WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are blushing red this week.
Last week's challenge
Start with the phrase SWEET THURSDAY. Drop one letter and you can rearrange the result to spell two words (eight letters, four letters) that describe what water does. What are the words?
Answer: If you drop the U, you can spell HYDRATES and WETS.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: SHADES OF RED
On-air questions: Today, October 16, 2015, is the release date of Crimson Peak, the latest film directed by Guillermo del Toro. Set in northern England in the 19th century, del Toro calls it a "modern take on the ghost story" and wanted the film to honor the classics in the haunted house genre. Even though I will be going nowhere near a theater showing Crimson Peak, we'll commemorate its opening with a quiz in which each correct answer has a shade of red in the answer.
1. Subtitled "A Romance", what 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne about sin, guilt, and legalism, has been referenced in numerous films, songs, and other novels, and in a song from The Music Man, in which Harold Hill sings "I hope and I pray for Hester to win just one more A"?
2. What sports team, founded in 1882 as the Brown Stockings and known by their current name since 1900, has played home games in three different venues known as Busch Stadium, and from 1960 to 1987, shared its nickname with a football team based in the same city?
3. In the 2004 film Anchorman, the title character played by Will Ferrell heads up the fictional KWVN news team in San Diego. The (local) award-winning journalist loves poetry and scotch, the latter to such a degree that it inspired a Ben & Jerry's flavor with his picture on the container. Who is KWVN's anchorman in Anchorman?
4. He was convicted of murder with malice on March 14, 1964 and appealed that conviction later that month. He had his appeal upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October of 1966 who ruled he had not received a fair trial, and he died a month before his new trial was set to begin in February of 1967. Who is he?
5. Introduced in 1987, what Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor was the first to be named after a person in popular culture — in this case, a musician — and paved the way for later homages like Late Night Snack, Neapolitan Dynamite, and Phish Food?
Extra credit
1. What 1947 song became singer Edith Piaf's signature song, lending its name to a 2007 biopic, for which actress Marion Cotillard won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Piaf?
2. Played by actor Eddie Mekka, the character known as "The Big Ragu" was a former boxer who had an on-again-off-again romance with Shirley on the sitcom Laverne & Shirley. What was The Big Ragu's first name?
This week's challenge
Start with the name MISS SCARLET. Change one letter to an A, and you can rearrange the letters to spell the two-word name (six letters, five letters) for something an expert might give for talented students. What is it?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. The Scarlet Letter
2. St. Louis Cardinals
3. Ron Burgundy
4. Jack Ruby
5. Cherry Garcia
Extra credit
1. "La Vie En Rose"
2. Carmine
