Undeniable Chemistry
Chemists won an Ig Nobel for finding the right airborne amount of a compound from this Japanese horseradish to wake sleepers
What is Wasabi?
JFK installed the first practical White House taping system a couple of months before this crisis, which is how we know that during a lighter moment someone said, "Let's make Bobby mayor of Havana"
What is The Cuban Missile Crisis?
POP MUSIC HISTORY:
Appropriately, this 1984 blockbuster was the first music CD mass-produced in the United States
What is Born in the USA?
This grouchy librettist won a 1950 Pulitzer for his work on "South Pacific"
Who is Oscar Hammerstein?
ARCHITECTURE:
Begun in the 1170s on former marshland, it has been called a "perfect imperfection" & a "legendary mistake"
What is the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
In 1976 the first of this type of rechargeable battery was developed in part by using layers of titanium disulfide
What is Lithium-Ion?
My new book "The Situation Room" recounts some tense moments in that White House room, like during the Bosnian War, when this woman asked Colin Powell, "What's the point of having this superb military if we can't use it?"
Who is Albright?
1960's ROCK:
This 1967 No. 1 hit contains snippets of "In The Mood", "Greensleeves" & "She Loves You"
What is All You Need is Love?
22nd & 24th POTUS
Who is Grover Cleveland?
MEDICAL HISTORY:
Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: "After an extended tour of Europe he retired to Concord...& he died in obscurity"
Who is Julius Caesar?
C22H24N2O8 is the formula of this antibiotic that's known for fighting acne but can take on cholera too
What is Tetracycline?
A shooting war between nuclear powers qualifies as a crisis, like in 1969, when a tiny island on the Soviet-Chinese border saw fierce fighting between the Red Army & this one, the PLA
What is the People's Liberation Army?
MUSIC MEN:
Before creating this record label in 1959, its founder worked on a Lincoln-Mercury assembly line
What is Motown?
The first player in the National League to be MVP two years in a row, he's known as Mr. Cub
Who is Ernie Banks?
20TH CENTURY AMERICA:
10-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. sang with his church's choir at the celebrated premiere of this film
What is Gone with the Wind?
Let's see if your Os is running properly; this element, No. 76, is used to make hard alloys for phonograph needles
What is Osmium?
n the 1861 Trent Affair, the Union seized two Confederate envoys from a British ship, not pleasing this often-abrasive prime minister known as "Lord Pumice Stone"
Who is Lord Palmerston?
POP MUSIC:
First released as a single in 1982, this song was re-released & charted again 17 years later & 17 years after that
What is 1999?
This patron saint of Mediterranean sailors lent his name to a phenomenon seen during storms
Who is St. Elmo?
ASTRONOMY:
Discovered in 1967, the 1st of these stars was dubbed LGM-1--the perceived signal was jokingly thought to be from little green men
What are Pulsars?
The number of variables that must be fixed to define a physical state is expressed in "degrees of" this, also a noble concept
What is Freedom?
Three years before World War I, anti-German feeling in France & Britain grew when Germany sent a single gunboat to Morocco in what's known as the crisis of this port down the coast from Casablanca
What is Agadir?
MOVIE MUSIC:
The last 2 Best Song Oscar winners whose titles were the same name as the movie they were in had this man in the leading role
Who is Daniel Craig?
Nickname of I. Lewis Libby who grew up to be Vice President Cheney's powerful chief of staff
Who is Scooter?
PRE-CIVIL WAR PRESIDENT:
Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: "After an extended tour of Europe he retired to Concord...& he died in obscurity"
Who is Franklin Pierce?