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Any Questions #296- "Superlatives"

aqweb296.mp3

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel switch spots for their "best" quiz yet.

Last week's challenge
Start with the phrase CARDIFF GIANT. Change one letter to a B and you can rearrange the result to spell a three-word phrase (two letters, three letters, seven letters) for where someone who is running late might be stuck. What is the phrase?
Answer: Swap the G for a B and you can spell IN BAD TRAFFIC.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: SUPERLATIVES
On-air questions: On this date in 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. That same year, he would be elected as the nation’s 34th president. In honor of Ike’s gig as Supreme Allied Commander, today’s show is all about superlatives.

1. Based on the novel These Foolish Things, a 2011 film starring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy takes place mainly inside a shabby hotel run by an ebullient manager played by Dev Patel. What name do the hotel and the film share?
2. Referring to an early motto the band used on its flyers in England, the box set Thirty Years of Maximum R&B features tracks like I’m The Face, Call Me Lightning and My Generation. Which band, now considered a titan in a different genre, popularized the phrase Maximum R and B?
3. Among the subtitles on this reality TV series, which has run on NBC for 17 series, are No Excuses, Temptation Nation and Second Chances. Over the show’s life, one contestant experienced a 55.6 percent change in BMI. What is the name of this program?
4. The 2015 film The End of the Tour centers on a series of interviews with author David Foster Wallace recorded by journalist David Lipsky in 1996 while Wallace was promoting which 1,079-page novel?
5. Jonathan Goldsmith and Augustin Legrand are the two main actors to portray what character, who first appeared in an ongoing ad campaign in 2006 and, according to the campaign, “once warned a psychic”?

Extra credit
1. Also including Bill Hicks, Flip Wilson and Richard Jeni, Richard Pryor topped the 2013 list put together by Comedy Central of the 100 what?
2. Starring Tom Cruise, Billy Connolly and Timothy Spall, and earning Ken Wantanabe an Oscar nomination, what 2003 Edward Zwick film is set 19th Century Japan?

This week's challenge
Start with the phrase LEAST LIKELY. Rearrange the letters and you can spell the type of movies that debuted in 1927 and a four-letter word that might have been noticeable for the first time in that type of movie. What are the words?

ANSWERS
On-air questions

1. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (A sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, came out in 2015)
2. The Who
3. The Biggest Loser
4. Infinite Jest
5. The Most Interesting Man in the World (Dos Equis)

Extra credit
1. The 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians
2. The Last Samurai

 

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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