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Any Questions #309 - "23"

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are back for a show all about 23.Last week's challenge
Start with the term SPACE SHUTTLE. Rearrange the letters and you can spell an eight-letter group of people and a four-letter kind of equipment that group might use. Hint: Both words are plural.
Answer: ATHELTES and CUPS

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: TWENTY-THREE
On-air questions: On July 28, 1984, the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics – officially, the Games of the XXIII Olympiad – took place in Los Angeles, California. It was Los Angeles' second time hosting the Olympics (the first was in 1932). Fourteen Eastern Bloc nations boycotted the 1984 Olympics in response to a U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 games in Moscow. Despite the boycott, a record 140 nations sent athletes to the Games, and eighteen countries including Bangladesh and the British Virgin Islands competed for the first time. To commemorate the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, this week our questions are about the number twenty-three.

1. The cover of a 1969 album features a creature called a Blue Meanie with the number 23 on his chest. The album is the soundtrack to – and shares its name with – an animated film, during which the band is attacked by the Blue Meanies. The musicians eventually prevail and save Pepperland. What is the colorful shared title of the album and the film?
2. Twenty-three, a 1988 orchestral composition for thirteen violins, five violas, and five cellos, is meant to be performed without a conductor, with each of the musicians determining when to begin playing their part. It was written by what avant-garde composer, perhaps most famous for his 1952 work 4'33", in which the musicians do not play their instruments for the duration of the piece?
3. While the exact origin of the phrase "23 skidoo" is unknown, one popular theory posits that it came from the practice of police officers to give the "23 skidoo" to men – that is, tell them to scram – when they were caught waiting for women's skirts to be blown upward by the wind gusts that swirled around what triangular-shaped building, located at the intersection of 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway in New York City?
4. The 2007 psychological thriller The Number 23 stars Jim Carrey as a man who is given a book called The Number 23 as a birthday present and becomes obsessed with the number. It was directed by Joel Schumacher, and is the second time Schumacher directed Jim Carrey. The first was what 1995 superhero film?
5. Based in Mountain View, CA, the biotechnology company 23andMe offers genetic testing services to individuals seeking information on their predisposition to certain medical conditions. The company's name references the fact that each human cell contains 23 pairs of what?

Extra credit
1. The number 23 is one of six mysterious numbers that frequently occur throughout the six seasons of what critically-acclaimed drama series?
2. Over the years, 26 different players have worn jersey number 23 for the New York Yankees. The last person to do so was what player, who wore it from 1984 to 1995 and had the number retired in his honor in 1997?

This week's challenge
Start with the phrase LOS ANGELES. Add a letter and you can rearrange the result to spell a two-word phrase (five letters, six letters) for something a future attorney gets in school. What is it?
 

ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Yellow Submarine
2. John Cage
3. The Flatiron Building
4. Batman Forever
5. Chromosomes

Extra credit
1. Lost
2. Don Mattingly

 

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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