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Any Questions #231

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are two of a kind, but their show this week comes in threes.

Last week's challenge
Start with the name of Will Smith Men In Black co-star TOMMY LEE JONES. Drop an M and rearrange the remaining letters, and you can spell a two-word phrase for what people often do at diners. What is the phrase?
Answer: ENJOY OMELETS.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: THREE OF A KIND
On-air questions: This week we introduce a new category here on Any Questions? called "Three of a Kind."I'll give you a list of three things that have something in common. Your job is to figure out what that commonality is. The three items could share a word, or belong to a particular category, or have the same name, or...something else, perhaps.

1.
(A) The hit song by Prince with the lyrics "Two thousand zero zero/Party over, oops, out of time"
(B) The Stanley Kubrick film famous for the line "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
(C) The dystopian novel by George Orwell featuring Big Brother

2.
(A) The spots on dominoes or on many dice
(B) The six tones broadcast by many BBC radio stations to mark the start of the hour
(C) The back-up group on "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"

3.
(A) The restaurant in midtown Manhattan credited with introducing the practice of changing the menu at regular intervals during the year
(B) The quartet of violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi
(C) The vocal group led by Frankie Valli whose story provided the basis for the musical
Jersey Boys

4.
(A) The 1991 album by A Tribe Called Quest
(B) The 2014 film for which Eddie Redmayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor
(C) The TBS sitcom starring Jim Parsons as a physicist

5.
(A) The actress who narrated the NBC television special Peter Pan Live
(B) The golf club officially designated the 1-wood, often used for tee shots
(C) Morgan Freeman, vis-a-vis Jessica Tandy in a 1989 film

Extra credit
1.
(A) NHL team that joined the league during the expansion before the 2000-01 season
(B) Card in an Uno deck that may make you draw four cards
(C) 2014 film starring Reese Witherspoon

2.
(A) 1962 hit song for Patsy Cline
(B) 1994 hit song for Aerosmith
(C) 2006 hit song for Gnarls Barkley

This week's challenge
Start with the phrase TRIPLE BOND. Change one letter to a K and you can spell the five-letter name of a game, and a five-letter term used in that game. What are the words?

ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Years
2. Pips
3. The Four Seasons
4. Theory
5. Driver

Extra credit
1. Wild
2. "Crazy"
 

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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