Hometowns Past and Present
This is the only major river in the world whose flow has been completely and permanently reversed by human engineering.
What is the Chicago River?
When the Game was Ours was co-written by these NBA superstars, whose head-to-head battles in the 1980s epitomized the legendary Celtics-Lakers rivalry.
Who are Larry Bird and Magic Johnson?
1996's Space Jam follows this NBA star's real-life 17 month retirement from the NBA, during which he played for the Chicago White Sox.
Who is Michael Jordan?
This organization serving the NYC area just announced a $100M renovation project for its Chambers St station, which has been partially abandoned for 95 years.
What is the Metropolitan Transit Authority?
Our Sun, like all stars, is primarily composed of this element.
What is hydrogen?
Having grown up in this state where pumping your own gas is illegal, I once drove away from a gas station with my fuel cap hanging open.
What is New Jersey?
One of my favorite books last year was on US history through the lens of this federal institution, which is the only organization that serves every address in the country.
What is the United States Postal Service?
Next month, I'm going to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra play my favorite cello concerto by this composer, who is most famous for his 'New World Symphony'.
Who is Antonín Dvořák ?
This is the most common name for a train station in the United States.
In this film, Jodie Foster's character picks up an alien signal at a real-life radio observatory called the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
What is Contact?
Many of my late-night meals in undergrad came from this Philly-based convenience store chain, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word for 'goose'.
What is Wawa?
In a Patrick Süskind novella, a bank guard with a 'propensity' for rigid routine falls into crisis when this common bird turns up outside his door.
What is a pigeon?
In college I was a big fan of Anderson .Paak, whose 2021 R&B collaboration with this headlining singer produced the popular single "Leave the Door Open".
Who is Bruno Mars?
This Amtrak line got its name from the state bird of all of the six states it originally ran through.
What is the Cardinal?
In billions of years when our Sun's core is depleted of hydrogen fuel, it will expand and cool, becoming this kind of star and possibly engulfing the Earth.
What is a red giant?
In my favorite local political scandal, This state governor closed two lanes of the world's busiest bridge to cause traffic as political retaliation.
Who is Chris Christie?
After rejecting his Anthropology thesis in 1947, UChicago awarded this author a master's degree in 1971 on the strength of his satirical novel Cat's Cradle.
Who is Kurt Vonnegut?
My interest in basketball was kickstarted by recordings of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, which was formed in response to the US losing gold to this former country in 1988.
What is the Soviet Union?
It's on my bucket list to ride this line, which is the world's longest continuous railway, running from Moscow to Vladivostok.
What is the Trans-Siberian Railway?
It took astronomers at Australia's Parkes Observatory 17 years to figure out that mysterious, recurring millisecond-long radio signals were in fact caused by this common appliance.
What is a microwave oven?
I was born in this city, formerly nicknamed "The Big Oyster" centuries ago when its Hudson River held about half of the world's oyster population.
What is New York City?
This sci-fi novel, adapted by Tarkovsky into an acclaimed 1972 film, follows scientists on a research station orbiting a mysterious planet whose ocean may be sentient.
What is Solaris?
This postwar art movement was led by two of my favorite painters, Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, among others including Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
What is Abstract Expressionism?
In 1882, this historical railroad company (which is featured in Monopoly) was the largest corporation in the world.
What is Pennsylvania Railroad?
The 2017 Physics Nobel was awarded for the first detection of gravitational waves, which were predicted in 1916 as a consequence of this theory.
What is Einstein's theory of General Relativity