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Any Questions #210

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel prove that they can count to five.

Last week's challenge
Start with the word COMMERCIALS. Add a letter and you can rearrange the result to spell the two-word name (six letters, six letters) of a company associated with many characters. What is it?
Answer: If you add a V, you can spell MARVEL COMICS.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: FIVE-WORD ANSWERS
On-air questions: Happy season five, everyone! We've now officially lasted longer than Monty Python's Flying Circus. To kick off our fifth season, we have a quiz in which each correct answer has five words.
1. Adapted from the 1998 Thomas Harris novel of the same name, what 1991 film was only the third movie to win the so-called "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins, Best Actress for Jodie Foster, Best Director for Jonathan Demme, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture?
2. In a game of Monopoly, what phrase appears on a Community Chest card — where it is written next to Rich Uncle Pennybags flying out of a birdcage — and on a Chance card depicting Pennybags being kicked out of a prison cell, in both cases under the directive "This card may be kept until needed or sold"?
3. Appearing at the beginning of Act Two of the stage version of the musical Evita, what song sung by Eva Peron from a balcony of the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires has her reassuring the crowd below, "The truth is I never left you"?
4. A single 30-year-old woman moves to Minneapolis and applies for a secretarial position at TV station WJM. She ends up as the associate producer — and later producer — of the 6 o'clock news, anchored by newsman Ted Baxter. Airing from 1970 to 1977, and named for its star, what is the title of this iconic series?
5. The last book published by Dr. Seuss before his death is what 1990 book, which has become a perennially popular gift for high school and college graduates — reaching number two on USA Today's 2015 list of the best-selling books — and may be best known for the line "Will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed. (98¾ percent guaranteed.)"?

Extra credit
1. Between 1968 and 2012, writer John Irving released 13 novels. Five of those novels have five-word titles: Last Night In Twisted River, A Widow for One Year, A Son of the Circus, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and what 1978 novel, later made into a 1982 film starring Robin Williams?
2. In 1935 and 1937 respectively, the Marx Brothers starred in two movies with similar five-word names. In 1975 and 1976, the rock band Queen released two albums named after the movies. What are the two titles?

This week's challenge
Start with the phrase FIVE STARS. Change one letter to an O and you can spell a word that names things you might give five stars to. What are they?

ANSWERS
On-air questions

1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. "Get out of jail free"
3. "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina"
4. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
5. Oh, The Places You'll Go

Extra credit
1. The World According To Garp
2. A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races
 

A lifelong resident of the Capital Region, Ian joined WAMC in late 2008 and became news director in 2013. He began working on Morning Edition and has produced The Capitol Connection, Congressional Corner, and several other WAMC programs. Ian can also be heard as the host of the WAMC News Podcast and on The Roundtable and various newscasts. Ian holds a BA in English and journalism and an MA in English, both from the University at Albany, where he has taught journalism since 2013.
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