Jan.24

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Looking Back at 2023, Part VIII: What Did We Write About? (The Answers)

Time to reveal the answers:

1. Which of the these words/names appeared most frequently in 2023?

1. Biden (chosen by 8.1% of readers)
2. Trump (51.3%)
3. Republicans (29.8%)
4. Democrats (0.2%)
5. People (9.6%)

The Answer: It was Trump, with a mind-boggling 11,276 appearances. That's an average of about 30 per day. Yikes. He's followed by people (5,169), Biden (4,171), Republicans (3,627) and Democrats (3,265).

2. Which non-president politician was mentioned most frequently in 2023?

1. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) (47.4%)
2. Dianne Feinstein (0.1%)
3. Kamala Harris (0.1%)
4. Kevin McCarthy (43.1%)
5. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (8.9%)

The Answer: DeSantis, who showed up 2,702 times, followed by McCarthy (1,227), McConnell (363), Harris (352) and Feinstein (309). Only one reader bought our Kamala Harris distractor.

3. Which unpleasant member of the House of Representatives was mentioned most frequently in 2023?

1. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) (15.5%)
2. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) (14%)
3. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) (49.4%)
4. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) (16.9%)
5. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) (4.2%)

The Answer: Because of all of his "investigations," Jordan took the trophy, with 476 mentions. That's well ahead of Greene (252), Gaetz (206), Boebert (188) or Stefanik (79).

4. All of these U.S. Senators were mentioned at least 50 times, except for:

1. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) (14%)
2. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (23%)
3. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) (2.1%)
4. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) (22.8%)
5. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) (38%)

The Answer: We actually made an error here, as there are two correct answers: Paul (24) and Cornyn (21). Fetterman (71), Collins (65) and Rubio (51) all cleared the line.

5. Which of these controversial people was mentioned most frequently in 2023?

1. Tucker Carlson (11.5%)
2. Adolf Hitler (0.1%)
3. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) (0.1%)
4. Elon Musk (12.1%)
5. "George Santos" (75.4%)

The Answer: "George Santos," who appeared 526 times, a feat he surely won't repeat. He left Musk (186), Carlson (170), Menendez (106) and Hitler (91) in the dust. If only they had harnessed the power of the sweater vest.

6. Which state was mentioned most frequently in 2023?

1. California (7.9%)
2. Florida (64.1%)
3. Iowa (4%)
4. Texas (21.9%)
5. Virginia (2%)

The Answer: We didn't fool too many people here; consistent with the attention paid to DeSantis, Florida (999) was mentioned far more frequently than California (678), Texas (495), Iowa (453) or Virginia (377).

7. Which country was mentioned most frequently in 2023?

1. Canada (14.4%)
2. Israel (4.9%)
3. Mexico (3.3%)
4. Russia (26%)
5. Ukraine (51.5%)

The Answer: On this one, by contrast, we managed to trip nearly everyone up. Israel (820) showed up far more frequently than Russia (372), Ukraine (360), Canada (256) or Mexico (173).

8. Which political word was used most frequently in 2023?

1. Abortion (61%)
2. Debt (3.6%)
3. Immigration (16.8%)
4. Insurrection (13.2%)
5. War (5.4%)

The Answer: Another pretty easy one. Abortion was mentioned 1,669 times, as compared to 1,427 for war, 620 for debt, 210 for immigration and 189 for insurrection.

9. What non-political word was used most frequently in 2023?

1. Baseball (23.3%)
2. Bible (16.7%)
3. Dachshund(s) (17.3%)
4. Orange (27.5%)
5. Turtle (15.2%)

The Answer: It was orange (126), and we all know why. That was followed closely by baseball (115) and Bible (91), with dachshund(s) (52) and turtle (37) bringing up the rear, as they so often do.

10. Which among these was the only historical figure who did not warrant a mention in 2023?

1. Winston Churchill (4.9%)
2. Frederick Douglass (6.5%)
3. Amelia Earhart (42.9%)
4. Napoleon (15.4%)
5. Socrates (30.4%)

The Answer: Socrates showed up early this year, thanks to an appearance in Sunday's "last words," but not at all in 2023. Winston Churchill made 24 appearances, Napoleon 11, Douglass 4 and Earhart 1 (as part of a recent Q&A answer about notable German-Americans).

Tiebreaker: If you read every word we wrote in 2023, at an average reading speed, how many hours would it take, rounded to the nearest hour?

The Answer: We should have used "published," since we didn't write everything that appeared on the site, of course. Anyhow, over the course of 2023, it added up to about 2.3 million words. According to the site we used for the conversion, that's about 137 hours of reading at normal adult speed. Or, 137 days at Trump speed.

This one was a toughie, as the average score was 4.24 and there were no perfect scores. However, there was one score of 9/10. Congratulations to:

1. J.P. in Lausanne, Switzerland

The remainder of the Top 20, starting with the six folks who got 8 right, and then adding 14 folks who got 7 and had the closest tiebreaker answers:

2. M.A.W. in Port Ludlow, WA.
3. M.A. in Boston, MA
4. J.G. in Chicago, IL
5. D.B.M. in Vashon island, WA
6. M.J.M in Boston, MA
7. B.C. in Selinsgrove, PA
8. M.A.B. in Windsor CT
9. L.B. in St. Louis, MO
10. J.F. in Fredericksburg, VA
11. H.M. in College Park, MD
12t. T.B. in Wiscasset, ME
12t. M.K. in Munich, Germany
14t. N.A. in Molalla, OR
14t. W.L. in Mol, Belgium
16t. J.B.H. in Wilmington, NC
16t. J.S. in Cape Elizabeth, ME
18. D.B. in Nixa, MO
19. F.M. in Chandler, AZ
20t. A.C. in Tenants Harbor, ME
20t. T.P. in Cleveland, OH

There were well over 1,000 entries, so anyone who made the Top 20 should be pretty pleased with themselves. (Z)