What do you know today, that you did not yesterday?

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Serendippily Mar 2022 7:17am, 10 Mar 2022 25,504 posts	0 Serendippily Wondering if I’d like a team of shivering chaste chaps
Cerrertonia Mar 2022 7:52am, 10 Mar 2022 15,976 posts	0 Cerrertonia You'd have to tease them.
GregP Mar 2022 8:48am, 10 Mar 2022 133,557 posts	0 GregP Mi tusks... won't stop... shuddering
Diogenes Mar 2022 9:22am, 10 Mar 2022 67,882 posts	0 Diogenes What a MacGuffin is. en.wikipedia.org
DeeGee Mar 2022 9:28am, 10 Mar 2022 21,803 posts	0 DeeGee If you're of an age to remember 3-2-1 with Ted Rogers, he called the objects that the guests brought to the table acting as a clue to the star prize MacGuffins.
swittle Mar 2022 9:32am, 10 Mar 2022 84,682 posts	0 swittle ^ Interesting, tho' I never watched the show. The term came up in a Fetch discussion, when or about what I can't recall. The Wikipedia piece describes the war secrets mentioned in Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps' as a MacGuffin.
GordonG Mar 2022 10:06am, 10 Mar 2022 9,014 posts	0 GordonG Someone on the radio the other day said that Hitchcock came up with the word macguffin. I don't know if that's verifiable.
GregP Mar 2022 10:25am, 10 Mar 2022 133,567 posts	0 GregP The stage show of The 39 Steps was one of the funniest, most joyful things I've ever seen.
swittle Mar 2022 10:35am, 10 Mar 2022 84,684 posts	0 swittle Someone on the radio the other day said that Hitchcock came up with the word macguffin. I don't know if that's verifiable. The Wiki entry above has a ref. to a screenwriter, Angus MacPhail* as the originator - he worked with Hitchcock. I suppose Tolkien's LotRs 'Ring' could be a MacGuffin: the Maltese Falcon and the Holy Grail are also noted in the article. * Harmon, William (2012), A Handbook to Literature (12th ed.), Boston: Longman
GregP Mar 2022 10:39am, 10 Mar 2022 133,573 posts	0 GregP The mystery planet in Peter F Hamilton's 'Commonwealth' series is a BDO - which is a sub-genre of MacGuffin. I now need to check which thread this is. I suspect 'the wrong one' pretty much covers it.