WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel switch seats for a show about people who go by their initials.
Last week's challenge
Start with the phrase SEARCH ENGINE. Drop one letter, then rearrange the rest to spell a six-letter word and a five-letter word that each name a part of a laptop computer. What are the words?
Answer: If you change the A to an E, you can spell SCREEN and HINGE.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: PEOPLE WITH INITIALS
On-air questions: On October 4th, 1963, future NBA player A.C. Green was born in Portland. Green was named after his father, A.C. Green Sr., and reportedly the initials do not stand for anything. Green would go on to star at Oregon State and spend 17 years in the NBA. So for the first time since show number 30, we return to a show about people who go by their initials.
1. This U.S. president started a controversy about his middle initial in 1962, when he told reporters not to use a period after the middle initial because it didn't stand for any single name.
2. Born James Todd Smith, this New York-born rapper and actor with appearances in films like Halloween H20 and Deep Blue Sea endorsed New York Governor George Pataki's bid for a third term in 2002.
3. This film director's third feature, which came out in 1999, was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture. But his 10th had just 17 percent approval from top critics on RottenTomatoes.com. (You might say this was a twist.)
4. This author, who spent time as a screenwriter in Hollywood, has had his most famous work adapted into films five times since 1926, including a 2013 3D version with a $105 million budget.
5. L. Patrick Gray, G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt and H.R. Haldeman were all figures connected to which scandal?
Extra Credit
1. Which revolutionary filmmaker known by his initials directed more than 500 films between 1908 and 1931?
2. Which civil rights pioneer born in Great Barrington, Mass. cofounded the NAACP?
This week's challenge
Start with the name of a famous literary figure who went by his initials. Take the initials and the first letter of his last name, rearrange those letters, and you can spell a word in the title of this author's most famous work. Who is the author and what is the word?
Answers
On-air questions:
1. Harry S. Truman (Truman said that the S stood for the names of both his grandfathers, Solomon Young and Anderson Shipp Truman and was a compromise. But he himself often signed the initial with a period.)
2. LL Cool J
3. M. Night Shyamalan
4. F. Scott Fitzgerald (Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald)
5. Watergate/Nixon scandal
Extra Credit
1. DW Griffith
2. W.E.B. Du Bois