Game: Ask the Person Below You

I like Wormold, the intelligence fabricator/vacuum cleaner salesman from Our Man in Havanna. Same question, and also who is the least likable anti-hero in literature? (My choice is Alex from A Clockwork Orange).

Ah well, Raskolnikov springs to mind first (as most likable), though I'm sure there are others. Least likeable? Well since you reminded me of Greene (and Alex) I definitely didn't have much sympathy for Pinky. I like Fowler though, is he an anti hero for killing off poor Pyle?

Mixing alcohol and coffee?

Edit: also eh Pomp, since I know you keep one yourself, have you read Graham Greene's dream diary and is it worthwhile?

Yeah, I'd say he counts.

I didn't know about Greene's dream journal so I can't say. He wrote some dreamlike short stories when he was an old man, one of which ("Under the Garden") was outstanding, but I never heard of a journal.

And yes: amaretto is wonderful in coffee, so is Kalua, brandy (use coffee brandy--not the Courvoisier), and even Irish whiskey. Someone else should drive, though.

Did you ever hang out with a theatre group?

I looked the journal up on Amazon and the synopsis makes it sound pretty stupid. Someone whose opinion on literature I don't hugely respect heavily recommended it to me though and I'm still waiting for someone else to tell me it's amazing before I pick it up.

I did in high school I guess, I find most people my age who are involved in theatre, art or music to be pretty insufferable usually.

Your favourite author who you don't think gets enough recognition or credit?

Ford Madox Ford. Poor guy.

Same question.

Alan Dean Foster

Same Question

Ursula Le Guin doesn't get enough recognition for her books despite being copied/stolen from repeatedly.

Who are your favourite characters from mythologies around the world (one character per region), list as many as you like or know.

That's a big question and probably deserves its own thread, but here's a fast answer:

I like the Virgin Spring recast as the Grim Reaper in Proserpina, the Roman version of Persephone.

Ishtar (from Mesopotamia) is a much sexier goddess than Isis, her Egyptian equivalent; but my favorite Mesopotamian figure is Siduri, the wise harlot who gives Gilgamesh rest for a time.

Loki is the coolest Norse god because he doesn't really need the rest of them.

Sun Wukong, from Chinese tradition, is my favorite character from mythology and his war against the Taoist Heaven is my favorite story.

Ganesh is my favorite character from Hindu myth because I like the idea of elephants as wise.

Mucalinda is my favorite character from Buddhist folklore. Mucalinda was a snake who wanted enlightenment. The Buddha told him to forget it, but because Mucalinda tagged along, he was eventually made head of security, with the idea that maybe he'd have a better shot at enlightenment in his next incarnation.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, but that's it for now.

Same question.

Loki is my favourite figure of Norse mythology, though I like Odin too.

Dionysus or Hecate for Greek/Roman

Krishna for India

I don't follow much beyond that.

How many of these questions would you get right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAdDUD6L1nc

I got three. Pretty poor showing.

Would humankind be better if there had never been an internet?

The internet as an invention is about as valuable to the facilitation of knowledge and the spread of ideas as the printing press was, so no, we would be much worse off (though I feel I would personally be more productive haha).

Should Al Gore be credited with inventing the internet or saving the environment on his tombstone (he only gets one)?

Edit: Also three is good! Most of the time Canadian questions on Jeopardy are either not answered at all (note how they left the entire category until last), or answered incorrectly!

If he only gets one thing, it ought to be having the biggest *ss in human history.

Rank the following presidents in badness, with the worst at the top of the list:

George W. Bush

Jimmy Carter

Richard Nixon

Barack Obama

Obama
Bush Jr
Carter
Nixon

Clinton was also bad.

Which president represented on U.S money was the best, and (briefly) why?

Lincoln. Best sense of humor.

Rank the following regimes in badness with the worst at the top:

Maoist China
Nazi Germany
Apartheid-era South Africa
Jacobin France
Stalinist Russia

Stalinist Russia
Maoist China
Jacobin France
Nazi Germany (Assuming we're not considering WW2 here and only focusing on the operations of the regime itself)

Huge, enormous gap

Apartheid

How much praise does Nelson Mandela deserve?