Quote: beaky @ 5th November 2018, 4:06 PMPresumably because they're all known by an initial for their second name? Or is that too obvious?
Yes, but also (not to labour the point - NO! bloody spell checker I spell it with a "U"!! NOW EFF OFF) it breaks the rule of having (it seems) two answers. Would never be allowed on OC.
Quote: beaky @ 5th November 2018, 4:06 PMPresumably because they're all known by an initial for their second name? Or is that too obvious?
It's a fair question, Beaky, and my answer is that I believe most fans of Only Connect would indeed, much like your good self, consider it too obvious.
I take Herc's point that there must not be more than one correct answer to a question on Only Connect but clearly, for enforcement purposes, that rule must be understood to mean "one correct answer worthy of the sort of people who play this game". What I mean is that all the clues in my question are human beings but would the question be disqualified because it has such an easy answer as an alternative to the one the question setter is seeking? Similarly, all the clues in my question are people who were not present at the Battle of Hastings: does that indisputably correct answer mean the question should not be allowed?
The same sort of blindingly obvious correct answers can be given to any of the questions on Only Connect and yet the show has not been cancelled because of the impossibility of producing a question to which there is literally only one answer.
If my question were to appear on Only Connect and somebody were to come up with Beaky's suggested answer, I believe Victoria might say something along the lines of "That's a little too obvious" meaning it's a little too obvious for a show of this intellectual quality and for contestants of your intellectual quality.
Actually, I believe Victoria would probably say "That's a little too obvious: I need more."
Here's more:
Their middle initial is one of convenience. J K Rowlin doesn't have a middle name by birth, the K was to hide the fact she was femail. Harry Truman's S was to appease family members and so on. If thats the answer, then thats a realy good question.
Quote: Firkin @ 5th November 2018, 5:01 PMHere's more:
Their middle initial is one of convenience. J K Rowlin doesn't have a middle name by birth, the K was to hide the fact she was femail. Harry Truman's S was to appease family members and so on. If thats the answer, then thats a realy good question.
Correct, Firkin!
In the belief that the target audience of young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman, her publishers asked that Joanne Rowling use two initials rather than her forename for professional purposes. As she had no middle name, she chose K as the second initial of her pen name, inspired by the name of her paternal grandmother, Kathleen. Note: she did not adopt the name "Kathleen" as a middle name: she has never adopted a middle name; she simply adopted K as the second initial of her nom de plume.
Harry Truman was in fact registered on official birth records as "Harry S Truman", as you say, to appease family members some of whom wanted "Shippe" while others wanted "Solomon". The "S" does not in fact stand for any particular name.
Ulysses Grant was nominated to join the United States Military Academy and somebody mistakenly inserted the initial "S" into his name on the nomination papers, possibly because his mother had the middle initial "S". He did not seek to correct the error, possibly because in America, the initials "U S" are a pretty good set of initials to have!
David Selznick chose the middle initial "O" for reasons best known to himself. It does not stand for a name.
Would the presence of J K Rowling be another reason to reject it? An obvious namedrop really. Someone a bit more obscure may be needed.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 5th November 2018, 4:34 PMIf my question were to appear on Only Connect and somebody were to come up with Beaky's suggested answer, I believe Victoria might say something along the lines of "That's a little too obvious" meaning it's a little too obvious for a show of this intellectual quality and for contestants of your intellectual quality.
Actually, I believe Victoria would probably say "That's a little too obvious: I need more."
There wouldn't be an "If my question were to appear on Only Connect" and no, she wouldn't be saying "That's a little too obvious: I need more." because it wouldn't get past the pitch stage, let alone the final edit and then used on the show.
Talk of human beings or at the Battle of Hastings is just silly, having said that I have looked at your original post and I think where it would work, ironically, is if you had put the initials in because then it wouldn't have been "Ah! I see that the initial is missing, that's got to be the answer"; but after your explanation, a nice connection, which I will probably use - so thank you! 
I thought leaving the initials in would make them stand out to the extent that they would be a very good clue to the link. Having given the matter further thought, an experienced OC player might have noticed the initials immediately but thought they might be a red herring - which would have been a good thing.
In any event, I am now persuaded that it would have been better to have left them in.
What do the following 4 clues have in common?
Edgar Allan Poe
HG Wells
Albert Einstein
Jesse James
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th November 2018, 11:28 AMbut oddly enough I have found the Walls easier in this new series and think the Missing Vowels is over too quickly.
Episode 3 was easier than usual. Except for the prime ministers' middle names.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 6th November 2018, 12:15 AMWhat do the following 4 clues have in common?
Edgar Allan Poe
HG Wells
Albert Einstein
Jesse James
They've never been in my kitchen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=botdmsQilnU
What do the following 4 clues have in common?
Humphrey Bogart
Clint Eastwood
Billy Joel
Rod Stewart
Quote: Rood Eye @ 4th November 2018, 10:09 AMWhat do the following 4 clues have in common?
Jesse James
Buster Keaton
Daryl Hannah
Frodo Baggins
We don't appear to have had a definitive answer to this one - did they all have hairy feet?
Quote: Rood Eye @ 6th November 2018, 12:44 AMWhat do the following 4 clues have in common?
Humphrey Bogart
Clint Eastwood
Billy Joel
Rod Stewart
Divorcees who married younger women. And even if it's not the answer on the card, too bad, because it fits. Such subversive larks, sprinkling such stuff around here.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 6th November 2018, 6:37 AMWe don't appear to have had a definitive answer to this one - did they all have hairy feet?
They all married their dog.
Jesse James
Buster Keaton
Daryl Hannah
Frodo Baggins
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 6th November 2018, 6:37 AMWe don't appear to have had a definitive answer to this one - did they all have hairy feet?
The connection is a missing finger (or part thereof).
Quote: Rood Eye @ 6th November 2018, 12:15 AMWhat do the following 4 clues have in common?
Edgar Allan Poe
HG Wells
Albert Einstein
Jesse James
I believe they are all men born in the 18 hundreds, or would Victoria say that's too obvious ?
Are none of them religious ? Poe might be.
Humphrey Bogart
Clint Eastwood
Billy Joel
Rod Stewart
Quote: Kenneth @ 6th November 2018, 7:53 AMDivorcees who married younger women.
And they all have an "e" in their name: unfortunately, I'm looking for a more unusual connection than being a divorced man married to a younger woman and having an 'e' in his name.
Edgar Allan Poe
HG Wells
Albert Einstein
Jesse James
Quote: Firkin @ 6th November 2018, 8:39 AMI believe they are all men born in the 18 hundreds, or would Victoria say that's too obvious ?
Are none of then religious ?
I think being born in the same century is a bit broad, as connections go.
As far as religiosity is concerned, I am devoid of information concerning the above gentlemen.