Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2018)
LIFESTYLES WEEKEND, MAY 26-27, 2018 DEGREES OF SEPARATION NIKKI KATZ ROSEANNE BROWN Pendleton, Portland, and a podcast By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian S tart: A replica of the Trojan Horse at the Canakkale Waterfront in Dardanelles, Turkey. The horse is featured prominently in Homer’s epic poem, “Odyssey.” 1 A second century Roman mosaic depicting a maritime scene from “Odyssey.” Scholars believe the epic poem was composed somewhere in the Greek coastal region of Anatolia. 2 Anatolia, the westernmost protrusion of Asia, makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. Anatolia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire between the early 14th and early 20th centuries. I t’s a common phenomenon for someone with internet access and some time to kill. Trawling through Wiki- pedia’s seemingly exponen- tial number of articles and entries, a user clicks several links and before they know it, they’ve ended up on a topic that’s a far cry from where they started. It’s commonly referred to as a Wikipedia “spiral,” and two sisters have decided it offers enough material for a downloadable talk show. Rosanna Brown and Nikki Katz host the “6 Degrees of Wiki” pod- cast, an online talk show that uses Wikipedia, the popular encyclope- dic website with more than 6.5 mil- lion English-language entries, to con- nect seemingly unrelated topics in six steps. In a recent episode, the sisters were tasked with linking the Trojan Horse, the mythical wooden horse the Greeks used to invade Troy, to Transylvania, a Romanian region most popular as the setting of “Dracula.” Katz, 36, played the role of quiz- master, cluing in Brown, 39, at the start of each round by giving her a run- down of each Wikipedia page before 3 The seal of the Ottoman Empire, which controlled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest ruling sultan of the empire. Brown gives her best guess (the sisters switch roles each month). Brown’s initial stab at guessing the ultimate link is a little thin. “Episode 28 is brought to you by the letter T, because that’s all they have in common,” she said, leading to some laughs between the siblings. Katz’s journey through the spi- ral, which includes stops at the pages of Homer’s “Odyssey,” Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Siege of Vienna, includes plenty of asides where the sisters can further discuss interesting facts. The crosstalk stays pretty light- hearted between the hosts: the dark- est it gets is when Katz mentions that a priest who tried to warn the Tro- jans about the impending invasion is murdered by sea serpents sent by the Greek god Poseidon, spurring Brown into a fit of giggles. Although the sisters have an easy rapport, they don’t have the benefit of being in the same room. More than 200 miles separate Katz, who lives in Portland, and the Pendle- ton-based Brown. Brown said the distance actually aids their quiz format by preventing them from reading each other’s body language. See SISTERS/4C 4 Suleiman in a portrait attributed to Titian, circa 1530. Suleiman led the Siege of Vienna in 1529. 6 The Sighisoara Clock Tower in the Transylvania region of Romania. Transylvania became the start of the next “spiral” on the podcast. 5 St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, was used as the headquarters of the Austrian resistance. Transylvanian noble John Zapolya aided Suleiman during the siege of Vienna.
