Musings of a Dead Parrot

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1.  American Indian environmental activist Winona LaDuke is best-known for serving as the running mate of what presidential candidate during both of his two most successful campaigns?  Ralph Nader
2.  The original stadium used by baseball's New York Giants was first built to host what other sport?  football - Yankee Stadium
3.  The title of what mega-selling young adult novel by John Green is a nod to Cassius's claim in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar that humans are helpless "underlings" to cosmic fate?  no idea
4.  In physics, a collision between two objects in which no overall kinetic energy is lost is said to be "totally" what?  elastic
5.  Shona, Swahili, and Zulu are the most widely spoken languages of what branch of the Niger-Congo language family?  Bantu
6.  For what 2013 movie was Samantha Morton cast as the title character but then replaced--remarkably--AFTER principal photography was already complete?  "Her" (I just read this in the paper this weekend)
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these famous people?  Alexander the Great, Ludwig van Beethoven, Truman Capote, Charlie Chaplin, Che Guevara, Franz Haydn, Abraham Lincoln, Groucho Marx...and St. Nicholas himself.  Some of them were left-handed.  Cannot confirm others.

LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1.  The ceremonial "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats of Strength" are celebrated as part of what winter holiday?  As memorialized on Seinfeld in 1997, this is Festivus.  A Festivus...for the rest of us! correct
2.  On December 25, 1711, Parliament ordered a payment of 200 pounds as the final salary to what man, marking the completion of his most famous project?  Sir Christopher Wren was probably underpaid for his reconstruction of London's St. Paul's Cathedral.  correct
3.  In the movie It's a Wonderful Life, how much money does Uncle Billy accidentally lose for the Bailey Building & Loan on Christmas Eve?  I've probably seen this movie thirty times and couldn't have answered this.  Yes, in hindsight, this was probably a little bit hard.  The old drunk leaves $8,000 in Potter's newspaper at the end of the third act.  Essay question: what do you think the town's "job creator" does with all the extra money?  Probably creates more jobs.  I was within 25%
4.  A popular French Christmas carol asks Jeanette and Isabella to bring what?  A torch.  Or, in the original French, un flambeau.  I'm not sure what they do with it because this is one of those Christmas songs where I don't even know the second line.  bleah
5.  In December 1992, British engineer Neil Papworth sent the phrase "Merry Christmas" to his boss at a staff Christmas party.  This was the very first what ever sent?  The first text message ever.  It's Christmas, Neil.  Take a break.  correct
6.  Balsam, Fraser, and Noble, three of the most popular Christmas trees in America, are all varieties of what tree?  These are species of fir tree.  The Douglas fir often rounds out the top four on Christmas popularity lists, but that would have made the question pretty easy.  correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies?  An Education, Ghostbusters, The Living Daylights, Love in the Afternoon, Mona Lisa Smile, The Money Pit, Short Cuts, What Lies Beneath.  Each movie features a sexy cellist!  (Is there any other kind?)  Initially I had Truly Madly Deeply instead of The Money Pit, which would have made this a bit easier.  But (a) the cellist is Truly Madly Deeply is a not-particularly-sexy Dead Alan Rickman and (b) most importantly, my wife loves The Money Pit and lobbied hard for its inclusion.  No accounting for taste, I guess.   correct!