WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel look to the skies.
Last week's challenge
Start with the name VAN BUREN. Change one letter to an O and you can spell two four-letter words that each name something a writer is very familiar with. What are they?
Answer: If you change the A to an O, you can spell NOUN and VERB.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: MOONS
On-air questions: Tonight, July 31, 2015, there will be a blue moon. The traditional definition of a blue moon is the third of four full moons in a season, but a 1946 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine misinterpreted this definition, which led to the widespread use of the term to mean the second full moon in one month, which tonight's moon is. To commemorate this once-every-two-or-three-years occurrence, this week our quiz is about moons.
1. The Half Moon is the Anglicized name for a Dutch ship that sailed from Amsterdam in April of 1609, made landfall near Nova Scotia, navigated around Cape Cod and into Chesapeake Bay, and entered New York Harbor in September of 1609. Who was the captain of the Half Moon?
2. Composed by Henry Mancini and featuring lyrics by Johnny Mercer, "Moon River" is a 1961 song adopted by singer Andy Williams as his theme song. The first performance of the song, a performance that won an Oscar in 1962, was by Audrey Hepburn in what film?
3. Before going on to become an MTV VJ and an actress and stand-up comedian, Moon Unit, the older sister of Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva, first rose to prominence at age 14 for doing vocals on her father's 1982 top 40 hit "Valley Girl." Who is Moon Unit's musician father?
4. The four largest moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, were discovered in the early 1600s, and were the first objects found to be orbiting something other than the Earth. The moons were discovered by, and collectively named for, what famous Italian scientist, who was also the namesake of a spacecraft that studied Jupiter in the 1980s?
5. Daphne Moon, hired as a live-in housekeeper and physical therapist for Martin Crane, and who later marries Martin's son Niles, is a character played by British actress Jane Leeves on what long-running sitcom?
Extra credit
1. Margaret Wise Brown, a prolific author of children's books, is perhaps best known for her 1942 book The Runaway Bunny and what classic 1947 book about a rabbit going to bed?
2. In Greek mythology, Selene is the goddess of the moon. She is the sister to Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and to what sun-god?
This week's challenge
Start with the names of the moons EUROPA and TITAN. Rearrange the letters to spell a two-word phrase (four letters, seven letters) that names someone a body shop might have on speed dial. Who is it?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Henry Hudson
2. Breakfast at Tiffany's
3. Frank Zappa
4. Galileo
5. Frasier
Extra credit
1. Goodnight, Moon
2. Helios
