Know Your Picture Characters Entry #13
A. 猪 B. 兎 C. 龍 D. 虎 E. 鼠 F. 羊 G. 蛇
The first to step into the fray this week was Dragon, who pounced with cat-like celerity on E. We can applaud her enthusiasm, though not her accuracy. She must have seen that other movie, Crouching Rat, Hidden . . . uh . . . Walrus. Next to bat was Theoman, who watched the correct film but, unfortunately, the wrong half. C, named by Shirley as “the most aesthetically pleasing,” is the dragon, which, in his case, is an appropriate guess, I suppose. Our friend A Fan, as always a fan of elegant simplicity, chose the character with the fewest strokes, F. While not the right answer, it is at least an animal whose ferocity nearly equals that of the tiger: the sheep.
But they were all outshone by Shirley, our cleanup hitter, who, refusing to be distracted by Blake, settled on the correct answer, D. And let’s not forget our other participants, who rounded out our lineup in their own quiet way: the boar (A), the rabbit (B), and the snake (G).
Now for our weekly reminder about the complexity of kanji: these characters only represent the animals. For the astrological signs associated with these animals, there is an entirely different set of twelve characters. I’ll pull them out some day if I’m feeling malicious.
This week is a special week. As those of you who follow baseball know, tomorrow is the All-Star Game, in honor of which I thought we could have a baseball-themed challenge. But not just any challenge! As the brightest stars assemble in Anaheim, so too will this week’s puzzle bring out the mightiest of the KYPC participants. Before today, we have worked only with single characters. Now you must deal with . . . names.
Below is a list of five famous Japanese Major League Baseball players. Their names have been kept in the traditional Japanese “Family name first, given name second” order, just in case that means anything to you. And, because I know that some of my readers pay limited attention to our national pastime, I will identify the players by their accomplishments rather than their names. Feel free to match as many or as few as you like, and, if you’re feeling extra confident, you can even try to add in a name.
On this list are: 1. The first Japanese player to permanently relocate to MLB, 2. The first Japanese pitcher to win an MLB playoff game, 3. The first player to hit an inside-the-park home run in an All-Star Game, 4. A man who has won two Olympic medals (one silver, one bronze), and 5. A World Series MVP
A. 鈴木一朗 B. 野茂英雄 C. 福留孝介 D. 松井秀喜 E. 松坂大輔
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4 Comments »
July 12th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Um. Okay. I really have no idea how to do this, so I’m going to guess more or less randomly and hope I get at least one right. Okay. A = 3, because it’s got that line in the middle that could represent a ball flying really fast as that guy hits the home run. B = 5, because I have nothing specific to say about it and 5 is the vaguest. C = 1, because it’s got that thing at the end that could be a house, and this guy changed baseball leagues or something, which is like…changing…houses…I guess. D = 4, because the last character looks to me like it could be a medal on some sort of platform or something. And E = 2, because it’s the only one left.
July 14th, 2010 at 8:39 am
A. Ichiro
B. “Dice-K”
C. Ichiro again (trick question)
D. Sadaharu Oh (even though he was half Chinese)
E. you guessed it, Ichiro again (or possibly Brian Buchanan, who I watched get the winning ground-out in a game I saw on TV in Japan)
July 15th, 2010 at 10:58 am
My batting average to date has been reasonably good, but…
The outlook isn’t brilliant for for my at bats today,
Although I feel I’ve done all right there’s innings left to play.
And so when W. revealed a challenge using names,
A sickly fear came over this player of the games.
Oh well, if I whiff, I whiff.
So: 1., The first to the majors, E. You can see he feels a little out of place in the new country. Then you see him, then it looks like he might be homesick. I would be if I looked like that last figure. 2., The first pitcher to win a playoff game; D. He’s going into his windup, then one, two, three strikes, they’ out.
3., First with an inside the ballpark homer, A., no brainer! The pitcher throws the ball, you can see the batter in his stance, then the arrow shows that the air is shattered by the force of his blow, and finally,you see two bases being rounded. I expect the writer got tired and didn’t bother showing third and homer.
4., Two Olympic medals, First you see the guy getting his medals.( The second one is the silver.) Then he celebrates like mad. 5. With so much going on here, he must have overwhelmed his opponents and they are falling apart.
Well, I tried, but…..
I fear it’s rather likely, tho not beyond a doubt
That W’s going to tell us mighty Shirley has struck out.
July 15th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Whoops. I didn’t specify which letter goes with 4 and 5. 4. is clearly C and 5. as clearly B. Sorry about that.