Tag: the stand

Quiz: Literature Via Amazon.com

24-October-08 / James Callan

Round 5 at the Old Pequliar on October 7, 2008

Amazon identifies key phrases in many of the books it sells — distinctive phrases or proper names that appear in one book but not many others.

Given five key phrases, can you identify the novel they come from? (Additional clue: They were all first published within the last 100 years.)

1) tighter bomb pattern, more combat missions, stupid mouth, Henry Fonda, and Lieutenant Scheisskopf
2) feminist funeral, ball turret gunner, wrestling practice, Under Toad, and sexual suspect
3) threeÂ sÃ©nÃ©chaux, seededÂ womb,Â corporalÂ mortification,Â sacredÂ feminine, and OpusÂ Dei
4) grain barges, cell leader, laser drills, new catapult, and Free Luna
5) invisible doctors, banana company, insomnia plague, story about the capon, and siesta time
6) bun compartment, nucular bum, flannel nightshirt, hunting cap, and Patrolman Mancuso
7) keystreamÂ letters, Bletchley Park, making license plates, Bobby Shaftoe, and substitutionÂ alphabet
8) tennis academy, professional conversationalist, Hal Incandenza, new bong, and howling fantods
9) accused man, fishing gaff, strawberry land, Kabuo Miyamoto, and Island County
10) Las Vegas, rundown bootheels, happy crappy, Captain Trips, and dig your man

Quiz: The End of the World

27-June-07 / James Callan

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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Quiz: Something Came Between Us

4-April-07 / James Callan

I’ll name two things, you tell me what comes between them.

1) The geologic period between Triassic and Cretaceous
2) The US federal holiday between Labor Day and Veterans Day
3) The Stephen King novel published between The Shining and The Dead Zone
4) The Monopoly property between Atlantic Avenue and Marvin Gardens
5) Geena Davis’ husband between Richard Emmolo and Renny Harlin
6) The stage of grief between bargaining and acceptance
7) The scientific classification rank between family and species (not subfamily)
8) The US president between Grover Cleveland and Grover Cleveland
9) The Seattle Mariners manager between Lou Piniella and Mike Hargrove
10) From fall 1984 to spring 1986, the sitcom between Cheers and L.A. Law
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