Suggested Answers to the Bonus Short Quiz re the movie “The Six Triple Eight”

[johnkarls]

.


Question 1

Did “The Six Triple Eight” debut on NetFlix 12/20/2024?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Was The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion sent to Birmingham England 2/3/1945?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Was it the only Black WAC unit sent overseas during World War II?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Had the U.S. military decided that delivering mail to US troops “should take a back seat” to delivering supplies/munitions?

Answer 4

INCREDIBLY!!!

Question 5

As a result, had 17 million pieces of mail addressed to US troops PILED UP IN WAREHOUSES FOR THREE YEARS (yes, count them THREE years!!!)???!!!

Answer 5

UNFORTUNATELY!!!

Question 6

Was the mission of The Six Triple Eight to sort and have delivered those 17 million pieces of mail within 180 days?

Answer 6

Yes.

BTW, The Six Triple Eight was NOT sent abroad until 2/3/1945.

Since 180 days from 2/3/1945 is August 2, 1945, the mission’s target completion date turned out to be –

• 85 days AFTER V-E Day when Nazi Germany surrendered on 5/8/1945; and
• a mere 13 days BEFORE V-J Day when Imperial Japan surrendered 8/15/1945 (though the formal document of surrender was not signed until September 2).

Question 7

Were there many “higher ups” in the military hoping the Black women would fail?

Answer 7

Incredibly!!!

Why should any military officer want to deprive her/his troops of mail from home???

Question 8

Did The Six Triple Eight comprise 855 Black women led by a Black Major – aptly named Charity Adams?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

Does simple math indicate that if each of them worked 40 hours/week for 26 weeks, she would have to sort and send 19.12 letters/hour – or one every 3 minutes?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

Did the Six Triple Eight actually accomplish its mission in only 90 days (vs. the 180-day target)?

Answer 10

Yes!!!

Question 11

Does this mean that each of those 855 Black women probably actually averaged 38.24 letters/hour sorted and sent – or one every 1.57 minutes which is 94 seconds? Or does this really mean that the 855 Black women worked evenings and weekends???

Answer 11

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 12

Does Kerry Washington star as The Six Triple Eight’s Commanding Officer?

Answer 12

Yes.

Question 13

Was she interviewed on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on 12/16/2024? BTW, was this how Yours Truly became aware of The Six Triple Eight?

Answer 13

Yes and Yes.

Question 14

Was the movie based on the 3/30/2020 book by Priscilla Graham?

Answer 14

Yes, at least indirectly (Tyler Perry might have seen a recent magazine article based on the book).

Question 15

Were there still 5 survivors of The Six Triple Eight alive when Tyler Perry started the movie project?

Answer 15

Yes – even though as 17-year-olds in 1945, they must have been in their late 90’s.

Question 16

Were there still 2 alive when the movie debuted?

Answer 16

Yes.

Question 17

Did Kerry Washington tell Seth Meyers that she met one of the survivors and asked her opinion whether she, Kerry Washington, could adequately portray Charity Adams – and the answer was a humorous negative?

Answer 17

Yes.

Question 18

Does Kerry Washington’s voice appear first accompanied by a picture of the 855 Black women standing at attention as they are addressed -- before the camera finally shifts to Kerry/Charity?

Answer18

Yes.

Question 19

Did Kerry Washington tell Seth Meyers that when her children first saw the movie, they did NOT believe it was her voice?

Answer 19

Yes.

Question 20

Harkening back to “Half American” and the speculation in our Short Quizzes re what motivated Black members of the military to fight and die (viz., it was a love for family and friends – but NOT for racist America), is it easy to understand why the 855 Black women of The Six Triple Eight would work so hard to get that THREE-YEAR BACKLOG of letters from friends and family to the fighters??? Even if only some of those fighters were Black???

Answer 20

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 21

BTW, was there any statistic on how many of the 17 million backlogged letters were addressed to military members who had already been killed in action?

Answer 21

Not that Yours Truly was able to find.

Question 22

Is it any wonder why, when Yours Truly went through U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) in 1967, there was so much stress on maintaining the morale of your troops???

Answer 22

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 23

Does debuting on Netflix 12/20/2024 qualify The Six Triple Eight for this year’s Oscars???

Answer 23

Not in and of itself.

Question 24

Isn’t it also necessary for the movie to, inter alia, have had at least a one-week run before 12/31/2024 in a theater in one of six approved markets – NYC/LA/San Francisco/Chicago/Miami/Atlanta?

Answer 24

Yes.

Question 25

Did Tyler Perry presumably meet all of the 2025 Oscar requirements to qualify The Six Triple Eight?

Answer 25

Presumably.

Question 26

Should we launch one of our fabled “Six Degrees of Separation” E-mail Campaigns to get the “Best Actress” Oscar for Kerry Washington?

Answer 26

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 27

Were our fabled “Six Degrees of Separation” E-mail Campaigns designed so that if there was no more than one dissent at one of our meetings with at least 6 participants (i.e., 5-1 in favor even though the vote was usually at least 12-0), we would ask each of our members (now 232) to send an already-prepared e-mail with a specified e-mail address to a designated national/international decision maker AND TO SEND IT TO EACH RECIPIENT’S RELATIVES AND FRIENDS IN AN UNENDING CHAIN so that (per the theory of “Six Degrees of Separation”) the decision maker would have millions if not billions of e-mails in her/his inbox in “no time flat”?

Answer 27

Yes.

Question 28

Is it NOT surprising that many of our 59 campaigns (they are listed in Sec. 1 of www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org) were successful?

Answer 28

Yes –

Though the total of campaigns increased from 59 to 60 between the time this Quiz was formulated and these answers were drafted – please see the 1/8/2025 letter to President-Elect Donald J. Trump requesting him to honor America’s 12/5/1994 Guarantee of Ukraine’s Independence and Territorial Integrity in exchange for Ukraine Surrendering Its 1,900 Multiple-Warhead Nuclear Missiles at viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2593&sid=c1085887f ... 70692b024d.

Question 29

Is it also NOT surprising that, because of their success which resulted in many members of the media subscribing to our weekly e-mails and/or frequently logging onto our website, we simply began sending a single letter from our organization? Was this because the recipient was bound to learn of it FROM THE MEDIA after its posting in Sec. 1, long before it arrived by USPS or FedEx (whose tracking numbers were included in the Sec. 1 postings)?

Answer 29

Yes and Yes.

Question 30

HOWEVER, are Academy Members likely to be influenced by a simple letter posted in Sec. 1 of our website?

Answer 30

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 31

ACCORDINGLY, wouldn’t it be prudent to deluge each of them with zillions of e-mails (presuming they can be identified and their e-mail addresses ascertained – to help the cause, if memory serves Will Smith was banished for slapping Chris Rock)?

Answer 31

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 32

In deciding on Q-16, should we be troubled by the fact that “Best Actress” has been politically incorrect for many years with cognoscenti calling female thespians “actors”?

Answer 32

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 33

Would you be justified in believing that Kerry Washington should get the Oscar without our help??? Though if she didn’t, wouldn’t you “die of shame” for failing to “pull out all the stops”??? After all, doesn’t each of the major studios mount an all-out campaign for everyone associated with its favored picture??? With BTW each major studio lobbying for only one pic in order to maximize the effectiveness of its campaign???

Answer 33

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 34

Do you think the “Best Actress” Oscar is overdue since Kerry Washington received her “Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame” on 2/2/2024?

Answer 34

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 35

Since we have always prided ourselves in being a “non-partisan public-policy study/action organization,” is Yours Truly willing to concede that an “Oscar for Kerry” should be viewed as a PUBLIC POLICY?

Answer 35

Absolutely!!!


***********************************************************
Ex Post Facto Comments on the “Oscar for Kerry”

During the last few minutes before posting the foregoing on 1/9/2025, Yours Truly did a bit more “from 35,000 feet” research.

Because he recalled that in past years (though perhaps not the recent past), all the important Oscars mirrored the Golden Globe Awards and the Golden Globes had been awarded last Sunday (January 5).

And The Six Triple Eight was not even nominated for any Golden Globes.

**********
The results of the bit-more research???

The Oscars are voted upon by the approximately 10,000 (!!!) members of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

The voting takes place in two tranches –

• voting by AMPAS members for potential honorees TO BE NOMINATED; and

• voting by AMPAS members on the nominees TO WIN.

Per Wikipedia’s “Academy Awards” article –

“From 2004 to 2020, the Academy Award nomination results were announced to the public in mid-January. Prior to that, the results were announced in early February. In 2021, the nominees were announced in March. In 2022, the nominees were announced in early February for the first time since 2003.”

But no info on when the nomination voting will take place.

Or when the nomination results will be announced this year.

**********
Tentative Conclusions

• By our 1/22/2025 meeting, we will probably be too late to influence the nomination voting.

• Ascertaining the contact info for the 10,000 AMPAS voters would probably be, for us, impossible (or prohibitively expensive).

• If we were to try to launch one of our “Six Degrees of Separation” E-mail Campaigns (asking each of our 232 members (1) to bombard each of the 10,000 AMPAS voters with an aleady-prepared e-mail and (2) to contact all of their friends and relatives to do the same in an unending chain) – IT IS MIND-BOGGLING TO EVEN THINK ABOUT HOW TO ASK ANYONE TO SEND 10,000 E-MAILS (even if her/his e-mail software could handle 10,000 missives) - after all, 46 e-mails per standard Microsoft Word page (i.e., 46 using Times New Roman 12), would mean 217 pages of e-mail addresses.

• So aren’t the Oscars a “private playground” of the major studios, each of which mounts an all-out campaign for everyone associated with its favored picture -- with each major studio lobbying for only one pic in order to maximize the effectiveness of its campaign???

• Moreover, if memory serves, isn't it true that the major studios provide each of the 10,000 AMPAS members with a free DVD of the studio's one favored pic - so that each of the 10,000 AMPAS members can view the favored pic in the convenience of her/his own living room???