News Quiz

No. 224: “Spring Break”

Back in Washington after the two-week congressional recess, Trent Lott answered a reporter this way: “I would describe it one word–quizzical. Like, why? And what?” How did Sen. Lott spend his vacation?

by noon ET Wednesday to e-mail your answer to newsquiz@slate.com.

Monday’s Question (No. 223)–“You Who?”:

“I’m on top, I’m 35 years old, I don’t want to get hurt anymore, and I’ve got nothing left to prove.” Who said this about what?

“Drew Barrymore’s liver.”–Adam Bonin

“Katharine Hepburn, turning down the lead in yet another remake of Gloria.”–Cliff Schoenberg

“George Stephanopoulos, on his publisher’s insistence that for the next book he use a ghostwriter and, for the media tour, lose the rug.”–Barbara Lippert (Marilyn L, Bill Burton, and Mary Anne Townsend had similar answers.)

“Every single one of the guys who broke up with me last year.”–Alison Rogers

“Julie Krone, telling Bill Clinton why she’s going to kill him.”–Richard A DeCamp

Click for more answers.

Randy’s Wrap-Up

Let’s take a rare glimpse inside the News Quiz Tower (it’s not yet killed as many people as that new Condé Nast Building, but next week we start heaving copies of Vogue off the observation deck) and learn what it takes to get a hefty 400-pound hog from the farm to your table to the president’s desk where it is signed into law. By which I mean: How did we select today’s question? By rejecting these three:

1. “Fill in the blank in this remark by Susan Webber Wright, the first judge to hold a U.S. president in contempt of court. ‘I don’t think a judge should be __________. My focus is to be fair to all sides.’ “

A good way to get at an important story, but nixed on formal grounds. We ran a fill-in-the-blank just last week. We try for variety in form as well as in subject matter.

2. “Texas Rep. Charlie Gonzalez said, ‘You’ve seen someone else handle it up close and personal, so you know you can survive it. It’s not so foreign to you.’ Handle what?”

A nice ambiguous remark that participants would do well with, but it refers to too trivial a story, children of former officials–Bush/Dodd/Kennedy–going into the family business.

3. “The Leonardo DiCaprio film The Basketball Diaries, the computer game Mortal Combat, and the Internet sex site Meow Media–what’s the connection?”

A pleasing juxtaposition of elements, and it’s sure fun to type out “sex site Meow Media,” but rejected for both form and content. We’ve used this structure recently, and it’s a lightweight story.

I began hoping to do something with either the war or the president’s contempt citation, and eager to use “I give the headline; you give the lead,” or “I give the answer; you give the question,” or “I give the caption; you describe the photo,” three nice forms we’ve not used lately. But nothing turned up that worked that way. I’m relieved that Trent Lott’s back in town.

100-Pound Answer

Jockey Julie Krone said it about retiring.

In her 18-year career, Krone won 3,541 races, earned over $80 million in prize money, and broke more than a dozen bones. In 1993, she won the Belmont Stakes and rode five winners in one day at Saratoga. Last November, at the Meadowlands, she broke her right knee riding a winner; she won two more races before going to the hospital.

Have Another Candied Egret, Your Grace, It’s for Charity Extra

The “Benefits” column in Sunday’s New York Times listed more than two dozen events coming up this week. A few highlights:

Event: Sting is among those singing a tribute to Sinatra.

Tickets: $2,000.

Beneficiary: The rain forest.

Downside: Sting is singing tribute to Sinatra.

Event: Young professionals throw Cinco de Mayo party.

Tickets: $75.

Beneficiary: Leukemia Society.

Downside: Open bar means hundreds of young professionals gooned on margaritas and their own benevolence.

Event: MC Charlie Rose honors Cardinal O’Connor.

Tickets: $1,000.

Beneficiary: Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Downside: Chance that O’Connor could stop by Cinco de Mayo party on way over, get tanked on margaritas, make crude pass at Charlie Rose.

Event: Steve Martin and others read from their own stuff, honor Rupert Murdoch.

Tickets: $500.

Beneficiary: Adult literacy programs.

Downside: Could be the night God’s wrath descends on Rupert Murdoch, killing hundreds of literacy volunteers in corollary damage from lightning strike.

Event: One hundred restaurants including Four Seasons and Nobu, hold Sunday Night Supper.

Tickets: Free! A percentage of each bill goes to charity.

Beneficiary: Groups that provide meals to the homebound.

Downside: Overt use of phrase “crumbs from rich man’s table” could cause scores of diners to die of embarrassment.

Common Denominator

Andre Agassi, Brooke Shields, George Stephanopoulos, and that darned beaver. There’s your wacky sitcom, Mr. Bigshot development jerk.