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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Daniel Craig as Mister Fantastic?

This is a lesser-known, but real, example of the Mandela Effect. Just as there are people who absolutely insist that the comedian Sinbad was in the movie Shazaam. He wasn't, as a movie by that name does not exist. Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal starred in Kazaam, which is believed to be the origin of the confusion. There are also people who insist that Daniel Craig played Mister Fantastic at some point. This is because there was a massive fan-driven campaign to cast the actor in the role (despite the fact that he was really a bit too old for it, even when the very first Fantastic Four movies were being made). As part of this campaign, people created posters, cardboard cutouts, even AI-generated movie trailers showing Craig playing the role. Craig was even cast in the role, as a cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but dropped out before filming began. And so, he gets credit for acting that was actually done by Ioan Gruffudd, then Miles Teller, then Pedro Pascal.

We did not have a Friday post last week, so this is from a couple of weeks ago. We gave two hints. The first of those was "several readers figured out the theme before today's posting was even written." The second was "[S]omething like 80% of people who got it correct included the phrase 'Oh, my!' in their responses. That is where 'secondarily, it's in the category Movies' comes into play."

And here is the solution, courtesy of reader C.B. in Lakeville, MN:

The answer appears to be "Tigers," thanks to the big clue this week

The National Debt: Has the U.S. Reached Its "Break Glass in Case of Emergency" Moment? (Glass Tiger was a Canadian pop/rock band)

This Week in TrumpWorld: Operation Veteran Fury Is Progressing Nicely (A Tiger Fury is a type of German tank)

Political Bytes, National Edition: El-Sayed Dogged by His Time in Detroit (Detroit Tigers are a pro baseball team)

Local Elections: This Year, Every Race May Be a Golden Opportunity for Democrats (a golden tiger is a type of, well, tiger)

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Sea Salt and Paper (a paper tiger is someone who talks tough, but does little)

This Week in Schadenfreude: Duffy's TV Project Is a Failure in Every Way (Duffy was a tiger in the movie "K-pop Demon Hunters"

This Week in Freudenfreude: Putting on the White Coat, One Last Time (white tiger is a, y'know, tiger)

This headline adds Daniel Tiger to the list. Note that we always write answers where the format is the same. So, for example, the correct answers are all _________ Tiger. Put another way, while we accept this solution, we actually intended the word in the second headline to be "Operation" (Operation Tiger was a rehearsal for D-Day, dramatized in the recent movie Pressure) and we intended the word in the sixth headline to be "Project" (Project Tiger is a tiger conservation agency).

Meanwhile, for those who have not put it together, we had bears, then lions, then tigers. Hence the "Oh, my!" This is the first time, we think, where the headline themes have been connected across multiple weeks.

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

M.B. in Albany, NY
K.G.W. in Lafayette, IN
R.P. in Brooklyn, NY
D.S. in Layton, UT
B.A. in Edmond, OK
J.S. in Huntington Station, NY
R.S. in Landing, NJ
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
M.H. in Ottawa, ON, Canada
W.V. in Hemet, CA
M.S. in Canton, NY
C.B. in Lakeville
S.G. in Durham, NC
M.M. in Dunellen, NJ
J.N. in Zionsville, IN
P.A. in Redwood City, CA
E.M. in Jersey City, NJ
P.R. in Havertown, PA
D.D. in Bucks County, PA
A.D. in Gaithersburg, MD
G.R.R. in Claremont, CA
B.R. in Arlington, MA
K.H. in Maryville, TN
E.W. in Skaneateles, NY
R.B. in Richmond, VA
M.K. in Bothell, WA
D.M. in Oakland, CA
K.H. in Albuquerque, NM
G.M.K. in Mishawaka, IN
S.K. in Bethesda, MD

M.Z. in Sharon, MA
K.R. in Austin, TX
J.F. in Fayetteville, NC
G.K. in Blue Island, IL
J.E. in San Jose, CA
A.E. in Cleveland, OH
P.H. in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
B.A. in Sioux Falls, SD
N.K. in Cleveland Heights, OH
W.A. in Red Lion, PA
S.D. in Cedar Park, TX
M.T. in Simpsonville, SC
D.L. in Springfield, IL
S.K. in Ardmore, PA
R.S. in Milan, OH
B.B. in Sonoma, CA
T.B. in Miami, FL
G.G. in Houston, TX
A.M. in Helena, MT
G.T. in Chicago, IL
P.H. in London, England, UK
J.J. in New York City, NY
H.R. in Atlanta, GA
M.M. in Los Angeles, CA
J.Q. in St. Paul, MN
R.L. in Richmond, VA
J.O. in Baltimore, MD
K.K. in Vancouver, BC, Canada
A.T. in Tacoma, WA
H.B. in Santiago, Chile

The 60th correct response was received at 5:58 a.m. PT on August 23.

For this week's theme, it relies on one word per headline, and it's in the category Language. For a hint, we'll say that Walt Whitman would get this one right off the bat.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line September 4 Headlines. (Z)

This item appeared on www.electoral-vote.com. Read it Monday through Friday for political and election news, Saturday for answers to reader's questions, and Sunday for letters from readers.

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