WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are back for a show about the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Last week's challenge
Start with the phrase MAYOR DINKINS. Rearrange the letters and you can spell two types of milk you might find at the grocery store. What are the words?
Answer: SKIM and NON-DAIRY.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: 2016 PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM
On-air questions: December 9, 1906 is the birthday of Grace Hopper, a computer scientist and Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. Hopper (nicknamed “Amazing Grace”) developed the first compiler – a program that, essentially, translates one computer language into another – and helped popularize the idea of a so-called “machine-independent” computer language. Hopper passed away in 1992, but earlier this year she was one of the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. To commemorate Rear Admiral Hopper’s achievements, this week our questions are about other recipients of the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1. Diana Ross, known for her solo singing career and her starring roles in movies including Lady Sings the Blues and The Wiz, rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Supremes. The Supremes are the most successful vocal group in the U.S. – racking up 12 number-one singles – and the most commercially-successful act that recorded with what label?
2. Actress Cicely Tyson, who won three Emmy Awards for her performances in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and The Oldest Living Confederate Wife Tells All, also played Binta, the mother of Kunta Kinte in what miniseries, based on a 1976 Alex Haley novel?
3. Elouise Cobell, the onetime treasurer of the Blackfeet Tribe, discovered irregularities in the way the United States was handling funds held in trust for the tribe. This eventually led to her acting as the plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar a 1996 lawsuit against the Departments of the Interior and the Treasury. Though the distinction is sometimes disputed, Cobell v. Salazar is often cited as the largest lawsuit against the U.S of what type, in which a single person represents a large group of people?
4. Margaret Hamilton, the director of the Software Engineering Division at what was then known as the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, led the team that created the on-board flight software for the command modules and the lunar modules for what NASA space program, which ran from 1961 to 1972?
5. Longtime broadcaster Vin Scully retired at the end of the 2016 Major League Baseball season after 66 years behind the microphone. In addition to his many memorable calls, his numerous awards and honors, Scully is the inspiration for the last name of one of the main characters on what science-fiction TV series?
Extra credit
1. Between the 1986-87 and 1997-98 NBA seasons, Michael Jordan led the league in points per game in all of them except one, which was also the only season between 1990-91 and 1997-98 that the Chicago Bulls did not win the NBA championship. What season was it?
2. Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, and Cicely Tyson have also received what prestigious award for lifetime achievement in the performing arts, named for the building in which the ceremonies take place?
This week's challenge
Start with the name GRACE HOPPER. Add a letter and you can rearrange the result to spell the five-letter name of a fruit and the seven-letter name of a fish. What are the words?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Motown Records
2. Roots
3. Class-action
4. Apollo
5. The X-Files
Extra credit
1. 1994-95
2. Kennedy Center Honors Award
