He tried to refuse Pope Julius II's commission to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling but eventually gave in
Michelangelo
"My Cousin ____"
Vinny
A philatelist
stamps
The thermocline, a layer of the ocean from around 660' to 3,000' down, is so-called because this declines rapidly
the temperature
Do something dangerously stupid & I'm liable to call you this, also a Johnny Knoxville movie franchise
a jackass
(Sarah of the Clue Crew reports from the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.) In 1946, Rockwell got an actual lineman to pose at his studio on a pole fitted with cables & anchored to nearby trees for a commission for this phone company
AT&T
"My Own Private ____"
Idaho
A discophile
records
Wakame, an invasive form of this brown seaweed, is threatening native species in the San Francisco Bay
kelp
If someone calls you this, it doesn't mean you're a metal rod used to check a car's oil level; it means you're a jerk!
a dipstick
Titian was commissioned by Philip II of Spain to do 6 large-scale mythological paintings based on this Ovid poem
"Metamorphoses"
Lasse Hallstrom's "My Life as a ____"
Dog
A phillumenist (though restaurants used to make it a lot easier)
matchbooks
Research ships used by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in this state included Atlantis & Knorr
Massachusetts
Archie Bunker had a real beef with son-in-law Mike, whom he called this 8-letter name
"Meathead"
DAILY DOUBLE : In 1963 he did his first commissioned portrait, "Ethel Scull 36 Times"
(Andy) Warhol
Starring Judy Davis & set in bygone Australia: "My Brilliant ____"
Career
A vexillophile
flags or banners
Before he found the Titanic, he discovered hydrothermal vents in the Galapagos Rift
Robert Ballard
Call someone a schlimazel or this similar Yiddish word; they both mean "inept" & "unlucky"
a schlemiel
His unfinished "Gates of Hell" bronze doors were commissioned for a museum that was never built
Rodin
A TV movie about the founder of AA: "My Name Is ____ ____"
Bill W
A helixophile (he & an oenologist need each other)
a corkscrew
This deepest part of the Mariana Trench is named for the British survey ship that pinpointed the location in 1951
the Challenger Deep
You're rude & irresponsible; you remind me of this boy who's paired with Gallant in Highlights magazine
Goofus