14. E. e. cummings
Your answer: American poet; painter; essayist; author; playwright


Should it be E.E. Cummings?

Actually, it should be e. e. cummings, but Terry forces the first letter as a capital in this case. Oh well...

I'm not sure what to do here. I could try a space before the initial, but I assume that probably gets ignored.

Happy(?) WAI Capitalization Trivia!

Put it in single quote marks? (since it is a 'stage' type name, not his given one. It is his Nom de plume, how do you handle other such entries? Shouldn't they all be '____', like 'George Orwell' (Eric Blair)?

According to Wikipedia, it's E.E. Cummings, with some people using e.e. cummings in the style of his poetry. So why not use the former?

Wikipedia is not always right. Every poem I have read by him was signed all in lower case.

Same here. His preference was to use lower case letters. If we could do it, it would be better to use e.e. cummings, but it is a system glitcha tha requires an initial capital for the WAI entries.

I put e. e. cummings in quotes. We'll see if Terry's algorithm still forces the first letter to be a capital.

Happy WAI Capitalization Trivia!

According to this article, Cummings signed his name using capital letters - there are copies of his signature - and Mrs Cummings objected when the preface of a forthcoming book said it should be lower case.

"I sent Marion Moorehouse, the poet's widow, a copy of my second book on Cummings (Southern Illinois, 1964), which was not long after the poet's death in 1962. Although I myself always spelled his name with the usual caps, since my first book (Hopkins, 1960) used the lowercase form on the cover and title page, and since neither he nor Marion had complained at that time, I was somewhat taken aback when she wrote me, in April of 1964, "you should not have allowed H. Moore to make such a stupid & childish statement about Cummings & his signature."

The problem, then, was not so much with the cover and title page as with Harry T. Moore's Preface which began:

FIRST: if I don't use capitals for e. e. Cummings, it isn't just a stunt. He had his name put legally into lower case."

The waters are clearly muddy - an scholar of Cummings' work says one thing, Cumming's widow says another and the man himself scrawled.

deleted by poster

4. Julia Gillard

Your answer: Welsh-born Australian politician; first female Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

She is currently Australia's first female Prime Minister, an even more noteworthy attainment

Her entry has been updated. Thanks.

Happy WAI Trivia!

J. M. Barrie's entry says "British author, 'Peter Pan'". However, I believe J.M. Barrie was a Scottish author.

"British" includes Scottish, English, and Welsh, as these countries are all part of Great Britain. However, I'd prefer it to say "Scottish" :P And it's not because I am Scottish :P

Wikipedia now says Scottish. I have no problem either way. I'll update the entry.

Happy WAI Trivia!

So when do we start labeling other people in a similar fashion? Missouri author, Mark Twain... Ontario author, Margaret Atwood... Franche-Comte's Victor Hugo... Or is it just the United Kingdom that you've decided to carve up?

If you take into account what happens in different sports, you might consider to split the UK (but not the US or France). Many sports have their own national championships in the four main different parts of the UK.

To extend a split that is rather common in sports, to a literature setting might however be stretching too far.

Wait until we get our independence.

Are Ontario and Missouri running similar campaigns?

I don't wish to consider it at all, JanIQ, that's my point. I may be English but my country is the United Kingdom and my nationality is British. In my view FT shouldn't split the UK when it doesn't do it to other countries.

11. Anne Sexton
Your answer: American poetess; writer; Pulitzer Prize-winner; suicide ,

The answer to this one looked a little odd to me, ending in a comma the way it does. Typo?

I removed the comma. I don't know why it was there. Thanks for noting it.

Happy WAI Typo Trivia!

4. American film & TV actor; TV director; 'Star Trek: TNG'
Your answer: Michael Dorn

Mr Dorn spent almost as much time as a cast member of 'Star Trek: DSN' He was one of two characters to cross over to that second show (the first and more prominent was Colm Meany as Chief Miles O'Brien but Dorn has been in more episodes of any Star Trek series than anyone else).
Might I suggest the bio be altered to include that by saying 'Star Treks: TNG & DSN'?

Many entries have much more that could be added to further describe the person. In this case I added DS9 to the entry. Thanks for bringing this up.

Happy WAI Trivia!

Adelbert Ames

American soldier; sailor; politician; last surviving Civil War general

I would normally interpret 'last surviving' as meaning he is still alive. He must be quite old by now!

Typo - 'American film, radio and tv actor; Ward Cleaver on 'Leave it ti Beaver'.

Not that I've ever seen it, but presume it should be 'Leave it to Beaver'.

Dame Iris Murdoch may have been born in Dublin but her family moved to England when she was very young - at a time when Ireland was still a British Dominion. Whatever the rights and wrongs of that period of Irish history, Iris Murdoch grew up in England and lived there for the rest of her life. She also became a Dame of the British Empire, something that the Irish cannot do. So calling her an Irish writer is just plain wrong. Please change it.

If anything, her entry should say "Irish-born" if it would include Irish. You see people whose families are e.g. British and they have grown up in Britain referred to as "___-born", for example, Pam Ferris is sometimes referred to as German-born Welsh, although both of her parents are Welsh. Even Wikipedia (I know, I know) refers to Iris as "Irish-born British".

Various corrections made. Thanks for noting them.

Happy WAI Trivia!

13. Cartoon character created Walt Disney
Your answer: Daisy Duck

Of course it should be "created by".

Correction made. Thanks for noting it.

Happy WAI Trivia!

Jeannie Longo
Your answer: French female racing cyclist; 56 time French & World Champion

As she was born in 1958, and is therefore 52 years old at the moment, I think there must be a peculiar counting method used to say she has been World or French champion 56 times, even if she did start at a very early age. Normally a championship lasts at least a year. Either the info is incorrect, or French national pride is causing an exaggeration of her achievements?