TODAY’S QUESTION:

When uninformed spellcheckers take an uncommon but perfectly spelled word and replace it with a word in their dictionary, that’s known as the Cupertino effect.

Example: Spellcheckers unfamiliar with Obama would suggest Osama as a replacement. Hitting “replace all” without looking could accidentally make you look like a McCain supporter. Whoops.

Question: The Cupertino effect got its name a couple of years ago when spellcheckers would suggest replacing what word with “Cupertino”?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER:

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Round 5 at the Old Pequliar on May 6, 2008
Average score: 8.33/10 (12 teams)

My ode to Wikipedia’s disambiguation pages. Find the word that fits all three descriptions.

Example:
a planet, a candy bar, and a fictional Veronica: Mars

1) a Saturday Night Live character, something a baker does to a cake, and a unit of butter
2) a Stephen King novel, something Clara Bow had, and someone you try to avoid at recess
3) something done to stomachs, part of a traditional diet, and something that used to be common in Playmates
4) a pharmaceutical term, a shade of blue, and something you seek out at Whistler
5) a particular kind of fiction, something done to prices, and someone who played guitar for Michael Jackson
6) a Sondheim musical, a kind of taxi, and a resident of the Satellite of Love
7) an after dinner cocktail, one of the few kosher insects, and a pop cultural synonym for padawan
8) a resident of Narnia, something women wear, and a typewriter key
9) a chapter of the Qur’an, a Harvey Keitel movie, and something you do to salmon
10) someone who just doesn’t get jazz, a popular intersection in a city, and a carpenter’s tool
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Rita Coolidge
Jennifer Warnes and Kenny Vance
Sun Ra
Bette Midler
Andrew Gold and Andrae Crouch

(I’ll add a name to this each day until the sequence is complete or someone gets it.)

Hey, I should’ve been updating this — I forgot because someone on the Ken Jennings board cracked it straightaway.

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1) What 1994 film launched the career of Lisa Loeb, when her song “Stay (I Missed You)” became a #1 hit single?
2) What 1992 drama starring Willem DaFoe as a drug dealer does writer/director Paul Schrader consider the third film in a trilogy, after Taxi Driver and American Gigolo?
3) What 2007 comedy inspired a spokesman for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination to say”The movie has some of the expected stereotypes, but in its own disarming way, it’s a call for equality and respect”?
4) What 1996 comedy sequel inspired by a TV show starred both actors who played Jed Bartlet’s vice president on The West Wing?
5) What 1998 animated film, which introduced the character Dil, was the first Nickelodeon Movies production to reach #1 at the box office on its opening weekend?
6) What 1993 film based on a 1970s Saturday Night Live sketch featured mass quantities of SNL performers — 16, the current record for a single film?
7) What 1994 comedy set at the fictional Port Chester University introduced the Caine-Hackman theory, the idea that at any there’s a 100% statistical probability that a movie starring Michael Caine or Gene Hackman will be playing on TV?
8) 30 years after playing Catwoman, Eartha Kitt plays a woman who actually gets turned into a cat at the climax of what 2000 animated film?
9) What 1996 comedy about a Washington State governor’s race was the first film Gene Siskel walked out on in his career reviewing movies?
10) What actor or actress appeared in all nine of these movies?

Average score, 17 teams: 6.35

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1) Elizabeth Taylor won her second Best Actress Oscar for playing Martha in what 1966 film based on an Edward Albee play?
2) What soundtrack is the only album with a question for a title to win the Grammy for Album of the Year?
3) What 2000 buddy comedy inspired the title of Michael Moore’s 2003 followup to his book Stupid White Men?
4) Madonna had a #1 hit in 1987 with a song that shared its title with what 1983 top 40 hit by Eurythmics?
5) According to the movie Stripes, the answer to this riddle is “to get from the left to the right.”
6) What 1993 song by Haddaway had a second burst of popularity starting in 1996 when it was featured on Saturday Night Live?
7) What advertising slogan debuted in 1971 in a commercial featuring vocals by Ella Fitzgerald?
8) Turns out the answer to this Fox Television question was Darva Conger, but only for about two months.
9) The short film “True” inspired a series of Anheuser-Busch TV commercials centered around what catchphrase?
10) According to M. Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense was inspired by an episode of what 1990s horror anthology series?

Average score (21 teams): 6.67

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1) Two television series based on SNL debuted last season. Which one was renewed for next season?
2) In the short music video “Lazy Sunday,” Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg go to see what movie?
3) New Shimmer is a floor wax … and what?
4) Which former SNL performer has had the most successful movie career, measured by total box office gross of all their films?
5) What recurring character is a gossip columnist and rock critic for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano?
6) In a 2000 sketch, Gene Frenkle plays what instrument?
7) Which cast member has anchored or co-anchored Weekend Update the most times?
8) In the short film “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” who is the last surviving member of the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players?
9) In 1981, Charles Rocket was fired for saying “fuck” on the air during a sketch parodying the season finale of what show?
10) Do not taunt … what?
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1) What’s the only Schoolhouse Rock! song from the Science Rock category that has a rhyming title?
2) What “frozen novelty product” made by Good Humor mimics the appearance of a Mexican entree?
3) What recurring Daily Show segment used to pit the stars of The Office and The Colbert Report against each other?
4) What database claims to be the “world’s largest collection of public records, unpublished opinions, forms, legal, news, and business information”?
5) Which Beatles song is an ode to an amusement park slide?
6) When Mr. Jinks says “I hate those meeses to pieces,” who are the meeses in question?
7) What 1992 indie rock classic was the debut album by Pavement?
8) What Ben & Jerry’s flavor was named after the clown who was chief of the Please Force at Woodstock?
9) What famous four-word headline in Variety used their slanguage to say that rural audiences rejected movies about rural life?
10) What sportscaster claimed in a Saturday Night Live skit that he would eat the moon if it were made of barbecue spare ribs?
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1) Which of these is the only Muppet that wasn’t voiced by Jim Henson: Count Von Count, Ernie, Guy Smiley, or the Swedish Chef?
2) In The Monster at the End of This Book, what is the name of the monster at the end of the book?
3) Jim Henson sometimes claimed that “muppet” was a combination of “puppet” and what other word?
4) What media company bought the Muppets in 2004?
5) What long-running television show had a recurring feature in its first season devoted to Muppets in the Land of Gortch?
6) What Muppet series debuted on HBO on January 10, 1983?
7) What song, sung by Kermit, reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November, 1979?
8) As a Swedish Chef, the Swedish Chef likely put together many “sandwich tables” — the literal translation of what Swedish word?
9) Rumor had it that Jim Henson didn’t see a doctor when he contracted his fatal case of pneumonia because he was raised in what faith?
10) In 2004, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker were voted Britain’s favorite cinematic scientists, defeating what science fiction character?

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1) On June 28, 1997, Mike Tyson bit off part of the ear of what opponent?
2) On Valentine’s Day, 1951, Sugar Ray Robinson became the Middleweight Champion of the World when he defeated what frequent rival?
3) Boxing Day usually falls on what date?
4) Spoilers! In the movie Se7en, what actress’ head ends up in a box?
5) In 1968, what music group had a top 10 hit with “The Boxer”?
6) According to the song “Dick in a Box,” what 6-word phrase is step 2 when making a special gift to impress the ladies?
7) Shoebox is a “tiny little division” of what company?
8) According to Hesiod, Pandora didn’t open a box — she opened a pithos, which is a kind of what?
9) Box Tops for Education lets you earn cash for your school by collecting box tops from what food company’s products?
10) A flight data recorder, known as a black box recorder, is usually painted what color?

Average score among 13 teams: 7.62.

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