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Any Questions #338: "B.B."

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are back, baby.

Last week's challenge
Start with the phrase SPRING AHEAD. Change one letter to an I and you can rearrange the result to spell a two-word phrase (seven letters, four letters) that names things an audiologist might recommend. What are they?
Answer: If you change the P to an I, you can spell HEARING AIDS.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: B. B.
On-air questions: On February 16, 1978, the first public dial-up computer bulletin board system was created. Called the CBBS and developed by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess during a Chicago blizzard, the system was designed, according to Christensen, to function similar to an actual corkboard bulletin board at his local computer club: users could dial the board's number, log in to the system, and read messages left by other users or leave messages of their own. It reportedly received some 250,000 calls before it was disconnected. To commemorate that first bulletin board, this week each correct answer will have the initials B.B.

1. In 1976, gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympics gymnastics history. She would score a total of seven perfect 10s at the 1976 Games: four on the uneven bars and three on what apparatus?
2. “We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.” and “We shall all have to be judged according to our works, whether they be towards man or towards beast.” are quotes from an 1877 work by Anna Sewell, her only published novel. What is the title of Sewell’s novel?
3. In April of 1770, explorer James Cook made landfall along Australia's eastern coast, in a body of water he and other members of his expedition called Stingrays Harbour. In a journal entry written shortly after that landing, however, Cook writes that because of the "great quantity of plants" in the area, he ultimately decided to give what name to the body of water?
4. He was a frequent collaborator with lyricist Hal David, he has written 73 U.S. Top 40 hits, he has won two Academy Awards – one for “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” and one for the theme to the film Arthur – and he starred as himself in all three Austin Powers movies. Who is he?
5. In a top-ten list of the most men’s singles matches won at Wimbledon, Roger Federer is number one, with 91 matches won. What two players are at numbers three and ten, winning 71 and 51 matches, respectively?

Extra credit
1. By what name do we know a group of medications that are commonly used to treat abnormal heart rhythms and other heart-related issues by preventing stress hormones (such as adrenaline) from binding to receptors in cells?
2. In 2015, comedian and author John Hodgman wrote a new narration for a series of performances by the Boston Pops of a work entitled The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, written by what English composer?

This week's challenge
Start with the phrase BULLETIN BOARD. Change one letter to a T and you can rearrange the result to spell a seven-letter word and a six-letter word (both starting with B) that each name something that you usually need a finger to use. What are the words?

ANSWERS
On-air questions

1. Balance beam
2. Black Beauty
3. Botany Bay
4. Burt Bacharach
5. Boris Becker, Björn Borg

Extra credit
1. Beta blockers
2. Benjamin Britten

 

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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