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Any Questions #333: "Promises"

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel switch spots for a quiz about famous promises.

Last week's challenge
Start with the phrase GOLDEN ARCHES. Change one letter to a T and you can rearrange the result to spell a six-letter word for a place to store things and a six-letter word for something you might find in that place. What are the words?
Answer: If you change the D to a T, you can spell CLOSET and HANGER.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: PROMISES  
On-air questions
: Well Mike, on this date in 2006, most of the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning New York Rangers were in attendance at Madison Square Garden as Mark Messier’s No. 11 was retired, the fourth player to receive the honor from the Blueshirts. Messier, who had two different stints with the Rangers, spent 25 years in the NHL, winning six Stanley Cups. In 1994, Messier told reporters the Rangers, trailing the Devils 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Final, would win that night, and he went on to score three goals in a 4-2 victory. In honor of Messier’s statement, today’s show is all about promises.

1. Sticking with sports: the most famous of all sports guarantees came on the eve of Super Bowl III, when Joe Namath said the Jets would win over Baltimore despite being an 18-point underdog. Namath was right, the Jets won 16-7…and they haven’t been back. It was one of 10 Super Bowls held up to now in what city, at venues such as The Orange Bowl, Sun Life Stadium and Dolphin Stadium?
2. The last incumbent president to lose reelection is remembered for going back on a promise made at the 1988 Republican National Convention: “Read my lips, no new taxes.” Who uttered these fateful — and perhaps quaint — words?
3. Speaking on CBS’ 60 Minutes on Nov. 13, 2016, then-President-elect Donald Trump said: “I'm going to do very restrained, if I use it at all, I'm going to do very restrained.” What was Trump referring to in that quote, which proved to be wildly untrue?
4. “I haven’t been touring for a long time and it’s been a painful decision whether to go back on the road ... but I’ve made a decision and this is the last show I’m gonna do.” So said what performer on Nov. 3, 1977 during a concert in London whose setlist included “Your Song,” “Bennie and the Jets” and “Candle in the Wind?”
5. “You’re gonna like the way you look. I guarantee it.” That was the commercial tagline for many years spoken by George Zimmer, the former CEO of which 1,200-store chain?

Extra credit
1. In what Twitter said was the most retweeted post of 2017, teenager Carter Wilkerson asked a fast food giant how many retweets he would need to receive free nuggets for a year. The reply was 18 million.  What was the chain, which is headquartered in Ohio and was founded in 1969?
2. “"I hereby state, and mean all that I say, that I never have been and never will be a candidate for President; that if nominated by either party, I should peremptorily decline; and even if unanimously elected I should decline to serve." That promise not to enter politics was made by what Civil War General, for whom similar denials have come to be named?

This week's challenge
Start with the names of Mark Messier’s other NHL teams: CANUCKS and OILERS. Rearrange the letters and you can spell a phrase that might describe what someone who cheated on a diet has done.

ANSWERS
On-air questions

1. Miami (Miami has hosted the most Super Bowls and will again in 2020)
2. George H.W. Bush (In November, Bush became the longest living president at the age of 93 years and 166 days.)
3. Twitter (“When you give me a bad story or when you give me an inaccurate story,” he said, “I have a method of fighting back.”)
4. Elton John
5. Men’s Wearhouse (Since being pushed out in 2013, Zimmer has founded two competitors.)

Extra credit
1. Wendy’s
2. Sherman statement (William Tecumseh Sherman)

 

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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