Monday, October 12, 2020 FJ Poll (SPOILERS)

[opusthepenguin]

Here's a refresher on category and clue wording.

WORLD LICENSE PLATES

Around 2010 the state license plate for Michoacan, Mexico featured these insects

[opusthepenguin]

Cockroach. Wasn't puzzled or thrown off by 2010. I just assumed it was a pinning year and of no help beyond that. I can totally see how someone might key in on the year and get off track. I was familiar with the Mexican monarch migrations but that didn't occur to me here. Michoacan just didn't ring a loud enough bell.

Pre-called Diwali. Could provide Marni Nixon as a correct response given a reasonable clue--e.g. one asking for the ghost singer on the film version of West Side Story or The King and I or My Fair Lady. Really surprised this is her first mention. I wish they could've given her at least one shout out while she was still with us. She died July 24, 2016, so there was plenty of opportunity.

[mas3cf]

Cockroach. Wasn't puzzled or thrown off by 2010. I just assumed it was a pinning year and of no help beyond that. I can totally see how someone might key in on the year and get off track. I was familiar with the Mexican monarch migrations but that didn't occur to me here. Michoacan just didn't ring a loud enough bell.

I could have written that exact same paragraph!

I was practically salivating over the chance to pick up that $2000 for Diwali....

[AFRET CMS]

Considered both cockroach and cicada before settling on monarch butterfly, but certainly more in hope than in certitude.

Pre-called Diwali, but figured it would have had to have been close to the top of the row. I doubt if it was the unseen clue; I was thinking a good $2000 clue might involve a SW festival with luminaria.

Familiar with Marni Nixon, primarily from My Fair Lady. Answered correctly, though I didn't know specifically that she had been the one to dub for Wood.

[MarkBarrett]

My response was butterflies and I considered adding "monarch", so I checked the butterfly box and the considered monarch box. If I should only pick one of those then let me know.

Thanks for running this.

Hard to believe this game has the first mention of Marni Nixon in an archived clue.

[opusthepenguin]

My response was butterflies and I considered adding "monarch", so I checked the butterfly box and the considered monarch box. If I should only pick one of those then let me know.

It's good the way it is, especially with this footnote. I wish one of the contestants had gone with butterfly, just so we could see whether that's acceptable or monarch is required. I think you get credit, but it's always nice to know.

[Leander]

Considered grasshoppers and killer bees, but couldn’t figure out why anyone would put them on a license plate, so clammed.

Knew who Marni Nixon was.

[BrigadierSolo13]

Said Mexican Jumping Bean though pretty sure it was wrong.

Never heard of the connection between Michoacan and butterfly migration. Maybe with the words "migrate" or "travel to Michoacan", I could have forced a correct guess, but can't say for sure.

Called Diwali as soon as the category was revealed.

I brought up the premier of Marni Nixon on Monday because I had searched for her in the archives some time during the COVID-19 break, and was surprised she had never come up.

[DBear]

I guessed locusts, figuring there may have been some kind of locust plague around that time.
Ok, seems a silly reason to put them on a license plate, but here we are.

[opusthepenguin]

I guessed locusts, figuring there may have been some kind of locust plague around that time.
Ok, seems a silly reason to put them on a license plate, but here we are.

Dang it! I knew I was forgetting one. I've revised the cicada entry to include locust and grasshopper as well. Anyone who had one of those two may now check that box.

[Philliesfan02]

monarch butterfly.

[econgator]

Nothing in the clue meant anything to me, so I just guessed killer bees.

Not familiar with Diwali and have a vague recollection of Marni Nixon (or maybe I'm just confusing her with Marti Noxon).

[opusthepenguin]

have a vague recollection of Marni Nixon (or maybe I'm just confusing her with Marti Noxon).

I don't get those names confused, but the one often makes me think of the other. No archive entries for Noxon either. She'd be a likely TS if they want her name as a response. But put her in a clue with Joss Whedon and asking for Buffy and she'll do fine.

[Volante]

Monarch butterfly and instantly.

Familiar with the migration, though I didn't know the name of the location. Seems to be an article about it in one form or another twice a year from my feeds.

2010 just felt right given environmental concerns, the migration being harmed to climate change, etc. The sanctuaries on the migration terminus were also made a UNESCO site in 2008, but didn't know that at clue time either.

~

Precalled Diwali from the category, but forgot about it from coming up from then on.

[nserven]

The oddly vague wording of the clue ("around 2010" rather than "in 2010") made me think some kind of periodic insect that might have been so spread out it couldn't be pinned to a single year. I said locusts.

[Woof]

I’m a bit surprised that no one has mentioned cochineal as a possible wrong answer to FJ given its importance to dyeing in Oaxaca.

[seaborgium]

Thinking of chapulines, I said crickets. Turns out that's more a Oaxaca thing than a Michoacán thing. I needed Alex's pre-reveal remarks to think of butterflies (then monarchs); it doesn't help that "insect" leads me more to think of leggy critters than wingy ones.

I just realized that "a Oaxaca thing" might look funny to someone who doesn't know how Oaxaca is pronounced.

[Rackme32]

I first pondered 2010, hit on nothing, started thinking of insects... Stumbled onto Butterfly in my head, and vaguely remembered that there was a butterfly sanctuary in Denver that I almost went to with a past girlfriend some 20 years ago... And then even more vaguely remembered that I had been told then that their Monarch butterflies wintered in Mexico... Sometimes I just wonder how the mind works... Especially when I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

Never heard of Diwali.

I know of Marni Nixon, but have never heard of that Marti Noxon person. Didn't matter that I know Marni, since I couldn't think of who was in West Side Story that she might have dubbed for.