Well, dear readers, I’m still feeling stuffed up, but much better today. I slept very well indeed, thanks to NyQuil. Last night I dreamed I was at Manderly. In my dream, Jason Graae was performing his nightclub act in what seemed to be my hallway. Only it couldn’t have been my hallway because there were chairs and tables and a full house. As he was about to do his second number, an announcement was made that his special guest would sing it with him. Then a heavy-set older lady got up – we all clapped as if we knew her even though none of us really had a clue as to who she was, and that included Mr. Graae. However, he gamely sang a duet with her and she was very good. That’s all I remember.
Wasn’t that an interesting dream? Today is our Unseemly Trivia Contest day – we have a toughie this week, courtesy of Mr. William Lurie. We’ll discover what that question is a bit later.
Discover is an interesting word, isn’t it? It is made up of the words “disc” and “over”, which, when joined make a whole new word which has nothing to do with “discs” or “overs”. Unless, for example, you discover a disc you’d overlooked. There are all kinds of discoveries. For example, Christopher Columbus made an important discovery, didn’t he? Thomas Edison made an important discovery, as well. In fact, they all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round. Then there is discovery in terms of a legal lawsuit. That is a whole other kettle of you-know-what. In a legal lawsuit, discovery is when each party involved in a litigation gets to “discover” what the other party has in terms of evidence. Isn’t that interesting? For example, in a form interrogatory, they ask such interesting discovery questions as “Do you speak English?” And the very important question, “What high school did you attend?” Why, if you were involved in a lawsuit, knowing what high school the other party went to would be so helpful, wouldn’t it? Well, I think we’ve had enough of discovering the word discover, don’t you?
Did you know that I discovered the cheese slice and that when I did they all laughed? Well, why don’t we stop beating a dead horse (no mean feat) and proceed to click on the Unseemly Button below, where, perhaps, we will have more discoveries.
Did you know that the gnu was discovered by Elijah G. Old? It’s true. One day, Elijah G. Old discoverd an animal he’d never seen the likes of before. He called his friend, Twimby Bodkin, who came over and said, “What’s new, Old?” Elijah pointed to the animal and said, “Have you ever seen the likes of this before?” Of course, Mr. Bodkin hadn’t, and he replied, “That is new, Old. What are you going to call it, since you discovered it?” Mr. Elijah G. Old thought about that for some time, and then said, “Why, I think I’ll call it the New”. Twimby Bodkin thought that was a grand name, but he had two suggestions for his friend. Suggestion one was that since the New looked Jewish, Mr. Bodkin thought the spelling should be Nu. Then, to make sure everyone knew (which, of course, is a whole other New) that Elijah G. Old had discovered the Nu, Twimby’s other suggestion was to put Elijah’s middle initial of “G” in front of Nu, resulting in the gnu. And that is the absolutely true story of the discovery of the gnu by the Old. You see how interesting discovery can be?
I have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. However, clearly that doesn’t stop me. Perhaps it’s time for our handy-dandy Unseemly Trivia Contest question. Here it is:
Both stars of this 50s musical won Tony awards, but even more impressive both were understudied by future Tony winners. However since the future Tony winners weren’t box office names at the time, when the stars took a vacation they were replaced by a husband and wife in the first of only two Broadway appearances together. Name the show, the original stars, the understudies and the vacation replacements.
Now, do remember the rules – if you have an answer, don’t post it here on the site – send your answers to me via e-mail by using the handy-dandy unseemly Ask Bruce button, or simply use bruce@haineshisway.com. You have until midnight Monday night to submit your answer. If there are multiple correct guesses, then a winner will be chosen from amongst them by putting all the winner’s names into an electronic hat. Good luck to one and all and also all and one. If you have no idea, submit funny guesses and I’ll print the most humorous.
Well, I must be off, dear readers. Why must I be “off”? Aren’t I bk? Isn’t “off” “off”? Oh, it is all so confusing, this thing we call life. Perhaps I’ll make some new discoveries today and if I do you can be certain that I will tell you about them tomorrow.