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 3 at the Old Pequliar on October 7, 2008

Triangulation is the product of an unholy union between Wikipedia’s disambiguation pages, seldom-used dictionary definitions, Urban Dictionary, and whatever words catch my fancy. I’ll give you three definitions, you 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) An SUV, a bar on Capitol Hill, and an East Coast WNBA team
2) The opposite of double, an indefinite pronoun, and the force that threatens Fantasia
3) A honeycomb holder, a story that contains stories within itself, and 1/24th of a second of a movie
4) The average value of a force multiplied by the time during which it acts, a jazz record label, and when a man you never met before suddenly gives you flowers
5) A Unix command, an octothorp, and a kind of brown
6) Police Woman, a warm-up exercise, and a Gwyneth Paltrow character
7) A British lad mag, a really good poker hand, and a WWII quote
8) Two out of three games of bridge, a gumshoe, and a french letter
9) Clarissa’s last name on Clarissa Explains It All, Lady’s owner in Lady and the Tramp, and a Julie Christie film
10) Chutzpah, the website that described itself as “literate smut,” and what the Cowardly Lion sings for

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1) A speech in Henry V supplied the title for what nonfiction book and the HBO miniseries based on it?
2) At the climax of “Scott Tenorman Must Die,” the South Park episode inspired by Titus Andronicus, Cartman tricks his enemy into doing what?
3) In 2006, the best-selling album in the United States was the soundtrack to what TV movie, a loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet?
4) Spurred by a joke in a 1991 movie, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing have been translated into what artificial language?
5) Two Gentlemen of Verona inspired “Two Gentlemen of Capeside,” an episode of what TV drama?
6) In 2000, what novelist and New Yorker contributor published a prequel to Hamlet called Gertrude & Claudius?
7) One clue that Paul is dead: Lines from King Lear, including “O untimely death!”, can be heard in the background of what trippy Beatles song?
8) In Neil Gaiman’s comic series The Sandman, Morpheus, the king of dreams, commissions Shakespeare to write two fantastical plays. Name one of them.
9) The 1992 hit “Stay” was the biggest hit for what band, which took its name from a 1985 song by the Smiths, which was inspired by a section of Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own?
10) Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas play comical variations on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in what movie loosely based on Hamlet?
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Round 3 at the Old Pequliar on April 1, 2008
Average score: 8.1/10 (21 teams)

Simple enough: identify the speaker.

1) Who’s speaking?
2) Who’s speaking?
3) Who’s speaking?
4) Who’s speaking?
5) Who’s speaking?
6) Who’s speaking?
7) Who’s speaking?
8) Who’s speaking?
9) Who’s speaking?
10) Who’s speaking?

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1) The New York Times‘ motto is “all the news that’s” what?
2) What 1984 film is about a young boy’s efforts to save Fantasia from The Nothing?
3) Name two of the three artists who sang “All for Love” on the soundtrack of 1993’s The Three Musketeers.
4) The anti-consumerist protest Buy Nothing Day takes place the day after what holiday?
5) What All My Children actress was nominated for a Daytime Emmy 18 years in a row before winning in 1999?
6) Being and Nothingness, the treatise that kick-started existentialism, was written by what French philosopher?
7) The All Blacks are the rugby union team for what country?
8) Cordelia is told that “nothing will come of nothing” in which Shakespeare play?
9) Dennis Haysbert, who tells you that “you’re in good hands with Allstate,” used to play the president on what TV show?
10) What word completes these Talking Heads lyrics? “From the age of the dinosaurs / Cars have run on gasoline / Where, where have they gone? / Now, it’s nothing but” what?

Average score: 7.3

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1) What’s the best-selling apple variety in the US?
2) Although King Features denies it, many people believe that a 1930s comic strip called Apple Mary eventually turned into what long-running soap opera comic strip?
3) In 1997, Fiona Apple said “This world is bullshit. … You shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything.” when she accepted what award? (Need award and category — both “best supporting actress” and “Oscar”)
4) What 20th century poet wrote “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” which ends:
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
5) What brand, which shares its name with a popular American singer/pianist, is the best-selling hard apple cider in the US?
6) Name one of the three midwest states where Johnny Appleseed planted orchards.
7) The Beatles were inspired to name their company Apple Corps by a surrealist painting called The Son of Man, by what artist?
8) The Apple MessagePad personal digital assistant, introduced in 1993, became better known by what name, which was technically its operating system?
9) Paris awarded Aphrodite the golden apple labeled “to the fairest.” Name one of the other two goddesses who claimed it.
10) What football team has won the Apple Cup the most times?

Round 6 at the Old Pequliar on August 7, 2007. Average score (18 teams): 6.44

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Each of these clues is a quote from the rules of a reasonably well known game. Identify the game. Note: these are all commercially produced games — no generics like chess or checkers.

1) The “Qu” cube counts as two letters.
2) Creative answers can be acceptable. For example, you could answer Knuckle as a kind of Sandwich.
3) A player landing on this place does not receive any money, property or reward of any kind. This is just a “free” resting-place.
4) There are 2 shortcuts on the path — the Rainbow Trail and the Gumdrop Pass.
5) You can roll anything and be able to put it in the Chance category. You score the total of the die faces.
6) Should you get nine cards all alike and also hold the Bull Card in addition, you have a “Double Bull Corner” which doubles the score of the article cornered.
7) At the beginning of each turn, players meet together one-on-one or in small groups to discuss their plans and suggest strategies. Alliances between players are openly or secretly made, and orders are (hopefully) coordinated.
8) If on your turn you cannot outflank and flip at least one opposing disc, your turn is forfeited and your opponent moves again.
9) There can never be more than one hand or foot on any one circle. If two or more players reach for the same circle, the referee must decide which player got there first.
10) To remove a block, use one hand at a time. You can switch hands whenever you wish.

Round 3 at the Old Pequilar on August 7, 2007. Average score (18 teams): 8.50
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1) From 1944 to 2001, Smokey Bear said “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Since April, 2001, Smokey says “only you can prevent” what?
2) If you dial 443-4567 in Seattle, you’ll hear Russ Leatherman say what five words?
3) “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars,” urged Casey Kasem at the end of what radio show?
4) According to Simone de Beauvoir, “housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day” closely resembles the torment of what mythological figure?
5) What American actress remembered in 1984, “I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
6) Steve Allen coined the question “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” in 1953 as a panelist on what long-running game show?
7) “In space, no one can hear you scream” was introduced as the advertising slogan for what movie?
8) According to New Yorker cartoonist Peter Steiner, “on the Internet, nobody knows” what?
9) Gloria Steinem said “a woman reading” what “feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual”?
10) Dirty Harry first says “Go ahead, make my day” in what sequel?
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1) “Just once, I’d like a regular, normal Christmas. A little eggnog… a fuckin’ Christmas tree… a little turkey. But, no. I gotta crawl around in this motherfuckin’ tin can.” So mutters the hero of what 1990 movie?
2) Spoiler alert! Steven Seagal gets killed while boarding an airplane in what 1996 action film?
3) Before he created Lost and Alias, J.J. Abrams wrote the screenplay for what 1991 drama, in which Harrison Ford’s life changes when he attempts to buy some cigarettes?
4) She broke two ribs wearing a corset, but Nicole Kidman won an MTV Movie Award for Best Actress for what 2001 musical?
5) Sean Penn took a role in what 1993 gangster film to earn enough money so that he could direct The Crossing Guard?
6) What 2005 film updated a 50-year-old sitcom, in part by editing out the hilarious threats of slapstick domestic violence?
7) Radiohead composed the song “Exit Music (For a Film)” for what 1996 tragedy based on a well-known play?
8) What 1993 flop was the first major theatrical released based on a video game?
9) The creators of Shaun of the Dead have a cameo in what 2005 zombie movie directed by George Romero?
10) Who appeared in all nine of these movies?
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1) According to Christian tradition, which apostle wrote the Book of Revelation?
2) Which Stephen King novel was his self-described attempt to “do the Lord of the Rings with an American background”?
3) What bestselling series of novels, named after the first book in the series, includes Tribulation Force, Soul Harvest, The Indwelling, Armageddon, and Kingdom Come?
4) After writing his post-apocalyptic novel The Road, Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize and had his first television interview. Who interviewed him?
5) What movie ends with these lines: “You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
6) What 1983 foreign-language song did VH1 select as #10 on their list of the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders?
7) R.E.M.’s song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” mentions four famous people with the initials LB. Name two of them.
8) Henry Bemis had all the time he wanted to read — but now he’s “just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself.” What ironic thing happened to Henry Bemis that inspired these closing comments on The Twilight Zone?
9) “This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper” are the last lines of what TS Eliot poem?
10) In May of this year, CBS canceled Jericho. To protest, fans sent over 20 tons of what to CBS headquarters?
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