WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel send a different kind of audio postcard.
Last week's challenge
Start with the name of the Peanuts character CHARLIE BROWN. Change one letter to a T and you can spell a hyphenated phrase that names something you might gain as a result of a marriage. What is it?
Answer: If you change the C to a T, you can spell BROTHER-IN-LAW.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: POSTAGE STAMPS
On-air questions: On February 20, 1792, President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act, which established the United States Post Office Department. In 1970, President Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act, which replaced the Cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent Postal Service we know today. To commemorate the Postal Service Act, this week our quiz is about postage stamps.
1. What seven-letter word first appeared on a non-denominational U.S. postage stamp in April 2007, as part of the design of the so-called "Liberty Bell" stamp, which sold for 41 cents?
2. The first adhesive postage stamp produced for use in a postal system was issued on May 1, 1840 in Great Britain. It was called the Penny Black, a reference to its denomination and its background color, and features a profile of the reigning British monarch at the time. Who appears on the Penny Black stamp?
3. Most printing errors on postage stamps aren't deliberate, but one from 1962 was. To avoid creating a rarity, the U.S. Postmaster General ordered the reprint of a stamp featuring Dag Hammarskjold on an inverted colored background. Also in the background was what New York City building, in which Hammarskjold worked from 1953 to 1961?
4. A California housewife becomes entangled in a complicated mystery when she is named the executor of an estate which includes a set of stamps that were possibly used by a secret underground postal delivery service, which may or may not actually exist. This scenario forms part of the plot of The Crying of Lot 49, a 1966 novel by what author?
5. According to the U.S. Postal Service, the most popular commemorative stamp of all time, measured by the number of stamps saved by collectors, is a 1993 stamp featuring what singer, the design of which was the result of a 1992 vote between a version featuring the singer in his younger days and one with a portrait of him in his later years?
Extra credit
1. Oscar Reutersvärd, widely acknowledged as "the father of the impossible figure," was honored on a series of 1982 postage stamps featuring three of his optical illusions. The stamps were issued by Reutersvärd's home country of what?
2. The first set of commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. was a set of 16 stamps released in 1893. Among those stamps, which range in value from 1 cent to $5, is a $1 stamp titled "Isabella Pledging Her Jewels." What famous person does this commemorative set honor?
This week's challenge
Start with the phrase POST OFFICE. Change one letter to an E and you can rearrange the result to spell the two-word name (6, 4) for things that you can probably find in most break rooms. What are they?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Forever
2. Queen Victoria
3. United Nations building
4. Thomas Pynchon
5. Elvis Presley
Extra credit
1. Sweden
2. Christopher Columbus
