Tuesday, 8 October 2024 | World Flags - The 12 stars on its flag symbolize perfection, not geographic or political units | What is the European Union? |
Monday, 7 October 2024 | Brand Names - In 1886 this brand's bookkeeper came up with its name & flowing script logo, saying, "The Two Cs would look well in advertising" | What is Coca-Cola? |
Friday, 4 October 2024 | Literary Characters - A fragment from a nautical tool found on a Chilean island in 2005 was likely left by the Scot who partly inspired this character | Who is Robinson Crusoe? |
Thursday, 3 October 2024 | 19th-Century Names - Shrunken auditory nerves were seen in his autopsy after his 1827 death in Vienna | Who is Ludwig van Beethoven? |
Wednesday, 2 October 2024 | Science - Physicist John Wheeler said he coined this term as a faster way to say "completely collapsed objects" | What is a Black Hole? |
Tuesday, 1 October 2024 | Sitcoms - The first British sitcom to win a Best Comedy Golden Globe, it was remade in a U.S. version that had almost 15 times as many episodes | What is The Office? |
Monday, 30 September 2024 | Biblical Places - The name of this, actually a not very tall hill, became a symbol of Jewish national aspiration & was used in spirituals & reggae | What is Mount Zion? |
Friday, 27 September 2024 | Landmarks - At its dedication, Sen. John Sherman said, "simple in form... it rises into the skies higher than any other work of human art" | What is the Washington Monument? |
Thursday, 26 September 2024 | Stars of the 20th Century - A 1927 N.Y. Times Headline: "Witness Testifies" this woman "rewrote play and insisted on the spicy scenes because city liked them" | Who is Mae West? |
Wednesday, 25 September 2024 | Shakespeare - "Blood will have blood"," says this title character, who is later told "be bloody, bold, & resolute" | Who is Macbeth? |
Tuesday, 24 September 2024 | 20th-Century America - In a state of shock, on Nov 27, 1978, she announced that 'both Mayor Moscone & Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot & killed | Who is Dianne Feinstein? |
Monday, 23 September 2024 | 19th-Century Americans - Among those who attended his 1864 funeral were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott & Franklin Pierce | Who is Nathaniel Hawthorne? |
Friday, 20 September 2024 | Island Chains - Named for a Spanish Queen, this Pacific Island chain was a starting point for famous explorations of 1960 & 2012 | What is the Mariana Islands? |
Thursday, 19 September 2024 | New York Movies - Frank Sinatra got upset that a photo of him caught fire in a Brooklyn pizzeria in this film | What is Do the Right Thing? |
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 | The Movies - Hewlett-Packard's first big customer was Walt Disney, who purchased special sound equipment for the making & showing of this film | What is Fantasia? |
Tuesday, 17 September 2024 | Characters in Book Series - This 12-year-old began his first book saying, 'Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.' | Who is Percy Jackson? |
Monday, 16 September 2024 | History - A 1976 report initiated by Admiral Rickover found it was an internal, not external, explosion that caused the destruction of this | What is the USS Maine? |
Friday, 13 September 2024 | British Knights - A Sir since 2018, he contracted TB as a teen in 1953 & spent 8 years in a sanatorium, where he learned to play the drums | Who is Ringo Starr? |
Thursday, 12 September 2024 | Historic Names - In 1824, President Monroe invited him back to the adopted country of his youth, which has always cherished his "important services" | Who Is Marquis de Lafayette? |
Wednesday, 11 September 2024 | World Borders - After Canada & the U.S. these 2 countries share the longest land border at more than 4,700 miles | What are Kazakhstan and Russia? |
Tuesday, 10 September 2024 | Signs & Symbols - Via a diplomatic conference in 2005, a diamond was added to supplement these 2 symbols, thought by some to have religious meaning | What are the Red Cross and Red Crescent?? |
Monday, 9 September 2024 | Famous Women - Before her death in 2022, she pledged her collection of more than 200 pins to the National Museum of American Diplomacy | Who is Madeleine Albright? |
Friday, 6 September 2024 | Bodies of Water - The smallest inland sea in the world, it's completely within the territory of a single country & connects 2 other larger seas | What is the Sea of Marmara? |
Thursday, 5 September 2024 | Mythology - A peasant who became the King of Phrygia created this intricate problem that was solved in 333 B.C. | What is the Gordian Knot? |
Wednesday, 4 September 2024 | U.S. Government - The formation of the Brownell Committee out of concern for U.S. communications intelligence led to the 1952 creation of this body | What is the National Security Agency (NSA)? |
Tuesday, 3 September 2024 | State Capitals - It was named for a nearby river that explorer Gabriel Moraga named for one of a religious grouping of 7 | What is Sacramento, California? |
Monday, 2 September 2024 | Physicists - This man with a force named after him published an 1835 scientific treatise on the physics of billiard balls | Who is Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis? |
Friday, 30 August 2024 | Historic Groups - The Kipchak Khanate is another name for this group that was eventually defeated by Tamerlane in 1395
| What is the Golden Horde? |
Thursday, 29 August 2024 | Novel Title Objects - A girl in a 1950 novel walks into this & "got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them" | What is a wardrobe? |
Wednesday, 28 August 2024 | U.S.S.R.I.P. - Of the 15 countries that emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Uzbekistan is the one that comes last alphabetically. | What is Uzbekistan? |
Tuesday, 27 August 2024 | 20th-Century Books - Time mentioned "cruelty & enforced conformity" when summing up this novel with a "stormly silent narrator" | What is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? |
Monday, 26 August 2024 | Old Words - First appearing in an English dictionary in 1623, "Mesonoxian" means pertaining to this word | What is "midnight"? |
Friday, 23 August 2024 | Elements - In his "Natural History" Pliny described it as "Argentium Vivum" | What is Mercury? |
Thursday, 22 August 2024 | Notorious Figures - Never even a soldier, this man lied that his nickname came from a shrapnel wound while fighting in the Argonne | Who is Al Capone? |
Wednesday, 21 August 2024 | To be confirmed - | To be confirmed |
Tuesday, 20 August 2024 | 20th-Century Novels - Virginia Woolf disliked this book that was “cutting out the explanations and putting in the thoughts between dashes” | What is Ulysses? |
Monday, 19 August 2024 | Trailblazers - The foremost member of the “Sochi Six,” which was similar to a previous U.S. group, he died in a plane crash in 1968 | Who is Yuri Gagarin? |
Friday, 16 August 2024 | The Human Body - The glandular organ that starts to shrink at puberty is known for being where the cells key to adaptive immunity develop | What is the Thymus? |
Thursday, 15 August 2024 | Eurasia - Zvartnots International Airport serves this capital & has the code EVN, all letters found in the city's name | What is Yerevan? |
Wednesday, 14 August 2024 | Historic Americans - Near Kirkbean on Solway Firth, U.S. Vice Admiral Jerauld Wright presented a memorial plaque honoring this man | Who is John Paul Jones? |
Tuesday, 13 August 2024 | The United Nations - Of the nine countries that have produced a U.N. secretary-general, this nation is the only one from it's hemisphere | What is Peru? |
Monday, 12 August 2024 | Books of the Bible - This book is named for a tribe of Israel that carried out judgment of the idolaters of the Golden Calf | What is Leviticus? |
Friday, 9 August 2024 | World Theater - This 1867 play has a reindeer hunt & a king dwelling in snowy mountains but its title character also spends time in Morocco & Egypt | What is Peer Gynt? |
Thursday, 8 August 2024 | Word Origins - A radical in an 1833 failed uprising in Germany, Ludwig Von Rochau coined this term for acts taken for practical reasons not ethics | What is Realpolitik? |
Wednesday, 7 August 2024 | Literature & Religion - This city, now in Turkey, is the addressee of one of the New Testament Epistles & the setting for "The Comedy of Errors" | What is Ephesus? |
Tuesday, 6 August 2024 | Ancient Drama - From the 470s B.C., Aeschylus's earliest surviving work has this title: he'd fought them repeatedly in the preceding years | What is The Persians? |
Monday, 5 August 2024 | American Literary History - "The country is celebrating 100 years of freedom 100 years too soon", says "The Fire Next Time," published in this year | What is 1963? |
Friday, 2 August 2024 | Chemical Elements - Isolated in 1945 during Uranium fission research, it was named for an ancient deity to suggest humans gaining a new power | What is Promethium? |
Thursday, 1 August 2024 | Poets of Ancient Rome - Far from Rome, this first-century poet wrote, "the leader's anger done, grant me the right to die in my native country" | Who is Ovid? |
Wednesday, 31 July 2024 | Countries of the World - Fearful of independence in 1975, around 120,000 of this country's people, a third of the population, fled to the Netherlands | What is Suriname? |
Tuesday, 30 July 2024 | World Travel - The name of this service that began Nov 14 1994 echoes the Etoile du Nord, which linked Paris, Brussels & Amsterdam from 1927 | What is the Eurostar? |
Monday, 29 July 2024 | 1950s Politics - In 1959 Bob Bartlett & Hiram Fong each won a coin flip to gain this alliterative title | What is Senior Senator? |
Friday, 26 July 2024 | Ancient Animals - The first fossils of these creatures with an elongated 4th digit were described in 1784 by Naturalist Cosimo Collini
| What is the Pterosaur? |
Thursday, 25 July 2024 | Famous Women - Adding to her nickname, one legend claimed that earlier in lfie she was saved from drowning by family friend Mark Twain
| What is Margaret (Molly) Brown?
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Wednesday, 24 July 2024 | U.S. Place Names - This name of a Natl. Forest means “fool” & may be one Apache group’s name for another group; it’s also a problematic TV character | What is Tonto National Forest? |
Tuesday, 23 July 2024 | Historic Spots - Known for a fabled event of 1881, it housed an auto repair shop after the disappearance of the horse & buggy
| What is the O.K. Corral? |
Monday, 22 July 2024 | Authors - "Love" is within the title of 3 of his most famous books, a fourth, "The Rainbow", calls love "the flower of life" | Who is D.H. Lawrence? |
Friday, 19 July 2024 | 19th-Century Women - The National Park Service says there are more statues of her, often with her infant son, than any other American woman | Who is Sacagawea? |
Thursday, 18 July 2024 | Show Biz Marriages - Married since 1977, the year of this band's 1st album, two members referenced another album with their 2023 "Remain in Love" tour | Who are Talking Heads? |
Wednesday, 17 July 2024 | Literary Characters - In a 1980 National Book Award winner, we learn this title character gets his name from the rank of his late dad– Technical Sergeant | Who is Garp? |
Tuesday, 16 July 2024 | 1960s People - He said that California prison psychological tests he took were ones he had designed, so he made himself look docile & unlikely to escape; then he did | Who is Timothy Leary? |
Monday, 15 July 2024 | Newer Words - Philosophers use it for language that accompanies an action, like “I dub thee knight”; it also means done for show or signal | What is Performative?
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Friday, 12 July 2024 | Names in Medicine - He got a special presidental citation in 1955, passed away in 1995 & was dubbed "the man who saved the children" | Who is Dr. Jonas Salk? |
Thursday, 11 July 2024 | Countries of the World - Until 1991 this country, named for a river, had a capital whose name means “lakes” in Portuguese | What is Nigeria? |
Wednesday, 10 July 2024 | Famous Americans - In his 1999 memoir he wrote, "I had been shot down a short walk's distance from the French-built prison Hoa Lo" | Who is John McCain? |
Tuesday, 9 July 2024 | Literature - In one story he is enslaved by the old man of the sea & uses apes to pick fruit so he can afford his fare back to Baghdad | Who is Sinbad? |
Monday, 8 July 2024 | Opera - The melody of a traditional piece for the Koto called “Echigo-jishi” is used in Act 1 of this opera
| What is Madama Butterfly?
|
Friday, 5 July 2024 | World Languages - The flag of Aruba features a 4-pointed star symbolizing its 4 major languages; the local Papiamento & these 3 imported ones | What are Dutch, English, and Spanish?
|
Thursday, 4 July 2024 | Tech Talk - In 1992, Jean Polly told new web users to do this & later explained they "need some skill ... never know if there are going to be sharks" | What is Surfing the Internet? |
Wednesday, 3 July 2024 | Historic Women - In the 16th century, she changed the 'ew' in her family name to a 'u' to help her new French in-laws spell it more easily | Who is Mary, Queen of Scots? |
Tuesday, 2 July 2024 | Stage & Movie Characters - Acquitted of shooting her lover in 1924, Beulah Annan was the inspiration for this character in a play, film, and musical | Who is Roxie Hart? |
Monday, 1 July 2024 | German Books - First published in 1812, this anthology included "The Water Nymph" & "The Booted Tom Cat" | What is "Grimm's Fairy Tales"? |
Friday, 28 June 2024 | Notable American Women - In her autobiography she tells of a rather "singular coincidence," that one of her Swiss ancestors was a teacher of the deaf | Who is Helen Keller? |
Thursday, 27 June 2024 | Businessmen - After joining the army at 16, in 1906, for a brief stint, he received a much higher honorary rank from the Gov. of his state 29 years later | Who is Colonel Harland Sanders? |
Wednesday, 26 June 2024 | Literature - The British library says of this 19th-C. man, "one of his most famous poems... is a warning about the arrogance of great leaders" | Who is Percy Bysshe Shelley? |
Tuesday, 25 June 2024 | National Monuments - From its ramparts, you can see the mouth of the Patapsco River as it flows into Chesapeake Bay | What is Fort McHenry? |
Monday, 24 June 2024 | Names in the Heavens - When this body was discovered in 1978, Persephone was suggested as its name | What is Charon? |
Friday, 21 June 2024 | Sports - 50 years ago, Vin Scully announced he got ‘a standing ovation in the deep south’ for breaking a record of an all-time sports idol | Who is Hank Aaron? |
Thursday, 20 June 2024 | Author Wives - When asked if she was the inspiration for the wife in a 1922 novel, this woman replied "No, she was much fatter" | Who is Zelda Fitzgerald? |
Wednesday, 19 June 2024 | Brands - In 1978, a new cologne for men came out called this, what's being played in the company''s iconic logo | What is Polo? |
Tuesday, 18 June 2024 | Geographic Name's Almost the Same - Legend says in 1876 a dragon built for the "Ring" cycle had its neck sent to this mideast capital, not the right German city | What is Beirut, Lebanon? |
Monday, 17 June 2024 | 2 Last Names, Same First Letter - Born 344 years apart, they are the 2 real people mentioned by name in the titles of 1990s Best Picture Oscar winners | Who are Schindler & Shakespeare? |
Friday, 14 June 2024 | 1960s America - Helping draft an executive order in 1961, Hobart Taylor Jr. almost used the word "positive", but instead chose this alliterative phrase | What is Affirmative Action? |
Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 1960s British Novels - The author of this novel said of the last chapter left off U.S. editions, ‘my young thuggish protagonist grows up | What is A Clockwork Orange?
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Wednesday, 12 June 2024 | Famous Names - Vying with Eiffel, this engineer wanted to create big, an admiring account said the Obelisk of Luxor is too short to be a spoke | Who is George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.? |
Tuesday, 11 June 2024 | U.S. Geography - Of the 10 U.S. States with 2-word names, this one stretches the farthest south | What is New Mexico? |
Monday, 10 June 2024 | New York Times Book Reviews - In 1958 a review of this book now considered a classic called it repulsive, disgusting & "highbrow pornography" | What is Lolita? |
Friday, 7 June 2024 | World Leaders - During a 1972 presidental visit, Richard Nixon discussed a poem by this leader called “Ode to the Plum Blossom” | Who is Mao Zedong? |
Thursday, 6 June 2024 | U.S. History - Challenged in a courtroom that same year, 1925's Butler Act in Tennessee outlawed this activity and wasn't repealed until 1967 | What is the teaching of evolution? |
Wednesday, 5 June 2024 | To be confirmed - This city owes much of its early history to a temple dedicated to Sulis Minerva and a 'sacred spring' found there | What is Bath? |
Tuesday, 4 June 2024 | Fictional Characters - This character in a series of popular books begun in 1934 promises, “I’ll stay till the wind changes” | Who is Mary Poppins? |
Monday, 3 June 2024 | Colleges - Of the Seven Sisters colleges, this one located in a place of the same name is the farthest south | What is Bryn Mawr College? |
Friday, 31 May 2024 | Historic People - An island near Cebu city has a statue of Lapulapu & a monument to this man that Lapulapu is said to have killed in 1521 | Who is Ferdinand Magellan? |
Thursday, 30 May 2024 | American Banking - Around 1930 a bank named for this N.Y.C. area known as a slum was the U.S.A’s largest savings bank by total deposits | What is the Bowery?
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Wednesday, 29 May 2024 | Historic Geography - The city attracted thousands of visitors even before a new shrine was dedicated there on July 7, 1220 | What is Canterbury? |
Tuesday, 28 May 2024 | European Scientists - On the 2022 bicentennial of his birth, the body of this man was exhumed & DNA used to determine his genetic afflictions | Who is Gregor Mendel? |
Monday, 27 May 2024 | Female Singers - In December 2023, she became the oldest solo artist, at 78, to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with a song she recorded in 1958 | Who is Brenda Lee? |
Friday, 24 May 2024 | Literature - Preserved in a single manuscript called Cotton MS Vitellus A XV, this epic begins with the word "Hwaet" often translated as listen | What is Beowulf? |
Thursday, 23 May 2024 | Artwork - Rembrandt's only seascape is set here, where the main figure once said, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" | What is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee? |
Wednesday, 22 May 2024 | Countries’ Languages - About 70% of its people can speak Portuguese, about 20% can speak Umbundu, 8% Kikongo & 8% Kimbundu | What is Angola?
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Tuesday, 21 May 2024 | The Movies - Louise & Lisa Burns, twins featured in this 1980 film, told a magazine, "we're naturally spooky!" | What is The Shining? |
Monday, 20 May 2024 | The Theater - Of the 14 roles in a production of this play that opened on Broadway on Oct. 28, 2004, none were played by females | What is Twelve Angry Men? |
Friday, 17 May 2024 | Book & Movie Title References - The title of this 2001 book, also a 2003 film, formed a partial border between Boston, Chelsea, Medford, & Everett | What is Mystic River? |
Thursday, 16 May 2024 | The Early 20th Century - Before entering history, this man visited the grave of Bogdan Zerajic, who had died just a few years earlier | Who is Gavrilo Princip?
|
Wednesday, 15 May 2024 | 19th Century Literary Characters - John Elwes, a millionaire member of parliament who would go to bed before dusk to save on candles, inspired this character | Who is Ebenezer Scrooge?
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Tuesday, 14 May 2024 | Business Logos - Early 1900s labels for this beverage brand featured a beaver sitting on a log at the top of a map | What is Canada Dry? |
Monday, 13 May 2024 | Cinema History - Films made outside the U.S. in the '50s like 'Three Coins in the Fountain' and 'Quo Vadis' led to an era dubbed 'Hollywood on' this river | What is the Tiber? |
Friday, 10 May 2024 | 20th Century Books - A review said this 1966 book about real events "will cause a good deal of myopic squabbling about just what a novel is" | What is "In Cold Blood"? |
Thursday, 9 May 2024 | 1980s Fads - A Nov. 29, 1983 N.Y. Times article about these used “near-riot”, “adoptable”, “waiting for 8 hours” & “my life (is) in danger | What are Cabbage Patch Kids? |
Wednesday, 8 May 2024 | Rhyme Time: Opera Version - Telling the story of a duke, a jester & the jester's daughter, it was written by poet Francesco Maria Piave | What is the Rigoletto Libretto? |
Tuesday, 7 May 2024 | Famous Characters - She's introduced in an 1845 novella in which she wears a short skirt with her Mantilla thrown back to show her shoulders | Who is Carmen? |
Monday, 6 May 2024 | Historic Groups - Like their uniform, the flag of this group created in 1506 has stripes of red, blue & yellow, the colors of the Medici family | What is the Swiss Guard? |
Friday, 3 May 2024 | 1990s No. 1 Songs - This title character of the top song from 1996 can't stand her boyfriend Vitorino & spurns him to be with his 2 friends | Who is Macarena? |
Thursday, 2 May 2024 | Countries with Space Programs - It launched its first satellite, Asterix, in 1965 | What is France? |
Wednesday, 1 May 2024 | Executive Orders - On Nov. 15, 1961, JFK suspended the 8-hour workday at this agency, saying its work needed to proceed "with all possible speed" | What is NASA? |
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 | Fictional Groups - Maybe because he was too baroque, Bernini was rejected as a name for a member of this group created in 1983 | Who are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? |
Monday, 29 April 2024 | Nicknames - Surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku has been called by this 2-word nickname that describes any dominant person or expert | What is "Big Kahuna"? |
Friday, 26 April 2024 | U.S. Geography - At 14,410', it's one of North America's highest volcanoes; a Puyallup name for it can be translated to "bring the water" | What is Mount Rainier? |
Thursday, 25 April 2024 | Statues - The 42-foot high statue of Athena in this state capital is the tallest indoor statue in the United States | What is Nashville, Tennessee? |
Wednesday, 24 April 2024 | Historic Transports - Decorated with an illustration of the Montgolfiers' craft, the smoking room abroad this could be accessed only via an airlock | What is the Hindenburg? |
Tuesday, 23 April 2024 | Business - In the 1850s the .925 Sterling Silver Standard was instituted by this company, the first American one to do so | What is Tiffany & Co.? |
Monday, 22 April 2024 | 20th Century Authors - Best known for a novel, she wrote at least 6 full-length plays & collaborated with Moms Mabley on a 1931 broadway revue | Who is Zora Neale Hurston? |
Friday, 19 April 2024 | Comic Book Characters - Featured in a 2020 film, she gets her name from a 16th C. Italian stock character who often wore diamond-patterned outfits | Who is Harley Quinn? |
Thursday, 18 April 2024 | Alphabetical America - Until Alabama became the 22nd state, this one was first alphabetically | What is Connecticut? |
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 | Organizations - The press called the donations received after this org.'s 1938 founding "a silver tide which actually swamped the white house" | What is the March of Dimes? |
Tuesday, 16 April 2024 | Words & Their Meanings - Churchill gave a word a new meaning when he called for a "talk with Soviet Russia upon the highest level... a parley at" this | What is "summit"? |
Monday, 15 April 2024 | Great Brits - From 1689 to 1690 & 1701 to 1702, he served as a member of parliament representing the constituency of Cambridge University | Who is Isaac Newton? |
Friday, 12 April 2024 | Authors' Afterlives - After his death his son Michel reworked & published manuscripts like one about a meteor made of gold heading for earth | Who is Jules Verne? |
Thursday, 11 April 2024 | Space Shuttles - 2 space shuttles were named for crafts commanded by this man who died far from home in 1779 | Who is Captain James Cook? |
Wednesday, 10 April 2024 | Animated Film Characters - In this 2017 film Dante is a hairless breed known as a Xolo dog | What is Coco? |
Tuesday, 9 April 2024 | Bodies of Water - The smallest inland sea in the world, it's completely within the territory of a single country & connects 2 other larger seas | What is the Sea of Marmara? |
Monday, 8 April 2024 | Mythology - A peasant who became the King of Phrygia created this intricate problem that was solved in 333 B.C. | What is the Gordian Knot? |
Friday, 5 April 2024 | U.S. Government - The formation of the Brownell Committee out of concern for U.S. communications intelligence led to the 1952 creation of this body | What is the National Security Agency (NSA)? |
Thursday, 4 April 2024 | State Capitals - It was named for a nearby river that explorer Gabriel Moraga named for one of a religious grouping of 7 | What is Sacramento, California? |
Wednesday, 3 April 2024 | Physicists - This man with a force named after him published an 1835 scientific treatise on the physics of billiard balls | Who is Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis? |
Tuesday, 2 April 2024 | Historic Groups - The Kipchak Khanate is another name for this group that was eventually defeated by Tamerlane in 1395
| What is the Golden Horde? |
Monday, 1 April 2024 | Novel Title Objects - A girl in a 1950 novel walks into this & "got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them" | What is a wardrobe? |
Friday, 29 March 2024 | U.S.S.R.I.P. - Of the 15 countries that emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Uzbekistan is the one that comes last alphabetically. | What is Uzbekistan? |
Thursday, 28 March 2024 | 20th-Century Books - Time mentioned "cruelty & enforced conformity" when summing up this novel with a "stormly silent narrator" | What is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? |
Wednesday, 27 March 2024 | Old Words - First appearing in an English dictionary in 1623, "Mesonoxian" means pertaining to this word | What is "midnight"? |
Tuesday, 26 March 2024 | Elements - In his "Natural History" Pliny described it as "Argentium Vivum" | What is Mercury? |
Monday, 25 March 2024 | Notorious Figures - Never even a soldier, this man lied that his nickname came from a shrapnel wound while fighting in the Argonne | Who is Al Capone? |
Friday, 22 March 2024 | To be confirmed - | To be confirmed |
Thursday, 21 March 2024 | 20th-Century Novels - Virginia Woolf disliked this book that was “cutting out the explanations and putting in the thoughts between dashes” | What is Ulysses? |
Wednesday, 20 March 2024 | Trailblazers - The foremost member of the “Sochi Six,” which was similar to a previous U.S. group, he died in a plane crash in 1968 | Who is Yuri Gagarin? |
Tuesday, 19 March 2024 | The Human Body - The glandular organ that starts to shrink at puberty is known for being where the cells key to adaptive immunity develop | What is the Thymus? |
Monday, 18 March 2024 | Eurasia - Zvartnots International Airport serves this capital & has the code EVN, all letters found in the city's name | What is Yerevan? |
Friday, 15 March 2024 | Historic Americans - Near Kirkbean on Solway Firth, U.S. Vice Admiral Jerauld Wright presented a memorial plaque honoring this man | Who is John Paul Jones? |
Thursday, 14 March 2024 | The United Nations - Of the nine countries that have produced a U.N. secretary-general, this nation is the only one from it's hemisphere | What is Peru? |
Wednesday, 13 March 2024 | Books of the Bible - This book is named for a tribe of Israel that carried out judgment of the idolaters of the Golden Calf | What is Leviticus? |
Tuesday, 12 March 2024 | World Theater - This 1867 play has a reindeer hunt & a king dwelling in snowy mountains but its title character also spends time in Morocco & Egypt | What is Peer Gynt? |
Monday, 11 March 2024 | Word Origins - A radical in an 1833 failed uprising in Germany, Ludwig Von Rochau coined this term for acts taken for practical reasons not ethics | What is Realpolitik? |
Friday, 8 March 2024 | Literature & Religion - This city, now in Turkey, is the addressee of one of the New Testament Epistles & the setting for "The Comedy of Errors" | What is Ephesus? |
Thursday, 7 March 2024 | Ancient Drama - From the 470s B.C., Aeschylus's earliest surviving work has this title: he'd fought them repeatedly in the preceding years | What is The Persians? |
Wednesday, 6 March 2024 | American Literary History - "The country is celebrating 100 years of freedom 100 years too soon", says "The Fire Next Time," published in this year | What is 1963? |
Tuesday, 5 March 2024 | Chemical Elements - Isolated in 1945 during Uranium fission research, it was named for an ancient deity to suggest humans gaining a new power | What is Promethium? |
Monday, 4 March 2024 | Poets of Ancient Rome - Far from Rome, this first-century poet wrote, "the leader's anger done, grant me the right to die in my native country" | Who is Ovid? |
Friday, 1 March 2024 | Countries of the World - Fearful of independence in 1975, around 120,000 of this country's people, a third of the population, fled to the Netherlands | What is Suriname? |
Thursday, 29 February 2024 | World Travel - The name of this service that began Nov 14 1994 echoes the Etoile du Nord, which linked Paris, Brussels & Amsterdam from 1927 | What is the Eurostar? |
Wednesday, 28 February 2024 | 1950s Politics - In 1959 Bob Bartlett & Hiram Fong each won a coin flip to gain this alliterative title | What is Senior Senator? |
Tuesday, 27 February 2024 | Military History - A prototype of this craft was deployed in August 1955; it made headlines in May 1960 | What is the U-2? |
Monday, 26 February 2024 | Art History - The Royal Academy of Arts has this man’s “La Fornarina” & in the 1800s the RAA’s love of him made some artists retreat to an earlier style | Who is Raphael? |
Friday, 23 February 2024 | French Authors - Trained as a priest & a physician, in 1532 he published his first novel under the pen name Alcofribas Nasier | Who is François Rabelais? |
Thursday, 22 February 2024 | On Vacation in Italy - About 30 miles from Florence, a little hill gives this tiny Tuscan town its name, familiar to American visitors | What is Monticello? |
Wednesday, 21 February 2024 | 19th-Century Americans - In 1896, 15 years after a famous showdown, this man was accused of fixing a championship boxing match | Who is Wyatt Earp? |
Tuesday, 20 February 2024 | Presidential Elections - He's the most recent presidential candidate to have officially declared his opponent in that campaign the victor | Who is Al Gore? |
Monday, 19 February 2024 | Canadian Medicine - Nova Scotian William Knapp Buckley devised a widely used antitussive, meaning a drug used against this | What is coughing? |
Friday, 16 February 2024 | Theater - A 1955 play review noted "restless delta folk" & "lives as uncomfortable & insecure as the proverbial" this title | What is "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"? |
Thursday, 15 February 2024 | Landmarks - The distance between its 2 legs at ground level is 630 feet, making it as wide as it is tall | What is the Gateway Arch? |
Wednesday, 14 February 2024 | Broadway Plays - Rita Moreno & Sally Struthers were the first to star in the female version of this comedy, their characters becoming Olive & Florence | What is "The Odd Couple"? |
Tuesday, 13 February 2024 | Southern Politicians - An article written after his 1935 death asked, "will some crown prince arise to take his place?" | Who is Huey Long? |
Monday, 12 February 2024 | U.S. Stamps - This Roman numeral appeared on stamps in a 2022 series for the 50th anniversary of an antidiscrimination law | What is IX? |
Friday, 9 February 2024 | Novel Characters - It's this character who's spoken of in the line "Reader, I forgave him at the moment & on the spot" | Who is Edward Rochester? |
Thursday, 8 February 2024 | Country Music - "It was kind of a prodding to myself to play it straight," said Johnny Cash of this 1956 hit | What is "I Walk the Line"? |
Wednesday, 7 February 2024 | Wonders of the Ancient World - Achilles Tatius wrote that it "was like a mountain ... at the top of this mountain rose a second sun" | What is The Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos)? |
Tuesday, 6 February 2024 | Literary Characters - A 1902 work says an enigmatic character has a half-English mom & a half-French dad, but this name of his is German for "short" | Who is Mr. Kurtz? |
Monday, 5 February 2024 | World Flags - The flag of this Asian nation features part of a world heritage site built in the 12th century | What is Cambodia? |
Friday, 2 February 2024 | Army Technology - Bearing the name of a man who died in Iowa in 1838, these began service in 1979 & today number in the thousands | Who are Black Hawk Helicopters? |
Thursday, 1 February 2024 | Geography - The first city in Australia with a municipal government, this state capital bears the name of a queen | What is Adelaide? |
Wednesday, 31 January 2024 | American Musicians - Also an author, this singer who had 5 top 40 hits in the 1970s was called the "pirate laureate" | Who is Jimmy Buffett? |
Tuesday, 30 January 2024 | Names in History - The scientific name of Jamaica's Ackee fruit honors this captain who brought it to England in 1793 | Who is William Bligh? |
Monday, 29 January 2024 | Historical Fiction - Stan Lee said the alias-using title character of this novel set during the French Revolution “was the 1st Super-hero I…read about” | What is The Scarlet Pimpernel? |
Friday, 26 January 2024 | Leading Ladies: Next in Line - Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Her | Who is Lady Gaga? |
Thursday, 25 January 2024 | Classic Literature - An intended sequel to this 1859 work centered on the Decembrists, a group of veterans who largely served in the Napoleonic wars | What is War and Peace? |
Wednesday, 24 January 2024 | 1980s Movie Characters - Oliver Stone, screenwriter of this 1983 movie, named its main character to honor the Super Bowl-winning QB from 1982 | What is Scarface? |
Tuesday, 23 January 2024 | U.S. Business Founders - A 1934 note to him "received hunting clothes... and thank you for those wonderful shoes they fit perfect... your friend Babe Ruth" | Who is Leon Leonwood Bean? |
Monday, 22 January 2024 | Presidents & Vice Presidents - The first Vice President & the first President not born in one of the original 13 states were both born in this state | What is Kentucky? |
Friday, 19 January 2024 | American Artists - In the 1920s he used wire, string & other materials to fabricate "models in motion" for a minature circus scene | Who is Alexander Calder? |
Thursday, 18 January 2024 | 20th-Century History - After the Vietnam war, Vietnam got bogged down in a campaign against this leader whom it managed to overthrow in 1979 | Who is Pol Pot? |
Wednesday, 17 January 2024 | 19th-Century America - An 1884 article calls this newly completed structure "the highest work of man" & disagrees with those who call it "a great chimney" | What is Washington Monument? |
Tuesday, 16 January 2024 | New Nations - In Sept. 2023 the U.S. recognized 2 new nations in free association with New Zealand - Niue & this archipelago | What is the Cook Islands? |
Monday, 15 January 2024 | On the Stage - Paul Robeson said that even as this character "kills, his honor is at stake... the honor of his whole culture is involved" | What is Othello? |
Friday, 12 January 2024 | Rivers - A European capital got its name as a consequence of flooding on this river | What is the Amstel River? |
Thursday, 11 January 2024 | Brand Names - The name of this food brand that was introduced in 1964 was influenced by an art movement of that time | What are Pop Tarts? |
Wednesday, 10 January 2024 | Space - Since it has caused spacecraft to malfunction, a region called the South Atlantic anomaly is known as this area "of space" | What is the Bermuda Triangle? |
Tuesday, 9 January 2024 | The Ancient World - This text helped the soul, or Ka, navigate a journey into a region called Amenti | What is the Book of the Dead? |
Monday, 8 January 2024 | State Capitals - Of the 2 closest state capitals, at about 40 miles apart, one was founded by someone no longer allowed in the other | What are Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island? |
Friday, 5 January 2024 | Children's Books - A 2020 edition of this beloved 1911 novel came with a glossary of horticultural terms & a location guide | What is The Secret Garden? |
Thursday, 4 January 2024 | Historic Americans - They went their separate ways in 1806 & both became territorial governors: one of upper Louisiana, the other of Missouri | Who are Meriwether Lewis and William Clark? |
Wednesday, 3 January 2024 | From the French - W/ murder, shadows, a nosy reporter and Peter Lorre, 1940's "Stranger on the Third Floor" is the first example of this, some say | What is Film Noir? |
Tuesday, 2 January 2024 | Landmarks - During Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to Los Angeles, pranksters covered up this letter in a local landmark | What is "L" in the Hollywood sign? |
Monday, 1 January 2024 | Landmarks - 213 feet wide, this late 18th c. European structure has 5 portals, the middle of which was–at first–for royals only | What is the Brandenburg Gate? |
Friday, 29 December 2023 | Famous Names - In 2023, shortly after his death, his name was added to a Brazilian dictionary to describe one who's superior or out of the ordinary | Who is Pelé? |
Thursday, 28 December 2023 | Those Zany Ancient Romans - In the 20s B.C, the emperor's sister Octavia had a sitcom-worthy home including the boy & girl twin children of this man & woman | Who are Mark Antony and Cleopatra? |
Wednesday, 27 December 2023 | Americana - After "Black Monday" in 1987, sculptor Arturo di Modica put a statue of one of these in Manhattan to symbolize strength & power | What is a bull? |
Tuesday, 26 December 2023 | Book Characters - Early on in a 1966 novel, this title character beats the protagonist in maze races; later on he bites him | What is Algernon? |
Monday, 25 December 2023 | Famous Names in America - The name of this animal that died in 1885 after being struck by a train that subsequently derailed lives on as an adjective
| What is Jumbo? |
Friday, 22 December 2023 | The 20th Century - On July 19, 1940, Hitler called this man a warmonger & wrongly predicted he would flee to Canada | Who is Winston Churchill? |
Thursday, 21 December 2023 | From Page to Stage - The opera based on this 1993 memoir was staged at a prison for the first time in 2023 at Sing Sing with a chorus of 14 inmates | What is Dead Man Walking? |
Wednesday, 20 December 2023 | Countries - Of the 14 countries that border China, it's the only monarchy & the only one with a population under 1 million | What is Bhutan? |
Tuesday, 19 December 2023 | Inventions - Invented in 1816, it takes its name from Greek for "Chest" & "Observe" | What is the Stethoscope? |
Monday, 18 December 2023 | National Monuments - Designated in 2016, a New York City monument named for this place of business includes nearby Christopher Park | What is the Stonewall Inn? |
Friday, 15 December 2023 | The Wild West - In 1888's "Ranch Life & the Hunting-Trail" Teddy Roosevelt wrote his 2 ranch hands were "able to travel" like this animal | What is a bull moose? |
Thursday, 14 December 2023 | Business - Of the big 4 U.S. airlines, the 4 that each have over 15% of the domestic market, it's the youngest | What is Southwest Airlines? |
Wednesday, 13 December 2023 | Movie Musicals - Of the musicals to win an Oscar for Best Picture, 1 of the 2 with one-word titles based on & named for literary characters | What is Gigi or Oliver!? |
Tuesday, 12 December 2023 | American Literature - Chapter 100 of this novel introduces the one-armed Captain Boomer of the Samuel Enderby
| Who is Moby-Dick? |
Monday, 11 December 2023 | 20th-Century Literature - Thomas Pynchon wrote that this novelist "in 1948 understood that despite the axis defeat... fascism had not gone away" | Who is George Orwell? |
Friday, 8 December 2023 | Ancient History - Before visiting Achilles' tomb, this man threw his spear onto the ground in Asia & declared the continent "Spear-won" | Who is Alexander the Great? |
Thursday, 7 December 2023 | Languages - Since it can make someone "Japanese laugh as heartily as a Dane," Lillian Gish saw film as an aesthetic this, the name of a language | What is Esperanto? |
Wednesday, 6 December 2023 | Famous Names - Subject of a 2003 film, his 1947 obituary said he fathered at least 100 & died of a heart attack at 14, at a California ranch | Who is Seabiscuit? |
Tuesday, 5 December 2023 | 2020s Television - The title locale of this series is really the Belnord, dating to 1908 & located at 86th & Broadway on N.Y.C.'s upper west side | What is Only Murders in the Building? |
Monday, 4 December 2023 | 20th-Century Novels - The Atlanta History Center says this novel was "both beloved & condemned from almost the moment of its publication" in 1936 | What is Gone With the Wind? |
Friday, 1 December 2023 | Bodies of Water - The Goshute, a Western people, called this vast body of water Teittse Paa meaning "bad water" | What is Great Salt Lake? |
Thursday, 30 November 2023 | American History - Established in 1963, this group had its conclusions questioned in books, reports & a special 1970s congressional committee | What is the Warren Commission? |
Wednesday, 29 November 2023 | A Bit of Britain - In disarray, it was sold at auction in 1915 to a local Wiltshire man, who would donate it to the British Govt. 3 years later | What is Stonehenge? |
Tuesday, 28 November 2023 | Literary Geography - This state univ.'s writers' workshop has had famous alumni who wrote about the state, like Jane Smiley & W.P. Kinsella | What is the University of Iowa? |
Monday, 27 November 2023 | British Cities - Over the motto "Fortis Est Veritas," the coat of arms of this city features a beast of burden crossing over some water | What is Oxford? |
Friday, 24 November 2023 | Business - This company announced, "on September 29th, 2023, we will send out the last red envelope" | What is Netflix? |
Thursday, 23 November 2023 | Science Etymology - First detected in the sun’s atmosphere in 1868, it got its name from an old word for sun | What is Helium? |
Wednesday, 22 November 2023 | Musicians - An Esquire profile said, "the most distinguishing thing" about the face of this singer "are his eyes clear blue & alert" | Who is Frank Sinatra? |
Tuesday, 21 November 2023 | Television - This series grew out of a screenplay titled "Murdoch" | What is Succession? |
Monday, 20 November 2023 | U.S. Presidents - 7 U.S. Presidents were born in the state of Ohio, beginning with this man who entered West Point in 1839 | Wgo is Ulysses S. Grant? |
Friday, 17 November 2023 | Literary Characters - In his first appearance in 1902, he was described as "betwixt-and-between" a boy & a bird | Who is Peter Pan? |
Thursday, 16 November 2023 | Poets - 1793 reports of the killing of Hector Munro by a wild animal in India may have inspired one of this man's best-known poems | Who is William Blake? |
Wednesday, 15 November 2023 | Washington, D.C. - It was proposed in Congress in 1926 in honor of a big 150th anniversary; it was opened 17 years later | What is the Jefferson Memorial? |
Tuesday, 14 November 2023 | Historic Objects - The inscription on this, made in 1753, concludes, "unto all the inhabitants thereof" | What is the Liberty Bell? |
Monday, 13 November 2023 | Iconic Brands - In 1916 it began packaging its flagship product in a variety of glass called Georgia Green | What is Coca-Cola? |
Friday, 10 November 2023 | The Catholic Church - The 1456 posthumous annulment of this woman's sentence by the church was witnessed by her mother, Isabelle | What is Joan of Arc? |
Thursday, 9 November 2023 | American Authors - In 1950 the Swedish academy said this Nobel Prize winner "is a regional writer" but called "his regionalism universal" | Who is William Faulkner? |
Wednesday, 8 November 2023 | Explorers - Perhaps inspiring a line 2 centuries later, in 1774 he wrote that he was headed "farther than any other man has been before me" | Who is James Cook? |
Tuesday, 7 November 2023 | World History - This African Capital renamed an area Mexico Square to honor Mexico's WWII-era support of its sovereignty during Italian occupation | What is Addis Ababa? |
Monday, 6 November 2023 | Music & Literature - John Steinbeck called this "one of the great songs of the world" & wanted the music & lyrics printed in one of his novels | What is The Battle Hymn of the Republic? |
Friday, 3 November 2023 | British History - At Leicester Cathedral in March 2015, the Archbishop of Canterbury led a religious ceremony for this deceased English monarch | Who is Richard III? |
Thursday, 2 November 2023 | Ancient Geography - Britain became an island less than 10,000 years ago, as warming weather & melting ice filled in this sea | What is the North Sea? |
Wednesday, 1 November 2023 | 21st-Century Presidental Elections - It was the first election since 1952 in which neither the incumbent president nor the incumbent vice president was a candidate | What is 2008? |
Tuesday, 31 October 2023 | Name's the Same - This first name is shared by a character introduced in 1941 & a member of royalty who is sixth in line to the British throne | What is Archie? |
Monday, 30 October 2023 | Driving the U.S.A. - It's the state with the most miles of interstate highway, more than 3,200; one interstate accounts for 1/4 of that mileage | What is Texas? |
Friday, 27 October 2023 | Famous Americans - On March 23, 1779 he became the first U.S. diplomat to serve overseas by presenting his credentials to a foreign government | What is Benjamin Franklin? |
Thursday, 26 October 2023 | Famous Families - In 2020 a former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, the last of 9 siblings in this dynastic family, died at 92 | Who is the Kennedy Family? |
Wednesday, 25 October 2023 | Historic Letters - A letter from him begins, “on the thirty-third day after I had left Cadiz, I reached the Indian Ocean” | Who is Christopher Columbus? |
Tuesday, 24 October 2023 | Awards & Honors - As of 2023 the only 2 to win a Nobel Prize in Literature & an Academy Award were George Bernard Shaw & this singer-songwriter | Who is Bob Dylan? |
Monday, 23 October 2023 | Music Men - Before creating this record label in 1959, its founder worked on a Lincoln-Mercury assembly line | What is Motown? |
Friday, 20 October 2023 | Languages of Asia - Meaning "palace," this word in the name of a UNESCO world heritage site follows Jal & Lal in the names of other historic structures | What is Mahal? |
Thursday, 19 October 2023 | Names - The name Jennifer is an alteration of this name that in early Welsh literature belonged to the "first lady of the island" | What is Guinevere? |
Wednesday, 18 October 2023 | Natural Landmarks - The Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition happened upon it in 1870 & named it for the regularity of its activity | What is Old Faithful? |
Tuesday, 17 October 2023 | Military History - A 1918 article titled "Do not shoot at" these said hunters were interfering with the U.S. signal corps' training of them | What are Pigeons? |
Monday, 16 October 2023 | The Nobel Prize in Physics - Barry Barish, who shared the 2017 prize for detecting gravitational waves, called his award “a win for” this predecessor | Who is Albert Einstein? |
Friday, 13 October 2023 | Royalty - Before his death in 2005, he said he was "probably the last head of state to be able to recognize all his compatriots in the street" | Who is Prince Rainier III of Monaco? |
Thursday, 12 October 2023 | Word Origins - Though it meant “seasickness” in Latin, this 6-letter word now refers to a more general feeling of sickness | What is Nausea? |
Wednesday, 11 October 2023 | Fine Art - An early owner of this 1889 painting full of blue & green noted how well the artist "understood the exquisite nature of flowers!" | Who is Vincent van Gogh? |
Tuesday, 10 October 2023 | New Zealand - Christchurch is the largest city in this New Zealand region that shares its name with an English city known for a church begun in the 6th century | What is Canterbury? |
Monday, 9 October 2023 | Women Authors - In "A room of one's own" the "four famous names" are Austen, 2 Brontes & this author who died closest to Virginia Woolf's own time | Who is George Eliot? |
Friday, 6 October 2023 | Composers - He was given piano lessons by Madame Maute de Fleurville, the mother-in-law of Paul Verlane, whose poetry he would later set to music | Who is Claude Debussy? |
Thursday, 5 October 2023 | American Immigrants - In this nation of 360,000 people, you can walk along the boundaries of the Eurasian & North American Tectonic Plates | What is Iceland? |
Wednesday, 4 October 2023 | American Immigrants - His 1895 will stipulated that “all the sums herein before specified for prizes shall be used for prizes only” | Who is Joseph Pulitzer? |
Tuesday, 3 October 2023 | The 1500s - In the early 1500s he produced a codex in words & pictures on the flight of birds, one of many subjects that interested him | Who is Leonardo da Vinci? |
Monday, 2 October 2023 | Presidential Proclamations - Both issued in April 80 years apart, the first proclamations by these 2 presidents each declared national days of mourning | Who is Andrew Johnson and Harry S. Truman? |
Friday, 29 September 2023 | U.S. Senate History - In 1805, after 4 years presiding over the senate, he left the chamber, calling it "A Sanctuary; A Citadel of Law, Of Order" | Who is Aaron Burr? |
Thursday, 28 September 2023 | Symphonies - Debuting at Carnegie Hall in 1893, it was written by a European living in New York & partly inspired by "The Song of Hiawatha" | What is the New World Symphony? |
Wednesday, 27 September 2023 | Mythology - Chrysomallus was the name of the creature that was the source of this sought-after item, Yellus Aureum in Latin | What is the Golden Fleece? |
Tuesday, 26 September 2023 | Publications - A collection of achievements bearing this name was established in the early 1950s to help resolve pub disputes | What is the Guinness Book of Records? |
Monday, 25 September 2023 | James Watson and Francis Crick - A 1953 article by this pair says, "The specific pairing we have postulated ... suggests a ... copying mechanism for the genetic material" | Who is James Watson and Francis Crick? |
Friday, 22 September 2023 | Composers - A fireworks display followed the April 27, 1749, premiere of a work by this man that had been commissioned by George II | Who is George Frideric Handel? |
Thursday, 21 September 2023 | First Names in Science - First name of the paleontologist who in 1990 noticed some large vertebrae jutting from an eroding bluff in South Dakota | Who is Sue? |
Wednesday, 20 September 2023 | 20th-Century People - In 2022 the Dept. of Energy noted “a flawed process” & vacated a 1954 commission’s decision “in the matter of” this man | Who is J. Robert Oppenheimer? |
Tuesday, 19 September 2023 | Historic Geography - Of Spain’s colonial possessions in the America’s, this 3,400-square-mile one in the Antilles never gained independence, but did change hands | What is Puerto Rico? |
Monday, 18 September 2023 | Authors - He dedicated books to each of his four wives, including Hadley Richardson & Martha Gellhorn | Who is Ernest Hemingway? |
Friday, 15 September 2023 | Astronomy - The only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system, it's named for an ancient deity of planting & harvests | What is Ceres? |
Thursday, 14 September 2023 | World Capitals - In English, name of one of the two four-letter Capitals with the same N. & one in the S. hemisphere | What is Oslo or Apia? |
Wednesday, 13 September 2023 | Artists - On Oct. 26 1886, he said "The dream of my life is accomplished... I see the symbol of unity & friendship between 2 nations" | Who is Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi? |
Tuesday, 12 September 2023 | Mythological Places - "Paradise Lost" says it's "abhorred" & "the flood of deadly hate" & in Dante's "Inferno" it's fed by a "gloomy brook" | What is the River Styx? |
Monday, 11 September 2023 | British Monarchs - The most recent British Monarch not to succeed a parent or a sibling was this ruler who succeeded an uncle | Who is Queen Victoria? |
Friday, 8 September 2023 | Before They Were Authors - While working for British intelligence during World War II, he was codenamed 17F | Who is Ian Fleming? |
Thursday, 7 September 2023 | Famous Names - Perhaps the most famous picture of him was taken in New Jersey in 1951 as he was annoyed by paparazzi on his 72nd birthday | Who is Albert Einstein? |
Wednesday, 6 September 2023 | The British Royal Family - Prince Philip’s titles included Baron Greenwich & Duke of Edinburgh, but not Prince Consort, last used by this royal | Who is Prince Albert? |
Tuesday, 5 September 2023 | 19th Century Novels - “This bell was named Marie…alone in the southern tower, with her sister Jacqueline, a bell of lesser size”, says this novel | What is The Hunchback of Notre-Dame? |
Monday, 4 September 2023 | Plays - The January 12, 1864 Washington Evening Star Reported on a Performance of This “Dashing Comedy” to “A Full and Delighted House” | What is Our American Cousin? |
Friday, 1 September 2023 (repeat) | English Cities - William the Conqueror’s Son Built a Fortress on a Key Northern River in 1080, Giving This City Its Name | What is Newcastle upon Tyne? |
Thursday, 31 August 2023 (repeat) | Movies & Literature - Ridley Scott’s First Feature Film, “The Duellists”, Was Based on a Story by This Author to Whom Scott’s Film “Alien” Also Pays Tribute | Who is Joseph Conrad? |
Wednesday, 30 August 2023 (repeat) | The New Testament - Paul’s Letter to Them Is the New Testament Epistle With the Most Old Testament Quotations | Who are the Hebrews? |
Tuesday, 29 August 2023 (repeat) | Name’s the Same - Name Shared by a Victorian Novelist & an 1805 Flagship Captain Whose Name Is Heard in a Famous Phrase | Who is Thomas Hardy?
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Monday, 28 August 2023 (repeat) | Geogra-Flee - In July 2022 the Ousted President of This Country Fled West Across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives | What is Sri Lanka? |
Friday, 25 August 2023 (repeat) | London Locales - To Fight Malaria, This Former Royal Estate Helped Move Quinine-Producing Cinchona Plants From South America to India | What is Kew Gardens? |
Thursday, 24 August 2023 (repeat) | Geographic Pairs - By ferry, the distance between these 2 paired Mediterranean islands is about 40 miles from Alcudia to Ciutadella | What is Mallorca (Majorca) and Menorca (Minorca)? |
Wednesday, 23 August 2023 (repeat) | Contemporary Authors - A Trip to El Paso With His Young Son & Wondering What the City Might Look Like Years in the Future Inspired a Novel by This Author | Who is Cormac McCarthy? |
Tuesday, 22 August 2023 (repeat) | Chemical Element Names - The 3 Elements Whose Names Begin With 2 Vowels Are Iodine & These 2, One Synthetic & One Natural | What are Einsteinium and Europium? |
Monday, 21 August 2023 (repeat) | Phrases From the Ancient World - Cicero wrote that a tyrant ordered this to be hung from the ceiling “by a horse-hair”; his guest begged to leave | What is the Sword of Damocles? |
Friday, 18 August 2023 (repeat) | World cities - The name of this city may come from “dur”, meaning water, a reference to the Helvetian people’s settlement on a lake | What is Zurich? |
Thursday, 17 August 2023 (repeat) | Novel Locales - This place from a 1933 novel lies in the valley of Blue Moon, below a peak called Karakal | What is Shangri-La? |
Wednesday, 16 August 2023 (repeat) | Phrases in American history - Andrew Johnson vetoed a bill that gave reparations to formerly enslaved people, hence this phrase for an unfulfilled promise | What is 40 Acres and a Mule? |
Tuesday, 15 August 2023 (repeat) | Poets - Inspired by stories from his grandfather, his “Battle of Lovell’s Pond” appeared in the Portland Gazette in 1820 when he was 13 | Who is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? |
Monday, 14 August 2023 (repeat) | Places in American History - A Native American Story Says This Creek Got Its Name From an Injury Suffered by a Sioux Warrior in a Fight With the Crow | What is Wounded Knee? |
Friday, 11 August 2023 (repeat) | Artists - Sabena Airlines commissioned a painting by this artist, “L’Oiseau de Ciel”, a bird whose body is filled with clouds in a blue sky | Who is René Magritte? |
Thursday, 10 August 2023 (repeat) | American Composers - He turned to opera with the 1903 work “Guest of Honor” likely inspired by Booker T. Washington’s dinner at the White House | Who is Scott Joplin? |
Wednesday, 9 August 2023 (repeat) | Charity - A Catholic charity called Caritas Rome is the beneficiary of money collected from here, over the years averaging about $3,500 daily | What is the Trevi Fountain?
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Tuesday, 8 August 2023 (repeat) | Bodies of Water - The Kattegat & Skagerrak Straits separate these 2 seas
| What are North Sea and Baltic Sea? |
Monday, 7 August 2023 (repeat) | Authors - When Esquire began as a men’s lifestyle magazine in the 1930s, he was asked for manly content and wrote in 28 of the first 33 issues | Who is Ernest Hemingway? |
Friday, 4 August 2023 (repeat) | 19th Century Literary Characters - This character from an 1859 novel symbolizes the fates, who in mythology spin the web of life, measure it & cut it off | Who is Madame DeFarge?
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Thursday, 3 August 2023 (repeat) | International Borders - 2 of the 3 countries that share land borders with Russia & China | What are Kazhakstan, Mongolia, and North Korea? |
Wednesday, 2 August 2023 (repeat) | American History - Ben Franklin, John Adams & John Jay succeeded as a trio in this city, though Adams wrote of fearing the other 2 would gang up on him | What is Paris? |
Tuesday, 1 August 2023 (repeat) | Landmarks of Science - Clones of an original one of these grow outside the math faculty at Cambridge University & in the President’s garden at M.I.T. | What are Apple Trees?
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Monday, 31 July 2023 (repeat) | Famous Animals - In September 1964 the New York Times announced the passing of this pet, a gift “used as a symbol of honesty in 1952” | Who is Checkers? |
Friday, 28 July 2023 | Word Origins - Theories on the origin of this, a style of journalism, include Cajun slang for unhinged jazz & Boston slang for a person on a bender | What is Gonzo? |
Thursday, 27 July 2023 | Fighting Forces - Formed in 1831 to help with the conquest of Algeria, its ranks have included Germans, Turks & Chinese | What is the French Foreign Legion? |
Wednesday, 26 July 2023 | Opera Source Material - Henri Murger, who was broke & lived in a freezing attic apartment in Paris, wrote the source material for this 1896 opera | What is La Bohème? |
Tuesday, 25 July 2023 | Compound Word Origins - This compound word meant an astronomical object of exceptional brightness in 1910; it was soon applied to actors & athletes | What is Superstar? |
Monday, 24 July 2023 | African Geography - The only country in Africa with Spanish as an official language, it lies mostly between 1 & 2 degrees north latitude | What is Equatorial Guinea? |
Friday, 21 July 2023 | Numbers Old & New - Expressed in today's numbers, it's the sum total if you add the 7 Roman numerals together | What is 1666? |
Thursday, 20 July 2023 | 19th-Century British Poems - The author of this unfinished epic poem was unsure if he wanted the title character to "end in hell - or in an unhappy marriage" | What is Don Juan? |
Wednesday, 19 July 2023 | Famous Paintings - A German guidebook to a 1937 world's fair dismissed it as a "hodgepodge of body parts that any four-year-old could have painted" | What is Guernica? |
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 | Man-Made Objects - Around since 1998, it's now roughly the length of a football field & travels at around 5 miles per second | What is the International Space Station (ISS)? |
Monday, 17 July 2023 | Government Officials - In 1867 he wrote to General Rousseau, "On arriving at Sitka... you will receive from the Russian commisioner the formal transfer" | Who is William H. Seward? |
Friday, 14 July 2023 | Books & Authors - In 1930 this author wrote "Murder at Full Moon", a horror-mystery novel set in a fictional town in central California | Who is John Steinbeck? |
Thursday, 13 July 2023 | Famous Ships - The first U.S. battleship ever built was launched in 1889 but lasted less than 9 years | What is USS Maine? |
Wednesday, 12 July 2023 | Name's The Same - A 1931 Charlie Chaplin film & a West Coast bookstore open since 1953 both bear this name | What is City Lights? |
Tuesday, 11 July 2023 | Olympic Teams - A city of about 2.5 million people, since 1984 for political reasons it has been in the name of an Olympic Team | What is Taipei? |
Monday, 10 July 2023 | Art History - At the 1865 Paris Art Salon, the elder of these 2 men said if the younger were successful, it would be "because his name sounds like mine" | Who are Édouard Manet and Claude Monet? |
Friday, 7 July 2023 | History & Nature - In March 1519, these were again seen in mainland N. America for the first time in 10,000 years with the arrival of 16 of them | What are Horses? |
Thursday, 6 July 2023 | 20th-Century Literature - Squashing the allegory theory, the daughters of the author of this novel say it's "just a story about rabbits" | What is Watership Down? |
Wednesday, 5 July 2023 | African Countries - Nicknamed "the kingdom in the sky", this landlocked nation is the only country in the world to lie entirely above 4,000 feet | What is Lesotho? |
Tuesday, 4 July 2023 | Classical Music - Composed around 1720, this group of instrumental works was dedicated to a younger brother of Prussian King Frederick I | What are the Brandenburg Concertos? |
Monday, 3 July 2023 | Fashion - The name of these items that became a 1940s fad derives in part from a word meaning "to cut short" | What are Bobby socks? |
Friday, 30 June 2023 | National Anthems - The name of this country's national anthem translates as "his majesty's reign" & its lyrics come from a 1,000-year-old poem | What is Japan? |
Thursday, 29 June 2023 | The Movies - Centenarian ceramic artist Beatrice Wood helped inspire one of the main characters & the narrator of this film from the 1990s | What is Titanic? |
Wednesday, 28 June 2023 | The Medical World - He created a chest drain valve that aided breathing in wounded soldiers in Vietnam but is better known for a lifesaving measure | Who is Henry Heimlich? |
Tuesday, 27 June 2023 | 19th-Century Literature - In 1896 new spider species were named for a wolf, a panther & a snake from a work published 2 years earlier by this man | Who is Rudyard Kipling? |
Monday, 26 June 2023 | 20th-Century Events - It was immediately reported "the flames are still leaping maybe 30, 40 feet from the ground the entire 811 feet length of" this | What is the Hindenburg? |
Friday, 23 June 2023 | Female Authors - At age 9 in 1883 she moved west, where she met Annie Pavelka, a young pioneer on whom she would later model a title character | Who is Willa Cather? |
Thursday, 22 June 2023 | The 19th-Century - In 1823 he wrote, "in the war between those new governments and Spain we declared our neutrality" | Who is James Monroe? |
Wednesday, 21 June 2023 | World of Water - The Bass Strait divides Tasmania & Mainland Australia & hydrographers have disputed which of these 2 larger bodies it's part of | What is the Indian Ocean & Pacific Ocean? |
Tuesday, 20 June 2023 | The Olympics - The sport that made its Olympic debut in 1988 has a playing surface of only about 45 square feet | What is Table Tennis? |
Monday, 19 June 2023 | Entertainers - In 2022 Jeff Bezos awarded her $100 million to give to charitable causes because "she gives with her heart" | Who is Dolly Parton? |
Friday, 16 June 2023 | American Geography - Native Americans called it Okwa-ta, or "wide water"; Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville would rename it for a countryman | What is Lake Pontchartrain? |
Thursday, 15 June 2023 | The U.S. Government - Established in 1938, this congressional group was still issuing subpoenas in 1969 & finally ceased to exist 6 years later | What is the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)? |
Wednesday, 14 June 2023 | TV & Film Characters - He debuted on TV in 1967; the show's creator wanted someone from behind the Iron Curtain to be on "our side" | Who is Pavel Chekov? |
Tuesday, 13 June 2023 | Actors - He starred in the 2 films whose soundtracks were the top 2 best-selling albums of 1978 | Who is John Travolta? |
Monday, 12 June 2023 | Women in Mythology - The name of this woman, the product of an incestuous union, means "against birth" | Who is Antigone? |
Friday, 9 June 2023 | British Novels - Midway through this 1928 novel, the title character briefly takes "their" instead of his or her | What is Orlando: A Biography? |
Thursday, 8 June 2023 | Business History - What is dubbed "the world's first initial public offering" took place in 1602 in this current European capital | What is Amsterdam? |
Wednesday, 7 June 2023 | European Countries - Of all the nations that border Italy, the one that didn't exist in 1990 | What is Slovenia? |
Tuesday, 6 June 2023 | Historic Organizations - A senator called the 1949 pact that formed this a "fraternity of peace" that "makes the obligation plain... for us & others" | What is NATO? |
Monday, 5 June 2023 | Acronyms - It was originally a code word used by telegraph operators; Barack Obama used it in his Twitter handle | What is POTUS? |
Friday, 2 June 2023 | 20th Century America - In bold letters, it was the 2-word historic N.Y. Times headline for August 9, 1974, followed by "he urges a time of healing" | What is "Nixon Resigns"? |
Thursday, 1 June 2023 | Country Names - The first current country to include its particular religion in its full name, it also has that religion in the name of its capital | What is Pakistan? |
Wednesday, 31 May 2023 | Sports & The Movies - A Geena Davis Institute study found shortly after a 2012 franchise film's release, women's participation in this sport rose 105% | What is Archery? |
Tuesday, 30 May 2023 | Literary Groups - Windermere, Thirlmere & Grasmere are 3 of the sites that helped give a 19th Century Literary Group this name | What are the Lake Poets? |
Monday, 29 May 2023 | Memorials - The Vietnam War crypt at this memorial has been empty since the remains once there were identified & moved to St. Louis | What is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery? |
Friday, 26 May 2023 | Groups in History - The third-most famous group that invaded Britain in the 5th century they gave their name to the continental part of Denmark | Who are the Jutes? |
Thursday, 25 May 2023 | Asia - Trained as an engineer, Premier Li Peng championed this in 1992; it would ultimately displace over a million people | What is the Three Gorges Dam? |
Wednesday, 24 May 2023 | Classical Music - When the opera "Lohengrin" premiered in 1850, this man, a future in-law of the composer, was the conductor | Who is Franz Liszt? |
Tuesday, 23 May 2023 | Shakespeare's Characters - Both of the names of these 2 lovers in a Shakespeare play come from latin words for "Blessed" | Who are Beatrice and Benedick? |
Monday, 22 May 2023 | Children's Books - The original 1900 printing of this book was in a pale green dust jacket stamped in a vivid jewel tone of green | What is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? |
Friday, 19 May 2023 | The U.S.A. - People going north on this route say they're traveling "GAME" an acronym regarding their beginning & end points | What is the Appalachian Trail? |
Thursday, 18 May 2023 | Billboard No. 1 Hits - Billy Joel said, "I think the one time I didn't write the music" before the lyrics was for this 1989 hit, "and I think it shows" | What is We Didn't Start the Fire? |
Wednesday, 17 May 2023 | U.S. National Memorials - Efforts recently began to reintroduce 2 species of oyster to help restore the contaminated waters of this, a national memorial | What is Pearl Harbor? |
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 | Authors - In 1960 Jean-Paul Sartre wrote of this man's "Victorious attempt... to snatch every instant of his existence from his future death" | Who is Albert Camus? |
Monday, 15 May 2023 | Publications - The co-founder of this magazine that began in 1967 said its name comes primarily from a song title but noted a band name as well | What is Rolling Stone? |
Friday, 12 May 2023 | New Words in the 18th Century - Describing these, Captain Cook wrote "The manner in which" they're done "must certainly cause intollerable pain" | What are Tattoos? |
Thursday, 11 May 2023 | History - His epitaph, in a church in England, reads, "Sometime General in the Army of George Washington" | Who is Benedict Arnold? |
Wednesday, 10 May 2023 | International Geographic - In 1901 6 colonies joined together to form this nation, today the sixth largest in area | What is Australia? |
Tuesday, 9 May 2023 | Actresses & Their Roles - She made her big screen debut as a teen named Laurie in a 1978 film & in 2022 she played that role for the 7th & last time | Who is Jamie Lee Curtis? |
Monday, 8 May 2023 | Numerical Book Titles - This 2007 best-selling novel takes its title from a line in the poem "Kabul" by the 17th century Persian Poet Saib | What is A Thousand Splendid Suns? |
Friday, 5 May 2023 | Team Names - An M.L.B team got this name in 1902 after some of its players defected to a new crosstown rival, leaving young replacements | Who are the Chicago Cubs? |
Thursday, 4 May 2023 | Bodies of Water - Formed some 10,000-15,000 years ago & with an average depth of only about 150 feet, it's named for a man who sailed through it in 1728 | What is the Bering Strait? |
Wednesday, 3 May 2023 | Business & Social Media - On Twitter in 2023, this food franchise followed an exact total of 11 accounts that included Victoria Beckham, Mel B & Herb Alpert | What is KFC? |
Tuesday, 2 May 2023 | Medical History - A vaccine against this respiratory illness came out in the U.S. in 1914 & eventually combined with 2 other vaccines | What is Pertussis? |
Monday, 1 May 2023 | 18th Century Literature - The first name of this title character is from Hebrew for "devoted to god"; his last name suggests he can be easily duped | Who is Lemuel Gulliver? |
Friday, 28 April 2023 | U.S. Landmarks - In April 1975, to symbolize the start of America's bicentennial, President Ford lit a third lantern at this landmark | What is the Old North Church? |
Thursday, 27 April 2023 | Historic Figures - Dante gives him, born to a Kurdish family in the 12th century, a place of honor in limbo along with the war heroes of Rome & Troy | Who is Saladin? |
Wednesday, 26 April 2023 | Hollywood History - Last name of 3 men who missed the 1927 premiere of “The Jazz Singer” because a 4th of that name had died hours before | What is Warner? |
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 | TV History - The 1980s "Magnum, P.I." used a soundstage of this long-running drama that had just ended, & even referred to its lead character | What is Hawaii Five-O? |
Monday, 24 April 2023 | U.S. Geography - Interstate 25 connects these 2 state capitals, 1st & 2nd in elevation, & in between runs through No. 3, Denver | What is New Mexico and Cheyenne, Wyoming? |
Friday, 21 April 2023 | Historic Groups -Originally a term for security escorts for commanders, in 27 B.C. this group was designated an official imperial force | What is Praetorian Guard? |
Thursday, 20 April 2023 | Modern Words - Neal Stephenson coined this word in his 1992 novel "Snow Crash"; it was later shortened by a company to become its new name | What is Metaverse? |
Wednesday, 19 April 2023 | Lives of the Poets - At a seminary that classified students' degree of faith, Emily Dickinson was "without" this, which she compares to a bird in a poem | What is Hope? |
Tuesday, 18 April 2023 | The Oscars - Born in 1932 & the son of a percussionist in the CBS Radio Orchestra, he's been nominated for 53 Oscars | Who is John Williams? |
Monday, 17 April 2023 | English Literature - It says, "The mind is its own place, & in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same" | What is Paradise Lost? |
Friday, 14 April 2023 | Writers' Lesser-Known Works - Known for more philosophical works, he wrote the play "La Mandragola" in which Florentines are rewarded for immoral actions | Who is Niccolò Machiavelli? |
Thursday, 13 April 2023 | Exploration - James Cook's account of a 1774 visit here records an object "near 27 feet long, and upwards of 8 feet over the breast or shoulders" | What is Easter Island? |
Wednesday, 12 April 2023 | The Bill of Rights - England's "Bloody Assizes" & "a 1685 life sentence for perjury" were 2 main origins of this amendment to the U.S. constitution | What is the Eighth Amendment? |
Tuesday, 11 April 2023 | Nobel Peace Prize Winners - At times they lived on Vilakazi St. in Soweto, so it claims to be the world's only street home to 2 Nobel Peace Prize Winners | Who are Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu? |
Monday, 10 April 2023 | Famous Names - In 1966, the year of his death, he shared plans for an experimental prototype community in Florida | Who is Walt Disney? |
Friday, 7 April 2023 | Geography - Of the 13 nations through which the equator passes, it’s the only one whose coastline borders the Caribbean Sea | What is Colombia? |
Thursday, 6 April 2023 | Fashion Tree - These decorative items get their name from their origin in the port city of Strasbourg, on the border of France & Germany | What are Rhinestones? |
Wednesday, 5 April 2023 | Movies of the '80s - Based on an off-Broadway play with just 3 characters, it won the best picture Oscar & the actors in all 3 roles were nominated | What is Driving Miss Daisy? |
Tuesday, 4 April 2023 | Novelists - A 2012 book review noted subjects that “sparked his ire”: Capital Punishment, Big Tobacco & “The Plight of the Unjustly Converted” | Who is John Grisham? |
Monday, 3 April 2023 | 20th Century Eponyms - A 1940 headline about this included "failure", "liability when it came to offense" & "stout hearts no match for tanks" | What is the Maginot Line? |
Friday, 31 March 2023 | City History - Over 700 years after its traditional 1252 founding date, this port city became associated with a psychological response | What is Stockholm? |
Thursday, 30 March 2023 | Brand Names - The success of this brand has its roots with a hydrotherapy pump its cofounder created for his son, who had arthritis | What is Jacuzzi? |
Wednesday, 29 March 2023 | American Authors - In a periodical in 1807, he called New York City "Gotham, Gotham! Most enlightened of cities" | Who is Washington Irving? |
Tuesday, 28 March 2023 | Transportation U.S.A. - This public agency runs the U.S.A.'s busiest bus terminal, opened in 1950 for commuters awed by its polished steel & stone | What is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey? |
Monday, 27 March 2023 | Chemical Names - The name of this pungent gaseous compound is ultimately derived from the top god of the ancient Egyptians | What is Ammonia? |
Friday, 24 March 2023 | Symbols - In math, it's a rotated V; in society, it's a feeling of some marginalized or underrepresented people | What is Less Than? |
Thursday, 23 March 2023 | Movie Theme Songs - Monty Norman, the composer of this character's theme, said the staccato riff conveyed sexiness, mystery & ruthlessness | What is James Bond? |
Wednesday, 22 March 2023 | American Novelists - He served with an airman named Yohannan in World War II & despite what readers might think, he said he enjoyed his service | Who is Joseph Heller? |
Tuesday, 21 March 2023 | Medieval Places - One of the participants in an 1170 event at this place said "Let us away, knights; he will rise no more" | What is Canterbury Cathedral? |
Monday, 20 March 2023 | Countries of Africa - At one time a province of the Roman Empire, this kingdom is known to Arabic scholars as Al-Maghrib Al-Aqsa, “the Far West | What is Morocco? |
Friday, 17 March 2023 | Statehood - Congress relented in 1890 after this prospective state said it would wait 100 years rather than come in without the women | What is Wyoming? |
Thursday, 16 March 2023 | 1980s Movies - A writer & producer of this movie said he wanted it to be like a western or James Bond film, "only it takes place in the '30s" | What is Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones)? |
Wednesday, 15 March 2023 | Art Exhibitions - In 1898 what's been called the first blockbuster art show was devoted to him & put on for Queen Wilhelmina's coronation | Who is Rembrandt? |
Tuesday, 14 March 2023 | Countries of the World - Part of the largest contiguous land empire during the 1200s & 1300s today its the worlds second-largest landlocked country | What is Mongolia? |
Monday, 13 March 2023 | Literature - A 2006 book was titled “The Poem That Changed America:” This “Fifty Years Later” | What is Howl? |
Friday, 10 March 2023 | Invasions - Backed by 14,000 troops, he invaded England to restore in his words, its "religion, laws, and liberties | Who is William III of Orange? |
Thursday, 9 March 2023 | Landmarks - After its completion in the late 19th century, it was called a “truly tragic street lamp” & a “high & skinny pyramid of iron ladders” | What is the Eiffel Tower? |
Wednesday, 8 March 2023 | Geographic Name’s the Same - The busiest passenger port in the U.K., it shares its name with a capital of one of the original 13 states | What is Dover? |
Tuesday, 7 March 2023 | Names in the Bookstore - This man made lists, perhaps to cope with depression; a set of lists he published in 1852 made his name synonymous with a type of book | Who is Peter Mark Roget? |
Monday, 6 March 2023 | U.S. History - An 1869 presidential pardon was granted to this man, due in part to a plea by the Medical Society of Harford County, Maryland | Who is Samuel Mudd? |
Friday, 3 March 2023 | American Literature - Letters, Pocket Knives, C Rations & Steel Helmets are among the tangible items referred to in the title of this modern war classic | What is The Things They Carried? |
Thursday, 2 March 2023 | Nonfiction - It has the line "The discovery of America... opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie" | What is the Communist Manifesto? |
Wednesday, 1 March 2023 | Laws in U.S. History - A radical Republican championed this 1875 Act but the Supreme Court struck it down in 1883; a new version was passed 81 years later | What is the Civil Rights Act? |
Tuesday, 28 February 2023 | Names of Myth - Her brothers, Castor & Pollux, saved her after Theseus stole her away as a kid; a larger force would seek her later in life | Who is Helen of Troy? |
Monday, 27 February 2023 | African Countries - Once Africa’s largest country in area, it dropped to third in 2011 when a portion of it declared independence | What is Sudan? |
Friday, 24 February 2023 | The Ancient World - The ancient writer Galen said books on ships arriving to this city's port were seized, originals kept & copies returned | What is Alexandria? |
Thursday, 23 February 2023 | Famous Names - For a special 1970s cookbook, he provided one simple recipe – a can of Campbell’s tomato soup & 2 cans of milk | Who is Andy Warhol? |
Wednesday, 22 February 2023 | People & Places - Thought to descend from people of Southeast Asia, the Chamorro make up this U.S. territory’s largest ethnic group | What is Guam? |
Tuesday, 21 February 2023 | Current World Leaders - In office from 2022, the President of this country has taken so many foreign trips a play on his name is “Ferdinand Magellan Jr.” | What is the Phillipines? |
Monday, 20 February 2023 | Writers & The South - In 1939 he lived on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter & chose the professional name that bonded him to the South | Who is Tennessee Williams? |
Friday, 17 February 2023 | National Parks - It’s named for a river Indigenous people called Mi tse a-da-zi translated by French-speaking trappers as “Pierre jaune” | What is Yellowstone National Park? |
Thursday, 16 February 2023 | Sports - In 2010 they introduced the 4 point shot, 35 feet from the basket | Who are the Harlem Globetrotters? |
Wednesday, 15 February 2023 | The U.S. Military - Losses over Asia in the 1960s led to the establishment of the program known as this at a San Diego naval base in 1969 | What is Top Gun? |
Tuesday, 14 February 2023 | Art & Science - A craft that visited it was named for Giotto, based on the story that 680 years earlier, the painter depicted it as the star of Bethlehem | What is Halley’s Comet? |
Monday, 13 February 2023 | Words From World War I - “Cistern” and “Reservoir” were substituted names for a select invention, but the British preferred this less clumsy monosyllable | What is Tank? |
Friday, 10 February 2023 | European History - Until 1806, some German nobles included among their honors the title of “Elector” for their role in selecting this personage | What is a Prince-elector? |
Thursday, 9 February 2023 | Theater History - In 1904, wearing a harness, actress Nina Boucicault became the first to play this character onstage | Who is Peter Pan? |
Wednesday, 8 February 2023 | European Cities - Alphabetically the first German city in encyclopedias, it was also the first one taken by the Allies in World War II | What is Aachen? |
Tuesday, 7 February 2023 | Word Origins - This Sanskrit word referring to a spoken word or phrase comes from a word for “to think” | What is Mantra? |
Monday, 6 February 2023 | Inventions - 1917’s “Elements of Trench Warfare” said this Old West item was “difficult to destroy” & “difficult to get through” | What is Barbed Wire? |
Friday, 3 February 2023 | World War II - Mimi Reinhard, who never learned to type using more than 2 fingers, produced this with 1,100 names, including hers | What is Schindler's List? |
Thursday, 2 February 2023 | Mythology - Poseidon carried off the maiden Theophane & turned her into a ewe; their offspring was the source of this mythical object | What is the Golden Fleece? |
Wednesday, 1 February 2023 | Literature - Published in 2011, P.D. James’ final novel, “Death Comes to Pemberley”, was a sequel to this novel from 200 years earlier | What is Pride and Prejudice? |
Tuesday, 31 January 2023 | U.S. State Names - 5 U.S. states have 6-letter names; only these 2 west of the Mississippi River border each other | What are Nevada and Oregon? |
Monday, 30 January 2023 | Word Origins - Originally relating to a story of suffering, this word now more commonly refers to strong emotion of any kind | What is Passion? |
Friday, 27 January 2023 | World Cinema - The 2007 biopic called “La Mome” in France, meaning “the Kid”, was released in the U.S. under this other French title | What is La Vie en Rose? |
Thursday, 26 January 2023 | History - Returning home in 1493, Columbus stopped in the Azores at an island with this name, also something he’d lost off the Haiti Coast | What is Santa Maria? |
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 | Landmarks - Pskov & Nizhny Novgorod are 2 of the cities that have a fortress called this | What is a Kremlin? |
Tuesday, 24 January 2023 | Foreign-Born Authors - In the 1950s The New York Times said this author “is writing about all lust” & his lecherous narrator “is all of us” | Who is Vladimir Nabokov? |
Monday, 23 January 2023 | Astronomy & Geography - At the winter solstice, the sun is in Sagittarius; it once appeared in this constellation, giving a geographic feature its name | What is Capricorn? |
Friday, 20 January 2023 | Television - Mike Post combined the sound of a slamming jail door, an anvil & 100 men stomping on a floor for this series that debuted in 1990 | What is Law & Order? |
Thursday, 19 January 2023 | British Landmarks - Like Sir Thomas More, 2 16th century English queens are buried at this location | What is Church of St Peter ad Vincula (in the Tower of London)? |
Wednesday, 18 January 2023 | Early American History - In 1692 Increase Mather wrote, “it were better that ten suspected” these “escape, than that one innocent person …be condemned” | What are witches? |
Tuesday, 17 January 2023 | Geography Mnemonics - MIMAL, sometimes said to be the silhouette of a chef or elf, stands for Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, these 2 states | What is Arkansas and Louisiana? |
Monday, 16 January 2023 | Business & Industry - This was first sold in 1908, at a price equivalent to about $27,000 today | What is the Ford Model T? |
Friday, 13 January 2023 | In the Bookstore - The name of this author dead since 2013 now appears on books written by a former U.S. marshal & a former Apache helicopter pilot | Who is Tom Clancy? |
Thursday, 12 January 2023 | Historic Art - The artwork once known in France as “La Tapisserie de la reine Mathilde” is better known as this | What is the Bayeux Tapestry? |
Wednesday, 11 January 2023 | Pop Stars - In 2022 she became the first woman to have a Billboard Top 10 album in 5 decades starting with the 1980s | What is Madonna? |
Tuesday, 10 January 2023 | Classic Tale Characters - In one 19th century translation, she “perceived the dawn of day and ceased” speaking nearly 1,000 times | Who is Shahrazad / Scheherazade? |
Monday, 9 January 2023 | USA - Ironically, though this company founded in the 1860s is Moore County, Tennessee’s largest employer, Moore is a dry county | What is Jack Daniel’s? |
Friday, 6 January 2023 | Historic People - After a 1789 event, he wrote, “My first determination was to seek a supply of…water at Tofoa, & afterwards to sail for Tongataboo” | William Bligh |
Thursday, 5 January 2023 | The Movies - Laurence Olivier & Ernest Borgnine were considered for the lead role & Sergio Leone to direct for this film that turned 50 in 2022 | What is The Godfather? |
Wednesday, 4 January 2023 | Continental Geography - Until a 1903 secession, this country’s contiguous territory spanned 2 continents | What is Colombia? |
Tuesday, 3 January 2023 | Foreign-born Authors - Early in her career she translated romance novels into Spanish, often changing the dialogue to make the heroines smarter | Who is Isabel Allende? |
Monday, 2 January 2023 | Historic crimes - Saying it was Stolen by Napoleon, Self-styled Italian patriot Vincenzo Peruggia took it in 1911 | What is the Mona Lisa? |
Friday, 30 December 2022 | U.S. Bodies of Water - Continuing a downward trend, in July 2022 it was at 27% capacity, its lowest level since 1937 when it was first being filled | What is Lake Mead? |
Thursday, 29 December 2022 | Gods & Goddesses - Each morning she began her ride in her chariot across the sky ahead of her brother Sol, or Helios | What is Eos / Aurora? |
Wednesday, 28 December 2022 | America at War - Until the Civil War, the Jan. 8 date of this battle of dubious military importance but big morale value was a national holiday | What is the Battle of New Orleans? |
Tuesday, 27 December 2022 | Children’s Books - Its title character is told “by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off…your eyes drop out & you get…shabby” | What is The Velveteen Rabbit? |
Monday, 26 December 2022 | TV Finales - In a reunion over 40 years in the making, Dolly Parton appeared as an angel named Agnes in the final episode of this comedy in 2022
| What is Grace and Frankie? |
Friday, 23 December 2022 | American Poems - In an 1847 poem this character sees her town of Grand-Pre burned, but finally reunites with her beau for a kiss before his death
| Who is Evangeline? |
Thursday, 22 December 2022 | Famous Names - In 2001 he published a book called “Banging Your Head against a Brick Wall”; in 2002, “Existencilism” | Who is Banksy? |
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 | Children’s Literature - The title object of this book “never looked more beautiful…each strand held dozens of bright drops of early morning dew” | What is Charlotte's Web? |
Tuesday, 20 December 2022 | Classic Songs - The shouts of excited children at a 1946 holiday parade are said to have inspired this perennial favorite | What is Here Comes Santa Claus? |
Monday, 19 December 2022 | Brand Names - Unable to make these candies perfectly round, the confectioner embraced this flawed name for the product | What is Milk Duds? |
Friday, 16 December 2022 | Countries of the World - It’s home to 58 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country; the sites include a volcano & a lagoon | What is Italy? |
Thursday, 15 December 2022 | Action Movies - Its last line is “if this is their idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Year’s” | What is Die Hard? |
Wednesday, 14 December 2022 | Presidential Facts - Only 3 presidents have married while in office – John Tyler was the first & he was the last | Who is Woodrow Wilson? |
Tuesday, 13 December 2022 | 19th Century Americans - Demonstrating the Dignity & Humanity of Black Americans, He Sat for 160 Known Photographs, the Most of Any American in the 19th Century | Who is Frederick Douglass? |
Monday, 12 December 2022 | Latin Phrases - Originally, This 3-Word Phrase Referred to When a Doctor or Apothecary Substituted One Medicine for Another | What is Quid Pro Quo? Quid pro quo was originally used in the 16th and 18th centuries to refer to the replacement of one treatment for another.The Latin phrase from which it was derived (which can be translated as "anything for something") originated with apothecaries (people who prepare and sell drugs or compounds for medicinal purposes). |
Friday, 9 December 2022 | 1970s Movies - A 1975 Premiere of This Comedy Advertised Free Coconuts for the First Thousand in the Audience | What is Monty Python and the Holy Grail? |
Thursday, 8 December 2022 | Name’s the Same - A Cocktail, an Island & a WWII Venture Originally Called “Development of Substitute Materials” All Bear This Name | What is Manhattan? |
Wednesday, 7 December 2022 | U.S. Presidents - He Was Sworn In Twice as President Within 2 Years, First by His Father & Then Later by a Former U.S. President | Who is Calvin Coolidge? On August 3, 1923 at a 2:30 a.m. ceremony in Plymouth, Vermont, Calvin Coolidge is sworn in by his father as the 30th President of the United State.On March 4 1925, the oath of office was given at Calvin Coolidge's second inauguration as president of the United States by Chief Justice William Howard Taft, who had previously served as president from 1909 to 1913. |
Tuesday, 6 December 2022 | Plays - A 1609 Story in Which an Exiled King of Bulgaria Creates a Sea Palace With His Magic May Have Inspired the Plot of This Play | What is The Tempest? A narrative from Antonio de Eslava's Winter Nights may have influenced "The Tempest". The magical King of Bulgaria is driven from his kingdom by the Emperor of Greece, and he and his daughter sail to the middle of the Adriatic, where he touches the sea with the end of his wand and creates a gorgeous palace at the bottom of the sea, according to Eslava's story. When his daughter decides she wants a mate, the king brings down his enemy's disinherited son and they marry. While the wedding is taking place, the King's usurper is sailing home from his youngest son's wedding while being caught in a storm, or "tempest," directly above the sea-palace. |
Monday, 5 December 2022 | Landmarks - In 2009, During a 20th Anniversary Celebration, It Was Called “An Edifice of Fear. On Nov. 9, It Became a Place of Joy” | What is The Berlin Wall? This quote was said by Former German President Horst Köhler in Berlin on November 9, 2009, at the 20th Anniversary Celebrations of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. |
Friday, 2 December 2022 | World Capitals - Among Its Nicknames Are the “City of Classical Music” &, Possibly in Honor of a Famous Resident From 1860 to 1938, the “City of Dreams” | What is Vienna? Vienna is often known as the City of Classical Music after master composers such as Mozart and Strauss played there. Because Sigmund Freud spent a significant amount of time living and working there, Vienna has the moniker "the city of dreams." He stayed there between 1860 and 1938. |
Thursday, 1 December 2022 | Language & Its Meanings - Now Meaning Someone With Nocturnal Habits, It Catches a Sleeping Dove in Shakespeare’s “The Rape of Lucrece” | What is a Night Owl? In Shakespeare’s “The Rape of Lucrece”, the poem refers to "The dove sleeps fast that this night-owl will catch" in line 361. |
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 | Flags of Our Hemisphere - The Stars on This Country’s Flag Represent States, 26 of Them; Unlike the USA’s, Its “Federal District” Gets Its Own 27th Star | What is Brazil? Brazil's flag's 27 stars represent all 26 of Brazil's states as well as its federal district. The stars of the Brazilian flag were not automatically changed when individual territories were elevated to statehood, unlike the stars in the American flag. |
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 | Names in U.S. History - This Father Was the Only Man Among the 13 Plaintiffs in a Class-Action Case Filed in 1951 | Who is Oliver Brown? In 1951, the public school system in Topeka, Kansas, refused to enrol Oliver Brown's daughter in the elementary school that was the closest to their home because she was black, forcing her to take a bus to a segregated black school that was further away. This refusal led to the start of the case that would become known as Brown v. Board of Education. The Topeka Board of Education was sued in a class action lawsuit in U.S. federal court by the Browns and twelve other local Black families who were in comparable circumstances, claiming that the Board's segregation policy was unconstitutional. |
Monday, 28 November 2022 | Children’s Authors - Reversing the Story of This Heroine She Created, Patricia Maclachlan Was Born on the Prairie but Spent Much of Her Life in New England | Who is Sarah Wheaton? In the book "Sarah, Plain and Tall", Sarah Wheaton, from Maine, travels to the Midwestern United States as a mail-order bride during the late 19th century to marry Jacob Witting, a widowed farmer who is still saddened by the death of his wife during childbirth to take care of his of his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb. |
Friday, 25 November 2022 | States & the Census - The 2020 Census Gave Montana a Second U.S. House Seat; Its Most Populous County, This One That Attracts Tourists, Grew 11% | Yellowstone County In the American state of Montana, Yellowstone County has the highest population. There were 164,731 people living there as of the 2020 Census. The Yellowstone River, which roughly divides the county in half and flows from southwest to northeast, gave rise to the name Yellowstone County. |
Thursday, 24 November 2022 | Southern Colleges - To Aid Transport in Poorer Nations, in the 1920s Grads Of This College Built Makeshift Buggies Celebrated in Their Fight Song | What is Georgia Tech? |
Wednesday, 23 November 2022 | Seconds in History - The Fortune, the 2nd Ship to Land at This Harbor, Disappointed Those Already There, Carrying 35 New Residents & “Not So Much As Bisket-Cake” | What is Plymouth Harbor? |
Tuesday, 22 November 2022 | Musical Theater - The Pair at the Center of Tumult in This Long-Running Show Were Originally Going to Be a Jewish Girl & a Catholic Boy | What is West Side Story?
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Monday, 21 November 2022 | Plays - The January 12, 1864 Washington Evening Star Reported on a Performance of This “Dashing Comedy” to “A Full and Delighted House” | What is Our American Cousin? |
Friday, 18 November 2022 | English Cities - William the Conqueror’s Son Built a Fortress on a Key Northern River in 1080, Giving This City Its Name | What is Newcastle upon Tyne? |
Thursday, 17 November 2022 | Movies & Literature - Ridley Scott’s First Feature Film, “The Duellists”, Was Based on a Story by This Author to Whom Scott’s Film “Alien” Also Pays Tribute | Who is Joseph Conrad? |
Wednesday, 16 November 2022 | The New Testament - Paul’s Letter to Them Is the New Testament Epistle With the Most Old Testament Quotations | Who are the Hebrews? |
Tuesday, 15 November 2022 | Name’s the Same - Name Shared by a Victorian Novelist & an 1805 Flagship Captain Whose Name Is Heard in a Famous Phrase | Who is Thomas Hardy?
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Monday, 14 November 2022 | Geogra-Flee - In July 2022 the Ousted President of This Country Fled West Across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives | What is Sri Lanka? |
Friday, 11 November 2022 | London Locales - To Fight Malaria, This Former Royal Estate Helped Move Quinine-Producing Cinchona Plants From South America to India | What is Kew Gardens? |
Thursday, 10 November 2022 | Geographic Pairs - By ferry, the distance between these 2 paired Mediterranean islands is about 40 miles from Alcudia to Ciutadella | What is Mallorca (Majorca) and Menorca (Minorca)? |
Wednesday, 9 November 2022 | Contemporary Authors - A Trip to El Paso With His Young Son & Wondering What the City Might Look Like Years in the Future Inspired a Novel by This Author | Who is Cormac McCarthy? |
Tuesday, 8 November 2022 | Chemical Element Names - The 3 Elements Whose Names Begin With 2 Vowels Are Iodine & These 2, One Synthetic & One Natural | What are Einsteinium and Europium? |
Monday, 7 November 2022 | Phrases From the Ancient World - Cicero wrote that a tyrant ordered this to be hung from the ceiling “by a horse-hair”; his guest begged to leave | What is the Sword of Damocles? |
Friday, 4 November 2022 | World cities - The name of this city may come from “dur”, meaning water, a reference to the Helvetian people’s settlement on a lake | What is Zurich? |
Thursday, 3 November 2022 | Novel Locales - This place from a 1933 novel lies in the valley of Blue Moon, below a peak called Karakal | What is Shangri-La? |
Wednesday, 2 November 2022 | Phrases in American history - Andrew Johnson vetoed a bill that gave reparations to formerly enslaved people, hence this phrase for an unfulfilled promise | What is 40 Acres and a Mule? |
Tuesday, 1 November 2022 | Poets - Inspired by stories from his grandfather, his “Battle of Lovell’s Pond” appeared in the Portland Gazette in 1820 when he was 13 | Who is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? |
Monday, 31 October 2022 | Places in American History - A Native American Story Says This Creek Got Its Name From an Injury Suffered by a Sioux Warrior in a Fight With the Crow | What is Wounded Knee? |
Friday, 28 October 2022 | Artists - Sabena Airlines commissioned a painting by this artist, “L’Oiseau de Ciel”, a bird whose body is filled with clouds in a blue sky | Who is René Magritte? |
Thursday, 27 October 2022 | American Composers - He turned to opera with the 1903 work “Guest of Honor” likely inspired by Booker T. Washington’s dinner at the White House | Who is Scott Joplin? |
Wednesday, 26 October 2022 | Charity - A Catholic charity called Caritas Rome is the beneficiary of money collected from here, over the years averaging about $3,500 daily | What is the Trevi Fountain?
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Tuesday, 25 October 2022 | Bodies of Water - The Kattegat & Skagerrak Straits separate these 2 seas
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Monday, 24 October 2022 | Authors - When Esquire began as a men’s lifestyle magazine in the 1930s, he was asked for manly content and wrote in 28 of the first 33 issues | Who is Ernest Hemingway? |
Friday, 21 October 2022 | 19th Century Literary Characters - This character from an 1859 novel symbolizes the fates, who in mythology spin the web of life, measure it & cut it off | Who is Madame DeFarge?
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Thursday, 20 October 2022 | International Borders - 2 of the 3 countries that share land borders with Russia & China | What are Kazhakstan, Mongolia, and North Korea? |
Wednesday, 19 October 2022 | American History - Ben Franklin, John Adams & John Jay succeeded as a trio in this city, though Adams wrote of fearing the other 2 would gang up on him | What is Paris? |
Tuesday, 18 October 2022 | Landmarks of Science - Clones of an original one of these grow outside the math faculty at Cambridge University & in the President’s garden at M.I.T. | What are Apple Trees?
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Monday, 17 October 2022 | Famous Animals - In September 1964 the New York Times announced the passing of this pet, a gift “used as a symbol of honesty in 1952” | Who is Checkers? |
Friday, 14 October 2022 | Authors - Featuring a statue of a man escaping his grave, his tomb in Amiens contrasts with the title of his 1864 adventure novel | Who is Jules Verne?
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Thursday, 13 October 2022 | Documentaries - In this 1970 film, Max Yasgur says “I’m a farmer… I don’t know hot to speak to 20 people…let alone a crowd like this” | What is Woodstock? |
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 | 20th Century Leaders - In a Sept. 3, 1939, speech, he said “Everything that I have worked for…has crashed into ruins” | Who is Neville Chamberlain? |
Tuesday, 11 October 2022 | Famous Ships - Its wreck was discovered in 1989, 48 Years after it had been sunk & 91 Years after the man it was named for had died | What is Bismarck? |
Monday, 10 October 2022 | Brand Names - A neighbor’s charcoal drawing of Ann Turner Cook at age 4 or 5 months won a 1928 contest to appear in ads for this brand | What is Gerber? |
Friday, 7 October 2022 | Countries of the World - It has the most water area of any country, nearly 350,000 square miles, about 9% of its total area | What is Canada? |
Thursday, 6 October 2022 | Nobel Peace Prize Winners - He served as Bishop of Lesotho from 1976 to 1978 | Who is Archbishop Desmond Tutu? |
Wednesday, 5 October 2022 | Travel - The 1948 edition of this publication said “There will be a day…in the near future when this guide will not have to be published” | What is The Green Book? |
Tuesday, 4 October 2022 | Asian Country Names - Like the T-U-V in Tuvalu this landlocked country has 3 consecutive letters in its English name in alphabetic sequence | What is Afghanistan? |
Monday, 3 October 2022 | 20th Century Poem Endings - These 5 words that end a poem are also a proverb; one citation across the centuries includes a reminder not to make the wall too high | What is Good fences make good neighbors? |
Friday, 30 September 2022 | Before They Were Authors - While working for British intelligence during World War II, he was codenamed 17F | Who is Ian Fleming? |
Thursday, 29 September 2022 | Innovations - Seen by a worldwide audience in 1970, black pentagons were added to these to help viewers follow them better on TV | What are soccer balls? |
Wednesday, 28 September 2022 | World Rivers - These 2 rivers share the names of countries, end with the same 4 letters & both join up with the Parana River | What are Uruguay & Paraguay? |
Tuesday, 27 September 2022 | World Airports - Africa’s 2 busiest passenger airports are in these 2 countries; it’s an 8-hour flight between them | What are Egypt & South Africa? |
Monday, 26 September 2022 | Magazines - A now annual issue of this magazine was inspired by the high-society parties of Caroline Astor, whose ballroom fit about 400 people | What is Forbes? |
Friday, 23 September 2022 | Literary Characters - In a later part of the epic named for him, this character becomes king after his cousin Heardred dies in battle | Who is Beowulf?
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Thursday, 22 September 2022 | Pop Culture - In 2011 Leland, Mississippi, where Jim Henson grew up, honored Henson & his Muppets by renaming a bridge this, also a song title | What is The Rainbow Connection?
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Wednesday, 21 September 2022 | Famous Names - Perhaps the most famous picture of him was taken in New Jersey in 1951 as he was annoyed by paparazzi on his 72nd birthday | Who is Albert Einstein? |
Tuesday, 20 September 2022 | American Government - Delivered on January 8, 1790, the first of these was also the shortest, at 1,089 words | What is the State of the Union Address?
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Monday, 19 September 2022 | Historic Documents - The governor of Mass. wrote, it “is a poor document, but a mighty act…wrong in its delay till January, but grand & sublime after all” | What is the Emancipation Proclamation?
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Friday, 16 September 2022 | Disney Songs - “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto is the first song from an animated Disney film to hit No. 1 since this duet in 1993 | What is “A Whole New World”? |
Thursday, 15 September 2022 | U.S. Colleges & Universities - Founded as a technical institute in 1900, its sports teams are the Tartans & its official mascot is a Scottish terrier | What is Carnegie Mellon University? |
Wednesday, 14 September 2022 | Artists - He said, “The Seine! I have painted it all my life, at all hours, in all seasons, from Paris to the sea” | Who is Claude Monet?
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Tuesday, 13 September 2022 | The British Royal Family - Prince Philip’s titles included Baron Greenwich & Duke of Edinburgh, but not Prince Consort, last used by this royal | Who is Prince Albert? |
Monday, 12 September 2022 | 19th Century Novels - “This bell was named Marie…alone in the southern tower, with her sister Jacqueline, a bell of lesser size”, says this novel | What is The Hunchback of Notre-Dame? |
Friday, 9 September 2022 | Agriculture - Being brought to the U.S. by a ship docking at San Francisco in 1851 helped lead to it now being a major crop in the Midwest | What are Soybeans? |
Thursday, 8 September 2022 | 19th century contemporaries - Congratulating her on the 1869 release of her biography, Frederick Douglass wrote, “I have wrought in the day –you in the night” | Who is Harriet Tubman? |
Wednesday, 7 September 2022 | 1972 - In June he said, “don’t lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is… a comedy of errors” | Who is Richard Nixon? |
Tuesday, 6 September 2022 | UNESCO World Heritage Sites - Known as the female Lawrence of Arabia, Gertrude Bell called this place “a fairy tale city, all pink & wonderful" | What is Petra? |
Monday, 5 September 2022 | Sports & Entertainment – In 2021 this Hall of Fame athlete launched Omaha Productions | Who is Peyton Manning? |
Friday, 2 September 2022 | On the Map - It’s referred to as “the blue eye of Siberia” | What is Lake Baikal? |
Thursday, 1 September 2022 | Theater - In November 1864 John Wilkes Booth & his brothers were fittingly part of a performance of this Shakespeare play | What is Julius Caesar? |
Wednesday, 31 August 2022 | Books of the 1970s - Aptly, members of a Black family in this novel have Biblical names: Pilate, Hagar & the title one, an ancestor of the protagonist | What is Song of Solomon? |
Tuesday, 30 August 2022 | Poets - In 1939 he was buried near his last residence in France, but his body arrived in Galway en route to final burial on Sept. 17, 1948 | Who is William Butler Yeats? |
Monday, 29 August 2022 | Academy Award Winners - In 2019 he won his first competitive Oscar, 36 years after a Student Academy Award for a film about a Brooklyn barbershop | Who is Spike Lee? |
Friday, 26 August 2022 | U.S. City Names - Adopted in 1845, the name of this state capital is a feminized form of a big body of water | What is Atlanta, Georgia? |
Thursday, 25 August 2022 | Broadway Musicals - Characters Mark, Roger & Maureen in this musical were inspired by Marcello, Rodolfo & Musetta in another work | What is Rent? |
Wednesday, 24 August 2022 | The Silver Screen - He was the first actor to star in 3 films that won the Oscar for Best Picture: those of 1934, 1935 & 1939 | Who is Clark Gable?
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Tuesday, 23 August 2022 | Play Characters - A 1949 review noted the “wrong formulas for success” of this character & “fatal misconceptions about his place in the scheme of things” | Who is Willy Loman? |
Monday, 22 August 2022 | Countries of the World - The only nation in the world whose name in English ends in an H, it’s also one of the 10 most populous | What is Bangladesh?
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Friday, 19 August 2022 | Explorers - Confirming a theory, fossils found with this explorer in 1912 included a plant from more than 250 million years ago | Who is Robert Falcon Scott? |
Thursday, 18 August 2022 | European Rivers - The flooding of this river in 1966 destroyed or damaged some 14,000 works of art, many of them priceless | What is the Arno? |
Wednesday, 17 August 2022 | Fictional Characters - Introduced in 1938 & inspired by movie character Torchy Blane of the Morning Herald, she has since gone on to win a fictional Pulitzer | Who is Lois Lane? |
Tuesday, 16 August 2022 | Kings & Queens - Due to legislative action of 1707, she was officially the last monarch of independent Scotland | Who is Queen Anne? |
Monday, 15 August 2022 | International Friendship - The organization these International was founded in 1956; they’re partner-städte in Germany & villes jumelées in France | What are sister cities? |
Friday, 12 August 2022 | Final Resting Places - A cemetery on this island has the graves of Robert Fulton & 2 of the first 4 Treasury Secretaries | What is Manhattan? |
Thursday, 11 August 2022 | Myths & Legends - This legendary place has been identified as being in Caerleon, Wales & in Winchester, England | What is Camelot? |
Wednesday, 10 August 2022 | World Population - This Asian nation is the world’s most populous country that lies mostly in the Southern Hemisphere | What is Indonesia? |
Tuesday, 9 August 2022 | Toys - Introduced in 1964, he fell out of favor in changing times & in 1970 was marketed as a “land adventurer” | What is G.I. Joe? |
Monday, 8 August 2022 | Official Languages - It’s the only U.N. member state outside Europe with Dutch as an official language | What is Suriname? |
Friday, 5 August 2022 (rerun) | Paintings - In 2021 experts in Oslo concluded that it was the artist who wrote on this painting, “Could only have been painted by a madman” | What is The Scream? |
Thursday, 4 August 2022 (rerun) | Songs & U.S. History - Victory in 1805’s Battle of Derna on the coast of North Africa inspired a lyric in this song made official in 1929 | What is the Marines’ Hymn? |
Wednesday, 3 August 2022 (rerun) | Countries of the World - Nazi Germany annexed this nation & divided it into regions of the Alps & the Danube; the Allies later divided it into 4 sectors | What is Austria?
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Tuesday, 2 August 2022 (rerun) | Food & Drink in the Bible - In the King James Version, these creatures are a plague in Exodus 10, but deemed okay to eat in Leviticus 11 | What are locusts? |
Monday, 1 August 2022 (rerun) | 1980s Movies - The Dip used to kill characters in this 1988 film consisted of acetone, benzene & turpentine, ingredients of paint thinner | What is Who Framed Roger Rabbit? |
Friday, 29 July 2022 | Tech history - For about 20 years after its invention, it had few practical uses; then suddenly it revolutionized grocery checkouts & home audio | What is the laser? |
Thursday, 28 July 2022 | Countries of Europe - It’s the only independent survivor of the Spanish March, buffer states created to protect Christian Europe from the Moors | What is Andorra? |
Wednesday, 27 July 2022 | Real People in Poetry - Milton Wrote of This Contemporary: “When by Night the Glass of” Him “Observes Imagined Lands and Regions in the Moon” | Who is Galileo? |
Tuesday, 26 July 2022 | Literary characters - This children’s book character, introduced in 1926 & a friend of the title creature, gets his name from the sound he might make | Who is Eeyore? |
Monday, 25 July 2022 | The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - Honored in 1998 as part of a rock group & in 2019 as a solo artist, this singer was the first woman to be inducted into the Hall twice | Who is Stevie Nicks? |
Friday, 22 July 2022 | Inaugural balls - At the 1993 Tennessee inaugural ball, Paul Simon performed this song, his most recent top 40 hit | What is You Can Call Me Al? |
Thursday, 21 July 2022 | Constellations - The brightest star of this constellation is Deneb Algedi, or “Kid’s tail” | What is Capricornus? |
Wednesday, 20 July 2022 | Historic American Roads - Originally a Native American Trail, the Dutch Made It a Main Road & Today It Runs 33 Miles From State Street to Sleepy Hollow | What is Broadway? |
Tuesday, 19 July 2022 | Opera - An Aria From This Opera Says, “Put On Your Costume & Apply Make-Up to Your Face. The People Pay & They Want to Laugh” | What is Pagliacci? |
Monday, 18 July 2022 | Art & Theatre - Asked to Design a New Set for a Restaging of This 1952 Play, Alberto Giacometti Came Up With One Scraggly Plaster Tree | What is Waiting for Godot? |
Friday, 15 July 2022 | More Than One Meaning - Its Definitions Include Containing the Metallic Element No. 22, Pertaining to a Group of Greek Gods & Having Great Strength or Size | What is "titanic"? |
Thursday, 14 July 2022 | The 20th century - Maybe surprisingly, in 1918 this new leader was the first to recognize the independence of Finland | Who is Lenin? |
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 | State Mottos - This Motto Is the Name of a City in That State & Is a Famous Quote by an Ancient Greek From the 3rd Century B.C. | What is Eureka? |
Tuesday, 12 July 2022 | Pairs in Astronomy - Discovered in 1877, They Were Named for Siblings of the Greek God of Love | What are Phobos and Deimos? |
Monday, 11 July 2022 | Musical theater - It’s one of the most revived shows in Broadway history & in 2001 it was designated the State Opera of South Carolina | What is Porgy and Bess? |
Friday, 8 July 2022 | Science & the Bible - A 2021 Study Suggested That an Asteroid That Struck the Jordan Valley c. 1650 B.C. Gave Rise to the Story of This City in Genesis 19 | What is Sodom? |
Thursday, 7 July 2022 | Literary Characters on Screen - Per Guinness, This Character Who Debuted in 1887 Is the Most Portrayed Human Literary Character in Film & Television | Who is Sherlock Holmes? |
Wednesday, 6 July 2022 | Agriculture - Being brought to the U.S. by a ship docking at San Francisco in 1851 helped lead to it now being a major crop in the Midwest | What are Soybeans? |
Tuesday, 5 July 2022 | National Historic Sites - Less Than 100 Yards North of the J. Edgar Hoover Building Is This Notorious Location | What is Ford's Theatre? |
Monday, 4 July 2022 | The Eastern U.S. - At its peak, this state had 6 seats in the House of Representatives; since the 1930s, it has had just 1 | What is Vermont? |
Friday, 1 July 2022 | World Geography - Mont Bellevue De L’inini Is the Highest Point in This European Possession Largely Covered by the Amazon Rainforest | What is French Guiana? |
Thursday, 30 June 2022 | U.S. Cities - This U.S. City Now Has 10 Times the Population of the Other U.S. City for Which It Was Named in 1845 | What is Portland, Oregon? |
Wednesday, 29 June 2022 | Television history - In the opening scene of its July 21, 1969 pilot episode, a man carves the letter D into wet cement | What is Sesame Street? |
Tuesday, 28 June 2022 | Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey - At his 1892 burial, fit for a baron, the organist put music to his words, “I hope to see my pilot face to face, when I have Crost the bar” | Who is Alfred, Lord Tennyson? |
Monday, 27 June 2022 | The World of Today - Partly because it was a monosyllable, this word was chosen as “a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission” | What is Meme? |
Friday, 24 June 2022 | Oscar-winning actors - Each of the 3 films for which he won an Oscar, from 1975, 1983 & 1997, also garnered a best lead actress Oscar | Who is Jack Nicholson? |
Thursday, 23 June 2022 | Classic albums - This classic album by a Southern rocker gets its title from a civil war quote by a union admiral | What is Damn the Torpedoes? (by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) |
Wednesday, 22 June 2022 | 19th Century Literature - This author first thought of a parrot before choosing another bird “equally capable of speech” | Who is Edgar Allan Poe? |
Tuesday, 21 June 2022 | Geography Words - From Greek for "Chief" & "Sea", this word originally referred to the Aegean, known for its many island groups | What is Archipelago? |
Monday, 20 June 2022 | British History - From the Greek for "Alone", it was nixed by parliament in 1649 after being deemed "Unnecessary, burdensome & dangerous" | What is Monarchy? |
Friday, 17 June 2022 | 19th century contemporaries - Congratulating her on the 1869 release of her biography, Frederick Douglass wrote, “I have wrought in the day –you in the night” | Who is Harriet Tubman? |
Thursday, 16 June 2022 | Debutnovels - Published in 1991, this novel, the first in a series, has been described as “historical fiction with a Moebius twist” | What is Outlander? |
Wednesday, 15 June 2022 | Brands - BabeDidriksonZaharias, EvanStrong& RoyCampanellabrokebarriersrepresentingthisbrand | What are Wheaties? |
Tuesday, 14 June 2022 | 1972 - In June he said, “don’t lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is… a comedy of errors” | Who is Richard Nixon? |
Monday, 13 June 2022 | TV Legends - Buster Keaton considered her the tops in her field &, in fact, was one of her early mentors | Who is Lucille Ball? |
Friday, 10 June 2022 | The Western Hemisphere - Brazil stretches 2,700 miles from the Atlantic in the east to Serra do Divisor National Park on the border with this country in the west | What is Peru? |
Thursday, 9 June 2022 | Children’s Literature - First published in French in 1943, this book has been called the most translated non-religious work, rendered into more than 300 languages | What is The Little Prince? |
Wednesday, 8 June 2022 | American History - A participant in this 1773 event recalled, “some of our numbers jumped into the hold …I never labored harder in my life” | What is the Boston Tea Party? |
Tuesday, 7 June 2022 | Writing Old & New - This 2013 bestseller shares its title with the first section of a poem from 7 centuries before | What is Inferno? |
Monday, 6 June 2022 | Greek Mythology - Of the Argonauts seeking the Golden Fleece, these 2 from the same family were from Sparta according to Homer | Who are Castor and Pollux? |
Friday, 3 June 2022 | Technology - Upon the first use of this in 1844, the Baltimore Sun declared that time & space had been annihilated | What is the telegraph? |
Thursday, 2 June 2022 | UNESCO World Heritage Sites - Known as the female Lawrence of Arabia, Gertrude Bell called this place “a fairy tale city, all pink & wonderful" | What is Petra? |
Wednesday, 1 June 2022 | The Early 19th Century - Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve signaled “engage the enemy” around noon & surrendered at 1:45 PM during this battle | What is the Battle of Trafalgar? |
Tuesday, 31 May 2022 | Novel Quotes - Referring to the book’s title, this character says, “I know it’s a poem by Robert Burns” | Who is Holden Caulfield? |
Monday, 30 May 2022 | In Memoriam 2022 - On the death of this trailblazing man, friend & mentor, Oprah said, “For me, the greatest of the ‘great trees’ has fallen” | Who is Sidney Poitier? |
Friday, 27 May 2022 | Sports & Entertainment – In 2021 this Hall of Fame athlete launched Omaha Productions | Who is Peyton Manning? |
Thursday, 26 May 2022 | Historic Geography - A 1946 speech declared the terminuses of the Iron Curtain to be port cities serving these 2 seas | What are the Baltic Seas and the Adriatic Seas? |
Wednesday, 25 May 2022 | Famous Speeches - in a draft of FDR’s speech of December 8, 1941, the words “World History” were changed to this one word | What is "infamy"? |
Tuesday, 24 May 2022 | The Middle Ages - It was the surname of the 2 Scottish brothers who claimed monarchies of 2 different countries in the 13-teens | What is Bruce? |
Monday, 23 May 2022 | Medicine - Post-this disease syndrome affects many survivors, of which the U.S. is estimated to have 300,000, the vast majority over 65 | What is Polio? |
Friday, 20 May 2022 | On the Map - It’s referred to as “the blue eye of Siberia” | What is Lake Baikal? |
Thursday, 19 May 2022 | The Ancient World – New research suggests a device now called the Archimedes screw helped maintain this one of the 7 wonders of the world | What is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? |
Wednesday, 18 May 2022 | Oscar-Winning Songs - Johnny Mercer’s lyrics to this 1961 Oscar-winning song once began, “I’m Holly" | What is Moon River? |
Tuesday, 17 May 2022 | Literature - A contemporary review of a novel by this man said he “commands attention as a kind of literary James Dean” | Who is Jack Kerouac? |
Monday, 16 May 2022 | The National Park Service - The U.S.A.’s smallest National Park is a 91-acre site on the Mississippi River, home to this 630-foot landmark | What is the Gateway Arch? |
Friday, 13 May 2022 | State Names - This state was named for a man born in Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover in 1683 | What is Georgia? |
Thursday, 12 May 2022 | Constitutions of the World - Amendments to its 1901 constitution require approval of at least 4 states before receiving Royal Assent | What is Australia? |
Wednesday, 11 May 2022 | Say It In Italian - It’s an Italian word for “mercy”, but also the name of a movie character who kills Stracci & Carlo | What is Clemenza? |
Tuesday, 10 May 2022 | Live Music - These 2 events held 2 1/2 months & 2,500 miles apart in 1999 were the last of one major music happening & the first of another | What are Woodstock and Coachella? |
Monday, 9 May 2022 | Novel Titles - A 1590 poem written for the retirement of Queen Elizabeth’s champion knight shares its title with this 1929 novel by an American | What is A Farewell to Arms? |
Friday, 6 May 2022 | USA - These 2 mayors gave their names to a facility built on the site of an old racetrack owned by Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler | Who are William B. Hartsfield & Maynard Jackson? |
Thursday, 5 May 2022 | 20th Century Cinema - A black & white newsreel in this film begins: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree” | What is Citizen Kane? |
Wednesday, 4 May 2022 | The Civil War - a union soldiers’ song said Gen. McClellan, who let a Confederate Army escape after this battle, “Was too slow to beat ‘em” | What is Antietam? |
Tuesday, 3 May 2022 | NationalAnthems - "TerredenosAieux" followsthetitle intheFrenchversion ofthisanthem | What is O Canada? |
Monday, 2 May 2022 | Theater - In November 1864 John Wilkes Booth & his brothers were fittingly part of a performance of this Shakespeare play | What is Julius Caesar? |
Friday, 29 April 2022 | Musical inspirations – “Tuileries” & “The Great Gate of Kiev” were 2 of the artworks that inspired this classical work completed in 1874 | What is Pictures at an Exhibition? |
Thursday, 28 April 2022 | Books of the 1970s - Aptly, members of a Black family in this novel have Biblical names: Pilate, Hagar & the title one, an ancestor of the protagonist | What is Song of Solomon? |
Wednesday, 27 April 2022 | Poets - In 1939 he was buried near his last residence in France, but his body arrived in Galway en route to final burial on Sept. 17, 1948 | Who is William Butler Yeats? |
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 | African Surnames - Adetokunbo, “the crown has returned from overseas”, is fitting for the Adetokunbo family who left Nigeria for this country in 1991 | What is Greece? |
Monday, 25 April 2022 | Names in American History - Capable of freighting about 180 tons of cargo, in 1624 it was in disrepair & appraised at a total value of 128 pounds | What is the Mayflower? |
Friday, 22 April 2022 | Historic Names - DNA from 2 living descendants of Anne of York was used to identify the remains of this man | Who is Richard III? |
Thursday, 21 April 2022 | Films of the 1950s - The title character of this film has the same name as the Roman goddess of the dawn | What is Sleeping Beauty? |
Wednesday, 20 April 2022 | On the Internet - This website launched in 2015 with 3 offerings, from James Patterson, Dustin Hoffman & Serena Williams | What is MasterClass? |
Tuesday, 19 April 2022 | Countries of Africa - Old maps depicting what’s now this 125,000-square-mile country labeled the area with the French word for “teeth” | What is Côte d’Ivoire? |
Monday, 18 April 2022 | World Literature - Befitting the title, Antoine Gallard, the first Western translator of this collection, worked on it only “after dinner” | What isThe Thousand and One Nights? |
Friday, 15 April 2022 | Academy Award Winners - In 2019 he won his first competitive Oscar, 36 years after a Student Academy Award for a film about a Brooklyn barbershop | Who is Spike Lee? |
Thursday, 14 April 2022 | Women in British History - The orphaned future Queen Elizabeth I was devoted to this stepmother who died 2 days before Elizabeth’s 15th birthday | Who is Catherine Parr? |
Wednesday, 13 April 2022 | History - Intimately familiar with World War I, Churchill considered this war from some 150 years before the "First World War" | What is the Seven Years’ War? |
Tuesday, 12 April 2022 | Geographic Terms - The 1964 article that gave this term its current use noted the “menace that haunts the Atlantic off our southeastern coast” | What is the Bermuda Triangle? |
Monday, 11 April 2022 | Words of the Year - Oxford’s Word of the Year for 2021 was this 3-letter one, short for a word that goes back to the Latin for “cow” | What is Vax? |
Friday, 8 April 2022 | 19th Century Literature - The strand union workhouse whose rules prohibited second helpings of food inspired a setting in this 1838 novel | What is Oliver Twist? |
Thursday, 7 April 2022 | Inventions - Patented in 1955, it did not go over well in the high-end fashion world but the then-new aerospace industry found it very useful | What is Velcro? |
Wednesday, 6 April 2022 | Small Countries - French, Italian & Swiss nationals make up about half of its population of 38,000 | What is Monaco? |
Tuesday, 5 April 2022 | Classic Games - Reuben Klamer, who passed away in 2021 at age 99, developed this game relatable to “literally everyone on Earth” | What is Life? |
Monday, 4 April 2022 | Current Television - Fittingly, the last name of the family at the center of this drama is from French for “king” | What is Succession? |
Friday, 1 April 2022 | Countries of the World - Some of this country’s indigenous people want its name officially changed from its Dutch-based name to Aotearoa | What is New Zealand? |
Thursday, 31 March 2022 | Historic Places - Following a raid at this establishment in 1969, protesters confronted police by forming a Rockette-style kickline | What is the Stonewall Inn? |
Wednesday, 30 March 2022 | Americans in Paris - In 2021 she became the sixth woman & the first Black woman to be inducted into the Panthéon in Paris | Who is Josephine Baker? |
Tuesday, 29 March 2022 | Shakespeare’s Women - It is said of her, “Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets: more needs she the divine than the physician” | Who is Lady Macbeth? |
Monday, 28 March 2022 | Sports History - Taking the mound for Cleveland in 1948, he was the first African American to pitch in a World Series | Who is Satchel Paige? |
Friday, 25 March 2022 | U.S. City Names - Adopted in 1845, the name of this state capital is a feminized form of a big body of water | What is Atlanta, Georgia? |
Thursday, 24 March 2022 | Disney Characters - In the source material from more than 3 centuries ago, her name was Badr al-Budur, “full moon of full moons” | Who is Princess Jasmine? |
Wednesday, 23 March 2022 | Poems - The title of this poem comes from a 1920 book that refers to its possible “restoration to fruitfulness” | What is The Waste Land? |
Tuesday, 22 March 2022 | Historic Nicknames - Napoleon’s troops gave him this nickname not to mock him but for showing the courage of an infantryman in battle | What is The Little Corporal? |
Monday, 21 March 2022 | Singers - In 2021 at age 95, this singer achieved a Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material | Who is Tony Bennett? |
Friday, 18 March 2022 | Newspaper Talk - Meaning an important part of a story, this distinctive spelling helped distinguish the word from a substance used in typesetting | What is lede? |
Thursday, 17 March 2022 | Nonfiction - This 1962 classic was dedicated to Albert Schweitzer, who predicted that man “will end by destroying the earth” | What is Silent Spring? |
Wednesday, 16 March 2022 | Movie Stars - Matthew McConaughey said, “‘Dazed & Confused’, the first words I ever said on film were” these | What is “alright, alright, alright”? |
Tuesday, 15 March 2022 | Meteorology - It was feared this word caused panic, but in 1950 the USWB ended a ban on it in forecasts, saying prediction wasn’t impossible | What is a Tornado?
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Monday, 14 March 2022 | World War I - Suvla Bay & Cape Helles were major landing sites along this peninsula | What is Gallipoli? |
Friday, 11 March 2022 | Symbols - This U.S. politician asked for a multicolored pennant for a parade; demand increased after his death in 1978 | Who is Harvey Milk? |
Thursday, 10 March 2022 | Famous Trials - On her acquittal in 1893, a reporter cited nearby events 2 centuries earlier, saying the days of witch trials are over | Who is Lizzie Borden? |
Wednesday, 9 March 2022 | Epitaphs - Her epitaph, from a 1925 poem by her, ends, “She knows that her dust is very pretty”; “dust” was in another she wrote for herself | Who is Dorothy Parker? |
Tuesday, 8 March 2022 | Broadway Musicals - Characters Mark, Roger & Maureen in this musical were inspired by Marcello, Rodolfo & Musetta in another work | What is Rent? |
Monday, 7 March 2022 | Central America - A small river connects these 2 lakes that combined form close to 10% of their country’s area | What are Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua? |
Friday, 4 March 2022 | Literary Characters - Dostoyevsky wrote that this title man in an earlier European novel is “beautiful only because he is ridiculous” | Who is Don Quixote? |
Thursday, 3 March 2022 | European Cities - Pizzo means protection money; the Addiopizzo movement was founded in this city in 2004 | What is Palermo Italy? |
Wednesday, 2 March 2022 | Art Museums - Before its 1959 opening, 21 artists protested its design, saying it would make paintings look tilted & askew | What is the Guggenheim Museum? |
Tuesday, 1 March 2022 | The Silver Screen - He was the first actor to star in 3 films that won the Oscar for Best Picture: those of 1934, 1935 & 1939 | Who is Clark Gable?
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Monday, 28 February 2022 | Modern War - Called the longest siege of a capital in modern history, the assault on this city lasted from 1992 to 1996 | What is Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina? |
Friday, 25 February 2022 | Awards - These awards have a retro version & winners include the novel “The Sword in the Stone” & “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast | What are the Hugo Awards? |
Thursday, 24 February 2022 | Fictional Families - Introduced in the 1930s in The New Yorker, they’ve appeared on TV & Broadway & in live action & animated films | Who are the Addams Family? |
Wednesday, 23 February 2022 | Play Characters - A 1949 review noted the “wrong formulas for success” of this character & “fatal misconceptions about his place in the scheme of things” | Who is Willy Loman? |
Tuesday, 22 February 2022 | American Women - In 1914 she received a patent on a trefoil emblem, which she would transfer to an organization a few years later | Who is Juliette Gordon Low? |
Monday, 21 February 2022 | Historic European Families - This family has been traced to the Mugello valley around the year 1200 & the name suggests the trade of physician | What is Medici? |
Friday, 18 February 2022 | Plays - First published in 1602, its title characters are Margaret & Alice | What is The Merry Wives of Windsor? |
Thursday, 17 February 2022 | Long-Running TV Show Characters - This character who has been on the air for more than 50 years is only 6 1/2 years old | Who is Big Bird? |
Wednesday, 16 February 2022 | 18th Century History - The stated aim of this period was using violence to achieve political goals; its success aided in its demise in under a year | What is the Reign of Terror? |
Tuesday, 15 February 2022 | 20th Century Authors - Early in his career he worked for a newspaper whose style guide said, “use short sentences” & “use vigorous English” | Who is Ernest Hemingway? |
Monday, 14 February 2022 | The Midwest - At about 90,000 it’s the most populous U.S. city on North America’s biggest lake | What is Duluth, Minnesota? |
Friday, 11 February 2022 | International Playwrights - A piece of writing advice from this man who died in 1904 concludes, “Otherwise don’t put it there” | Who is Anton Chekhov? |
Thursday, 10 February 2022 | 20th Century People - In 1946 she was aboard a train to Darjeeling when she heard what she later described as “the call within a call” | Who is Mother Teresa? |
Wednesday, 9 February 2022 | American Cities - Recorded on a visit to this California city, YouTube’s first video featured a man saying, “They have really, really, really long trunks” | What is San Diego? |
Tuesday, 8 February 2022 | 20th Century Fiction - The author’s foreword to this novel says, “When I read it now I feel myself back again on the steamer from Aswan to Wadi Halfa” | What is Death on the Nile? |
Monday, 7 February 2022 | Toys & Games - Its co-creator said adding an “L” to the end of the 1st word in the original title of this board game invented in 1979 “made it" | What is Trivial Pursuit? |
Friday, 4 February 2022 | Behind the Disney Attraction - The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror utilizes technology developed by this company founded in 1853 | What is Otis? |
Thursday, 3 February 2022 | Famous Americans - He was buried in 1969 in one of the World War II uniform jackets named for him | Who is Dwight Eisenhower? |
Wednesday, 2 February 2022 | Recent TV - The credits on “The Queen’s Gambit” included this man as “special consultant” | Who is Garry Kasparov? |
Tuesday, 1 February 2022 | Historic Geography - This city on the Rhone River that is partly a World Heritage Site was papal property until the French Revolution | What is Avignon France? |
Monday, 31 January 2022 | Women Who Write - Mimicking her style, a 1912 rejection note read: “Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one” | Who is Gertrude Stein? |
Friday, 28 January 2022 | 1970s Singer-Songwriters - While speaking to Congress in 1985, he explained that his 1973 hit, now a state song, wasn’t about drugs | Who is John Denver? |
Thursday, 27 January 2022 | 18th Century Names - In 1793 he left Dublin for the United States, saying, “I expect to make a fortune” off George Washington, & he did | Who is Gilbert Stuart? |
Wednesday, 26 January 2022 | Countries of the World - The only nation in the world whose name in English ends in an H, it’s also one of the 10 most populous | What is Bangladesh? |
Tuesday, 25 January 2022 | Sea Life - In 2018 National Geographic reported that half of this was dead, “akin to a forest after a devastating fire” | What is the Great Barrier Reef? |
Monday, 24 January 2022 | US Museums - Named for a benefactor, it was established in 1893 to house artifacts from the nearby World’s Columbian Exposition | What is the Field Museum of Natural History? |
Friday, 21 January 2022 | Mountains - First scaled in 1829, this 17,000-foot mountain has caused excitement by the supposed discovery of wood high up on it | What is Mt Ararat? |
Thursday, 20 January 2022 | Words in American History - The 1890 Census reported that “the unsettled area has been so broken into…that there can hardly be said to be a” this | What is a frontier? |
Wednesday, 19 January 2022 | Films of the 2000s - One of the screenwriters of this 2001 film described it as “‘Clueless’ meets ‘The Paper Chase'” | What is Legally Blonde? |
Tuesday, 18 January 2022 | Awards Around the World - France’s national theater award, it’s named for a man who died in Paris in 1673 | What is the Molière Award? |
Monday, 17 January 2022 | Scientific Names - The 1905 paper that gave this its name also referred to it as “Dynamosaurus Imperiosus” | What is the Tyrannosaurus Rex? |
Friday, 14 January 2022 | Cemeteries & Memorials - 60,000 are at rest in a National Memorial Cemetery opened in 1949 in the crater of an extinct volcano in this state | What is Hawaii? |
Thursday, 13 January 2022 | The Words of Victor Hugo - This object “is the ultimate expression of law, & its name is vengeance; it is not neutral, nor does it allow us to remain neutral” | What is the Guillotine? |
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 | Historic Americans - In 1838 he took a new last name, of a family in Walter Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake”; for distinction he added a 2nd “S” to the end | Who is Frederick Douglass? |
Tuesday, 11 January 2022 | Broadway Musicals - Each in a show that ran more than 2 years, Ethel Merman & Sarah Jessica Parker played 2 different characters with this first name | What is "Annie"? |
Monday, 10 January 2022 | 19th Century Notables - On his deathbed in France in 1890, he told his brother, “The sadness will last forever" | Who is Vincent Van Gogh? |
Friday, January 7 2022 | 20th Century Nonfiction - “Norwegian Independence Day” & “A Vast Blue Sea” are mentioned in Chapter 1 of a 1948 book by this man | Who is Thor Heyerdahl? |
Thursday, January 6 2022 | Historic Buildings - Begun in the 1070s with stone from Caen, it was meant to dominate both a skyline & the hearts & minds of a conquered populace | What is the Tower of London? |
Wednesday, January 5 2022 | The 1950s - The first TV debate between presidential candidates of the same party involved him & future running mate Estes Kefauver | Who is Adlai Stevenson? |
Tuesday, January 4 2022 | Word Origins - From the Greek for “ring”, the first ones were built by the Romans, including one that could hold 250,000 | What is Circus? |
Monday, January 3 2022 | Sculptors - Los Angeles artist George Stanley sculpted this, first handed out at a private banquet on May 16, 1929 | What is the Oscar? |