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Nobel Prizes

sharpie Oct 11 2007 07:18 AM

For literature goes to British novelist Doris Lessing, best known for her novel The Golden Notebook. To continue in my latest trend of two degrees of separation: my uncle, since passed away, who was variously a speechwriter, ghostwriter, publicist and all-around operator/womanizer (as well as my father's best friend) was sitting around with me in the early 1980's in the apartment of my aunt, his sister, and told me that during her first tour of the US he traveled with Doris Lessing as her publicist and they had an affair while she was here. He never spoke with her again and now he didn't live to hear that he boinked a Nobelist.

TheOldMole Oct 11 2007 07:26 AM

I like this story.

Edgy DC Oct 11 2007 08:27 AM

Little remembered is that, in the early nineites, the anti-AIDS lobby convinced the Nobel Committee to discountinue the Nobel Prize for Boinking. 1956 Errol Flynn 1957 James Dean 1958 The King 1959 Marlon Brando 1960 John Kennedy 1961 Pablo Picasso 1962 Ian Fleming 1963 Mickey Mantle 1964 Alan Shepherd 1965 Bobby Kennedy 1966 Jim Brown 1967 Steve McQueen 1968 Jim Morrison 1969 The Rolling Stones 1970 Wilt Chamberlain 1971 Jack Lord 1973 Telly Savalas 1974 David Cassidy 1975 Ricardo Montalban 1976 Bowie 1977 Teddy Kennedy 1978 Spencer Haywood 1979 Freddie Mercury 1980 Iggy 1981 Rod Stewart 1982 Magic Johnson 1983 David Lee Roth 1984 Burt Reynolds 1985 Prince 1986 Mark Gastineau (Mark Gastineau ?! Highly controversial selection!) 1987 Steve Garvey 1988 Billy Idol 1989 John Tower 1990 George Michael 1991 Arsenio Hall (Arsenio Hall?! Highly controversial selection!) 1992 sharpie's uncle 1993 Eddie Murphy

MFS62 Oct 11 2007 08:54 AM

Edgy, to get on that list, did one have to be the boinker or the boinkee? I mean, with Freddy Mercury on it..... And, don't the Rolling Stones fall into a special group category? LOL! Later

sharpie Oct 11 2007 09:11 AM

Of course I attended Uncle Bill's induction. Quite the party as you can imagine.

Edgy DC Oct 11 2007 09:13 AM

Decidedly western group, don't you think?

metirish Oct 11 2007 10:12 AM

Cool story, did you uncle have relations with Doris Lessing in the early 80's, she's 87 now. I'm assuming it was much earlier.

sharpie Oct 11 2007 10:34 AM

I think it was in the '50's or maybe early '60's. He told me about it in the '80's.

Edgy DC Oct 12 2007 06:11 AM

Gore it is.

metirish Oct 12 2007 07:05 AM

Gore shared it with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Congrats to both. Listening to a podcast this morning and the question was posed, what does climate change have to do with peace? The question was posed to Dan Smith of International Alert.His answer basically was that the effects of climate change can lead to conflict, not quite as simple as that but he felt both Gore and the IPCC were very worthy winners, in fact he didn't think Gore would win because he felt that the Nobel Committee wouldn't want to get involved in US politics, or to be seen too.

Edgy DC Oct 12 2007 07:07 AM

That rarely stopped them before.

metirish Oct 12 2007 07:10 AM

Yeah that's what I thought, listening back to the pod the guy said they wouldn't want to be seen to be getting involved in election time,climate change is a divisive issue I guess, although I don't think it's a huge issue to the majority of voters. This blog takes the view that politics are at play. [url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/2007/10/gore_wins_another_prize_but_th.html]Nobel Prize[/url]

sharpie Oct 12 2007 09:03 AM

They've been giving Peace prizes for environmental things for some time now. A couple of years ago that Kenyan woman who plants trees won it.

Farmer Ted Oct 12 2007 01:59 PM

If this is an environmental thing, based on science, why wasn't this awarded as the Nobel Prize in Science?

Frayed Knot Oct 12 2007 02:22 PM

Because the idea of science prizes is to award new innovations & discoveries while Al didn't actually do any science. He's merely acting as a spokesman for a cause which strikes a chord with the Nobel people. Whether his message actually is based on good science, or on part science/part speculation, or on just plain bad science is up for interpretation depending on who you ask.