I should have had more faith in you.

This afternoon there were 3 wrong guesses in response to my question in the last post, 2 from people I thought likely to guess it right! (Sorry, Grandma, but I was pretty sure you hadn’t read the book or seen the movie.)

I started to worry that I’d been too obscure. So I emailed six of my friends from high school, and said, “PLEASE GET THIS REFERENCE!” (More or less.)

Six minutes later, Peter Mulvey responded with the right answer. Four minutes after that, Tom also responded with the right answer. And 7 more minutes later, Dave too chimed in.

One more minute after that, Andrea left the right answer in the comments. Too bad her power was out early in the day, or I might have sent her fabulous prize with Jill, who met her for drinks in DC this evening.

I think getting 4 right answers within 20 minutes means that everyone should get a fabulous prize. So email me your addresses.

In another tribute to the power of kismet, AMC is showing my reference movie, The Princess Bride, tonight.

This movie and book, which is a sort of ironically twisted, over the top, fairy tale, written by Oscar-award winning screenwriter William Goldman, has some of the best character roles in movies, and Wallace Shawn’s is especially geekily memorable. Which is saying a lot.

I was going to watch only until the part where Mandy Patinkin tells Wallace Shawn, in reference to the word “Inconceivable!” “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

But I got sucked in, and decided to keep watching through the part where Mandy Patinkin and Andre the Giant go visit Billy Crystal and Carol Kane.

Which just happened. I might be watching the whole movie after all.

I love this movie. It is so funny and well written, and except for the leading lady, absolutely brilliantly cast. (Nothing against Robin Wright Penn, but she’s just not Buttercup material. If you’ve read the book, you must agree.)

The book is better. It is one of my top 10 favorites of all time, and I look forward to reading it out loud to Noah and Esmerelda Freugenspeigel in 7 or 8 years.