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Any Questions #405: Gardens

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel make the WAMC studio the world's most famous arena for a few minutes.

 
Last week's challenge

Start with the phrase PICNIC TABLE. Rearrange the letters and you can spell a seven-letter kitchen furnishing and a four-letter item often used to keep food fresh. What are the words? 

Answer: CABINET, CLIP.

 
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: GARDENS

On-air questions: On May 31, 1879, the arena at the corner of East 26th Street and Madison Avenue was named Madison Square Garden. The building, constructed in 1874 by P. T. Barnum, was originally called the Great Roman Hippodrome before being leased to bandleader Patrick Gilmore, who named it Gilmore's Garden after himself. In 1879, William Kissam Vanderbilt – grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad magnate – retook control of the property and named it Madison Square Garden. It was the first of four buildings to bear that name: a second one was built on the same site and opened in 1890, the third one opened in 1925 and was located at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street, and the fourth one is the current one. To commemorate the naming of the first Madison Square Garden, this week our questions are about gardens.

 
1. Green spaces known as Kew Gardens and Kensington Gardens and a district known as Covent Garden are all in what capital city?

2. The 1885 poetry collection A Child's Garden of Verses, which includes poems titled "My Shadow" and "The Lamplighter", the latter of which is likely autobiographical, was published by what author, two years after the novel Treasure Island and a year before the short story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

3. The 1979 Caldecott Medal-winning children's book The Garden of Abdul Gasazi was written and illustrated by Chris van Allsburg. Van Allsburg is also famous for writing Jumanji, which was adapted into a 1995 film starring Robin Williams, and what book, which was the basis for a 2004 film starring Tom Hanks as a train conductor?

4. The Winter Garden Theatre in New York City was until 2015 home to the musical Mamma Mia! and its current tenant is the musical adaptation of the film Beetlejuice. What musical has, to date, called the Winter Garden Theatre home for the longest, residing there for 7,485 performances between October 1982 and September 2000, making it the fourth-longest running Broadway musical in history?

5. What chain introduced the "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" in 2013 and has, since 2014, offered the "Never Ending Pasta Pass", which allows people to purchase it each year to eat all the pasta they want during a seven-week period for $99?

 
Extra credit

1. According to one legend, what were built by King Nebuchadnezzar II alongside a palace called The Marvel of Mankind?

2. What is the most famous triptych painted by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch?

 
This week's challenge

Start with the phrase GARDEN STATE. Rearrange the letters to spell a five-letter word and a six-letter word that can fill in the blanks in this sentence: The ___ kept his baseball-player client informed about any potential ___. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
ANSWERS

On-air questions

1. London
2. Robert Louis Stevenson
3. The Polar Express
4. Cats
5. Olive Garden
 
Extra credit

1. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
2. The Garden of Earthly Delights
 

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