From: seelhoff@sophsoft.com   
      
   Good afternoon,   
      
   [Can anybody play?  This is my first time reading this newsgroup.]   
      
   msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote in   
   news:UfScnZYlkKKJeWn7nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@giganews.com:   
   > * Game 2, Round 2 - History - Bad Business Decisions   
   >   
   > Decca Records turned down the Beatles, and many publishers rejected   
   > J.K. Rowling's manuscript about a boy wizard.  Here are questions   
   > about other truly bad business decisions over the years.   
   >   
   > 1. E.T. liked Reese's Pieces, and placing them in that blockbuster   
   >    movie did wonders for Hershey's bottom line.  Which candy   
   >    did the filmmakers originally want Elliot to use to lure the   
   >    Extra-Terrestrial, but were turned down by that candy's maker?   
      
   - M&Ms (Mars)   
      
   > 2. Both NBC and CBS passed on this football broadcast idea, not   
   >    wanting to disrupt their prime-time schedules.  ABC took   
   >    the chance, and this broadcast, starting in 1970, is now the   
   >    longest-running series on American TV.  Name the broadcast.   
      
   - Monday Night Football   
      
   > 3. In 1979, Bill Gates offered Microsoft to a Texas businessman   
   >    for a reported $60,000,000.  Gates said no to the counter-offer   
   >    of $15,000,000.  Name the businessman, who twice ran for US   
   >    president.   
      
   - Ross Perot   
      
   > 4. In 1876, Western Union was offered a patent for an invention   
   >    for what seems like a measly sum of $100,000.  But the company   
   >    wasn't interested in what its president called an electrical   
   >    toy with no commercial possibilities.  What was the device?   
      
   - telephone   
      
   > 5. In 1999, the top two Internet search engines were Yahoo and   
   >    Excite.  The founders of another search-engine company offered   
   >    to sell their firm to Excite for $750,000, but Excite said no.   
   >    Name the other company, which is worth a fair bit more now.   
      
   - Google   
      
   > 6. Even a billionaire like Rupert Murdoch isn't perfect all the   
   >    time.  Murdoch's News Corp. bought a social-networking company   
   >    in 2005 -- 2 years after its launch -- for $580,000,000,   
   >    but sold it in 2011 for just $35,000,000.  Name the company,   
   >    which lost the social networking war with Facebook.   
      
   - MySpace  (?)   
      
   > 7. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak went to the founder of the   
   >    video game company they used to work for.  They showed their   
   >    ex-boss a computer they built, called the Apple 1.  Jobs and   
   >    Wozniak offered him a 1/3 stake in Apple Computer for $50,000,   
   >    but were turned down.  Name *either* the company or its founder   
   >    who said no to that bargain.   
      
   - Nolan Bushnell of Atari   
      
   > 8. Quaker Oats took a huge bath on a drink line in the mid-1990s.   
   >    Quaker bought the company from its New-York-based founders in   
   >    1993 for $1,700,000,000.  But a series of marketing errors   
   >    took their toll, and Quaker sold it 4 years later for just   
   >    $300,000,000 -- a loss of $1,400,000,000.  Name the drink   
   >    company, which was resold and is thriving again.   
      
   - (on the tip of my tongue ;-) Nope, can't answer without cheating.  The   
   one with the sayings under the caps?)   
      
   > 9. Another media company bought Time Warner in 2000 for   
   >    $165,000,000,000.  But that merger became what one executive   
   >    called "the biggest mistake in corporate history."  Name Time   
   >    Warner's partner in that disaster.   
      
   AOL  (America OnLine)   
      
   > 10. Which former video rental giant turned down a chance to buy   
   >    Netflix for $50,000,000 in 2000?   
      
   BlockBuster   
      
      
   > * Game 2, Round 3 - Literature - Last Lines of Books   
   >   
   > In this round, we will give you the last line of a book and the   
   > year of publication.  Name the book.   
   >   
   > 1. "It's funny.  Don't ever tell anybody anything.  If you do,   
   >    you start missing everybody."  (1951)   
      
   - Animal Farm  (?)   
      
   > 2. "He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness   
   >    and distance."  (1818)   
      
   - Robinson Crusoe   
      
   > 3. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.   
   >    It is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever   
   >    known."  (1859)   
      
   - Tale of Two Cities   
      
   > 4. "It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long   
   >    as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back   
   >    into the OASIS."  (2011)   
      
   - Ready Player One   
      
   > 5. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly   
   >    into the past."  (1925)   
      
   - Great Gatsby   
      
   > 6. "But I don't think us feel old at all.  And us so happy.   
   >    Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.  Amen."   
   >    (1982)   
      
   - The Color Purple   
      
   > 7. "And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea."   
   >    (1938)   
      
   - Old Man and the Sea   
      
   > 8. "And it was still hot."  (1963)   
      
   - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf   
      
   > 9. "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to   
   >    pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible   
   >    to say which was which."  (1945)   
      
   - Lord Jim   
      
   > 10. "After all, tomorrow is another day."  (1936)   
      
   - 1984   
      
      
   This one seemed more approachable than the (already answered) questions   
   about Canadian radio, for this American. :-)   
      
      
   --   
   Gregg Seelhoff   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)