Friends Before They Were Famous
Real-Life Supervillains Missing the Point
Swan Songs
Crime...
...And Pun-ishment
200
Before he was either host or super champion of Jeopardy, Ken Jennings roomed at BYU with this future fantasy author and Cosmere creator
Brandon Sanderson
200
The name of this home security company derives from the all-seeing-eye (and cosmically evil antagonist) from The Lord of the Rings
Sauron
200
This band released their third and final album, In Utero, in 1993; six months later the band's lead singer and guitarist committed suicide
Nirvana
200
At the start of his crimes, this notorious serial killer was known as the Whitechapel Murderer
Jack the Ripper
200
"A spot for handing out pink slips", or a hearth at the base of a chimney
Fire place/Fireplace
400
In 2016, future Chernobyl and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin posted several embarrassing tweets about this former Harvard classmate and then-presidential hopeful
Ted Cruz
400
Elon Musk, arguably among the world's least empathetic individuals, named his chatbot after this term from Stranger in a Strange Land that can most closely be translated as "to empathize fully"
Grok
400
This final album recorded by the Beatles was named for the street their recording studio was on
Abbey Road
400
Soon after her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army, she helped rob a bank
Patty Hearst
400
"Where Noah stored his bees aboard his vessel", or a place where historical documents & records are kept
Ark hive/Archive
600
Just a few short years before his experimental rock band Swans would release their debut, frontman Michael Gira briefly dated this future mononymic popstar, who herself was just a few short years away from a very different kind of breakthrough with her song, “Like a Virgin”
Madonna
600
Bruce Schneier said of this NSA program (named for the evil AI from the Terminator franchise) that integrates machine learning with drone strikes, "if Google makes a mistake, people see an ad for a car they don't want to buy, but if the government makes a mistake, they kill innocents."
Skynet
600
This French electronic duo released Random Access Memories, featuring the hit single "Get Lucky," six years after their last studio effort, Human After All. They took another eight years to officially call it quits
Daft Punk
600
For the 1968 assassination of this man, Sirhan Sirhan was given the death sentence, commuted to life in prison
Robert Kennedy
600
"What you say to scare a lemon pie topping", or an Australian aboriginal weapon
Boo! meringue/Boomerang
800
Actress Cameron Diaz claimed that she bought weed in high school from this classmate and future rapper
Snoop Dogg
800
Add the color "green" to this meal replacement protein shake company, and you get the name of a dystopian film in which the titular product is made from human flesh
Soylent
800
He released Double Fantasy with his wife and collaborative partner on November 17, 1980; less than a month later he was gunned down outside of Central Park
John Lennon
800
From the Latin for "play together", this is people working or conspiring together to commit a crime
Collusion
800
"To break God's law until a prime time hour", or to sparkle brightly
Sin till late/Scintillate
1000
Adam Jones of Tool and Tom Morello of this legendary political rap metal band played music together in high school, and both bands later toured together in 1992
Rage Against the Machine
1000
Peter Thiel named this now-Florida-based data integration company after this powerful scrying orb from The Lord of the Rings, one of the most evil objects in-universe—missing the point, or a bit too on-the-nose?
Palantir
1000
Possibly the most literal entry in the category—he released "Blackstar" on January 8, 2016, and died the very same day
David Bowie
1000
In 1922, the last man in Britain to be jailed for this was John William Gott, for comparing Jesus entering Jerusalem to a circus clown
Blasphemy
1000
"The hog products you crave", or a mammal with quills
Pork you pine/Porcupine