Pop Culture
His purple “Cloud” guitar now shares Smithsonian exhibition space with Rocky’s boxing robe and Archie Bunker’s living-room chairs.
Who was Prince?
Traditionally associated with Rome, this pasta preparation combines eggs, cured pork, hard cheese, and black pepper, but no cream.
What is carbonara?
With boundaries formed by ocean currents rather than land, this sea occupies part of the North Atlantic.
What is the Sargasso Sea?
Social Security uses this four-letter acronym for the inflation adjustment that can increase benefits from one year to the next.
What is a COLA, or cost-of-living adjustment?
This narrow protective plate surrounding a keyhole shares its name with a shield-shaped surface used in heraldry.
What is an escutcheon?
Emilio Estefan was performing with the Miami Latin Boys when he met this future wife and lead singer, after which the group became Miami Sound Machine.
Who is Gloria Estefan?
Flour develops an elastic, gas-holding network when mixed with water because of this collection of wheat proteins.
What is gluten?
Belgrade joins Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest among the European capitals situated on this river.
What is the Danube?
In Social Security terminology, this acronym represents the worker’s average monthly income after historical earnings have been indexed.
What is AIME, or average indexed monthly earnings?
Found directly behind a chimney, this small peaked roof diverts rainwater around the obstruction rather than allowing it to collect.
What is a cricket?
The Smithsonian preserves a pair of sneakers worn by this soft-spoken television host, who famously changed into them at the start of his neighborhood visits.
Who was Fred Rogers, or Mister Rogers?
Ancient Romans used this fermented fish sauce so extensively that it appeared even in preparations we would now consider desserts.
What is garum?
Roughs Tower, a former British World War II sea fort off Suffolk, serves as the home of this self-proclaimed micronation.
What is Sealand?
Created in 1934 to formulate a national social-insurance program, this presidential panel shares its three-letter abbreviation with the initials of its full name.
What was the Committee on Economic Security, or CES?
This horizontal structural member links opposing rafters and helps prevent them from pushing the exterior walls outward.
What is a collar tie?
Romantic turmoil within Fleetwood Mac, including the collapsing relationships of the McVies and of Buckingham and Nicks, helped inspire this Grammy-winning 1977 album.
What is Rumours?
Once harvested near the ancient North African city of Cyrene, this giant-fennel relative was reportedly consumed to extinction by the Romans.
What is silphium, also called laserpitium or laser?
Although Antarctica surpasses it if polar deserts are included, this African expanse is the world’s largest hot desert.
What is the Sahara?
The first Social Security payments in 1937 were not monthly checks but single payments described by this hyphenated financial term.
What are lump-sum payments?
DD: In framing, this somewhat unflattering term describes a shortened stud installed above a door or window rather than extending the wall’s full height.
What is a cripple stud, or cripple?
Long before becoming famous with the Foo Fighters, this Smithsonian medal recipient was the drummer for Nirvana.
Who is Dave Grohl?
Officially titled De re coquinaria, this collection of more than 400 Roman recipes is commonly known by the name of a celebrated epicure.
What is Apicius?
More than 300 rivers and streams enter this Siberian lake, but only the Angara flows out; it is also the world’s oldest freshwater lake and deepest continental body of water.
What is Lake Baikal?
Unable to find sufficient office space in Washington, the early Social Security Board established its first headquarters in this former Baltimore bottling plant.
What is the Candler Building?
Usually filled with concrete, this tubular steel basement support takes its name from a Boston manufacturer, not from a woman.
What is a Lally column?