i am what i am

[grodney]

I was watching the Olympic Nordic Combined, and happened to notice that Americans
Johnny Spillane
Bill Demong
share something fairly unusual in common.

I don't know the exact % of the population that shares this feature. I would guess it is fairly small in the U.S., and may vary greatly by country.

Others who share it:
Alex Trebek
James Monroe (the only US President on this list, I think)
Robert Duvall (the most recent Best Actor Oscar-winner that qualifies, if I searched the list correctly)
Moses Malone

I honestly can't tell if Dick Vitale is on the list. I don't think so, but he is a strange case in my head.

Can you list others that share the feature?

[Bill]

It is a rare condition indeed. Of all SNL regular cast members past and present, I believe only Chris Kattan and Chris Parnell qualify.

[ArtVark]

Does Emily Rossum qualify?

[grodney]

Does Emily Rossum qualify?

I've never heard of her, but after doing some research, I don't think she does. Bill, what do you think?

I was thinking our very own TheConfessor qualified, but I'm finding conflicting sources.

Thom McKee qualifies (I guess), and lots like him, but it sort of feels like cheating.

(Yes, after reading below, I suppose Dick Vitale does. I don't know why I struggled on that one. I was looking through the list of NBA hall of famers, and when I came to him, I confused myself.)

[Bill]

Does Emily Rossum qualify?

I've never heard of her, but after doing some research, I don't think she does. Bill, what do you think?

I also had to research it. No, she's not on the list.

Dick Vitale is. So is Saddam Hussein.

[Bill]

Of the ten regular cast members of Arrested Development, only Will Arnett qualifies.

[grodney]

Paul Menard was the only NASCAR Cup driver in the Top 35 last year that qualifies.

[grodney]

Curiously, boy bands seem to have larger-than-average representation.

'N Sync - 1 or 2
Backstreet Boys - 1 or 2
98 Degrees - Both(!) Lachey brothers

I'm too lazy to do the research on N Sync and Backstreet to verify whether it is 1 or 2.

[skullturfq]

I'm afraid I probably need a hint for this one.

[grodney]

Suzanne Pleshette qualifies.

Joey Ramone qualifies.

If I recall correctly, Tony Dorsett seemed to be on one side in college, and then switched to the other around the end of his college career. It may have been a case of the media having him qualified when really he wasn't. Or the other way around. To this day I don't know the right answer.

Big Hint: Others qualifying include Jim McKay, Shirley MacLaine, Tug McGraw, Katherine McPhee, Steve McNair, Matt LeBlanc

[skullturfq]

This one continues to really puzzle me.

I know I may feel silly later, because there have other puzzles posted here where I don't see the answer at all, but then I go away and come back to it later and it clicks.

The big hint in white suggests it has something to do with people's names (which often these puzzles are anyway). I also figured, rightly or wrongly, that most of us don't know a ton about relatively young skiers, so I was leaning in the direction that it's unlikely to have much to do with biographical details such as their parents, where they went to school, their eye color, etc. But then again, people mentioned that they had to do a bit of research in some cases. So then I figured it might have something to do with their full name and possibly a relationship between that and something like a parent's name, the name of where they're from, the name of what they do, the name of an award they've won, etc.

[billiej]

This one continues to really puzzle me.

I know I may feel silly later, because there have other puzzles posted here where I don't see the answer at all, but then I go away and come back to it later and it clicks.

The big hint in white suggests it has something to do with people's names (which often these puzzles are anyway). I also figured, rightly or wrongly, that most of us don't know a ton about relatively young skiers, so I was leaning in the direction that it's unlikely to have much to do with biographical details such as their parents, where they went to school, their eye color, etc. But then again, people mentioned that they had to do a bit of research in some cases. So then I figured it might have something to do with their full name and possibly a relationship between that and something like a parent's name, the name of where they're from, the name of what they do, the name of an award they've won, etc.

Don't feel bad - I've danced around all of those, even before the hint, and don't seem to have made any more progress.

[TheConfessor]

It appears to have something to do with...




... a two-syllable surname in which the accent is on the second syllable. I don't know if that's the answer, or if there's more to it than that.

[porpoise spit]

Sylvester Stallone
Jean-Claude Van Damme

[SMWinnie]

This struck me as ridiculously easy, but I disqualified myself because someone read me the topic title out loud.





...and not in a Popeye accent. That would have thrown me.

[skullturfq]

I do feel silly.

It's amazing how sometimes your mind just won't go in a certain direction.

I guess I was thinking about spelling and it never occurred to me to say the names out loud.

Maybe if I had asked somebody for help, I would have got it sooner.

[skullturfq]

Stephen Colbert didn't always qualify.

[skullturfq]

You might think that the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland qualified, but apparently she didn't.

[Dobie]

There was a 1960's television show on which every major character had both a two-syllable first name and a two-syllable last name and only one character qualified.

[Bill]

I got this one right away, but I teach poetic meter, and the iamb in particular.

When I'm working with kids, I have them identify first names that are iambs, starting with their own names. We also list countries that are iambs. String five of them together, and you can hear the iambic pentameter: Brazil, Iraq, Iran, Belize, Peru.

I also have them list the names of animals that are iambs, but there aren't as many as you would think. Each year, I challenge my graduate students at NYU to list as many as they can, and even with one or two grad students continuing the search for the rest of the semester, they are usually only able to come up with about six or seven.

So I pass the challenge along to you. How many common everyday names of animals can you list with names that are iambs?

[grodney]

Your sig doth show you are The Man on this.
The only one my brain can find: Macaw.

[Sequin]

Shall I open with:

Bison
Giraffe
Monkey
Orang
Tiger

[titaniferous]

How many common everyday names of animals can you list with names that are iambs?

.
.
.
.
.
Raccoon
Baboon
Giraffe
Gazelle

[billiej]

Thus far:

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giraffe, baboon, gazelle

ETA: Didn't type fast enough!

[billiej]

If allowed to get more specific
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Bichon Frise