How many of Time’s most important people of the 20th century can you name in 15 minutes?
I got 40 and was strongest in “Leaders and Revolutionaries” and “Artists and Entertainers” which I guess reflects my interests. Some of those on their list are pretty bogus IMO.
21 — I was embarrassed at some that I missed, and I was embarrassed for Time magazine for some of their picks. Possibly could have helped to know some of the people are not real.
I’ll hold my fire on remarking much so others can have a chance at taking the test without my giving them hints but I found some of Time’s picks gobsmackingly arbitrary. And I also think there’s an undue emphasis on the second half of the 20th century.
Sort of like citing Little Eva as one of the most important figures of the 19th century.
And I also think there’s an undue emphasis on the second half of the 20th century.
I assumed this but still found some of their choices odd (and wasted a lot of time on my guesses which didn’t match their selections.)
Somewhat OT: On the $20 bill, I thought a more important figure that would meet the apparent qualification of black woman would be the mother in Uncle Tom’s Cabin escaping across the frozen Ohio River with her baby. Apparently based upon a true story, it was an image, as much as the book, that galvanized opposition to slavery and rejected the claim of slavery as a benign paternalistic institution.
Eliza was a figure of world importance. For the better part of a century the most-read book in the world other than the Bible or the Qur’an was Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Cannot believe Borlaug was not on the list. Stopped to double check the spelling on his name and entered it again. Must have entered Stalin about 8 times also. 27.
Steve
It’s bizarrely difficult. Entering 100 names in 15 minutes means entering six names per minute—one every 10 seconds. That’s a typing exercise not a test of knowledge.
Stalin doesn’t make the list? Seriously? Josef Stalin is less important than Eleanor Roosevelt?
And the arts list excludes Hitchcock, Kubrick, the Marx Brothers, John Wayne, Bogart?
Dumb list.
Me too on Stalin! And I kept trying variations of FDR, finally put just Roosevelt and it was accepted- little did I know that was for Eleanor and Teddy!
Now I’ll allow myself to comment on the arbitrariness of it. Any list of “most important people” that includes Bill Gates but not Steve Jobs or Henry Ford but not Billy Durant is arbitrary.
Hitler but not Stalin? Sinatra but not Crosby? Marilyn Monroe but not Clark Gable? Mao but not Chiang Kai-shek or Sun Yat Sen? Che but not Castro? That’s just bizarre. They’ve been staring at Andy Warhol prints too long.
I thought “the Kennedys” under heroes and icons was strange, as in three Roosevelts were leaders, but the Kennedys are something else.
I don’t know how to spell Pikasew and gave up, so I don’t feel bad that Eleanor Roosevelt was entered automatically for me.
Surprised no Katherine Hepburn, kind of thought, as I was working out what guesses worked, that these were representational selections, but really I overestimated Cinema overall.
No Presley? Thousands of Elvis impersonators can’t be wrong.
Che is not listed as a revolutionary, he is categorized as a t-shirt. Marilyn is not an entertainer, but a pinup.