Daily Question – 15

Today’s question comes from Deviprasad Viswanathan, who wants you to buy shares of Wanbury Limited right now.

What’s the story?

Visual 1 shows Philadelphia City Hall atop which stands a statue of William Penn. Under a gentlemen’s agreement, no building in the city was to rise above this statue. This ended in March 1987, when a skyscraper called ‘One Liberty Place’ (Visual 2) opened three blocks away. This is alleged to have brought upon the city ‘The Curse of William Penn’, sometimes used to explain the failure of professional sports teams based in Philadelphia. Visual 3 shows the number of years that have elapsed since each of the cities’ teams won the league championship in their respective sport.

Cracked by 21 people! 1 point to all of you, including that young impudent rascal Thomas Masun, who gets a -92 as well because he dissed Wanbury Limited in his answer. (Long live Wanbury!)

29 thoughts on “Daily Question – 15

  1. the curse of william penn….
    quoting wiki,

    “The Curse of William Penn is an alleged curse, sometimes used to explain the failure of professional sports teams based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to win championships since the March 1987 construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper, which exceeded the height of William Penn’s statue atop Philadelphia City Hall.[1] Since then, no Philadelphia major sports team (baseball, football, basketball, or hockey) has won a league championship. The last professional team to win a championship in the four major sports was the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1983 NBA Finals, when they swept the Los Angeles Lakers in four games. This curse has gained such prominence in Philadelphia that a film by the same name, The Curse of William Penn, is in production and is scheduled for release in May of 2008”

  2. Who’s betting against Udupa peeing all over this question to mark it as his territory?

    In case he doesn’t, KQA Blog, Saturday, May 17th, 2008!

  3. Guess this is a Peter.

    The connection is the curse of Billy Penn. The first pic shows William Penn at the top of the Town Hall and the second one shows the skyscraper ‘One Liberty Place’.
    It’s believed that after the constuction of “OLP” which is taller than the statue of William Penn atop of town hall, the curse of Billy Penn started to strike especially the sporting teams in Philadelphia.

  4. The curse of Billy Penn that no building in Philadelphia should rise above Willam Penn’s statue atop city hall. 4 professional teams have not won any sports titles since the “One liberty place” building was erected in 1987.

  5. Karz of William Penn.

    I suppose someone else will provide the komplete explanation.

  6. a)Philadelphia city hall
    b)one liberty place
    c)major league teams from philly and time since their league triumph

    Story (from wiki) :
    For many years, City Hall remained the tallest building in Philadelphia under the terms of a “gentlemen’s agreement” that forbade any structure from rising above the William Penn statue atop City Hall. In 1987, it lost this distinction when One Liberty Place was completed. (The breaking of this agreement is said to be the cause of the so-called Curse of Billy Penn, under the supposed influence of which no major-league Philadelphia sports team has won a championship since 1983.)

  7. philadelphia is the connect??

    the first statue is that of william penn atop the philadelphia city hall..

    the third shows the philadelphia franchises in major american sports leagues..

    the second not sure about..

  8. Visual 1 – Philidalphia city hall/ william penn statue.-So called tallest building

    Visual 2- One liberty place- Broke the previous record

    Visual 3- Philidalphia’a team from NBA,NHL, NFL and MLB

    the story is that One Liberty Place was famous for being the first building to break the agreement for the tallest building in phili which was originally city hall. This resulted in the Curse of William Penn. There is a belief that this affects all the sports franchises. None of the 4 teams have ever won a major championship .

  9. I’m guessing its that legend of William Penn needing to be on the highest building in Philadelphia (which it used to be until it got eclipsed by the one in the second picture) which inspired years of sporting losses.

    (I did need to Google to check the Eagles were a Philadelphia team but I’ve bizarrely remember the folk tale part on my own)

  10. There is this myth that no Philly team will win in professional sports if any other building is taller than the City Hall which has the statue of William Penn. The middle picture is the One Liberty Center, built in the 80s. No Philly team has won any major pro championship since then.

  11. William Penn. Atop the Philadelphia City of Hall. For a long time, it was the highest point in Philadelphia. The One Liberty Place, exceeded its height and all major sports teams from Philadelphia have failed to win trophies ever since.

  12. Dear Uncle:

    The answer is the (Wanbury sux!!!) Curse of Billy Penn. (Down Wanbury down!!) It is the curse (Boo!!) that (Hiss!!) Philly sports teams won’t win titles after (Burn Wanbury’s factories down!!) the One Liberty Place sky(In your face, Wanbury!!)scraper surpassed the William Penn (Curses on you too, Wanbury!!) statue atop City Hall.

    Kind regards,
    Thomas (Go to Hell, Wanbury!!) Masun

  13. Philadelphia is the connection.
    The 3rd visual pertains to the sports teams (nba, nfl, mlb, nhl) based out of Philadelphia…time since they’ve won the last championship(s)…
    The 2nd visual corresponds to one of the tallest skyscrapers in Philadelhia…dunno the name of the building.
    Not sure about the 1st visual…Guessing it is a landmark sculpture/monument in Philadelphia.

  14. Curse of William Penn-Philadelphia’s Phillies from MLB,Flyers from NHL,Eagles from NFL and 76ers from NBA havnt won a trophy as it is alleged that One Liberty place now the 2nd tallest building in Philadelphia had transgressed a gentlemanly agreement by building a taller structure than the statue of William Penn atop the Philadelphia City Hall.

  15. The Curse of William Penn. Basically no Philadelphia sports team has won their respective leagues ever since the statue of William Penn’s height was overtaken by the Liberty skyscraper

  16. Philadelphia
    ____________________________
    Philadelphia City Hall
    Philadelphia One and two Liberty place
    Philadelphia Professional sports teams

  17. Statue of William Penn atop Philly’s city hall. 1,Liberty Place- the highest skyscraper in Philadelphia, and the various sports teams of Philadelphia with the numbers (not related) showing the championship droughts they have had.. Hence— Philadelphia.

  18. Statue of William Penn atop Philly’s city hall. 1,Liberty Place- the highest skyscraper in Philadelphia, and the various sports teams of Philadelphia with the numbers showing the championship droughts they have had..

    The answer is the Curse of Billy Penn which is what is said to have come about by building a structure (B) taller than William Penn’s statue (A) which affects their sports team performances.

    Daly Haal repeat machi..

  19. Curse of william penn
    philadelphia city hall has the statue of william penn&the gentleman’s agreement between builders is that no other building taller than this will be built.The secondbuilding broke the agreement&none of the sports team won a title after that supposedly because of the curse

  20. Curse of Billy Penn – on Philadelphia’s sporting teams – because they built a building (One Liberty Place) that has a height greater than the William Penn statue atop the City Hall.

  21. 1. William Penn atop Philly City Hall. 3. Years since Philly teams have won respective leagues – Curse of Billy Penn, allegedly due to the construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper (2.) that exceeded 1.

  22. Curse of Billy Penn for the city of Philadelphia. The first visual is the statue of William Penn atop the city hall. The second visual is the first building that exceeded the city hall in height. Since this happened, the major sports teams of the city have had a long title drought supposedly because of Penn’s curse.

  23. First look would prompt a reply..Philadelphia but a closer look will reveal that the right answer is the Curse of Billy Penn.
    Good one DP-next q fom DP will feature his favourite guess in any quiz-The Great mall of America!!

  24. Curse of Billy Penn which supposedly affects the Philadelphia’s major sports teams from not winning a trophy because One Liberty Place built a much taller building than the Philadelphia city Hall which has a statue of William Penn,the city’s founder and thus breaking the gentleman’s agreement.

Comments are closed.