This is a test. Below are 11 sentences, each one stringing together famous—and obscure—people, places, songs, and objects from popular culture in the past 100-ish years. See if you can identify all the connections; if you can, you are probably me. Each sentence is longer and more difficult to decipher than the last. Some creative license has been taken; after all, this is Phiction111. Hint: Be prepared to move both forward and backward in each sentence to solve it (the first one below is solved for you).
#1: Boy George Michael Jackson Five, Dave Clark, Marcia. (Answer: Boy George, George Michael, Michael Jackson, the Jackson Five, the Dave Clark Five, and Marcia Clark (of O.J. trial fame.)
#2: Rosemary’s Baby Ruth, George Herman Munster, Eddie Vedder.
#3: Burma Shave Ice, Vanilla Sky King, Coretta Scott, Sir Walter Payton Manning, Eli.
#4: Sheila E. Howard Hunt, Sea, Baltic Avenue of the Americas Sweet Heart of Darkness Darkness.
#5: Liston, Sonny and Cher River, Hudson, Rock, Chris Isaac Newton Gingrich Who Stole Christmas, White, Barry Gibb.
#6: Ralph Waldo Emerson Lake and Palmer, Arnold, Benedict, ex-Pope John Lennon SisterSledge, Percy Faith Hill, Harold, F. Truman Show, Glen Campbell Soup, Goat’s Head of State, Kent, Clark, Dick, Tricky.
#7: Darin, Bobby, Ricci Don't Lose That Number 9/11, Oceans, Seven-ty Seven Sunset Strip, Las Vegas, Viva la Vida Locamotion, Do The Wall, Berlin, Irving, Washington, George, Curious, (Yellow) I Am the Walrus.
#8: Don't trust anyone over 30 Days in the Hole, with Love, Courtney Cox, Brian Keith, Moon, Did We Really Land on The Hall of the Mountain King Biscuit Flower Hour of Power, Tower of Mice and Men, Mad as Hell, Richard Burton, Timothy Leary.
#9: Shorts, Bermuda Triangle, the Golden State of New Jersey, Patterson, Floyd, Pink Flamingo Hotel, Morrison, Jim, Lord of the Rings, Olympic Games People Play that Funky Music White Boy in the Bubble Gum Music Man, Burning, is Mississippi, Duncan, Isadora.
#10: RuPaul, Sir Elton John Holmes, Larry King, Billie Jean, Jazzin for Blue, Tangled Up In the Heat of the Night Moves, All the Righteous Brothers, Joyce, James, Jesse Colin Young Frankenstein, Bride of Mice and Men at Work Out, Brazilian Butt Sisters, Lennon, Sean Bean, Mr. Mister Ed Sullivan, Gilbert O’Hare, Tortoise and the Deer Hunter Thompson Twins, Glimmer.
#11: Glam Rock Opera Tommy James Brown Sugar Ray Charles Barkley, Matt Dillon, Marshall Tucker Band, The Little Prince, the Artist Formerly Known As You Like It, Cousin My American (Pie), Idol, Billy Jack White Album, The Edge of Night of the Living Dead Head, Edith Wharton College of Musical Knowledge is Power to the People, Village of the Damned Yankees, New York Minute by Minute Rice, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin Luther King George Harrison Ford Mustang Ranch, Ponderosa Pine Sol Price is Right and Left Foot, My Name is Earl the Pearl Monroe, Marilyn Manson Family Stone Cold Steve Austin PowerStation to Station, Shining Time Has Come Today, Yesterday and Then There Were None.