Mar.24

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

The Word Cup Quiz: Answers

OK, sometimes we write items that really are just for fun, and this is one of those. There's something to be said for a respite from normal order. Once again, anyone who disagrees has never been a teacher.

We gave descriptions of 10 of the 32 slogans that made the Word Cup, and now we reveal which slogans we were describing:

1. The slogan drawn from a campaign song that mentions Kentucky and Indiana, but not the candidate's state of residence? (presumably because of rhyming issues)
   
   "Lincoln and Liberty, Too!" Old Abe was born in Kentucky, and spent a few of his formative years in Indiana, but lived his adult life in Illinois.
   
   
2. The slogan that would have the highest value in Scrabble (57 points), assuming no limits on the amount of tiles you can use?
   
   We ran every slogan through a Scrabble calculator, and that is how we came up with the 57 points. What we did not notice is that the calculator we used cuts things off after 26 characters. Why set that limit, when there's no such thing as a 26-letter Scrabble play, we do not know.
   
   That does not actually change the answer, just the point value. The correct answer is "Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever," which is worth 71 points. It's followed closely by "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont" at 69.
   
   
3. The slogan that was created and used by liberals, but then coopted by conservatives, who merely flipped the order of the second and the final words?
   
   "Better Red than Dead" was popularized by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, an outspoken liberal. It was turned into "Better Dead than Red" by conservatives.
   
   
4. The slogan that helped power its candidate to the largest electoral vote total in U.S. history?
   
   "It's Morning Again in America" helped Ronald Reagan pile up 525 EVs in 1984. That is just ahead of the 523 that Franklin D. Roosevelt tallied in 1936. Of course, because Alaska and Hawaii were not states in FDR's time, his percentage of the EVs (98.49%) was higher than Reagan's (97.58%). Either one is a whooping, however.
   
   
5. The slogan that was coined nearly 80 years before it caught fire, and was also deployed (with limited success) roughly 60 years and 40 years before catching on?
   
   "Make It Great Again" was first coined by Sen. Alexander Wiley (R-WI) for a speech he delivered in 1940. Barry Goldwater heard about it, liked it, and took it for a test drive in 1964 without much success. Ronald Reagan also tried a variant of it in 1980 ("Let's Make America Great Again"), but it did not catch on the way other parts of his messaging did. Donald Trump then made the slogan famous in 2015-16.
   
   
6. The slogan that is also the title of a song performed by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, The Kingston Trio, Donovan, and many others?
   
   "Remember the Alamo" was written by Texas folk singer Jane Bowers in the 1950s, and has since been covered many times.
   
   
7. The slogan used by the first president to be sworn in by a former president, and also the only president (thus far) to be sworn in by a family member?
   
   "Keep Cool with Coolidge." He was sworn in by his father when Warren Harding died unexpectedly. And then, after winning election in his own right in 1924, Coolidge was sworn in for his second term by Chief Justice and former president William Howard Taft.
   
   
8. The slogan that was not actually written down until more than 40 years after it was (allegedly) first uttered?
   
   "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." News reporting did not really exist at that time, so nobody made a point of writing Patrick Henry's words down. He was not credited with coining the phrase until William Wirt published the book Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry in 1817. Wirt relied on the accounts of people who had been the room, though they were remembering events that took place four decades earlier. That said, their accounts were consistent enough that it's probable they were recalling Henry's words correctly.
   
   
9. The slogan that can be anagrammed into the name of a broadcast TV network, a comic book publisher, and a popular candy (singular) OR into a Canadian province, a species of fish, and the last name a notorious former NFL quarterback?
   
   "Black Lives Matter" can be anagrammed into "ABC," "Marvel" and "Skittle" or "Alberta," "Smelt," and "Vick."
   
   
10. And finally, on a similar note, the slogan that can be anagrammed into the last name of a British head of state who was neither a monarch nor a prime minister, a portion of a roof, and a word that Santa says repeatedly OR a Best Picture-winning film of the 21st century, a Sesame Street character, a species of fish, and a word that means "solemn promise"?
    
    "We Shall Overcome" can be anagrammed into "Cromwell," "Eaves" and "Ho," or "Crash," "Elmo," "Eel," and "Vow."

We will probably do something along these lines once the bracket tournament is complete (see below). (Z)