Statistically Improbable Phrases, the lightning round

[mmcirvin]

Following ronebofh, I've added extra clues (where possible) for the still-unguessed books. Where Amazon came up dry, I've added phrases picked manually (with asterisk):

1. curriculum commission, six desserts, combination wheel, cargo cult science (Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - guessed by ckd)
2. war sphere, ice ring, apostolic delegate, sidereal engineering (Stanisław Lem, Fiasco - guessed by uniformedlayman)
3. contour chair, real commanders, adhesive plaster, space eternal
4. pig suit, pig mask, abreaction research facility* (Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow - guessed by an anonymous commenter)
5. charming soubrette, seaside girls, quaker librarian (James Joyce, Ulysses - guessed by Crgre Jvyyneq)
6. borderline science, solar sailing, high surface temperature (Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain - guessed by mujib)
7. yes suh, post office corner (Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird - guessed by Ashley Silverburg)
8. alef null, thought balloon, astral body (Rudy Rucker, White Light - guessed by factitiouslj)
9. mercury drum, singularity sphere, control booth, telemann works
10. green bullet, brass pole, mechanical hound* (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 - guessed by plorkwort)

Comments

[ckd]

The first one is probably one of the Feynman biographies...I'll guess Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Got it!

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Sidereal engineering reads as either a Culture novel or Ringword, but I can't guess.

Number 9 might be Lem's "His Master's Voice," but I'm apparently terrible at guessing these.

#3, I bet "Adhesive Plaster" is from the 1930s at the latest, probably the '20s, because plaster was the band-aid(TM) of its day, so Adhesive plastic was the futuriffic version.

[skapusniak.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I really don't think this can possibly be right at all as I can't see 'contour chair', or even 'space eternal' and I would expect far odder statistically improbable phrases than those, but on 'real commanders, adhesive plaster' and sunburn saying 1930s I'll throw out...

#3: 'First Lensman', E.E 'Doc' Smith

...just to stop my brain from exploding from not mentioning it.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

No and no and no.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I still wonder-- in what way is "control booth" a statistically improbable phrase?

Ted Bunn's wife Ashley

[(Anonymous)]

does have a last name: Silverburg. I guess I should have mentioned it in my earlier post, to provide you with a way of referring to her that has less of a chattel vibe. (In case you were wondering, she's not particularly fond of "Goody Bunn" either.)

After realizing that we weren't going to get anything besides "To Kill a Mockingbird," I cheated and googled some of the others, so I can't play in the lightning round. As a physicist, I really should have gotten #1, but I didn't.

-Ted Bunn

Re: Ted Bunn's wife Ashley

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I wasn't sure.

hintage

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

#9 is relatively obscure (it's far from the most famous work by that author) and #2 not the most widely read, but #3, #4 and #10 are pretty famous books (maybe "infamous" is a better word for at least one of them).

[plorkwort.livejournal.com]

With the new clue, #10 must be "Fahrenheit 451".

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Right!

[uniformedlayman.livejournal.com]

I believe #2 is from "Fiasco", by Lem.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Indeed! (This is the only Lem novel of the lot.)

Does Kibo just want to get me into trouble?

[timchuma.livejournal.com]

Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood are doing a live Q&A before a screening of 2001 - a Space Odyssey in my city in September. Kibo said to ask Keir Dullea about "the Starlost" and bounce tubes. Is there anything intelligent I could ask to connect the two?

[(Anonymous)]

#4 is Gravity's Rainbow

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

So it is!