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Any Questions #195

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel try to find their way out of this week's show.

Last week's challenge
Start with the word HANDLEBARS. Rearrange the letters to spell a six-letter word for what concrete does, and a four-letter word for what you get after it does it. What are the words?
Answer: The words are HARDEN and SLAB.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: MAZES
On-air questions: On May 22, 1980, the Japanese video game company Namco released their most famous game: Pac-Man. Licensed for distribution in the U.S. later that year, the classic game features Pac-Man traversing a maze eating dots, while trying to avoid being eaten by four hungry ghosts. (The original Japanese names of the ghosts translate to "chaser," "ambusher," "fickle," and "stupid," which reflect their behaviors.) In honor of our little circular yellow friend, this week we have questions about mazes.
1. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the 60-acre (or 24.28 hectares, for you metric system folks) maze created by Cool Patch Pumpkins in Dixon, CA, is the largest temporary maze made out of what?
2. In Greek mythology, what creature had the head of a bull and the body of a man, lived at the center of a labyrinth built by Daedalus and his son Icarus on orders of the King of Crete, and was killed by Theseus?
3. An episode titled "The Maze," in which Detective Rico Tubbs (played by Philip Michael Thomas) is taken hostage in an abandoned hotel, and is later rescued with the help of his partner Sonny Crockett (played by Don Johnson), aired in February of 1985 as part of the first season of what drama series?
4. "The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior" is a quote from a 1962 speech given by what Supreme Court chief justice, eight years after he presided over the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education and one year before the decision in Gideon v. Wainwright?
5. What classic 1980 horror film contains a harrowing chase scene through a hedge maze that ends with Jack Nicholson's character freezing to death after getting lost in said maze?

Extra credit
1. The MacArthur Maze (officially called the "Distribution Structure") is the freeway interchange where traffic feeds into Interstates 80, 580, and 880 after coming off the Bay Bridge, which connects which two California cities?
2. "Maze" is the fourth track on the 1993 album Rift by what band, known for their improvisations and extended jams during their concerts, and for their concerts themselves, sometimes staged as multi-day festivals?

This week's challenge
Start with the word LABYRINTHS. Change one letter to a Y (not the one that's already there, of course) and you can rearrange the result to spell two five-letter synonyms. What are they?

ANSWERS
On-air questions

1. Corn
2. The Minotaur
3. Miami Vice
4. Earl Warren
5. The Shining

Extra credit
1. San Francisco and Oakland
2. Phish
 

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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