If anyone is around Monday morning, would you mind quoting this write-up into the playoff thread? TIA. It's amatuerish, I know, but I procrastinated it to basically the last second before I left for vacation.
Thorn
Leader: Peter the Great (13.07) (
wiki). Brought Russia out of the dark ages. One of the first truly great leaders in the modern era.
Military: Gustavus Adolphus (5.07) (
wiki). Known as
The Father of Modern Warfare, he made Sweden a military giant in Europe in the 1600s. Sweden!
Scientist/Mathematitian: Euclid (4.14) (
wiki). There were a lot of great picks in this category, but I think people kind of forgot that it included mathematitians. This collated the understandings of engineering and became
The Father of Geometry. He wrote a textbook that has been used for well over 2000 years.
Inventor: Alexander Graham Bell (6.14) (
wiki). Maybe you've heard of him.
Discoverer/Explorer: Christopher Columbus (1.07) (
wiki). I don't need to explain this one. Despite Larry's ramblings, when you think of explorer, you think of Columbus. Ranked first in the category.
Humanitarian/Saint/Martyr: Maurice Pate (18.14) (
wiki). The Co-Founder of UNICEF, he refused to be nominated for a Nobel Peace prize. He also refused to help found the organization shortly after WWII unless the children of the defeated also recieved the same aid.
Novelist/short story: James Joyce (3.07) (
wiki). The greatest novelist of all time. Sorry, Tim. Also ranked first in the category.
Playwright/Poet: Petrarch (17.07) (
wiki). I thought I got great value here, as this guy made the sonnet what it is today, and he is still held up as the gold standard. The judge didn't agree. Oh well, it was a stacked category.
Villain: Slobodan Milosevic (8.14) (
wiki). Over 200,000 deaths as part of a genocide are his. Not to mention much of them included raping the women in front of the families and killing all the males in a village regardless of age.
Athlete: Wayne Gretzky (15.07) (
wiki). Not sure how the Canadian judge wouldn't put him #1, but another spot where I thought I got great value.
Composer: Johann Strauss (10.14) (
wiki). I don't know much about classical music, but Strauss was no slouch.
Muscian/ Performer: Frank Sinatra (11.07) (
wiki). The Chairman of the Board.
Painter: Pierre-August Renoir (7.07) (
wiki). The great Impressionist painter.
Artist/ Non Painter: Lorenzo Gheberti (16.14) (
wiki). Sculptor of the baptsitry doors in Florence, which Michaelangelo thought were so perfect that they were the "Gates to Paradise."
Philosopher: Fredriech Nietzsche (12.14) (
wiki). According to the judges, my best value pick. 12th round, ranked 3rd. He questioned the objectivity of truth and was famous (or infamous) for the statment: God is dead.
Religious Figure: St. Paul (2.14) (
wiki). Some claim he was more instrumental in the spread of Christianity than Jesus Christ.
Celebrity: John F. Kennedy (14.14) (
wiki). One of the first truly globally recognizable figures.
Intellectual: William Blackstone (19.07) (
wiki). The man who compiled the common law into organized and thoughtful texts. The knock is that his thoughts weren't original, but I'd submit that the idea that law could be organized and accessible is revolutionary, and his doing so influenced hundreds of years of legal scholars.
Rebel: Mikhail Gorbachev (20.14) (
wiki). Some complained that he wasn't a rebel because he worked within the system, but the fact is he fought for wholesale change and was successful at it.
Wildcard: Oliver Cromwell (9.07) (
wiki). One of the most important leaders in the history of Europe.
Wildcard: Shaka Zulu (21.07) (
wiki). From a tribe of a few hundred in a land with no political organization, he built the 250,000 strong Zulu nation in the 1700s. Also a military mastermind.
Wildcard: Antonie von Leeuwenhoek (22.14) (
wiki). Another great value pick at the end. The inventor of the simple microscope,
The Father of Microbiology, and plainly a giant of science.