Mystery Quiz #8: GG, everyone
Congrats to Shea Zellweger for notching another victory, turning in the sole 12/12 performance in the eighth KW Mystery Quiz.
KW Mystery #9 is now open, and, boy, was it a lot of fun to write. It closes Sunday evening.
The theme for this past week: all of the answers have doubled initials (or at least sound like they do). It gave me a chance to make a reference to one of my favorite childhood cartoons.
Now, on to the questions!
Q1. Who wrote the theme songs to Alias, Felicity, Fringe, and Lost?
J.J. ABRAMS (69%)
A bit of a tricky one to start off – Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was better known for his bigger roles on these shows. This was probably one you could revisit after figuring out the theme.
My team faced a similar question at a recent pub quiz night, and did not get it correct.
Q2. As an Indian in 2001, he was the youngest player in the Majors; he became the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history in 2008. Who is this superlative man, listed by the Yankees as 6’6″/300?
CC SABATHIA (81%)
Upon being traded to the Brewers in 2008, Carlston Charles Sabathia insisted his shorter name be written sans periods.
Q3. Often used to represent a pair of crying eyes, what two-letter phrase was originally used by Warcraft players as shorthand to tell n00bs they should exit the match?
QQ (51%)
MCW:
GG (10%)
To quit the game immediately, players could press Alt+Q+Q. (“GG” is short for “good game”, something I’ve discussed in discussing Alex Jacob and poker.)
Q4. Who is heard here, performing a live version of his first hit?
B.B. KING (91%)
In 1949, Riley B. “Blues Boy” King was playing a show in Twist, Arkansas when a fire broke out during a fight in the audience. King escaped, but ran back in to retrieve his guitar. He later discovered the fight had been over a woman named Lucille.
Q5.
who wrote
“anyone lived in a pretty how town” 1940
and
“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in” 1952
e.e. cummings (95%)
Rather straightforward; I had Edward Estlin’s work “in Just-” in mind when I crafted the spacing.
Q6. Now the largest commercial printing company in North America, this Fortune 500 corporation has called Chicago home for over 150 years. Each year, it creates a new volume of “Lakeside Classics” as a holiday gift to its employees.
RR DONNELLEY (15%)
MCW:
L.L. BEAN (10%)
A toughy; it was founded in 1964 by Richard Robert Donnelley. His son Reuben H. would found the unrelated R.H. Donnelley, today known as Dex One.
Q7. What klutzy – un-Dexterous, perhaps – cartoon character is about to make a huge mistake? (First name alone is fine.)
DEE DEE (70%)
BWA:
SINISTER
In Dexter’s Laboratory
lives the smartest boy you’ve ever seen
but Dee Dee blows his experiments to smithereens!
Q8. “Some people talk to animals. Not many listen, though. That’s the problem.” So wrote what British author, who died in 1956?
A.A. MILNE (75%)
BWA:
GEORGE ORWELL
Alan Alexander Milne created Winnie-the-Pooh. A popular trivia item: his son was named Christopher Robin.
Q9. What New York publishing house, known for its “Anthologies” and “Critical Editions” collections, is wholly owned by its employees?
W.W. NORTON (29%)
BWA:
DOUBLEDAY
William Warder Norton founded the company in 1923. You might be familiar with The Norton Anthology of English Literature, now in its ninth edition.
Q10. Frank Beard is the drummer for what American rock trio, which has maintained the same lineup since 1970?
ZZ TOP (94%)
A trivia staple, Frank Beard is the only member of ZZ Top who lacks a beard. (The band originally went by “Z.Z. King”, an homage to bluesmen Z.Z. Hill and B.B. King, but later settled on the current name to avoid confusion.)
Q11. The name of what film has been removed from this poster?
GIGI (67%)
Trying to massage the theme a bit here.
Q12. The ladies loved James Todd Smith’s debut 1984 single, “I Need a Beat” – by the artist’s account, anyway. What nickname had the rapper adopted, one he has kept as his career has shifted more to television?
LL COOL J (93%)
Ladies Love Cool James.