Winter 2019
LaVonne Lemler won this round on March 2, 2019. There were 90 goos.
Players this round: Russ Wilhelm (88 goos solved), Samir Mehta (87 goos solved), LaVonne Lemler (82 goos solved), Erik Bates (76 goos solved), Stan Iwanchuk (67 goos solved), Richard Slominsky (59 goos solved), Chris Lemler (47 goos solved), Matthew Preston (38 goos solved), Steve West (14 goos solved), Scott Hardie (10 goos solved), and Denise Sawicki (7 goos solved).
Edgar Allan Poe
A raven, a cask of Amontillado, a black cat, a tale-telling heart, a purloined letter, and a fallen house of Usher are the legacy of this master of the macabre, whose obscurity is nevermore. Go »
W. Somerset Maugham
This mostly gay would-be doctor wrote about human bondage, a razor's edge, and a magician not unlike Aleister Crowley. Go »
Nathaniel Hawthorne
This early American master gave us Hester Prynne, Hepzibah Pyncheon, Dr. Heidegger, and Giacomo Rappaccini. Go »
H.P. Lovecraft
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. Go »
Mary Shelley
Daughter of philosophers, wife of a novelist, she had plenty of Promethean figures in her life before she created one of her own. Go »
H.G. Wells
This author, who wrote classic novels about time travel, genetic horrors, an invisible person, and alien attacks, created a deep well of science-fiction concepts to inspire later authors. Go »
Arthur Conan Doyle
Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, Lestrade, Adler, Moran -- and even Mycroft -- will live on forever, thanks to the imagination of this British doctor. Go »
Bram Stoker
This Irish novelist and theater manager gave bloodthirsty readers one of the greatest undying villains in all of literature. Go »
L. Frank Baum
Dorothy was disappointed by the "wizard" that she and the scarecrow, tin man, and lion had followed the Yellow Brick Road to meet, but frankly, the real man behind the curtain was this imaginative American icon. Go »
Sax Rohmer
This author roamed between genres like pastoral fantasy, Islamic terrorism, and mummy-based horror, but his most enduring creation was a racist caricature of a crime lord with distinctive facial hair. Go »
Robert Wiene
Long before his career died on the vine when he fled his homeland to escape from Nazis, this expressionist director inflicted his own horror upon the world in films about mad hypnotists and unpunished murderers. Go »
Jules Verne
This Frenchman's heroes made fantastical journeys to the Earth's center, many leagues beneath the sea, around Earth in less than three months, and from here to the Moon. Go »
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan of the jungle and John Carter of Mars are the most famous creations of this popular author of Chicago. Go »
Guy Boothby
This Australian author invented a diabolical doctor villain (no relation to Tesla) and a long-lived magical mummy. Go »
King Midas
Not the muffler repair guy. Who's the king? Go »
Alex Morgan
She's an Olimpique gold medalist and world cup champ. Go »
Micah Johnson
This sniper decided to gun down cops in Dallas before being blown up by a robot. Go »
He Jiankui
For a guy playing God with genetics, He certainly seems surprised at the international controversy that He created. Go »
Henry Ford
This Detroit automaker, who named his international motor company after himself, revolutionized mass production by getting the science of the assembly line down to a T. Go »
Jim Brown
This running back, who went on to star in a dirty dozen or so great movies, was so good that he became synonymous with Cleveland's team. Go »
Benedict Cumberbatch
He's been a master detective, a sorcerer supreme, and a criminal codebreaker. Go »
Michelle Williams
Ever since growing up next to a small-town creek, she's been in big movies about cowboy lovers, violent symbiotes, a circus showman, and a Massachusetts uncle. Go »
Somerton Man
What do a millenium-old book of MIddle Eastern poetry and the genetic implications of the folds of an ear have to do with this murder victim? Not enough to solve the case. Go »
Ken Watson
Christmas will be a little extra special for a UK girl for the next 14 years thanks to this late neighbor. Go »
Halsey
This bi, polar queen of modern pop has a wonderful voice, but her first album was bad and her second album hopeless. Go »
Emily Blunt
In recent years, she's been a British nanny, a train commuter, an FBI agent, and a voluntary mute. Go »
Anthony Davis
This Olympic all-star and his unusually singular facial hair make playing for the Big Easy look easy. Go »
Burt Reynolds
This actor's legacy includes three films and a TV show about smoke, two movies about cannonballs, two movies about long yards, and one movie about 1.5 cops. Go »
Amanda Nunes
This Brazilian bantamweight is currently the ultimate in the Ultimate. Go »
Giovani Faenza
By raising a single digit, anyone can become a villain ready to tie victims to railroad tracks, thanks to this artist. Go »
Travis Kalanick
Above all, this former CEO's ride was marked by calamitous scandals. Go »
David Dao
You may want to give up your seat or you will suffer a broken nose and get dragged off the plane. Go »
Gary Larson
This amateur biologist, married to an anthropologist, drew inspiration from science and nature to drive his out-there comic for fifteen years. Go »
Paul Hollywood
He recently traveled to his namesake city to film the American version of his great baking show. Go »
Todd Howard
As the director of a popular long-running fantasy series, he would have a reputation as one of the elder statesmen of video games, if a recent high-profile flop had not made his reputation radioactive. Go »
Tom Cruise
Ethan Hunt, Jerry Maguire, Jack Reacher, Ron Kovic, Lestat, and Maverick all have this actor in common. Go »
Ted Cruz
He serves Texas in Washington despite roots in Cuba and Canada. Go »
Penélope Cruz
She went to the Caribbean with Johnny Depp, to the Sahara with Matthew McConaughey, to Reno with Patrick Swayze, to Rome with Woody Allen, to the Orient with Kenneth Branagh, and to Gothika with Halle Berry, Go »
Terry Crews
He's tough to categorize: He's been a sitcom star, playing a Brooklyn cop and Chris Rock's dad, and a game show host. He's also a movie star, having played an idiotic president and an expendable action star. But he's also been a pro-football linebacker. And a commercial pitchman. And a public advocate for sexual abuse victims and women's rights. And an artist. And an interior designer. And an author. With five kids, where does he find the time? Go »
Julee Cruise
This Midwestern singer was catapulted to fame, and the stage of Saturday Night Live, when her eerie song for a David Lynch production became an unlikely hit. Go »
Kambri Crews
When she wanted to move to New York and become a professional storyteller, her parents wouldn't hear of it. Go »
Cruz Bustamante
When Californians recalled a Governor and elected a Governator, this man ran against both of them and served under both of them. Go »
Kelleth Cuthbert
For some Internet celebrities, wetter is better. Go »
Jayme Closs
After 88 days, the prayers of this Wisconsin girl's mournful family were answered. Go »
Iris DeMent
This double Grammy nominee spent two albums tracing the through line of her life. Go »
Wayne Wheeler
A century ago, America had gotten a little too free-wheeling drunk for some people, like this saloon-hater who led the fight to prohibit alcohol by law. Go »
Sean McVay
When a certain football team needed to break through (head-first) in a tough market after moving to Los Angeles, they were lucky to hire the youngest head coach they could. Go »
Vicente Fox
For being in the order of angels, this wily former president is not too keen on his country picking up the tab for major construction projects. Go »
Steve Burns
Being on a TV show where having a dog that was blue, and trying to figure out why they thought that he was dead from a heroin overdose and being in a car accident, was pretty strange. He was always up for the early show to figure out what three clues were left for him. Go »
Jorge Ramos
Desde México hasta Miami, esta estrella magnético de los medios hace que millones de personas estén conscientes. Go »
Alec Smith
Diabetics may have more access to insulin thanks to the mother of this young man who made a tragic mistake with his own, thanks to insufficient medical insurance and a meager restaurant paycheck. Go »
Kamala Harris
Now that she's in the race, California's former top cop might arrest Trump's progress in 2020. Go »
Douglas Corrigan
Crossing the Atlantic had already been done but always on purpose. Go »
Chance the Rapper
Maybe this is totally random, but with a bit of luck, I think you might make a serendipitous correct guess of this rapper, who gave much of his fortune to the schools of his native Chicago. Go »
Mario Segale
This recently deceased Italian-American man was the landlord to the right people (a video game company) in the right city (Seattle) at the right time (the early 1980s) to get an iconic character named after him. Go »
Les Claypool
This prime example of a funk-metal bassist can still be heard on TV today, performing the theme songs of two long-running adult animation shows on cable. Go »
Thích Nhất Hạnh
He taught Buddhists how to engage and everyone how to be mindful. He fought for peace in life and now finds it in death. Go »
Laurie Metcalf
She's played some very different mothers in movies -- to some screaming teens, a ladylike bird, and a few anecdotal toys -- but her most famous role is a rosy sitcom sister. Go »
Nathan Phillips
This peace activist was at the center of a storm of controversy after he got some teens to turn their frowns upside down. Go »
Nadya Suleman
It wasn't the first six kids that made her notorious. It was the other eight. Go »
Brian Jones
He founded one of the world's biggest "rock" bands, and he didn't have long to regret being fired by them. Go »
Nathaniel Ayers
Two violin strings and a statue of Beethoven led to this musician's notoriety in a series of newspaper columns and a movie that changed his life. Go »
Warren Zevon
I hope you're enjoying that sandwich. That might be a bad example. Oh well, my ride to dancing school is here. Strike up the band! Go »
Mike Trout
Something is kind of fishy about him being the center of attention among his heavenly teammates. Go »
Josh Malerman
He started writing novels while on long journeys on a tour bus in between playing rock concerts. Now one of his novels has become a hit film about a woman, boy, and girl making a dangerous journey while blindfolded. Go »
Burt Shavitz
The alliterative hygiene brand that he co-founded, inspired by his work with apis mellifera, first became successful in Maine. Go »
Jordan Peele
He broke through in comedy as half of a key sketch-comedy duo, but now he's becoming a master of horror with Get Out, Us, and The Twilight Zone. Go »
Mary Surratt
It's usually good to be first except when it comes to executions. Go »
james Rolfe
The personification of classic video game anger. Gen X Nintendo nerds relate to his brand of critical humor. Go »
Robert Young
This actor seems awfully young to have played a medical doctor and wise dad. Go »
Glenn Close
To date, she's been nominated for six Oscars without winning, for indelible performances in movies like The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction, and Albert Nobbs. This year, she's this close to winning with nomination #7. Go »
Freddie Mercury
This rhapsodic singer died in 1991 but lives on as rock royalty. Go »
Victor Hugo Green
If you were black and you wanted to travel in the Jim Crow South, green was the way to go. Go »
Dick Cheney
He's been called a dick and the "president of vice," but he's still the most powerful person ever to hold his particular office. Go »
Alfonso Cuarón
He's made character-driven dramas about a Mexico City neighborhood and a mother too, sci-fi thrillers about paternal children and a force of attraction, stilted romantic films about AIDS and a wealthy Florida woman, and children's-book adaptations about a royal servant and a magic prisoner. Go »
Lee Israel
It takes a writer to impersonate a writer. Go »
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
This Clinton nominee reigns supreme as the most "notorious" justice in the highest court. Go »
Aesop Rock
It's not possible that this kid being a rapper is nothing more than a fable. Go »
Charles Goodyear
This scientist has made rubber for balls and also is very tired after waterproofing other objects so that it will be a good year. Go »
Camila Cabello
She left Fifth Harmony with only four members in order to pursue a solo career, scoring a hit about the capital of her native Cuba. Go »
Naomi Osaka
At the intersection of Haiti, Japan, and the United States, there's this champion athlete, the first Asian #1 player in her sport. Go »
Zendaya
This actress and singer has worked with Bella Thorne, Hugh Jackman, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Kadeem Hardison, and Spider-Man. Go »
Don Shirley
This accomplished pianist and composer bridged the gap between jazz and classical music, but these days he's remembered for using a colorful book to traverse the American south. Go »
James Shields
Being elected Senator from three different states is a unique accomplishment. Dueling with Honest Abe is also. Go »
Laura Hillenbrand
It's a cliché as tired as she is, but this horse girl turned her obsession into a best-selling book, and her career has not been broken by her condition. Go »
Stephen Paddock
His bullets painted the Las Vegas Strip red with blood. Go »
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
This controversial New York Congresswoman's Democratic Socialist agenda has just begun with the color green. Go »
Nicolás Maduro
Venezuela is increasingly being torn in two by this mad man's cling to power, backed by his military. Go »
Christopher Steele
This Brit's claims about foreign intelligence on an American candidate have come to be considered somewhat more flexible than metal. Go »
