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Any Questions #176

Hold the phone. WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are back.

Last week's challenge
Start with the name AUSTIN POWERS. Drop one letter, then rearrange the result to spell a two-word phrase (seven letters, four letters) for something a quarterback should be able to throw very easily. What is it?
Answer: If you drop the W, you can spell ROUTINE PASS.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: TELEPHONES
On-air questions
: On January 9, 1894, New England Telephone and Telegraph installed the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts. Perhaps coincidentally, on January 9, 2007, the first iPhone was unveiled. To continue the tradition of phone-related things happening on January 9, today's quiz is about telephones.
1. "Hello, Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the White House." Where was Richard Nixon calling?
2. Featured in the 1984 film The Woman in Red, "I Just Called To Say I Love You" was the eighth song by what R&B singer to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart?
3. An affair, blackmail, and a phone call precisely timed to set up a killing are all plot elements in what 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film, based on a 1952 stage play, with a telephone-related title?
4. When area codes were introduced in 1947, cities with high call volumes were given codes with low digits, to reduce both the time it took to dial the numbers and the wear and tear on the equipment. New York City, the city with the highest call volume, received the 212 area code. What city was second, receiving the 213 area code?
5. During a 1994 conference at UCLA on the information superhighway, what comedienne interrupted a speech by Al Gore in the guise of her famous character Ernestine, the nosy telephone switchboard operator?

Extra credit
1. "The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom the subject of the stables, in fact all subjects, vanished into air." is a line from what 1925 novel?
2. What telephone-related piece of television history did the CIA, upon installing the item in its museum, dismiss its link to any actual spy equipment, saying it was a "fantasy precursor to today's wireless communications"?

This week's challenge
Start with the phrase DIAL TONES. Add a letter, then rearrange the result to spell a three-word phrase (four letters, two letters, four letters) for what a judge might do to a criminal. What is it?

ANSWERS
On-air questions

1. The moon
2. Stevie Wonder
3. Dial "M" for Murder
4. Los Angeles
5. Lily Tomlin

Extra credit
1. The Great Gatsby
2. Maxwell Smart's shoe phone
 

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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