From: dtilque@frontier.com   
      
   On 5/1/24 23:59, Mark Brader wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   > * Game 7, Round 2 - Entertainment - Irish Celebrities   
   >   
   > Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Although not a major holiday in Ireland,   
   > March 17 is celebrated in North America as an excuse to drink green   
   > beer and claim Irish heritage.  Get in on the fun by naming these   
   > 10 Irish celebrities -- including Northern Ireland.   
   >   
   > 1. Born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, in 1952, he's a   
   >     well-respected actor who's done drama in "Schindler's List",   
   >     action in "Taken", and space opera in "Star Wars".   
   >   
   > 2. Born in Galway in 1987, she rose to fame as the "wee lesbian"   
   >     Clare in "Derry Girls", and is getting her own season of   
   >     Bridgerton as Penelope Featherington.   
   >   
   > 3. Born in County Donegal in 1961, this reclusive singer-songwriter   
   >     is still the best-selling Irish solo artist of all time,   
   >     even though her most successful album, "A Day Without Rain",   
   >     was released 24 years ago.   
   >   
   > 4. Born in County Limerick in 1971, her voice is remembered as   
   >     one of the most iconic of the 1990s.  Her five albums with the   
   >     Cranberries include songs like "Linger" and "Zombie".   
   >   
   > 5. Born in County Dublin in 1963, he's known for his campy humor,   
   >     saucy innuendo, and eponymous comedy chat show.  You might also   
   >     recognize him from his Eurovision commentary for the BBC.   
   >   
   > 6. Born in Cork in 1976, this actor got his start in theater and   
   >     independent movies before making it big with "28 Days Later"   
   >     and his four films with Christopher Nolan, especially the   
   >     most recent.   
   >   
   > 7. Born in 1920 in Dublin, she was given the nickname "The Queen   
   >     of Technicolor" because the camera loved her bright red hair.   
   >     Her biggest movies of the 1940s are "How Green was My Valley"   
   >     and "Miracle on 34th Street".   
   >   
   > 8. Born in Dublin in 1988, this mixed martial artist and boxer is   
   >     equally known for popularizing UFC fights worldwide and his   
   >     mouthy trash-talk.  In 2021, Forbes named him the world's   
   >     highest-paid athlete with an income of $180,000,000 US.   
   >   
   > 9. Born in 1994 in New York City to Irish immigrants, she and her   
   >     family returned to Dublin when she was 3 years old.  She was   
   >     only 12 when she was cast in "Atonement", and her impressive   
   >     filmography includes "Lady Bird" and "Little Women".   
   >   
   > 10. Born 1953 in County Louth, this elegant actor rose to fame as   
   >     TV detective Remington Steele.  He remains the only Irish actor   
   >     to play the world's most famous spy.   
   >   
   >   
   > * Game 7, Round 3 - Literature - Post-Apocalyptic Fiction   
   >   
   > Just when you were having a good time, along comes a novel about   
   > the end of the world as we know it.  Here are 10 apocalyptic or   
   > post-apocalyptic novels.  Given the year of publication, the author,   
   > and a brief description, name the novel.   
   >   
   > 1. Max Brooks, 2006.  The book is a series of individual documents   
   >     and accounts of desperate struggle during and after the   
   >     devastating global battle against the zombie plague.  It's   
   >     narrated by a member of the United Nations Postwar Commission.   
   >   
   > 2. Douglas Adams, 1979.  Alien bureaucrats demolish Earth to make   
   >     way for a hyperspace bypass, to the chagrin of the protagonist,   
   >     Arthur Dent.  He ends up in a series of cosmic misadventures   
   >     with a travel writer, a depressed robot, and many others.   
      
   The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy   
      
   >   
   > 3. Richard Matheson, 1954.  Robert Neville is the only unaffected   
   >     survivor of a global pandemic that has turned the world's   
   >     population into vampire-like zombies.  He studies their   
   >     physiology with a view to killing them all.  But will that make   
   >     him the good guy or the bad guy?   
      
   Omega Man   
      
   >   
   > 4. Nevil Shute, 1957.  The novel follows a group of people   
   >     in Melbourne, Australia, as they await the arrival of deadly   
   >     radiation from the northern hemisphere, after a nuclear war.   
   >     Each person deals with their impending death differently.   
      
   On the Beach   
      
   >   
   > 5. Margaret Atwood, 2003.  A genetically-modified virus wipes out   
   >     most of the population, except for small groups of child-like   
   >     herbivorous humans who were specially created to survive it.   
   >     Unaffected by the virus, a man called Snowman tries to survive,   
   >     pursued by strange hybrid animals.  Flashbacks explain how a   
   >     world dominated by bio-corporations made all this possible.   
   >   
   > 6. Emily St. John Mandel, 2014.  The Georgia Flu devastates the   
   >     world, including Toronto.  20 years later, members of a nomadic   
   >     group of actors and musicians known as the Traveling Symphony   
   >     encounter a violent cult, led by a man who is unknowingly linked   
   >     to a member of the troupe through a mysterious graphic novel.   
   >   
   > 7. P.D. James, 1992.  It's England in 2021, following a mass   
   >     infertility event.  Tyranny and fertility checks are the norm, as   
   >     not a single baby has been born in a very long time.  The story   
   >     follows the cousin of the dictator, as he joins a small group   
   >     of resistors who don't share the despair of the masses.   
   >   
   > 8. David Brin, 1985.  Gordon Crantz wanders post-apocalyptic Oregon,   
   >     scavenges the old uniform of a long-dead government worker,   
   >     and falsely claims to represent the "Restored United States",   
   >     bringing hope to the survivors.  Eventually he joins a group   
   >     of scientists, indigenous people, and villagers, to help them   
   >     organize the fight against violent survivalist militias and   
   >     maybe, actually, restore the nation.   
      
   The Postman   
      
   >   
   > 9. John Wyndham, 1951.  Most people in the world are blinded   
   >     by an apparent meteor shower.  A mysterious species of mobile   
   >     3-legged carnivorous plant, widely grown for its valuable oil,   
   >     starts stinging the blind survivors and devouring them.   
      
   Day of the Triffid   
      
   >   
   > 10. James Dashner, 2009.  Solar flares have scorched the Earth.   
   >     Viruses have been released by a wicked corporation to reduce   
   >     the population and save resources.  A group of teenagers find   
   >     themselves in a giant ever-changing labyrinth that they must   
   >     escape, as part of an evil experiment intended to find a cure   
   >     to the mental illness afflicting most of the survivors.   
   >   
      
   --   
   Dan Tilque   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)