Thursday, May 26, 2005

Andy's First Blog Contest

Who is this man? What is he thinking? Where has he been, and where is he going? Who was his best friend? Does he write poetry? Plays? Folksongs? Prize for the winner: a free lifetime subscription to this blog!

posted by Andy Lang @ 5:58 PM   8 comments

8 Comments:

At 1:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

But *why* must man the iron schmieden? And how long is it hot?

 
At 1:40 PM, Blogger Andy Lang said...

First, apologies: it's "man muss" (one must) rather than "Mann muss" (Man must, which would be poor grammary anyway.) I'll revise the original message to cover up my gaffe.

Bismarck: "One must strike the iron while it is hot."

Of course, one could strike the iron while it's cold. But then you might break your arm.

If Bismarck hadn't been so German, he might have said:

"In order to change the shape of the iron, it is advised to strike it whilst in a semi-molten state."

But then people would start setting themselves on fire to make themselves semi-molten, showing why syntax is crucially important.

 
At 8:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Willis' guess:
Franz Kafka

 
At 9:29 PM, Blogger Andy Lang said...

Willis, you were fairly close in time and space, but far in social location and politics. Also, the mystery man was younger than Kafka by 15 years. Hint: he was born in a town founded by the Romans and named after an emperor, and where a certain Confession was adopted.

 
At 2:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks more like Brecht to me.

Rick

ps. Do I win anything?

 
At 3:09 PM, Blogger Andy Lang said...

Right you are, Rick: that's Bertolt Brecht at an early age.

Your prize: a trip to the radioactive forbidden zone in Kazakhstan!

By the way, I think everyone has the option of typing in their name under "Choose an identity," w/ no requirement of actually registering on Blogger, if you don't want your notes to be from "anonymous."

 
At 3:24 PM, Blogger Andy Lang said...

But, I've just noticed nobody got the trick question: who was Brecht's best friend?

And what about that other hint: what was the town in Germany named in honor of a Roman emperor after which a certain Confession is also named.

Any takers?

 
At 6:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's Augsburg, named after Augustus. Or so it seems to me!! And his best friend was Hans Eisler. I had to steal myself away from my dreadful activity of doing nothing to look him up on Wikipedia. So, it's Wikipedia that gets the prize really.

 

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