Historical Figures 20 Questions

[cornfedhick]

Is it Cormac McCarthy?

Yes!  Hint gave it away, huh?  Curious why you guessed him rather than, say, Philip Roth or Don DeLillo.  

McCarthy is thought by many, including me, to be America's (if not the world's) greatest living author.  He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Road, he won the (more prestigious) National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses, and the film adaptation of No Country For Old Men won the Oscar for Best Picture.  Not bad.  Yet his greatest masterpiece is Blood Meridian.  Harold Bloom wrote that it was the greatest American novel since Moby-Dick.  There have been reports of efforts to make it into a movie, but they have all crapped out, because it is probably unfilmable.  It should go without saying, but I highly recommend all his novels, particularly Blood Meridian, though it is a difficult read, both because of the language (it reads like poetry, but it is prose, not free verse) and the graphic violence and dark worldview.  If you thought Anton Chigurh was a great bad guy (Javier Bardem won an Oscar for that role in No Country), you ain't seen nothing yet, Judge Holden is as memorable a villain as any in literature.  Also, any fathers out there must, must, must read The Road.  The movie was meh, but the book is awesome.  

[Shadow]

Yes!  Hint gave it away, huh?  Curious why you guessed him rather than, say, Philip Roth or Don DeLillo. 

You've talked about McCarthy here before, so I figured it was him.


Seeing as I only guessed the answer, somebody else can have a go if they like. If not, I have a new one.

[LooseCannon]

Go for it, Shadow. You figured it out, I was stuck.

[Shadow]

Alright, ask away.

[LooseCannon]

1. Born on or after Jan 1, 1750 AD?

[Shadow]

1. Yes, born after 1750.

[LooseCannon]

Born after Jan 1, 1900 AD?

[Shadow]

2. No, born before 1900.

[Forostar]

3. Born in Europe?

[Shadow]

3. Yes, born in Europe.

[Shadow]

I'll be offline for quite a while starting tomorrow, so someone else will have to take over this very intense game

[LooseCannon]

Bah. Okay, was he a politician? Let's get it done before you go-go.

Where are you off to?

[Shadow]

Where are you off to?

The USA. I'm going hiking in canyons and other places.

I'm afraid I don't have time to finish this tonight. My alarm clock will go off in a couple of hours and I need to get some sleep. See you in a few weeks!

[LooseCannon]

Bah. Fine fine. Have fun mate, see you

[cornfedhick]

The USA. I'm going hiking in canyons and other places.

Sweet, have fun. My unsolicited advice for hiking canyons, which is very different than hiking hills or mountains: turn around well before you get tired.  If you are even a little tired before you begin the uphill return journey, you're cooked. This happened to me at the Grand Canyon.  When I started down, it was a majestic wonder of natural beauty. When I was about an hour from completing the ascent, it had become "this fucking hole" (as in, "I can't wait to get out of this fucking hole").  Still a memorable experience, glad I did it, can't wait to take my kids when they get older.   Is that one of the places you're visiting?

[Shadow]

´

Sweet, have fun. My unsolicited advice for hiking canyons, which is very different than hiking hills or mountains: turn around well before you get tired.  If you are even a little tired before you begin the uphill return journey, you're cooked. This happened to me at the Grand Canyon.  When I started down, it was a majestic wonder of natural beauty. When I was about an hour from completing the ascent, it had become "this fucking hole" (as in, "I can't wait to get out of this fucking hole").  Still a memorable experience, glad I did it, can't wait to take my kids when they get older.   Is that one of the places you're visiting?

I made it all the way down the Grand Canyon, stayed the night at the bottom and then hiked back up the next day. The main difficulty is the heat, really. You want to make it back up before noon or you'll fry.

And since nobody has posted....

... was he a politician?

4. No. Politically active, but known for something else.

[Onhell]

You want to make it back up before noon or you'll fry.

Ha! Tourist! Trust me, after a year in AZ heat, you get used to it

Was the person known for dipping his pen in the company ink?

[Shadow]

Ha! Tourist! Trust me, after a year in AZ heat, you get used to it

I doubt I ever would.

Was the person known for dipping his pen in the company ink?

Is that a serious question?

[Onhell]

The human being can't get used to everything except not eating... And no it wasn't a serious question, but I figured if I was going to temporarily derail the thread I could at least pretend to participate

[LooseCannon]

Was this person known for something to do with science?