Nathaniel Ayers
publication date: Friday, February 1, 2019 (part of Winter 2019)
category: 
Controversy
clue: 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.
explanation: Ayers was a homeless man playing a broken violin under a statue in Los Angeles when we was met and befriended by opinion writer Steve Lopez. The popular newspaper columns by Lopez about Ayers led to the movie The Soloist and helped Ayers get an apartment. more…
intended difficulty: medium
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, LaVonne Lemler, Samir Mehta, Matthew Preston, Erik Bates, and Stan Iwanchuk
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