TODAY’S QUESTION:

Another puzzler that you can work on over your time off:

What role do all these actors have in common?

John Derek
Victor Garber
Frank Langella
Jack Lemmon
James Marsden
Rob Morrow
Raoul Walsh

YESTERDAY‘S ANSWER:

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TODAY’S QUESTION:

Bonus difficulty level! This is a puzzler as well as a question of the day. (What’s a puzzler? Pretty much anything that’s not just a simple Googleable factual answer.)

What do these actors have in common?

Lon Chaney, Jr.
Brendan Fraser
Phil Hartman
Meat Loaf
John Lone
Matt Salinger

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER:

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Round 7 at the Old Pequliar on Dec. 2, 2008
Average score: 6.8/10 (15 teams)

1) Queen’s song “Keep Passing the Open Windows” was originally written for what 1984 movie, which featured Nastassja Kinski as a woman who dresses in a bear suit?

2) What 1998 thriller, directed by Tony Scott, stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert similar to the character he played in The Conversation?

3) What 1990 Christian Slater film about a mysterious high-school rebel won the Golden Space Needle award at SIFF, defeating Jesus of Montreal?

4) Billy Crystal originally wrote what 2001 comedy “about celebrity, family, and other forms of insanity,” so he could play the romantic lead, but ended up playing John Cusack’s publicist instead?

5) What 2001 comedy was the first film made featuring two African-American Oscar winners, specifically Whoopi Goldberg and Cuba Gooding, Jr.?

6) According to Salon.com’s critic Stephanie Zacharek, the real stars of what 2003 caper are the Mini Coopers involved in the chase scene?

7) What 1999 comedy/horror movie about a boy who accidentally kills his parents and best friends had its release date pushed back because of the Columbine massacre?

8) What 1998 big last-day-of-high-school party movie includes nine actors who appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and four that appeared on Six Feet Under?

9) What 1997 movie features a British spy foiling the nefarious Project Vulcan, a subterranean delivery system for nuclear warheads?

10) What actor or actress appears in all nine of these movies?

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Round 7 at the Old Pequliar on Nov. 18, 2008
Average score: 4.2/10 (15 teams) — a little more difficult than I’d like

1) Stephen King wrote the miniseries Rose Red after he left working on what similar 1999 horror film based on a novel by Shirley Jackson?

2) What 2006 Robert Altman comedy is set at a farewell performance at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota?

3) John Grisham’s favorite adaptation from any of his novels is what 1997 Francis Ford Coppola film co-starring Danny DeVito?

4) What Rob Reiner movie dramatizes the 1994 trial of Byron de la Beckwith, the white supremacist accused of assassinating Medgar Evars in 1963?

5) According to the poster, what 1995 horror film that spawned four sequels features “an evil born in heaven … about to be unleashed on earth”?

6) Alan Smithee and Judas Booth are credited with directing and writing a longer cut of what David Lynch film, which he turned down Return of the Jedi to film?

7) Until this year’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, what 2006 thriller, set in Seattle, was the last Harrison Ford film in theaters ?

8) Mr. Skin’s favorite movie for seeing Jennifer Connelly naked (butt and breasts!) is what 1990 neo-noir directed by Dennis Hopper?

9) What 1992 horror film, inspired by the legend of Mary Worth, spawned two sequels, subtitled Farewell to the Flesh and Day of the Dead?

10) What actor or actress appears in all nine of these movies?

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These twelve US presidents have something in common. This is a complete list — they’re the only presidents that qualify for this list. What unites them?

John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Grover Cleveland
Ulysses S. Grant
Andrew Jackson
Lyndon Johnson
John F. Kennedy
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Harry S Truman
George Washington
Woodrow Wilson

Hints will be forthcoming if necessary.

HINT #1 (Nov. 6, 2008): Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to qualify for this list.

HINT #2 (Nov. 8, 2008): Bill Clinton had a chance to put himself on the list, but it didn’t work out.

Round 6 at the Old Pequliar on October 7, 2008

1) Originally titled Three Rivers, what 1993 action film about Pittsburgh police chasing a serial killer was so bad that Bruce Willis apologized for its existence to the movie-going public?
2) To save money while filming Nixon, Oliver Stone leased the Oval Office set built for what 1995 romantic comedy?
3) After starring in four period pieces in a row, Winona Ryder “really wanted to wear blue jeans for a change,” so she decided to take a role in what contemporary 1994 comedy?
4) What 1996 thriller based on a 1993 novel by William Diehl earned Edward Norton his first Academy Award nomination?
5) What 1993 thriller directed by Wolfgang Peterson is the last film Clint Eastwood starred in that he didn’t direct himself?
6) A 66% freshness rating on rottentomatoes.com means that what 2007 romantic comedy, his followup to Good Luck, Chuck, is Dane Cook’s best-reviewed movie so far?
7) Nicolas Cage plays Danny Aiello’s younger brother in what 1987 romantic comedy?
8) According to Premiere magazine, the 73rd best movie line ever is “”I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen” from what Seattle-based 1989 comedy?
9) “Wallace Beery. Wrestling picture. What do you need, a roadmap?” That question comes from what movie?
10) What actor or actress appears in all nine of these films?

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Round 7 at the Old Pequliar on Sept. 2, 2008
Average score: 6.27/10 (11 teams)

1) What 1997 biography substitutes John Stamos for Luke Perry, and almost starred Jeff Goldblum until the subject decided to play himself?
2) Before directing episodes of Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, and Gilmore Girls, Nicole Holofcener wrote and directed what 1996 film, her first with Catherine Keener?
3) A pilot and a magazine editor fall in love while evading pirates in what 1998 adventure-slash-romantic comedy?
4) Katie Holmes’ film debut came in what 1997 drama, which featured the tagline “It was 1973, and the climate was changing”?
5) What Oscar-winning 1999 drama, originally written as a play by Alan Ball, shares its name with a Grateful Dead album and a variety of rose?
6) When she witnesses her husband being scalped, Renee Zellweger flees from Kansas to Hollywood in what dark 2000 comedy?
7) What 1999 romantic comedy riffs on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, setting the action in Padua high school?
8) Elaine May was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for what 1998 film, an adaptation of a novel originally credited to Anonymous?
9) What 2007 comedy features Spider-Man’s boss as the father of an X-Man, and won an Oscar for the woman behind the Pussy Ranch?
10) What actor or actress appeared in all nine of these movies?

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Round 7 at the Old Pequliar on August 12, 2008
Average score: 7.27/10 (11 teams)

1) What 1991 Wes Craven film stars two actors from Twin Peaks as the mother and father of a terrifying family?
2) What 1999 Martin Scorsese drama about a paramedic working the night shift was one of the last American films released on laserdisc?
3) What 2002 animated Disney film, their first set in Hawaii, was promoted with trailers that parodied The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King?
4) Jessica Biel plays a civil rights lawyer in what 2007 comedy, her highest grossing movie to date?
5) What 1999 film was described as an attempt to build an entire movie around a sequence involving Catherine Zeta-Jones’ ass and some laser beams?
6) Barb Wire, The Stupids, Ed, and The Island of Dr. Moreau all lost the 1996 Worst Picture Razzie to what Demi Moore film based on an actually pretty-good Carl Hiaasen novel?
7) What 1998 crime film starring Jennifer Lopez inspired Karen Sisco, the criminally short-lived TV series starring Carla Gugino?
8) Before directing 300, Zack Snyder directed what 2004 remake of a classic 1978 horror film?
9) What John Woo film, an action sequel loosely based on the Hitchcock film Notorious, was the highest-grossing movie in the world in 2000?
10) What actor or actress appeared in all 9 of these movies?

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Round 3 at the Old Pequliar on August 12, 2008
Average score: 4.82/10 (11 teams)

Triangulation is my tip of the hat to Wikipedia’s disambiguation pages and the seldom-used tertiary and sub-tertiary definitions in the dictionary. Given three definitions, tell me the word or phrase that fits them all.

Example: A Canadian music award, a Roman goddess, and Roger Ebert’s favorite film of 2007: Juno

1) a sequel by Alexandra Ripley, a G.I. Joe, and Barack’s email pen pal
2) something you’d yell at a dog, sentimental stuff, and porridge
3) a British car model, a fictional FBI agent, and a Project Mercury astronaut
4) a knotmaking term, a fingerprint pattern, and part of a roller coaster
5) a kind of railway freight car, an American painter, and a Pixar villain
6) an album by Jewel, the crimefighting identity of Denny Colt, and something you’d find at a pep rally
7) a movie about skiing, Jughead’s pet, and the goodbye song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
8) a corporate mascot elf; a football term; and an exclamation of dismay, disbelief, surprise, or joy
9) something a Jungian psychologist discusses, a pulp hero played by Orson Welles, and Sonic’s rival
10) a professional degree, a character on MASH, and a TV trucker

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“The Enemy Within,” Rush
“I Love L.A.,” Randy Newman
“It’s Four in the Morning,” Faron Young
“Money for Nothing,” Dire Straits
“Somewhere I Belong,” Linkin Park
“The Star-Spangled Banner,” Marvin Gaye
“Where It’s At,” Beck