Noumenal Yodelling
May 10-11, 2013
On-Air Questions and Songs
Unused questions are shown with gray text.
| Number | 1 |
| Question | What actress developed a performance art piece "The Maybe" wherein she lived on display in a glass box for a week? |
| Answer | Tilda Swinton |
| Song | Ice Ice Baby |
| Artist | Vanilla Ice |
| Number | 2 |
| Question | If the philosopher Immanuel Kant were to go to Switzerland, he would be looking for this, but he wouldn't be able to tell anyone about his quest. |
| Answer | Noumenal Yodelling |
| Song | Some Yodelling Song |
| Artist | Some Yodellers |
| Number | 3 |
| Question | What do a lie detector, jet-pack fuel, a Geiger counter, a xylophone, shark repellent, a roulette wheel and pool table, a washing machine, a water pump, a telegraph, a battery recharger, soap (made from plant fats), lead radiation suits and make-up, a helium balloon (made with rubber raincoats sewn together), and shark repellent have in common with each other but not with a seaworthy raft? |
| Answer | Objects improvised by the Professor on Gilligan's Island |
| Song | Once in a Lifetime |
| Artist | Talking Heads |
| Number | 4 |
| Question | What video game has one character (of 35) that is considered so powerful, owing to the high priority on moves such as mach tornado, and drill rush, that tournaments are moving to ban his use? |
| Answer | Super Smash Bros. series |
| Song | Video Games |
| Artist | Lana Del Rey |
| Number | 5 |
| Question | Remembered for her much speculated-upon relationship with one great Romantic composer, discussed in a poem by Lisa Mueller, and her marriage to another, this woman was herself an successful pianist and composer. |
| Answer | Clara Schumann |
| Song | Heartbeats |
| Artist | The Knife |
| Number | 6 |
| Question | Which HBO TV show takes as its premise the invention of a synthetic blood substitute? |
| Answer | True Blood |
| Song | Heartbeats |
| Artist | Knife |
| Number | 7 |
| Question | Which location, visited less frequently than New York and slightly more than Kentucky, was temporarily replaced by a stock exchange in 1936? |
| Answer | Free Parking |
| Song | Big Yellow Taxi |
| Artist | Joni Mitchell |
| Number | 8 |
| Question | This baseball team, owned by Ted Lerner, left RFK Stadium in 2007 to play in their namesake park, where, true to tradition, President George W. Bush threw the first pitch. |
| Answer | Washington Nationals |
| Song | Take Me Out to the Ballgame |
| Artist | Carly Simon |
| Number | 9 |
| Question | This English femme fatale, who claims at the end of the novel that "we could have had such a damned good time together," is undermined by the narrator's response "Isn't it pretty to think so?" |
| Answer | Lady Brett Ashley |
| Song | Send Me on My Way |
| Artist | Rusted Root |
| Number | 10 |
| Question | Who had a love interest with Madame Olympe Maxime, but to many fans disappointment, never married? |
| Answer | Rubeus Hagrid |
| Song | You and I |
| Artist | Lady Gaga |
| Number | 11 |
| Question | This dessert was invented by Danish immigrant storekeeper Christian Kent Nelson when he tried to combine two treats as a special favour for a boy who wanted both but could only afford one. |
| Answer | Eskimo Pie |
| Song | Snow Miser Song |
| Artist | The Year Without a Santa Claus |
| Number | 12 |
| Question | What movie features the quote: "There's an old joke. Umm, two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort. And one of 'em says: 'Boy, the food in this place is really terrible.' The other one says: 'Yeah, I know. And such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly..."? |
| Answer | Annie Hall |
| Song | Crazy in Love |
| Artist | Beyonce |
| Number | 13 |
| Question | Which author wrote about a fictional actress who had recently starred in a wiener commercial in his collection Girl with Curious Hair? |
| Answer | David Foster Wallace |
| Song | Living with David Foster Wallace |
| Artist | Blammos |
| Number | 14 |
| Question | Who was the guest on the most-censored talk show episode in history? |
| Answer | Madonna |
| Song | Ave Maria |
| Artist | Luciano Pavarotti |
| Note | It's painful to watch, but here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TgqquzI6-A |
| Number | 15 |
| Question | Which 1999 LL Cool J movie features a very cool scene of Samuel Jackson getting his arm bitten off by a genetically engineered Mako Shark, which was created for the sake of curing Alzheimer's? |
| Answer | Deep Blue Sea |
| Song | Breakfast at Tiffany's |
| Artist | Deep Blue Something |
| Number | 16 |
| Question | Google's 2008 pranks included the announcement that Google Book Search now allowed you to utilize what type of books? Users were instructed to place the necessary organs next to their monitors and click "GO". |
| Answer | Scratch and Sniff |
| Song | Bump n' Grind |
| Artist | R. Kelly |
| Number | 17 |
| Question | Which poem is about a "gleaner" watching "the latest oozings, hours by hours" by a "cider-press," during a "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness"? |
| Answer | "To Autumn" by John Keats |
| Song | Her Morning Elegance |
| Artist | Oren Lavie |
| Number | 18 |
| Question | What have scientists tried and failed to do by locating a periodic wobble that is proportional to radius, the goal of the Kepler mission? |
| Answer | detection of extrasolar planets [or detection of exoplanets] |
| Song | Moonshadow |
| Artist | Cat Stevens |
| Number | 19 |
| Question | What goddess, the favorite child of the Creator, ruled along with her husband in the period before that of the nine akhu? |
| Answer | Ma'at |
| Song | Venus |
| Artist | Bananarama |
| Note | Ma'at was the Egyptian goddess representing truth, balance, and order. |
| Number | 20 |
| Question | Which artist painted a self-portrait in which red and green apples dangling from a branch appear behind his disembodied head? |
| Answer | Paul Gauguin |
| Song | All Around the World or the Myth of the Fingerprints |
| Artist | Paul Simon |
| Number | 21 |
| Question | The daughter of the traitorous Calchas, this Trojan woman has been the subject of works by Bocaccio, Chaucer, Henryson, and Shakespeare. |
| Answer | Criseyde/Cressida/Crisseide (accept any variation) |
| Song | As Cool As I Am |
| Artist | Dar Williams |
| Number | 22 |
| Question | What desert in Western China is bounded by the Kunlun, Pamirs, and Tian Shen Mountains, and the Silk Road passed through it? |
| Answer | Taklamakan Desert |
| Song | Ramblin' Man |
| Artist | The Allman Brothers Band |
| Number | 23 |
| Question | What theory defended by which theorist analyzes the assumptions children make during the language acquisition process as evidence for innate principles shared by all languages? |
| Answer | The theory of universal grammar, from Noam Chomsky |
| Song | ABC |
| Artist | The Jackson 5 |
| Number | 24 |
| Question | This man is pictured handing his resignation to Thomas Mifflin in a painting located in the same building as a work by Constantino Brumidi in which he holds a sword and is surrounded by thirteen angels in heaven? |
| Answer | George Washington |
| Song | Rodeo: Hoedown |
| Artist | Aaron Copland |
| Note | The building is the US Capitol, and the Brumidi painting is a fresco on the ceiling of the rotunda. In the other picture Washington is resigning his commission in the continental army, after the conclusion of the war. |
| Number | 25 |
| Question | Which author of "The Ascent of Mount Ventoux" also wrote an epic poem about the victory at the battle of Zama by Scipio Africanus and humanist puns on the name of a woman he fell in love with on Good Friday in his poem "she used to let her golden hair fly free"? |
| Answer | Petrarch [or Francesco Petrarca] |
| Song | Laura |
| Artist | Frank Sinatra |
| Number | 26 |
| Question | Which composer wrote a ballet which opens with a bassoon solo and caused riots at its 1913 Paris premiere? |
| Answer | Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky |
| Song | The Rite of Spring |
| Artist | Igor Stravinsky |
| Number | 27 |
| Question | Which character of which play decides to commit suicide to leave a $20,000 life insurance policy to his sons? |
| Answer | Willy Loman [prompt on Loman] Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. |
| Song | Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend |
| Artist | Marilyn Monroe |
| Number | 28 |
| Question | Which singer has an alter ego, Bernard Shakey, who has made such films as Rust Never Sleeps and Silver & Gold? |
| Answer | Neil Young |
| Song | Teach Your Children |
| Artist | Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young |
| Number | 29 |
| Question | Which actress' first appearance on TV was in a movie adaptation of Hans Christen Andersen's The Little Match Girl? |
| Answer | Sarah Jessica Parker |
| Song | Empire State of Mind |
| Artist | Jay-Z |
| Number | 30 |
| Question | Which novel is about the holder of the job * "a millions girls would die for", though she is frustrated with the antics and demands of her upscale fashion boss? |
| Answer | The Devil Wears Prada |
| Song | Material Girl |
| Artist | Madonna |
| Number | 31 |
| Question | In an episode of Sesame Street, Bert established a "National Association" for the lovers of this letter, which Kermit the Frog lectured about until Cookie monster ate it. |
| Answer | W |
| Song | Whistle |
| Artist | Flo Rida |
| Number | 32 |
| Question | Which TV star, after his most famous show, was an "expert" for Battlebots and currently hosts Stuff Happens? |
| Answer | Bill Nye |
| Song | The Scientist |
| Artist | Coldplay |
| Number | 33 |
| Question | Which food item is featured in the Dutch Socialist Party logo? |
| Answer | tomatoes |
| Song | Let's Call the Whole Thing Off |
| Artist | Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong |
| Number | 34 |
| Question | Which film was the only success for Clara Blandick, Bert Lahr, and Ray Bolger? |
| Answer | The Wizard of Oz |
| Song | Carry On Wayward Son |
| Artist | Kansas |
| Number | 35 |
| Question | Before The Simpsons, what was the only primetime animated series that lasted for more than two seasons? |
| Answer | The Flintstones |
| Song | We Will Rock You |
| Artist | Queen |
| Number | 36 |
| Question | This tech celeberty has recently been known for his quirks, like Segway polo competition and dating Kathy Griffin. Perhaps most notably, he was partnered with Karina Smirnoff on the eighth season of Dancing With the Stars. |
| Answer | Steve Wozniak |
| Song | Dancing in the Moonlight |
| Artist | Toploader |
| Number | 37 |
| Question | On which holiday is the villain's name drowned out during a reading of the Megillah, during which participants give gifts of food after fasting the day before? |
| Answer | Purim |
| Song | Purim Song |
| Artist | The Maccabeats |
| Number | 38 |
| Question | What manner of playing is best suited to Prokofiev's fourth piano concerto and Paul Wittgenstein? |
| Answer | playing with one hand [or playing with the left hand] |
| Song | One Hand, One Heart |
| Artist | West Side Story |
| Note | Paul Wittgenstein was a concert pianist who lost his right arm in World War I. Afterwards, he commissioned a number of piano concerti for the left hand alone. |
| Number | 39 |
| Question | Which man allegedly carried around a lantern during daylight to search for an honest man? |
| Answer | Diogenes of Sinope |
| Song | This Little Light of Mine |
| Artist | Gospel Dream |
| Number | 40 |
| Question | Which character's hand is bitten off (by a loose seal wearing a yellow bow tie who had become accustomed to mammal blood after fighting with a cat) and replaced by a hook, which leads him to give very painful back massages? |
| Answer | Byron "Buster" Bluth |
| Song | Year 3000 |
| Artist | Busted |
| Note | Byron "Buster" Bluth is a character on the series Arrested Developement. |
| Number | 41 |
| Question | Which book was written as the first of a three-book contract for Seymour Lawrence, is dedicated to a taxi driver and has a climax when Edgar Denby is killed for stealing a teapot? |
| Answer | Slaughterhouse-Five |
| Song | Die Young |
| Artist | Ke$ha |
| Number | 42 |
| Question | Which movie's title refers to The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, took much inspiration from Robert Altman's Chandler adaptation of The Long Goodbye, and includes 147 "man"s in the script? |
| Answer | The Big Lebowski |
| Song | Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live) |
| Artist | Paul Simon |
| Number | 43 |
| Question | Which film has unicorn scenes in the director's cut version that were speculated to be outtakes from the director's next film, Legend? |
| Answer | Blade Runner |
| Song | Running Up That Hill |
| Artist | Placebo |
| Number | 44 |
| Question | Jon Voight has appeared in five of which man's films, including a role where he plays an antagonistic agent involved in surveillance alongside Will Smith in Enemy of the State? |
| Answer | Jerry Bruckheimer |
| Song | He's a Pirate |
| Artist | Klaus Badelt |
| Number | 45 |
| Question | Peter Davison became the Fifth Doctor after his recurring role as Tristan on the show All Creatures Great and Small, named after the novels written by which veterinarian? |
| Answer | James Herriot |
| Song | Who Let the Dogs Out? |
| Artist | Baha Men |
| Note | James Herriot wrote a book for each line of the poem "All Things Bright and Beautiful". Herriot's real name was Alf Wight, which he didnt use for fear of breaking rules about self-promotion by veterinarians in the UK. |
| Number | 46 |
| Question | This Murakami novel follows a boy whose name translates as "Crow" as he flees home. The plot revolves around a flute made of the souls of cats, and is partly a retelling of the story of Oedipus. |
| Answer | Kafka on the Shore |
| Song | Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman) |
| Artist | Counting Crows |
| Number | 47 |
| Question | This team, permitted to compete in the World Lacrosse Championship despite not actually being any sort of political entity with established borders, since 1998 has never finished lower than fourth. |
| Answer | Iroquois Nationals |
| Song | The World's Greatest |
| Artist | R. Kelly |
| Number | 48 |
| Question | The Bogomerom archipelago is located in this body of water, along with some notable floating islands. |
| Answer | Lake Chad |
| Song | Ain't No Mountain High Enough |
| Artist | Diana Ross |
| Number | 49 |
| Question | What character dances around in a white dress at a ceremony during which the ghosts of the dead are supposed to be released from a cavern, leading her stepfather to banish her in one play? |
| Answer | Electra |
| Song | Electric Feel |
| Artist | MGMT |
| Number | 51 |
| Question | During a constitutional crisis in which country did John Kerr dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam when the opposition, in control of the Senate, deferred supply? |
| Answer | Commonwealth of Australia |
| Song | Can't Get You Out of My Head |
| Artist | Kylie Minogue |
| Number | 52 |
| Question | The Spitzenkorper in this kind of organism is located near the plasma membrane and regulates growth. |
| Answer | Fungi [or fungus; prompt on mushrooms or yeast] |
| Song | Take Me Out |
| Artist | Franz Ferdinand |
| Number | 53 |
| Question | In this thought experiment, argued against by Hilary Putnam, a mad scientist has removed a certain body part from the body, and is stimulating it with electrical currents to simulate reality. |
| Answer | brain in a vat |
| Song | Brain Stew |
| Artist | Green Day |
| Number | 54 |
| Question | Which board game, created by Klaus Teuber (pronounced TOY-ber) in Germany, has players collect resources like brick and sheep to build roads and cities? Its expansions include Cities and Knights, Seafarers, and Traders and Barbarians. |
| Answer | The Settlers of Catan [or Die Siedler von Catan] |
| Song | 99 Luftballons |
| Artist | Nena |
| Number | 55 |
| Question | Which man dreams of an epidemic that makes each person believe that he alone knows the truth? |
| Answer | Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov |
| Song | Unwell |
| Artist | Matchbox Twenty |
| Number | 57 |
| Question | What poet advised a woman to "put as little trust as possible in tomorrow," and composed a work to be performed at games celebrating the end of the century? |
| Answer | Horace [or Quintus Horatius Flaccus] |
| Song | Feel This Moment |
| Artist | Pitbull featuring Christina Aguilera |
| Number | 58 |
| Question | To what phrase did Gary Larson apply the acronym TGIF, on a poster next to a man's bed above his shoes in a Far Side cartoon? |
| Answer | Toes Go in First |
| Song | Bubbly |
| Artist | Colbie Caillat |
| Number | 59 |
| Question | The ritual of bi'ur, or burning, traditionally precedes the distribution of which object, which is traditionally stolen by children? |
| Answer | matzos [or matzahs; or matzot; or matzoth] |
| Song | It Will Follow the Rain |
| Artist | The Tallest Man on Earth |
| Note | Bi'ur is the buring of leavened foods which are forbidden for passover. |
| Number | 60 |
| Question | Which pop singer was the first winner of the Gershwin prize, and, in 2002, recorded the track "Father and Daughter" as the theme song for The Wild Thornberrys Movie? |
| Answer | Paul Simon |
| Song | Rhapsody in Blue |
| Artist | George Gershwin |
| Number | 61 |
| Question | Which French architect wrote the influential book Towards a New Architecture, the principles of which are exemplified in such buildings as the Notre Dame du Haut and the Villa Savoye? |
| Answer | Le Corbusier [or Charles-Edouard Jeanneret] |
| Song | Mr. Jones |
| Artist | Counting Crows |
| Number | 62 |
| Question | This man was a contemporary critic of Anselm's ontological argument. His namesake island, which is the most perfect one that can be conceived, is the crux of his reductio ad absurdum refutation of Anselm's proof. |
| Answer | Gaunilo of Marmoutiers |
| Song | Birdhouse in Your Soul |
| Artist | They Might Be Giants |
| Number | 63 |
| Question | Which particles appeared to be traveling in excess of the speed of light was one of the tau flavor of these leptons, which also have muon and electron varieties. |
| Answer | neutrinos |
| Song | The Lazy Song |
| Artist | Bruno Mars |
| Note | Two recent experiments, one by the MINOS group in Chicago in 2007 and one by the OPERA group in Switzerland in 2011, seemed to show that neutrinos travelled faster than the speed of light. Both results were disputed and have since been withdrawn. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light#Time_of_flight_of_neutrinos |
| Number | 64 |
| Question | In which work does the adoption of an orphan lead to an epidemic of insomnia? |
| Answer | One Hundred Years Of Solitude [or Cien Anos De Soledad] |
| Song | Eleanor Rigby |
| Artist | The Beatles |
| Number | 65 |
| Question | Which state's odder historical nicknames include the "Stubbed-Toe State"? |
| Answer | Montana |
| Song | Bloodbuzz Ohio |
| Artist | The National |
| Note | First seen in the 1922 edition of the World Almanac, the only explanation for Montana as the "Stubbed-Toe State" comes from the Dictionary of Americanisms, which asserts that the nickname refers to the mountainous region of western Montana where the multitude of rocks might pose a hazard to the novice hiker. |
| Number | 66 |
| Question | In 1926, Alberto Gentili discovered 14 volumes of music by which composer, who included the "turtle dove" aria "Veni sequere fida" in his only surviving oratorio? |
| Answer | Antonio Lucio Vivaldi |
| Song | The Four Seasons: Winter |
| Artist | Antonio Vivaldi |
| Number | 67 |
| Question | This American major general in command at Bunker Hill later participated in the retreat from Long Island and put down a mutiny at a now-namesake camp in Redding, Connecticut during the winter of 1778 to 1779. |
| Answer | Israel Putnam |
| Song | The General |
| Artist | Dispatch |
| Number | 68 |
| Question | In court, which pickpocket, whose real name is Jack Dawkins, yelled, "I am an Englishman; where are my rights?" |
| Answer | The Artful Dodger |
| Song | One Way or Another |
| Artist | Blondie |
| Number | 69 |
| Question | In this short story, the title protagonist attempts to assert his individuality by dancing with a ballerina on television before both are shot to death by Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers. |
| Answer | "Harrison Bergeron" |
| Song | Such Great Heights |
| Artist | The Postal Service |
| Note | The story is by Kurt Vonnegut. |
| Number | 70 |
| Question | Jackie Mason gets tortured, Moses gets mugged, the king is impersonated by the "pissboy" and Comicus is saved from Caeser's imperial goons by a horse named "miracle" in which movie? |
| Answer | History of the World, Part I |
| Song | Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer |
| Artist | Dean Martin |
| Number | 71 |
| Question | Who invested $7500 in the 1974 movie "Beauty Queens", claiming that the film was a "spoof of beauty contests"? |
| Answer | Phil Gramm |
| Song | Dancing Queen |
| Artist | ABBA |
| Note | "Beauty Queens" was a soft-core porno movie that was never completed. This didn't stop Gramm from becomeing a Texas senator. |
| Number | 72 |
| Question | Three Oxford colleges lay claim to being the University's oldest. Name the five oldest Oxford colleges. |
| Answer | Merton College, University College, Balliol College, Exeter College, and Oriel College. |
| Song | Itchycoo Park |
| Artist | Small Faces |
| Number | 73 |
| Question | The works of this poet have been considered the worst poetry in the English language, including the lines, "Beautiful railway bridge of the Silvery Tay! With your numerous arches and pillars in so grand array. And your central girders that seem to the eye to be almost towering to the sky. The greatest wonder of the day and a great beautification to the River Tay"? |
| Answer | William McGonagal |
| Song | The Sorcerer's Apprentice |
| Artist | Paul Dukas |
| Number | 74 |
| Question | What is the one constant rule of Calvinball? |
| Answer | Never use the same rule twice. |
| Song | Hakuna Matata |
| Artist | The Lion King |
| Number | 75 |
| Question | The Oscars switched from "And the winner is..." to "And the Oscar goes to...." for distributing awards in what year? |
| Answer | 1988 |
| Song | Sweet Child o' Mine |
| Artist | Guns N' Roses |
| Note | The first ceremony with the new phrase was in 1989, when they gave awards to 1988 movies. |
| Number | 76 |
| Question | Which first live-action/life-size puppet Saturday morning show done by Sid and Marty Krofft ran from 1969 to 1971, then appeared in repeats from 1972-73 and centered around a shipwrecked boy named Jimmy, who takes a ride on a mysterious boat to Living Island? |
| Answer | H. R. Pufnstuf |
| Song | Mr. Tambourine Man |
| Artist | Bob Dylan |
| Note | Reruns kept showing until 1985. There's nothing else quite as trippy. |
| Number | 77 |
| Question | Who, rather than assist Aule, became a servant of Darkness, often took the shapes of a Werewolf and Vampire, and slew Finrod Felagund with fell sorcery? |
| Answer | Sauron |
| Song | Eye of the Tiger |
| Artist | Survivor |
| Number | 78 |
| Question | Vanilla Ice Cream, Toffee, chocolate syrup, and a cone that isn't a cone at all comprise which desert treat? |
| Answer | the Choco Taco |
| Song | Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell |
| Artist | Das Racist |
| Number | 79 |
| Question | Whose works helped inspire the "Life In Hell" cartoon where Akbar and Jeff complain that their new apartment has great rent but clumsy neighbors, as well as the climax of "Labyrinth? |
| Answer | M.C. Escher |
| Song | Right Round |
| Artist | Flo Rida featuring Ke$ha |
| Number | 80 |
| Question | In which game can you land on the first orange space, and take the Rainbow Trail, which means you avoid the Peppermint Forest and the Gooey Gumdrops? |
| Answer | Candyland |
| Song | Lollipop |
| Artist | Mika |
| Number | 81 |
| Question | In what competition do men traverse a 780-foot course through water on sand, grass, and asphalt, and over two fences? The fastest man earns a woman's weight in lemonade as his prize. |
| Answer | The Finnish National Wife-Carrying Championships |
| Song | I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) |
| Artist | The Proclaimers |
| Note | Major wife-carrying competitions are also held in Monona, Wisconsin, Minocqua, Wisconsin and Marquette, Michigan. |
| Number | 82 |
| Question | What company, founded by Gary Comer, was incorporated in 1963 as a Chicago-based shop for yachting enthusiasts? |
| Answer | Lands' End |
| Song | The Long and Winding Road |
| Artist | #1 Beatles Now |