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Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Mon May 02, 2022 5:34 pm
by Ritterskoop
Spoiler
In November 1864 John Wilkes Booth & his brothers were fittingly part of a performance of this Shakespeare play.

Because they mentioned the brothers, I went to "we happy few, we band of brothers," which is Henry V.

If you don't mention the brothers, we can get to a play with an assassination.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Mon May 02, 2022 5:41 pm
by Bob78164
Ritterskoop wrote:
Mon May 02, 2022 5:34 pm
Spoiler
In November 1864 John Wilkes Booth & his brothers were fittingly part of a performance of this Shakespeare play.

Because they mentioned the brothers, I went to "we happy few, we band of brothers," which is Henry V.

If you don't mention the brothers, we can get to a play with an assassination.
Spoiler
I got to a play with an assassination but went with Macbeth.
--Bob

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Mon May 02, 2022 5:43 pm
by Spock
Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Mon May 02, 2022 5:48 pm
by Ritterskoop
I'm very glad this did not affect the outcome, and would have been firing off a a letter if it had.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 6:57 am
by BackInTex
Spoiler
Being comparatively ignorant of Shakespeare I had limited choices but got this right. I think the key was John Wilkes Booth. If "brothers" was important, as a term, pointing to other plays, it could have been any other historical figure. JWB is known foremost as being an assassin of an important leader. "Brothers" was only brought in because JWB himself didn't play the assassin. JWB was the clue. Does anyone else even know he had brothers? If so, can they name them?

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 7:18 am
by jarnon
BackInTex wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 6:57 am
Spoiler
Being comparatively ignorant of Shakespeare I had limited choices but got this right. I think the key was John Wilkes Booth. If "brothers" was important, as a term, pointing to other plays, it could have been any other historical figure. JWB is known foremost as being an assassin of an important leader. "Brothers" was only brought in because JWB himself didn't play the assassin. JWB was the clue. Does anyone else even know he had brothers? If so, can they name them?
Spoiler
I knew Booth's brother was a famous actor. I had to look up his name: Edwin.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 8:07 am
by Bob Juch
BackInTex wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 6:57 am
Spoiler
Being comparatively ignorant of Shakespeare I had limited choices but got this right. I think the key was John Wilkes Booth. If "brothers" was important, as a term, pointing to other plays, it could have been any other historical figure. JWB is known foremost as being an assassin of an important leader. "Brothers" was only brought in because JWB himself didn't play the assassin. JWB was the clue. Does anyone else even know he had brothers? If so, can they name them?
Spoiler
Edwin. He saved Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert, from a serious injury on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Another brother was Junius Brutus.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 8:29 am
by silverscreenselect
Bob Juch wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 8:07 am
BackInTex wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 6:57 am
Spoiler
Being comparatively ignorant of Shakespeare I had limited choices but got this right. I think the key was John Wilkes Booth. If "brothers" was important, as a term, pointing to other plays, it could have been any other historical figure. JWB is known foremost as being an assassin of an important leader. "Brothers" was only brought in because JWB himself didn't play the assassin. JWB was the clue. Does anyone else even know he had brothers? If so, can they name them?
Spoiler
Edwin. He saved Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert, from a serious injury on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Another brother was Junius Brutus.
Spoiler
Edwin was considered the best Hamlet of his time in the US and set the record for most New York stage performances in the role until John Barrymore broke it decades later. His career took a nosedive for months after the assassination as theaters were reluctant to cast him but he eventually resumed a successful career.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 9:54 am
by BackInTex
Spoiler
Yeah, I can Google "John Wilkes Booth brothers".

The thing is, maybe 50% of the country can tell you who John Wilkes Booth is. 1%, or less, who his brothers were, or what they did. So, JWB was the question.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 2:19 pm
by Bob Juch
BackInTex wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 9:54 am
Spoiler
Yeah, I can Google "John Wilkes Booth brothers".

The thing is, maybe 50% of the country can tell you who John Wilkes Booth is. 1%, or less, who his brothers were, or what they did. So, JWB was the question.
Then there are people like me who stayed awake in history class.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 3:15 pm
by Appa23
In all fairness, Bob, that would have been more like the current events discussion portion of your American History class.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 4:48 pm
by BackInTex
Appa23 wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 3:15 pm
In all fairness, Bob, that would have been more like the current events discussion portion of your American History class.
:lol:

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 8:20 pm
by Ritterskoop
Maybe my original point was not as clear as I should have made it (I assume we don't need spoiler markers since a whole new game has been played).

If the question was about assassinations, then don't mention the brothers. When you do that, we think it means something.

Re: Today's FJ wording misleading

Posted: Mon May 09, 2022 10:57 am
by SportsFan68
jarnon wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 7:18 am
BackInTex wrote:
Tue May 03, 2022 6:57 am
Spoiler
Being comparatively ignorant of Shakespeare I had limited choices but got this right. I think the key was John Wilkes Booth. If "brothers" was important, as a term, pointing to other plays, it could have been any other historical figure. JWB is known foremost as being an assassin of an important leader. "Brothers" was only brought in because JWB himself didn't play the assassin. JWB was the clue. Does anyone else even know he had brothers? If so, can they name them?
Spoiler
I knew Booth's brother was a famous actor. I had to look up his name: Edwin.
The only reason I knew about Edwin was because I wrote a short paper about him in high school. A sheet went around with 27 topics on it (or however many of us there were in the class), and I picked him.