The Desirable Roasted Coffee Christmas Quiz Prize goes unclaimed

The Desirable Roasted Coffee Christmas Quiz Prize goes unclaimed this year.

The quiz was about something said by a famous person:

"We is tiptop at Toots."

And the quiz was:

1)
Name three people at the table where this statement was made. 2) Which
one taught an Olympic gold medalist. 3) Who was that athlete? 4) Which
of the three principals is still living?

Not an easy quiz. Many of you (backchannel) identified Plimpton and Ali… and found your way to Marianne Moore…..but no one cracked it.

Here are the answers:

1) The three people at the table were George Plimpton, Marianne Moore and Muhammad Ali.

Plimpton was editor of the Paris Review and a participatory journalist. His essays, articles and books are tight, considered, stripped. I will never write as well as Plimpton  — I hope you will.

Marianne Moore was one of the better American modernist poets. In 1955, the Ford Company asked her to name their new car. She suggested "Mongoose Civique," They called it the "Edsel." If you have no idea what I am talking about… I can't help you.

Muhammad Ali was boxing's heavyweight champion of the world.

Moore and Ali wrote a poem together when they metæ

2) Who taught an Olympic gold medalist?

Marianne Moore

3) Who was that athlete?

Jim Thorpe

4) Which of the three principals is still alive? Muhammad Ali.