She has several published books and apparently is a reasonably high-profile political commentator. You don't have to like someone to accept them as being well known and someone who can be recognised by players.

English sugar merchant; founder of London's Tate Gallery
Your answer: Sir Henry Tate

That's why I'm not raising issue with numerous other people I've seen in the database, thanks.

But that belittling reply makes me curious as to what your standard is for recognition. Writing "several books" and being "a reasonably high-profile commentator" makes you an internationally-reknown figure? Really?

I don't actually add people (I have never worked out how to do it), I abide by past decisions unless there is a clear reason for deleting the person. I had never heard of the person in question, but well over half the players in the game have correctly matched her with the description, so she appears indeed to be well enough known for the game. There are plenty of people with whom I am personally familiar whose percentage correct is much lower, and a truckload of others who I only know from seeing them in Who Am I, but who are clearly familiar to many people out there.

And I am sorry if you felt my earlier reply was belittling - that was not my intention.

Emile Baudot

Your answer: French telegraph engineer; inventor; devised the Baudot code

George Cadbury

Your answer: English founder of 'Cadbury's Chocolates'

Jason Connery's description includes 'son of Sean Connery'.

Dutch astronomer; radio astronomy pioneer; known for the Oort cloud

Your answer: Jan Oort


Dutch Queen regnant from 1890 to 1948

Your answer: Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

All those kings and queens are going to take some careful thought as I find them - so many of them have the same first name (although Wilhelmina not so much as Louis or William/Wilhelm) that it is not fair to just give a royal title. In this case, I might leave it since players need to connect Netherlands and Dutch - that is not actually straightforward for a lot of people!

He's now up to 22 medals, and he'll probably add more in Rio this summer. Probably best to remove the ending until he actually retires?

Jane McGrath

Your answer: British-born Australian cancer support activist; wife of Glenn McGrath

Fictional character; cowboy probably created by Edward O'Reilly

Your answer: Pecos Bill

American newspaperman; entrepreneur; explorer; founder - Boy Scouts of America; initials are WDB

William D.Boyce

Dr. Strangelove, fictional character.

English physicist; developed the British A-bomb; initials are WP

Your answer: William Penney

and maybe

Polish-American businessman; known for Nathan's Famous hot dogs

Your answer: Nathan Handwerker

Kinda gives it away...not sure how strict you want to be on something like that.

Nathan can stay, it's not as much of a giveaway as, say, Handwerker's Hot Dogs. Initials go - they were added at some time to make them easier, but I am happy for them to go into the harder game's sample if the description is good enough to be a unique identifier. I may modify the description to make that true.

The algorithm Terry has set up for selection does sometimes allow matchings that look the same to you, but the actual descriptions are different enough so that there is no clash. Ukrainian is a different nationality from Russian, and would not be excluded on that basis - you may consider them the same ethnic background, but they are not described in the same way. You regularly see multiple actors/actresses of different nationalities in the same group.

Diomitri Tiomkin is described as "Ukranian-American film score composer; conductor; 'The High and the Mighty' & 'High Noon'".

Mstislav Rostropovich is described as "internationally acclaimed Russian cellist; awarded 1950 Stalin Prize for the Arts at age 23".

I don't know how the algorithm operates, but there is nothing in the content of the descriptions that makes them interchangeable (unless you know more about them then is included).

George Gallup's description includes his name.

Ukrainian is not Russian, even if both were part of the USSR.

Ah, there's the equality, they're both ex-patriot Soviets.

Why is it that some titles are given and used in the 'Who Am I?' game and some are not?
An example would be: Baroness or Count, both are used. Father or Senator, neither is used.

That is just the whimsical way the person who set it up operated. They appear to have used only nobility titles, not other honorifics. No academic honors, either. I think in a lot of cases using the honorific would be too much of a giveaway - President Grover Cleveland, described as President of the US, or Senator Joseph McCarthy described as American Senator from Wisconsin, for example. It might be possible to rewrite the whole thing, if I actually had access to the entire database. Personally, I think the fewer titles the better, since the title often gives it away, or is in fact the only significant thing there is to say about the person. That is my problem with trying to rewrite some of the royal entries as I get them in play to remove the country name from their name - Leopold I of Belgium is obviously going to match with Belgian king, but just writing Leopold I may be considered too vague, especially for a Charles, for example.

Since I need to input the person's name in order to modify their file, I have to operate one person at a time.