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Now available for preorder:
The San Francisco Panorama.

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M c S W E E N E Y ' S B R A I N   E X P L O D E R EDITED BY CARLTON DOBY - - - - C H A I N   C H A I N   C H A I N. October 22 A popular phenomenon amongst listless media professionals in my home town of London recently caught my attention: the "First-name-last-name" game. I'm not too happy with the title of this game—you have to admit that it is a bit prosaic—so for extra credit, entrants are encouraged to provide a more stirring, expressive moniker. But enough of that. The original rules of this game are simple enough: for each letter of the alphabet, find a well-known individual whose surname begins with that letter AND IS ALSO THE FIRST NAME OF ANOTHER FAMOUS PERSON. These people can be contemporary or historical. I draw the line at fictional characters, though. I don't know why. I just do. For instance: A: Mark Anthony (Ancient Roman guy) B: John Barry (James Bond-theme guy) C: James Cameron (Movie guy: allowing for Cameron Diaz, this is an acceptable play) Et cetera, and so far so ho-hum. But a natural extension of this is to create a "name chain" where the surname of the first person is then used as the first name of the second person, whose surname then becomes the first name of somebody else, etc.: A two-name chain: Horatio Nelson Riddle. (Horatio Nelson = dead monocular nautical gentleman, Nelson Riddle = excitable band-leader) A three-name chain: Yvonne Craig David Cassidy (Yvonne Craig = original TV Batgirl, Craig David = singer, David Cassidy = something along similar lines) And so on. Now: the trick, and this week's challenge, is to build a chain of a given length from just the first and last name in the sequence. For instance, if you were given: Jessye ________ ________ Hawkins You would be looking for a three-name chain, and the answer (or perhaps one possible answer) would be: Jessye Norman Coleman Hawkins (Jessye Norman = impressively proportioned operatic diva, Norman Coleman = US Senator, Coleman Hawkins = jazzman) Of course, you may come up with a completely different answer, in which case all the better. Three more rules: A) The Untitled Rule: Titles are not allowed in place of names, e.g. for " Harold ________ Charles," you can't have "Harold Prince Charles," because Prince Charles's first name isn't "Prince," it's "Charles," you see? B) The Not-Their-Real-Names Rule: Notwithstanding rule A), you can have names that people are known by, even if they are not their given names, e.g. for "Robert _______ Dern," you can have "Robert the Bruce Dern" —strange as that may sound. C) The Homonym Rule: If a name is spelled differently when it's used as a first name or a last name, you can still use it. For instance (and comprehensible only to British readers), "John Lesley" can be linked to "Leslie Ash." In a manner of speaking. Okay, that's enough rules. Here you go: - - - - 1. Buck ________ ________ ________ Estevez  2. Lenny ________ ________ ________ Van Peebles  3. Ben ________ ________ ________ Dyer  4. Claude ________ ________ ________ McKay  5. Elizabeth ________ ________ ________ ________ Amis  Keep in mind that there may be multiple solutions to each, but you only need to provide one. Send your answer by noon on Friday, October 24, to carltondoby@hotmail.com. The winner, chosen at random from all entries with the most correct answers, will win a McSweeney's book. - - - -     MORE BRAIN EXPLODERS

- - - - MAIN PAGE | ARCHIVES Memories of Amanda Davis Red dot denotes content that is new today. Black dot denotes newish content. McSWEENEY'S STORE SUBSCRIBE TO: McSWEENEY'S THE BELIEVER WHOLPHIN FUTURE McSWEENEY'S BOOKS THE AMANDA DAVIS HIGHWIRE FICTION AWARD INVITE A McSWEENEY'S AUTHOR TO SPEAK IN YOUR TOWN OR COLLEGE THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING McSWEENEY'S MONTHLY MAILING LIST BOOKSTORES WITH A McSWEENEY'S DISPLAY McSWEENEY'S-RELATED EVENTS AND VARIOUS TOUR DATES ORDER INQUIRIES AND ADDRESS CHANGES SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: FOR BOOKS FOR THE QUARTERLY FOR THE WEBSITE FOR WHOLPHIN McSWEENEY'S INTERNSHIPS CONTACT US - - - - LETTERS TO McSWEENEY'S LISTS McSWEENEY'S RECOMMENDS REVIEWS OF NEW FOOD NEW WHOLPHIN FILM DAN LIEBERT, VERBAL CARTOONIST TEDDY WAYNE'S UNPOPULAR PROVERBS NON-ESSENTIAL MNEMONICS BITCHSLAP: A COLUMN ABOUT WOMEN AND FIGHTING DISPATCHES FROM A GUY TRYING UNSUCCESSFULLY TO SELL A SONG IN NASHVILLE GLOBAL WAR ON BEDBUGS: LETTERS FROM BEDBUG CITY THE CONFLICTED EXISTENCE OF A FEMALE PORN WRITER OH MY GAWD: A COLUMN ABOUT A TEENAGER NAVIGATING RELIGION DISPATCHES FROM MANILA DISPATCHES FROM AN INDIAN CASINO THE CONVERGENCES CONTEST CHRIS WHITE ANSWERS PROFOUND QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRESIDENTS REPORTS FROM THE PINBALL SCENE LETTERS FROM THE HELLBOX NOTES FROM AN AMATEUR SPECTATOR AT AMATEUR MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTS B.R. COHEN'S DAYS AT THE MUSEUM CONVERSATIONS AT A WARTIME CAFÉ AND HERE'S THE KICKER: MIKE SACKS'S CONVERSATIONS WITH HUMOR WRITERS GRANT MUNROE'S CORPORATE FOLKTALES SARAH WALKER SHOWS YOU HOW DISPATCHES FROM AN ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER WHO IS TRYING TO GROW A MUSTACHE DISPATCHES FROM A HANGDOG BANKRUPT DISPATCHES FROM THE CAPITAL DISPATCHES FROM INDIA THE WINNER'S CIRCLE WITH ERIC FEEZELL SEAN MICHAELS LISTENS TO MUSIC IN MONTREAL SHORT IMAGINED MONOLOGUES KIDS' LETTERS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA STAINED TEETH: A COLUMN ABOUT WINE YOUR MONEY, YOUR JOB ... YOUR LIFE, WITH ALISON ROSEN KEVIN DOLGIN TELLS YOU ABOUT PLACES YOU SHOULD GO IN EUROPE ABOUT THE WILD THINGS ABOUT THE CONVALESCENT ABOUT FEVER CHART ABOUT GOD SAYS NO ABOUT ZEITOUN LETTERS FROM AN EARTH BALL TO, OR CONCERNING, SEAN HANNITY E-MAILS SENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FLAG-FOOTBALL TEAM TRAVELING EUROPE IN STYLE WITH AUCKLAND DINGIROO, DARK-AGE TOURIST AND CRITIC OF FOOD AND DRINK JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG CORRESPONDENCES INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTERESTING OR UNUSUAL JOBS FLIP: A COLUMN ABOUT SKATEBOARDING OPEN LETTERS TO PEOPLE OR ENTITIES WHO ARE UNLIKELY TO RESPOND DISPATCHES FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN MICHAEL IAN BLACK IS A VERY FAMOUS CELEBRITY DAN KENNEDY SOLVES YOUR PROBLEMS WITH PAPER STEPHEN ELLIOTT'S POKER REPORT - - - - ADDITIONAL MATERIAL