To up my game, there will be an ACTUAL AWARD for the winner of the ring of eight TDs. To be eligible to win an Amazon gift card, you must participate in all eight TDs. Winner will be the one with the lowest total score.
Each TD in the ring will have at least one visual question, at least one aural question, at least one sports question, and one before and after question.
I don't want to take over TDs for eight weeks. However, you will notice TD 371 has been posted even before TD 370 closes on Monday morning, March 12. I would be more than happy to spread my TDs out, so would someone please get a TD ready to post on March 18-19?
Standard TD rules apply. For each question below, there are a number of choices. Choose one as your answer. Think Different is scored by the number of people who submit the same answer. It's best to be the only person who chooses a particular answer. The most common answer is called the sheep. You don't want to be a sheep. Incorrect answers get the sheep score plus five points. Low score wins. Bonus questions will allow you to reduce your score by up to five.
You may drop one question and sheep one question. (To sheep means to accept the highest score on a question without fear of giving an incorrect answer.) No research! Your answers must come from your head; not your reference library, search engine or your neighbor who writes for a quiz show. This TD closes Monday, March 19 at 9:00 AM EDT.
Submit your answers here
For information only, here's the area code map from the classic period. Note how simple it is compared to today's area code map.
Finally, I would like to put a halt to people asking questions about the questions in the forum. Providing more clarification isn't fair to people who submit early. Please advise me privately if I have made some error in constructing the TD, but do not expect me to provide more information about the clues. If you're not sure something is a correct answer, don't use it. There must be some you're absolutely sure about.
On with the TD...
301 - MARYLAND
Answer one of these questions about state and provincial postal abbreviations. Be careful: All of these ask for the name of the state or province, not the abbreviation. LETTER NOT REQUIRED.
- What state's postal abbreviation is the name Paul Simon said we could call him?
- What state's postal abbreviation is also the monogram of the government agency that provides our fighting men and women with hospitals and cemeteries?
- What state's postal abbreviation is a common conjunction?
- What state's postal abbreviation also refers to Arabian Nights?
- What state's postal abbreviation is sometimes confused with the largest city in the west?
- Name either the state or Canadian province whose postal abbreviation is a preposition. (Will be scored separately)
- What state gave up its abbreviation when Canada also adopted two-letter abbreviations?
- What state's postal abbreviation is a homonym for the opposite of full?
- What state's postal abbreviation is the same as the Internet country code for Canada?
- Arguably the least feminist state, its postal abbreviation is nevertheless a badge of feminism.
302 - DELAWARE
Delaware is the Diamond State. Identify one of these cuts of diamond. LETTER REQUIRED.
303 - COLORADO
Name a peak in the Colorado Rockies.
304 - WEST VIRGINIA
John Denver accidentally immortalized the state of West Virginia in his song "Take Me Home, Country Roads." "Almost Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River..." But wait, you say. Those places aren't in West Virginia. Alas, it was one of the greatest boners in music history. Denver didn't know West Virginia was a state; he thought when people said WV, they were talking about western Virginia. So he wrote a song about western Virginia. But it stuck in the Mountain State.
Name a song written and/or recorded by John Denver.
305 - FLORIDA
Answer one of these questions about companies headquartered in Florida. LETTER NOT REQUIRED
- Name the popular Italian restaurant chain owned by Darden Restaurants, based in Orlando
- What rental car company (which is no longer #1) for many years used O.J. Simpson as its pitchman?
- What railroading company was formed by the merger of Chessie (ne Chesapeake & Ohio) and Seaboard?
- What office supply giant took over rival OfficeMax after plans for a different merger were thwarted by the Justice department?
- What Daytona-based company is the first acronym in stock-car racing?
- Subscribe to this three-letter Boca Raton security company and you can put an octagonal sign on your property.
- What rental truck company's vehicles were used to bomb both the World Trade Center and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building?
- What banana company is headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, not so far north of the very, very tropical equator?
- What Fort Lauderdale-based chain of car dealerships was founded by Wayne Huizenga?
- What Lakeland-based supermarket chain is owned by its employees, not the public?
306 - SASKATCHEWAN
Saskatchewan's capital is Regina, which means queen. Name a reigning monarch.
307 - WYOMING
Wyoming is unique because of the Great Basin, which doesn't get drained to the ocean. Name a U.S. river that empties directly into the ocean and drains more than one state.
308 - NEBRASKA
The history of Nebraska is greatly linked to the development of the Union Pacific, the country's first transcontinental railroad. It built west from Omaha and its yard in North Platte is the largest in the world. Answer one of these questions about railroads. LETTER NOT REQUIRED.
- The only truly transcontinental railroad in North America is this one built through the Great White North above the great lakes, across the prairies, and over the Rocky Mountains at Kicking Horse Pass
- What is the one-word nickname of the railroad that built outward from St. Louis and eventually reached the Gulf of Mexico but never crossed the Rocky Mountains?
- What is the two-word name of the railroad (from which folks get the time of day) that was celebrated in an Oscar-winning song?
- What is the one-word name of the ill-fated railroad created from the remnants of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the New York Central, the Central of New Jersey, and the Reading Railroad?
- What railroad baron ran the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the CB&Q from his headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota?
- What prison city in California is home to a famous railroad loop where a train longer than 84 cars will cross over itself?
- What nearly exclusively passenger railroad carries people due east from New York City?
- What Amtrak train passes through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia and is named for the state birds of all those states?
- What Illinois Central express was celebrated in song by Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson, among others?
- If you want to shuffle off to Buffalo, you might want to get on board this Amtrak train that runs from New York City or Boston to Chicago.
309 - ILLINOIS
One of the remarkable things about the Prairie State is how it is criss-crossed by interstate highways. In part, this is because of the delicate nature of Illinois politics whereby whenever something is built in greater Chicago, something also has to be built downstate. This means Illinois has interstates in places where there aren't even many people. Answer one of these questions about interstate highways. LETTER REQUIRED.
- A. What is the only two-digit east-west (even-numbered) interstate that goes directly to Canada?
- B. What interstate connects Logan Airport with Seattle?
- C. Be sure you don't mistake the interstate number with the speed limit on this interstate that connects New Brunswick (both of them) to Miami
- D. What president was the Interstate Highway System posthumously named for?
- E. I-35 runs from the shore of Lake Superior to the Rio Grande. It splits into I-35W and I-35E twice along its route. Name the two metropolitan areas where this happens. (A correct answer will have the names of four cities.)
- F. No American route has the cache of Route 66, lending its name to a song and a TV series. This splendid route has been supplanted by interstates. Name the three interstate highways that have replaced Route 66 over the greatest length of its route from Chicago to Barstow.
- G. What interstate number appears in both the Centennial State and the state where history was made 100 years earlier?
- H. For what president is most of I-88 named?
- I. What interstate runs from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to the George Washington Bridge?
- J. What two-digit interstate passes through Las Vegas?
312 - ILLINOIS
Identify one of these Chicago landmarks. (Do not name something in the background of the photos under penalty of sheep +5.)
313 - MICHIGAN
Detroit is the Motor City, or Motown. It has been for more than 100 years. Motown Records was founded there, before Berry Gordy went west.
Listen to this audio clip and name one of these classic Motown songs and its artist.
BONUS
Before becoming associated with cars, Detroit's nickname was City of the _______. (-1 point)
314 - MISSOURI
The old 314 has been greatly shrunken so that now it only includes St. Louis. In its classic period, the 314 included all of eastern Missouri, including Hannibal on the Mississippi.
Name a work by Mark Twain.
315 - NEW YORK
The 315, in its classic period, included the longest part of length of the Erie Canal. If you're not ready to use a lifeline because you've had enough of all the geography questions in this TD, answer one of these questions about canals. LETTER NOT REQUIRED.
- What canal in the heart of Ottawa becomes a large skating rink during the capital's long winter?
- What governor and presidential namesake is credited as the founder of the Erie Canal?
- What two major rivers that flow directly to the sea are connected by the Champlain Canal?
- Lynn Canal is a natural canal, not manmade, and it's a major thoroughfare in which state?
- An adventurous boater can use the Trent-Severn Waterway to pass between what two Great Lakes?
- What senator and presidential candidate was born under the U.S. flag in the Panama Canal Zone?
- What former city in California (now annexed to another) once had a grid of backyard canals (nearly all gone) like its namesake in Europe?
- What canal would someone traverse to get around Niagara Falls?
- What river was widened and deepened over time to allow ships to pass from the East River to the Hudson?
- What canal connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea?
316 - KANSAS
You know how to do it. Combine two clues into an overlapping answer. Example: Current supreme court justice who wrote the Declaration of Independence: Clarence Thomas Jefferson.
- Burt Bacharach-Hal David song famously recorded by Dionne Warwick and inspired a cross-country journey through Kansas starring Steve Martin and John Candy
- KC suburb who played Richard Mulligan's nurse on Empty Nest
- Kansas City-born saxophonist who practically invented bebop and then went on to star in "Dazed and Confused" and "Best in Show"
- Topeka-born female penned the words "We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We" and thousands of reviews of Broadway shows for the New York Times
- This El Dorado-born "Beetle Bailey" creater was played by Chuck Norris in a long-running police series
- British philosopher and logician who founded a candy company in Kansas
- "Cheers" co-star born in Wichita who goes out on the prowl each night, walking on fences, dislodging trash can lids, killing small mammals, and sometimes engaging in coitus
- Bea Benadaret vehicle that served as the base for T.J. McVeigh
- The Beaver's dad (born in Lawrence) is major oil-refining center
- Dick Grayson's aunt was born in Kinsley, Kansas and went on to produce or direct many excellent comedies starring his wife Julie Andrews or Peter Sellers
- Wichita-born star of "Miami Vice" is one of the country's leading manufacturers of personal care products, including Band-Aid, Tylenol, Listerene, but NOT Windex, for crying out loud
- Hillary Clinton's Overland Park-born running mate featured the ultraparanoid Captain Queeg
317 - INDIANA
Name a winner of the Indianapolis 500
318 - LOUISIANA
Their statues are falling a-plenty. Name a Confederate general.
BONUS
For -1 point each, name these Louisiana dishes:
a. Sausage, seafood, chicken, and rice, with celery, onion, and bell peppers
b. Broth, okra, meat, roux, celery,onion, bell peppers
c. Rice, chicken liver, bell pepper, onion, celery
d. Crawfish in a roux sauce served over rice
319 - IOWA
Name a city anywhere on the length of the Mississippi River that has a television station.