tragic state of the family structure in the next 4 years. Both circles represent a typical American community. In the first, we see a man from the south side of town and a woman from the east (or it could be the other way around) living in sin, unmarried, in a small tenement house in the center of town. Eventually, they have four children, and, as shown in the second circle, two move out and become homeless, while the other two do find homes of their own, but with a lack of job skills and income, are forced to move back in with their unmarried parents. Rather bleak, but there you have it.
Another theory: The drawing was made at ten minutes to two. The short straight lines near the center symbolize the vibration of an alarm clock, so it's quite possible that Gore drew this in the dark, just before he set out to the den to watch Science Fiction Theatre 3000. This was from Kelley Eidem--who gets special extra points for suggesting the title of Gore's next book: Earth Tones in the Balance.
Below are the best complete sets of interpretations—the individual medley event. If we had to choose one as winner (which we're not, because that might involve, you know, prizes), it would be Paul Canniff, who beats out TC3 by coming back into The Fray to discuss his chances of winning, boost his entry, and diss someone else's. We felt this reflected the true spirit of presidential elections. Democracy in action. Now read more.]
1) Galileo was clearly wrong when it comes to 2-dimensional objects.
2) .. and by examining this map I drew from memory of former Yugoslavian rail lines, we can see how critical the Rudo district is to trade and commerce ...
3) ... so with this trajectory the Williams sisters are effectively unbeatable on a hard surface.
4) George Bush thinks foreign policy is like a game of Risk, as this totally accurate hand-drawn Risk (TM) board humorously illustrates. See, I'm funny and relaxed! Speaking of which, I invented Risk in 1966, by following this thought process.
--Paul Canniff
(To reply, click here.)
1) The reporter tried to trip up Gore by asking him the price of a gallon of milk. Not content to simply give the price, Gore did the reporter one better and sketched out the bar graph code for $2.39. Incidentally, he couldn't resist adding a discussion of his role in the creation of bar graphs and supermarket scanners.
2) Asked his view of what a world under George W. Bush would be like, Gore simply said "Kaboom!" He then drew this picture of a fractured Earth. He asked rhetorically: "Need I say more?"
3) When questioned as to how he could possibly not have known that President Clinton was having his trysts with Monica Lewinsky, Gore drew this sketch illustrating the Oval Office (the big circle), and his own office (the medium-sized circle). The six smallest circles are the positions of Lewinsky's work stations throughout her tenure at the White House. As one can easily see, Monica sometimes visited Gore's office area, and she also visited the Oval Office. However, she never first came to see Gore followed by a visit to Clinton in the Oval Office. Gore struggled to explain this with some fuzzy math before deciding upon the diagram approach. He was challenged on this because there is a line between his office and the Oval Office. He easily explained this by pointing out that Monica brought him a slice of pizza one day, and he then gave some papers to her for delivery to Clinton. Only one time, as best as he can recall.
4) The left circle in this sketch is obviously the tin can collection route of Winifred Skinner. The small box with the dot within it, right in the middle of the left circle, marks the location of the local recycling center. She parks her Winnebago there sometimes when not on the road. The circle on the right depicts her planned routes to and from the Gore/Bush debates. A couple of the lines depict side trips for collecting extra cans when on the debate circuit, time permitting
--TC3
(To reply, click here.)
1. Was playing Hangman
2. Showing us how he would have put Humpty Dumpty back together.
3. Missile Defense
4. Pizza Lunch
--Joshua L.
(To reply, click here.)
1. Democratic tax plan versus Republican tax plan
2. World Trade Organization
3. Global Internet Connectivity
4. Paperwork Reduction Initiative
--Joy rider
(To reply, click here.)
[More great collections came from P.Vijay ("detecting the middle-class genome for tax credits"), Lane ("from top to bottom we can view through Gore's eyes the approach, external view, abducution, and internal structure of the spacecraft"), Ed Stahr, and Adrienne A-P ("Gore explains how all the planets will align if he is elected"). Dash Pupkin's version of "how the pie can be raised" was strangely convincing.
Oliver O. Ololiuqui's take predicts chaos, with flying toothpicks and the moon falling into the sun--but the four-color theorem still holds. CJ says "The buck stops here, but it has an escape hatch" (drawing 4). We also liked entries from Paul Isenberg and Leah ("4. The stolen treasure is located in the center of camp. We must use diversionary tactics in order to recapture it"), Mel Garcia (i-ching wands), and Bob Carter (Spiderman is shorter than you realize). And special kudos to Costanza--who spotted the scooter (you scrunch up your eyes a certain way, it's so right) and says no 4 is re-centralization: "too many states--just get rid of em."
Thanks to everyone who entered--more than 1,000 of you. And don't forget, you can read what the drawings really mean here.]
(10/10)
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The Best Interpretations of Gore's Drawings
[From the Fray Editor: Soooo---Which diagram could equally well be the Sydney Opera House or one of those aluminum scooters (because Al made us get rid of our Suburbans)? Or it could be a schematic of one of these films: Independence Day, Play it forward ("it's based on me you know"), or The Blair Witch Project (design for the fetish)? Yes, it was No 3. But you worked hard at all of them--you paid attention and you did well. Here are the best answers. And one hint (from someone who has read more of these than you): Keep scrolling back up to look at the pictures, don't rely on memory.
Drawing No. 1: Most popular answers were DNA, tax relief ("the line is wavy because the top 1 percent are alcoholics"), lines of coke, and form letters. We also liked: warming up his pen, instructions on where to place the ingredients of a joint before rolling it, Al Gore's political one-liners or his musical influences: Abbey Road. Stay at home Mom says it's about education: "Bush is setting the bar too high. I think it should be about here… or here… or even here."
And Tom Bruner says: "The first one describes, in great detail, how some people have different names from others. Some are longer, some shorter, and some harder to pronounce. Some are on the right, some the left. Nonetheless, all will need the help of government because they aren't very smart."
Drawing No. 2: Brought to mind the Internet, the Canals of Mars, metro systems, Humpty Dumpty and a Native American dreamcatcher. We were haunted by Otto's claim it was "a microscopic view of the back of Gore's hand," and Randy Shields' "it's the Gore plan to straighten out the whole longitude, latitude thing"--part of an excellent entry.
Drawing No. 3: Made you think of slingshots and missile defense systems, instructions for Yo Yos, or a Daddy-long-legs on a mirror. Billy Goodman said "they all used to go fishing till there was nothing left to catch"--read his whole entry. In our favorite, Piasa has Al Gore saying, "If Cheney shoots down Lieberman on all five points, Lieberman can always go in for a kiss."
Drawing No. 4: Pizza was the popular choice here, along with maps of the White House. Mandi78 says it is: "How Al Gore eats a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup during the State of the Union address." Len Turner goes with "an affirmative action baseball field (level) which allows every player to be on base at the same time" (the second picture is a triple play). DSM has a rather touching theory about the scariness of the Senate.
Kirk Esler says this: This shows the tragic state of the family structure in the next 4 years. Both circles represent a typical American community. In the first, we see a man from the south side of town and a woman from the east (or it could be the other way around) living in sin, unmarried, in a small tenement house in the center of town. Eventually, they have four children, and, as shown in the second circle, two move out and become homeless, while the other two do find homes of their own, but with a lack of job skills and income, are forced to move back in with their unmarried parents. Rather bleak, but there you have it.
Another theory: The drawing was made at ten minutes to two. The short straight lines near the center symbolize the vibration of an alarm clock, so it's quite possible that Gore drew this in the dark, just before he set out to the den to watch Science Fiction Theatre 3000. This was from Kelley Eidem--who gets special extra points for suggesting the title of Gore's next book: Earth Tones in the Balance.
Below are the best complete sets of interpretations—the individual medley event. If we had to choose one as winner (which we're not, because that might involve, you know, prizes), it would be Paul Canniff, who beats out TC3 by coming back into The Fray to discuss his chances of winning, boost his entry, and diss someone else's. We felt this reflected the true spirit of presidential elections. Democracy in action. Now read more.]
1) Galileo was clearly wrong when it comes to 2-dimensional objects.
2) .. and by examining this map I drew from memory of former Yugoslavian rail lines, we can see how critical the Rudo district is to trade and commerce ...
3) ... so with this trajectory the Williams sisters are effectively unbeatable on a hard surface.
4) George Bush thinks foreign policy is like a game of Risk, as this totally accurate hand-drawn Risk (TM) board humorously illustrates. See, I'm funny and relaxed! Speaking of which, I invented Risk in 1966, by following this thought process.
--Paul Canniff
(To reply, click here.)
1) The reporter tried to trip up Gore by asking him the price of a gallon of milk. Not content to simply give the price, Gore did the reporter one better and sketched out the bar graph code for $2.39. Incidentally, he couldn't resist adding a discussion of his role in the creation of bar graphs and supermarket scanners.
2) Asked his view of what a world under George W. Bush would be like, Gore simply said "Kaboom!" He then drew this picture of a fractured Earth. He asked rhetorically: "Need I say more?"
3) When questioned as to how he could possibly not have known that President Clinton was having his trysts with Monica Lewinsky, Gore drew this sketch illustrating the Oval Office (the big circle), and his own office (the medium-sized circle). The six smallest circles are the positions of Lewinsky's work stations throughout her tenure at the White House. As one can easily see, Monica sometimes visited Gore's office area, and she also visited the Oval Office. However, she never first came to see Gore followed by a visit to Clinton in the Oval Office. Gore struggled to explain this with some fuzzy math before deciding upon the diagram approach. He was challenged on this because there is a line between his office and the Oval Office. He easily explained this by pointing out that Monica brought him a slice of pizza one day, and he then gave some papers to her for delivery to Clinton. Only one time, as best as he can recall.
4) The left circle in this sketch is obviously the tin can collection route of Winifred Skinner. The small box with the dot within it, right in the middle of the left circle, marks the location of the local recycling center. She parks her Winnebago there sometimes when not on the road. The circle on the right depicts her planned routes to and from the Gore/Bush debates. A couple of the lines depict side trips for collecting extra cans when on the debate circuit, time permitting
--TC3
(To reply, click here.)
1. Was playing Hangman
2. Showing us how he would have put Humpty Dumpty back together.
3. Missile Defense
4. Pizza Lunch
--Joshua L.
(To reply, click here.)
1. Democratic tax plan versus Republican tax plan
2. World Trade Organization
3. Global Internet Connectivity
4. Paperwork Reduction Initiative
--Joy rider
(To reply, click here.)
[More great collections came from P.Vijay ("detecting the middle-class genome for tax credits"), Lane ("from top to bottom we can view through Gore's eyes the approach, external view, abducution, and internal structure of the spacecraft"), Ed Stahr, and Adrienne A-P ("Gore explains how all the planets will align if he is elected"). Dash Pupkin's version of "how the pie can be raised" was strangely convincing.
Oliver O. Ololiuqui's take predicts chaos, with flying toothpicks and the moon falling into the sun--but the four-color theorem still holds. CJ says "The buck stops here, but it has an escape hatch" (drawing 4). We also liked entries from Paul Isenberg and Leah ("4. The stolen treasure is located in the center of camp. We must use diversionary tactics in order to recapture it"), Mel Garcia (i-ching wands), and Bob Carter (Spiderman is shorter than you realize). And special kudos to Costanza--who spotted the scooter (you scrunch up your eyes a certain way, it's so right) and says no 4 is re-centralization: "too many states--just get rid of em."
Thanks to everyone who entered--more than 1,000 of you. And don't forget, you can read what the drawings really mean here.]
(10/10)