WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are back to shed some trivia light.
Last week's challenge
Start with the word MYSTERIOUS. Change one letter to an M and you can spell a six-letter word and a four-letter word that are each associated with a hair salon. What are the words?
Answer: If you change the Y to an M, you can spell MOUSSE and TRIM.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: LIGHTS
On-air questions: On January 25, 1937, the radio serial The Guiding Light debuted on NBC Radio. Originally broadcast as 15-minute episodes, the show transferred to CBS Radio in 1947 before transferring to television five years later. It ran on CBS until September of 2009 when, after 2500 radio episodes and over 18,000 television episodes, The Guiding Light was cancelled. It is, as of this recording, the longest-running drama in television history. To commemorate The Guiding Light's longevity, this week our questions are about lights.
1. The Monhegan Light, the Mount Desert Light, and the Portland Head Light are three of the fifty-seven active lighthouses identified by the U.S. Coast Guard in what New England state?
2. Referencing a 1972 hit song by Vicki Lawrence, Julia Sugarbaker (played by Dixie Carter) says in a 1986 episode of Designing Women, "And that, just so you will know, and your children will someday know, was the night the lights went out in" what state?
3. An 1854 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about a group of soldiers fighting in the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War begins "Half a league, half a league / Half a league onward / All in the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred". By what title do we know this poem?
4. The phenomenon known as the aurora borealis is often referred to as the "northern lights". What is the scientific name for the corresponding phenomenon often called the "southern lights", a name which evokes a country in the southern hemisphere?
5. Police officer William Potts designed the first one using three colors in 1917, and in 1920 he designed the first one that worked in four directions, which was installed at the intersection of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit. What devices did William Potts design?
Extra credit
1. Commonly used in electronics and as replacements for traditional incandescent lights, LEDs are devices that illuminate when current is passed through them. What does the acronym LED stand for?
2. The song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meat Loaf famously features a baseball play-by-play in the middle of the song. The play-by-play was performed by what Yankee shortstop and announcer?
This week's challenge
Start with the phrase LIGHT BULB. Change one letter to an F and you can rearrange the result to spell a nine-letter word for a thing that takes place in a ring. What is the word?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Maine
2. Georgia
3. "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
4. Aurora australis
5. Traffic light
Extra credit
1. Light-emitting diode
2. Phil Rizzuto
