TODAY’S QUESTION

(literature) What novel is divided into three sections subtitled “Teenage Car-Songs,” “Teenage Love-Songs,” and “Teenage Death-Songs”?

PREVIOUSLY

That question, again: What game show from the mid-’90s was co-hosted by Chris Hardwick?

Rich B got it: Mr. Hardwick was the non-bosomy cohost of MTV’s Singled Out, the show that is ultimately responsible for causing way too many people to pay attention to Jenny McCarthy’s theories on vaccines. Also, Carmen Electra.

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TODAY’S QUESTION

Let’s lower the brow a little:

In the movie version of The Shining, Jack Nicholson goes after his family (and Scatman Crothers) with an axe. But not in the book. What piece of sporting equipment is his weapon of choice in the Stephen King novel?

PREVIOUSLY

That question, again: What line from the poem “Sacred Emily” is ten words long, but contains just three different words used several times each?

“Sacred Emily” was written by Gertrude Stein, and contains her famous (and often misquoted) observation that “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.”

Fun fact: The first “Rose” is a proper name, a woman named Rose. Not the one from Titanic, though.

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Round 1 at the Old Pequliar on May 2, 2009

Stuff that happened in May in American history.

1) On May 1, 1992, who appeared on TV and asked “Can we stop … making it horrible for the older people and the kids”?

2) What annual sporting event was nationally televised for the first time on May 3, 1952?

3) The 1886 rally at Chicago’s Haymarket Square that turned into a riot was one incident in labor unions’ long struggle to achieve what goal?

4) The headline on the May 8, 1915, New York Times said what vessel was “twice torpedoed off Irish coast”?

5) What building was the tallest in the world from late May 1930 to early May 1931?

6) In May 1932, who entered the US Penitentiary in Atlanta to serve an 11-year sentence for tax evasion?

7) In May 1953, Ernest Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for what novel, the last published in his lifetime?

8) On May 11, 1996, everyone aboard flight 592 of what low-cost airline was killed when it crashed into the Everglades?

9) The White Night riots broke out in 1979 when what killer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter?

10) What popular combination of ditali, ditalini, tubetti, and tubetini made its debut on May 16, 1965?

ANSWERS:

1) Rodney King

2) the Kentucky Derby

3) the eight-hour workday (40-hour week or related is fine; denied: 5-day work week)

4) the Lusitania

5) the Chrysler Building

6) Al Capone

7) The Old Man and the Sea

8) ValuJet

9) Dan White

10) SpaghettiOs

Round 2 at the Old Pequliar on April 7, 2009

1) The Mona Lisa’s eyes peek out from the cover of what 2003 mystery, the second-best-selling novel of 2004?

2) To create his piece L.H.O.O.Q., what did Dadaist Marcel Duchamp draw on a postcard of the Mona Lisa?

3) Mona Lisa is one of the craters on what planet, where most of the large craters are named after women?

4) The song “Mona Lisa” was a 1950 hit for what jazz vocalist, who last hit the charts in 1991, 26 years after his death?

5) After the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, police questioned what artist, who now has a museum in Paris dedicated to him?

6) In 1800, what world leader moved the Mona Lisa to his bedroom?

7) In 2005, “emotion recognition” software calculated that the Mona Lisa was 9% disgusted, 6% fearful, and 2% angry, but 83% what emotional adjective?

8) Mona Lisa Overdrive is the final book in the Sprawl trilogy. What seminal cyberpunk novel was the trilogy’s first book?

9) When the Mona Lisa came to the US in 1962, you could see it in which two East Coast cities? (Half point each)

10) What did the countess of Bearn add to the Mona Lisa back in 1906, which remains with the painting until this day?

ANSWERS:

1) The Da Vinci Code

2) mustache & beard (accepted: facial hair or any reasonable variation on that idea)

3) Venus

4) Nat King Cole

5) Pablo Picasso

6) Napoleon I

7) happy

8) Neuromancer

9) New York & Washington D.C.

10) the frame

TODAY’S QUESTION:

The 1991 book Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals is a sequel to what semi-autobiographical bestseller published in 1974?

YESTERDAY‘S ANSWER:

What do Cogirep, Capitol Versicherung AG, Les Papiers Jennings, and Papeles Lozano have in common? They’re the companies where foreign editions of The Office are set. Which means the American counterpart is Dunder Mifflin. Which means they’re all fictional corporate children of Wernham Hogg.

TODAY’S PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION:

Thanksgiving derailed the “question a day” project for a few days. Go back and fill in, or plunge on ahead?

Practicality dictates: Plunge on ahead. Sorry for the hiatus.

TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION:

Toni Morrison has two novels with related names. The title of the later one is entirely contained within the title of the earlier one. Can you name the two books?

TUESDAY’S ANSWER:

Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea are the second-, third-, and fourth-largest asteroids in the asteroid belt. Congrats to Erik, who knew that off the top of his head.