Before & After
Pat Sajak’s longtime game show meets the crunchy folded treat with a message inside.
Wheel of Fortune Cookie
Will Ferrell was a “Saturday Night Live” cast member who had many recurring characters and impersonations. Which game show host did Will Ferrell impersonate?
A) Alex Trebek
B) Pat Sajak
C) Regis Philbin
D) Bob Barker
A) Alex Trebek
Fun fact: Ferrell played Trebek in the “Celebrity Jeopardy!” sketches, which started in 1996. The joke was Trebek’s slowly crumbling patience with clueless celebrity contestants.
Garzolini
Doodle - Italian painter known primarily for landscapes.
Which artist had a massive hit in 1999 with the song “Mambo No. 5”?
A) Ricky Martin
B) Marc Anthony
C) Lou Bega
D) Enrique Iglesias
C) Lou Bega
Fun fact: The song is a remake. The original “Mambo No. 5” was an instrumental by Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado from 1949. Bega built his version on a sample of it and added the famous chorus that name-checks a string of women. It hit No. 1 in more than a dozen countries.
Counting its overseas territories, which country spans the most time zones?
A) Russia
B) United States
C) China
D) France
D) France
Fun fact: France has 12 time zones, thanks to territories scattered across the globe, such as French Polynesia, Réunion, and French Guiana. Russia, the obvious guess, has 11. China, despite being nearly as wide as the continental U.S., uses just one.
The Wild West outlaw who reportedly killed 21 men meets the Detroit rocker behind “Bawitdaba.”
Billy the Kid Rock
Which Chris Farley “Saturday Night Live” character lived “in a van down by the river”?
A) Mike Donnelly
B) Bennett Brauer
C) Matt Foley
D) Tommy Callahan
C) Matt Foley
Fun fact: Farley named the character after a real friend, Matt Foley, who became a Catholic priest
Manicardi
Doodle - Cirillo Manicardi was an Italian painter of oils and watercolors, mainly of genre interiors. Manicardi was born in Massenzatico, today part of Reggio.
Who recorded the 2000 hit song “Who Let the Dogs Out”?
A) Vengaboys
B) Aqua
C) Eiffel 65
D) Baha Men
D) Baha Men
Fun fact: The Baha Men, from the Bahamas, didn’t write the song. It was a cover of “Doggie” by Trinidadian artist Anslem Douglas, released in 1998. Their version became a stadium anthem and won the Grammy for Best Dance Recording in 2001.
Which U.S. state is geographically closest to Africa?
A) Florida
B) North Carolina
C) Maine
D) Massachusetts
C) Maine
Fun fact: Florida is the trap answer because it feels farther south and east. The Atlantic coast curves eastward as you go north, though, so Quoddy Head in Maine is the closest U.S. point to Africa, about 3,150 miles from Morocco.
The jam band behind “Truckin’” meets the 1989 Robin Williams film about an inspiring prep-school English teacher.
Grateful Dead Poets Society
In early 1990, two future regular “Saturday Night Live” hosts made their hosting debuts. Who were they?
A) Steve Martin and Tom Hanks
B) Alec Baldwin and Christopher Walken
C) John Goodman and Buck Henry
D) Tom Hanks and John Goodman
B) Alec Baldwin and Christopher Walken
Fun fact: Baldwin holds the record for most times hosting SNL, with 17. Walken’s most famous appearance came a decade after his debut, in the 2000 “More Cowbell” sketch.
Corzetti
Noodle - is an ancient, traditional stamped pasta from the Liguria region of northwestern Italy.
Which Spanish pop duo created the 1990s dance craze “Macarena”?
A) Gipsy Kings
B) Los del Río
C) Las Ketchup
D) Los Lobos
B) Los del Río
Fun fact: Los del Río were two middle-aged men from Seville, Antonio Romero and Rafael Ruiz, not young pop stars.
What is the longest river in Europe?
A) Danube
B) Rhine
C) Volga
D) Thames
C) Volga
Fun fact: Most people guess the Danube, but the Volga is about 2,190 miles long, roughly 400 miles longer. It runs entirely through Russia and empties into the Caspian Sea.
Hemingway’s Pulitzer-winning novella about a Cuban fisherman meets the undersized Depression-era racehorse who became a national hero.
The Old Man and the Sea Biscuit
In 1994, which versatile performer made “Saturday Night Live” history by becoming the first person to be a cast member, a musical guest, and a host?
A) Harry Shearer
B) Christopher Guest
C) Michael McKean
D) Martin Short
C) Michael McKean
Fun fact: At age 46, he was the oldest person ever to join the SNL cast at the time, a record later surpassed by Leslie Jones, who joined in 2014 at age 47. McKean has said he got the offer because Phil Hartman had just left the show and they needed somebody to play David Spade’s dad.
Torrini
Doodle - Pietro Torrini (1852–1920): An Italian painter born in Florence, famous for 19th-century conversation pieces and informal figurative genre works with witty or anecdotal themes.
Which British band famously sang the 1982 hit “Come On Eileen”?
A) Dexys Midnight Runners
B) Madness
C) Tears for Fears
D) The Proclaimers
A) Dexys Midnight Runners
Fun fact: In the U.S., Dexys Midnight Runners is the classic one-hit wonder. “Come On Eileen” reached No. 1 in America in 1983, and the band never had another hit there.
Which African country has three capital cities?
A) Nigeria
B) Kenya
C) Egypt
D) South Africa
D) South Africa
Fun fact: South Africa splits its government among three cities: Pretoria is the executive capital, Cape Town is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital.
The 16th-century ruler who was the first to be crowned Tsar of All Russia meets the yellow rally rag that Pittsburgh Steelers fans have waved since broadcaster Myron Cope introduced it in 1975.
Ivan the Terrible Towel
Which athlete didn’t host an episode of “Saturday Night Live” in the 1990s?
A) Michael Jordan
B) Charles Barkley
C) Nancy Kerrigan
D) Wayne Gretzky
D) Wayne Gretzky
Fun fact: Gretzky just missed the decade. He hosted on May 13, 1989, with musical guest Fine Young Cannibals. He was the first NHL player ever to host the show.
Andarinos
Noodle - Andarinos di Usini is a rare, hand-rolled artisanal pasta unique to the small town of Usini in northwestern Sardinia, Italy.
Which synth-pop duo had a huge hit with their 1981 cover of “Tainted Love”?
A) Pet Shop Boys
B) Eurythmics
C) Soft Cell
D) Erasure
C) Soft Cell
Fun fact: The original “Tainted Love” was a 1964 soul song by Gloria Jones that flopped at the time. Soft Cell’s synth version spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, a record at the time for the longest run on the chart. Gloria Jones later became the partner of T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan.
Which two countries are the world’s only “doubly landlocked” nations, meaning they are surrounded entirely by other landlocked countries?
A) Switzerland and Mongolia
B) Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan
C) Austria and Kazakhstan
D) Andorra and Laos
B) Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan
Fun fact: To reach the ocean from either country, you have to cross at least two national borders. Liechtenstein borders only Switzerland and Austria. Uzbekistan is surrounded by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. Kazakhstan, a decoy here, is the world’s largest landlocked country, but it borders the Caspian Sea, which some count as a sea.