You Gotta Know These Common Mistakes: Part I
This article is a little different from other “You Gotta Know…” topics in that it consists of common mistakes that players make when answering questions and answers that are often confused.
- Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Two different people; Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797, married name Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) is best known as an advocate of educational equality for women, particularly in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). She was the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) who married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and is best known as the author of Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus.
- “Bloody Mary” and Mary, Queen of Scots: Two different people; “Bloody Mary” is a (pejorative) nickname of Mary I Tudor, the queen of England who preceded Elizabeth I, so named for her persecution of Protestants. Mary, Queen of Scots was Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland during the first part of Elizabeth’s reign.
- The Merchant of Venice: The title character of The Merchant of Venice is not Shylock — who is a money-lender — but Antonio.
- Hudson Bay: The large sea of eastern Canada is Hudson Bay (no apostrophe or ‘s’). The company named for it is the Hudson’s Bay Company (possessive). Incorrect forms are not acceptable under ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ rules.
- Saint Augustine: Two different people; the earlier (354–430) served as the Bishop of Hippo and wrote Confessions and City of God The later (?–c. 604) founded the Christian church in southern England and was the first archbishop of Canterbury.
- Compound last names: The last names of David Lloyd George, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are “Lloyd George,” “Lloyd Webber,” “Vaughan Williams,” and “Mies van der Rohe” (or just “Mies”) respectively. Players in ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ events will be prompted if they give part of a compound last name.
- (The) Invisible Man: Invisible Man is a 1952 novel by Ralph Ellison about an unnamed African-American protagonist in search of personal identity. The Invisible Man is an 1897 novel by H. G. Wells about a man who has turned himself invisible but is slowly being driven insane. Under ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ rules, players are usually allowed to drop leading articles or add them where they are missing (but not use incorrect ones) — but in this case, doing so creates ambiguity, so the title must be exact.
- Primates: The scientific name for the order of primates is Primates pry-MAY-teez, not Primata.
- John Adams: Even though ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ rules generally call for players to be prompted on partial names, an answer of “John Adams” will not be prompted if the correct answer is “John Quincy Adams.” An answer of “Adams” will be prompted in either case.
- “Concerned” philosophical works: David Hume wrote An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, George Berkeley BARK-lee wrote Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, and John Locke wrote An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. These three philosophical works are often confused.
- The Russian Five: The nationalist composers popularly known as “The Russian Five” or “The Mighty Handful” were César Cui, Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov; in particular, they did not include Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes: Two different men; the father, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894), was a physician, poet, and humorist who wrote “Old Ironsides” and The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. The son, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935), was a justice of the Supreme Court whose decision in Schenk v. U.S. created the “clear and present danger” test.