WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are taking a tandem ride.
Last week's challenge
Start with a six-letter word for a person who might make an article of clothing. Remove the consecutive letters VE from that word, and what's left will spell what you might do with that article of clothing. What are the words?
Answer: The person is a WEAVER, and you might WEAR it.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: BICYCLES
On-air questions: Today, May 15, 2015, was National Bike To Work Day. Celebrated on the third Friday of May (which is National Bike Month), the day was created in 1956 by the League of American Bicyclists, and is celebrated each year in cities across the country. (It's a major event each year in San Francisco, where the mayor joins in by commuting by bicycle to City Hall.) To commemorate National Bike To Work Day, this week our quiz is about bicycles.
1. "Daisy Bell" (subtitled "A Bicycle Built For Two") was the song that an IBM computer at Bell Labs was programmed to "sing" in 1961, widely considered the first demonstration of computer-synthesized speech. This event was referenced in what 1968 novel (and 1968 film based on that novel) when HAL, the on-board computer begins to sing it as he is deactivated?
2. Bicycle Diaries, a 2009 book written as a series of journal entries, follows the author as he makes observations while he rides his bicycle through various cities around the world. The book was written by what musician, who three years later published How Music Works, a book which includes an album-by-album look at his band Talking Heads?
3. Although the name was likely not in common use until the style was almost obsolete, the bicycle style known as a "penny-farthing" was so-called because the wheels resembled, relatively speaking, two denominations of British coins. What is the most distinctive feature of a penny-farthing bicycle?
4. The United States Playing Card Company, manufacturer of Bicycle playing cards, provided to soldiers in the Vietnam War decks that consisted entirely of what card, which the U.S. soldiers mistakenly thought the Viet Cong considered a symbol of death, and would therefore flee from if they saw it?
5. "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" is a slogan that has been used by feminists since the 1970s. It was actually coined by Australian writer Irina Dunn, but it has frequently been misattributed to what feminist icon and Ms. magazine founder?
Extra credit
1. As a result of Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven titles from 1999 to 2005, who is now the only American cyclist who has officially won the Tour de France, doing so in 1986, 1989, and 1990?
2. Favored by advocates who argue it increases cycling safety by putting focus on safe right-of-way practices, the so-called "Idaho stop" law allows cyclists on roads to treat red lights as stop signs and stop signs as what traffic signal?
This week's challenge
Start with the word HANDLEBARS. Rearrange the letters to spell a six-letter word for what concrete does, and a four-letter word for what you get after it does it. What are the words?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. David Byrne
3. Large front wheel
4. Ace of spades
5. Gloria Steinem
Extra credit
1. Greg LeMond
2. Yield sign
