mas3cf wrote: ↑Thu Jun 18, 2020 6:23 am
19TH CENTURY ARTISTS
In 1839, he wrote to a friend, "I have seized the light, I have arrested its flight." Spoiler
Who is Louis Daguerre?
Hmmm.... Spoiler
While defensible, the category title seems misleading. Without more context in the clue, I think this might be unfair to our hypothetical contestants.
And of course there's the obvious problem of negbait:
Spoiler
Thomas Kinkade
Spoiler
I did have trouble deciding between "artists" and "inventors" in the category name. Daguerre was primarily an artist, who latched onto and perfected a new technology for creating art, which is why I went in that direction. I also considered "19th century Frenchmen".
I thought about Kinkade as negbait, but there is the minor detail that he wasn't born until well after the end of the 19th century...
mas3cf wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 2:45 pm
U.S. STATE CAPITALS
The only state capital named after a head of state of a country where English is not the most widely spoken language. Spoiler
What is Bismarck?
I'm pretty sure you have to change that to "head of government" to make it correct. That spoils SOME of the fun, but I still think it's a good clue.
Spoiler
The head of state would have been the monarch. For Bismarck that's Wilhelm I, Friedrich III, or Wilhelm II. A similar situation exists in the UK where Elizabeth II is head of state but Boris Badunov is head of government.
So a related clue might be, "[number] states have capitals named after a foreign head of state, only this one is named after a foreign head of government. (Bismarck [ACC: North Dakota due to ambiguity in the wording that I don't feel like tightening up.])
mas3cf wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 2:45 pm
U.S. STATE CAPITALS
The only state capital named after a head of state of a country where English is not the most widely spoken language. Spoiler
What is Bismarck?
I'm pretty sure you have to change that to "head of government" to make it correct. That spoils SOME of the fun, but I still think it's a good clue.
Spoiler
The head of state would have been the monarch. For Bismarck that's Wilhelm I, Friedrich III, or Wilhelm II. A similar situation exists in the UK where Elizabeth II is head of state but Boris Badunov is head of government.
So a related clue might be, "[number] states have capitals named after a foreign head of state, only this one is named after a foreign head of government. (Bismarck [ACC: North Dakota due to ambiguity in the wording that I don't feel like tightening up.])
Good call, I did feel a bit dicey about the wording.
mas3cf wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 7:59 am
THE WEST COAST
Approximately 750 feet separate the brass and terrazzo monuments to these two US presidents. Spoiler
Who are Reagan and Trump? (Hollywood Walk of Fame)
I don't think I'd be off-base complaining about the choice of the word "monument" here.
FWIW (granted, it's from Wikipedia)... Spoiler
As of 2020, the Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,600 stars, which are spaced at 6-foot (1.8 m) intervals. The monuments are coral-pink terrazzo five-point stars rimmed with brass (not bronze, an oft-repeated inaccuracy)
On average, it's the closest planet to the Earth. Spoiler
What is Mercury? (While Venus is closer at its closest point, it's farther at its farther point. The farther distances carry more weight in the averages. For the same reason, Mercury is even the closest planet on average to Neptune!)