Monday, May 4, 2009

Mute Monday - Guess the Place Answer Key

Thanks to all who have visited and guessed at this MM Blog. I had a lot of fun putting it together (because I'm devious) and guessing other peoples MMs. So where was I going with this? I figured a lot of people would go with a geographical place, so I wanted to change things up. My place is - wait for it - "Famous Places". In tribute to Troll and his whole horse racing obsession, these are people or teams (or animals) who have infamously "Placed" or come in 2nd Place.

Some explanations in order of appearance:

The Buffalo Bills - lost 4 straight Super Bowls (1991 -1994).

Stefan Richter - the heir apparent on Top Chef Season 5, lost to the goofball Hosea Rosenberg (for all you TC fans)

Star Wars - The most famous movie franchise in history lost the 1977 Best Picture Oscar to - Annie Hall.

The Yankees - Who have won the most World Series in MLB history (with 26) have also lost the most World Series in MLB History (with 13). When I went to look this up, I thought the answer was going to be the Red Sox but it turns out the record for the 2nd most World Series losses is held by the Cardinals with 7. The Red Sox have 4.

The Jamaican Bobsled Team - Even though they didn't actually place (or even show) in the 1988 Olympics at Calgary, they were fan underdog favorites and the movie Cool Runnings was made about them.

Clay Aiken - American Idol also ran in Season 2 (2003), losing to Ruben Studdard and who has probably become more famous than Ruben.

1972 American Men's Olympic Basketball Team - No explanation here, the gold medal was stolen from them by the referees and the secretary general of FIBA. Their silver medals are still waiting for them (all have vowed never to accept them - and for good reason).

Race Horse Sham (Troll tribute) - Lost to Secretariat in the 1973 Kentucky Derby (2nd), Preakness (2nd) and Belmont (last).

Thomas Dewey - Infamously lost to Harry Truman in the 1948 Presidential Election. Contributor to the now famous Chicago Tribune headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" - not.

Al (the Inventor) Gore - Lost to George W. Bush in the 2000 Presidential Election.

There you have it, infamous 2nd places.



2 comments:

Jenny said...

Oh, you love a puzzle don't you? EXCELLENT. Gotta give you props for you geography skills.

Well played... EVERYWHERE.

h said...

You won an unprecedented number of points. Great guessing/sleuthing. Thanks for letting me know there's a book about poor Sham, I'll have to read it.

His times would have won EVERY prior Kentucky Derby and most prior Preaknesses but he chose the wrong year to be born.