Musings of a Dead Parrot

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1.  What TV show has changed settings in its second season from the "Murder House" at 939 Berro Drive in Los Angeles to an insane asylum called Briarcliff Manor?   sounds like it should be American Horror Story
2.  In math, a "Ruth-Aaron pair" is a pair of two consecutive integers with equal sums of their prime factors.  What two numbers make up the original Ruth-Aaron pair that gave the concept its name?  8 and 9?  The sum of prime factors for 8  = 6 (2+2+2).  The sum of prime factors for 9 = 6 (3+3)
3.  In what video game franchise would you find the small family farm called Lon Lon Ranch?  Farmville?
4.  Who's the only U.S. president whose military career topped out at four-star general?  Eisenhower?  I am pretty sure that Washington made it to 5 star general.  Don't know about Grant.
5.  What European Union member has more square miles of glacier than the rest of the continent put together?  Norway?
6.  What expression meaning "get to the point" originated as the filmmaking philosophy of silent movie producer Hal Roach?  cut to the chase
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these U.S. states and no others?  Georgia, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, and South Carolina--and, unofficially, Alabama and Washington?  No idea on this one.  Unofficial implies that the others have an official something - motto, song, bird, tree, etc.

LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1.  The only book series ever to have *two* installments win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was nicknamed for what animal?  This is John Updike's "Rabbit" tetralogy.  Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, the final two installments, both won the fiction Pulitzer, an unprecedented feat.  correct
2.  Manuela Saenz was nicknamed "la Libertadora del Libertador" after saving the life of what man from an 1828 assassination attempt?  She was the mistress of Simon "the Liberator" Bolivar, whose life she saved.  correct
3.  What instrument was primarily played by the lone woman in bands like Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, the Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, and 'Til Tuesday?  They all had a female bassist.  correct
4.  In two of this year's top-grossing movies, both released in late June, the protagonists magically find a sentient bear added to their families.  Name both films.  Brave and Ted--which would make for a great double-feature, by the way.  Bring the kids.  1/2 correct
5.  What politician married his high school sweetheart Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson in 1970, and separated from her almost exactly forty years later?  We know Mary Elizabeth better as "Tipper"; her still-sort-of-husband is Al Gore.  they separated?  I had not noticed.
6.  What does a limnologist study?  Lakes, rivers--any kind of inland water, really.  This is the source of the hilarious bumper sticker "Limnologists Do It While Studying Lakes, Rivers, and Other Inland Water."  cool.  But I was incorrect.
7.  What unusual distinction is shared by all these famous people?  Robert the Bruce, Lord Byron, Frederic Chopin, Jacques-Louis David, Thomas Hardy, Dr. David Livingstone, Jan Paderewski, Richard the Lionhearted.  I warned you that this one was hard, but I thought it was cool (and it was an anecdote I'd heard about at least a few of these guys).  All had their hearts buried separately from their bodies, which sounds weird today but was apparently a not-unheard-of practice in olden times.  Typically this was done to honor a luminary beloved in both his home region and the big city where he worked: Hardy's heart is in Dorchester, "Wessex," for example, while Chopin's is in Poland.  Livingstone's, of course, is in Africa--because it was cut out of his body by Zambian tribespeople who refused to give the body back to the Brits under any other circumstances.  Cool.  and correct