Musings of a Dead Parrot

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1.  Lawrence Wright's recent best-seller Going Clear is a look behind the curtain of what organization?  CIA?
2.  What European company is, by number if not by volume, the world's biggest tire manufacturer, producing 318 million tires every year?  Michelin
3.  What classic game theory scenario was named in 1950 by Albert Tucker, who began it with the words, "Two members of a criminal gang are arrested"?  The Spanish Prisoner
4.  Only three people have ever descended to Challenger Deep, the lowest point of the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench.  What Hollywood personality is the only one to do it since 1960?  James Cameron
5.  The one-room schoolhouse depicted on the Iowa state quarter was chosen because what famed Cedar Rapids painter attended school there?  Grant Wood?  I noted the use of the term painter instead of artist.
6.  Speedo was the only corporate sponsor not to drop what athlete in 1994 when he announced that he was HIV positive?  Greg Louganis
7.  What unusual distinction is shared by all these literary figures?  Roald Dahl, Carlos Fuentes, Vaclav Havel, Charles Macarthur, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie. Each has been married to an actress - Patricia Neal, Rita Macedo, Dagmar Havlova, Helen Hayes, Marilyn Monroe, Vivien Merchant, Clair Bloom, Padma Lakshmi
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1.  The United Nations is headquartered in New York, but the League of Nations was headquartered in what European city?  Geneva--where many United Nations agencies, like WHO, are still headquartered today.  correct
2.  What TV host will take his first extended hiatus ever this summer, when John Oliver fills in for him for two months?  John Oliver is the Senior British Correspondent of The Daily Show, and will be subbing for its usual host Jon Stewart.  correct
3.  What British automobile is the second oldest four-wheel-drive vehicle brand in the world, after Jeep?  Since then-owner Ford merged the two brands in 2002, Jaguar has officially been Jaguar Land Rover. I guess that Range Rover is the make, Land Rover is the model
4.  Photosynthesis takes place inside what organelles in a plant cell?  The chloroplasts, as you might guess from their name, contain all the chlorophyll. chloroplasts!  why could I not recall that?
5.  In 1972, rock critic Robert Christgau wrote, "If a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like" what singer, "only a horse wouldn't rhyme 'yacht,' 'apricot,' and 'gavotte'"?  Wow, that's pretty harsh.  The yacht/apricot/gavotte rhyme is a highlight/lowlight of "You're So Vain," by Carly Simon. this could have been a really good question one or two more clues.  "what female singer" perhaps.
6.  The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is Ruth Benedict's classic 1946 anthropological study of what country?  The chrysanthemum is the official symbol of the imperial throne of Japan. correct
7.  What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies?  The Exorcist III, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Hellraiser, Johnny Got His Gun, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Personal Velocity, Sin City, Sleepwalk with Me.  Each was directed by the same person who wrote the original book on which the movie was based.  I guess that wikipedia research might have yielded this result, but I had already tuned out