| Ok, I just can't help myself. Here is another "word puzzle." Each phrase below is pair of words that have become associated with each other (usually from long [or sometimes, not so long] term usage). How many can you identify? |
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1. Sonny and __________, singers. 2. Raggedy Ann and __________, toys. 3. Amos and ____________, 1930's radio program. 4. Gilbert and __________, composers. 5. Samson and __________, biblical figures. 6. Lewis and __________, explorers. 7. Rhythm and __________, a musical genre. 8. Huntley and__________, news anchors. 9. Simon and __________, singers. 10. Bubble and __________, a classic English dish. 11. Romulus and __________, founders of an ancient civilization. 12. Bonny and __________, outlaws. 13. Watson and __________, biochemists. 14. Bartles and __________, purveyors of wines. 15. Spic and ___________, cleaning agent. 16. Advice and __________, a legal convention in constitutional law. 17. Shake and ___________, 1960's convenience food. 18. Siegfried and ___________, illusionists. 19. Rogers and __________, composers. 20. Hammer and __________, vigorous effort. 21. Fibber Magee and __________, 1940's radio program. 22. War and ___________, Tolstoy's classic. 23. Lady and ___________, Disney movie. 24. Romeo and __________, Shakespeare characters. 25. Abbot and __________, comic actors.
Bonus triplet: for the answers, scroll down...
and down...
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1. Sonny and Cher, singers. Sonny & Cher were an American pop music duo, made up of husband and wife team Sonny Bono and Cherilyn Sarkisian in the 1960s and 1970s. When their marriage began to fall apart, the duo separated and their hit show (the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour) fell apart while still in the top 10 of the ratings. What followed was a nasty and very public divorce. Sonny and Cher went their separate ways until Cher attended the opening of one of Sonny's restaurants in something of a reconciliation. The Sonny & Cher Show returned in 1976, even though they were no longer married but after struggling with low ratings through 1977, Sonny and Cher finally parted ways for good. Sonny entered politics, eventually becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (where else but California), and Cher continued a successful singing career.
2. Raggedy Ann and Andy, toys. Raggedy Ann is a fictional character created by writer Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair. The character was created in 1915 as a doll, and was introduced to the public in the 1918 book Raggedy Ann Stories. A doll was also marketed along with the book to great success. A sequel, Raggedy Andy Stories (1920) introduced the character of her brother, Raggedy Andy, dressed in sailor suit and hat.
3. Amos and Andy, 1930's radio program. Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy based on archetypes of African-Americans and popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. The show began as one of the first radio comedy serials originating from station WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois. It grew in popularity and became a huge influence on the radio serials that followed. The program ran on radio as a nightly serial from 1928 until 1943, as a weekly situation comedy from 1943 until 1955, and as a nightly disc-jockey program from 1954 until 1960. A television adaptation ran on CBS-TV from 1951 until 1953, and continued in syndicated reruns from 1954 until 1966.
4. Gilbert and Sullivan, composers. Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian era partnership of librettist W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900). Together, they wrote fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado are among the best known.
5. Samson and Delilah, biblical figures. See (in the Old Testament) Judges chapters 13 thru 16.
6. Lewis and Clark, explorers. The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806), headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back. This was only the second 'official' transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico by a person not of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
7. Rhythm and Blues, a musical genre. Lawrence Cohn wrote that rhythm and blues was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience, and that the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts.
8. Huntley and Brinkley, news anchors. The Huntley-Brinkley Report was the NBC television network's flagship evening news program from October 29, 1956 until July 31, 1970. It was anchored by Chet Huntley in New York City, and David Brinkley in Washington, D.C. It succeeded the Camel News Caravan, anchored by John Cameron Swayze. It first aired the evening following the death of U.S. Senator and Democratic Presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy.
9. Simon and Garfunkle, singers. Simon & Garfunkel are an American singer-songwriter duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. The duo rose to fame in 1965, backed by the hit single "The Sounds of Silence". They are well known for their close harmonies and sometimes unstable relationship. Their last album, Bridge over Troubled Water, was delayed several times due to artistic disagreements. They were among the most popular recording artists of the 1960s, and are perhaps best known for their songs "The Sounds of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "Bridge over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer".
10. Bubble and Squeak, a classic English dish. Bubble and squeak is a traditional English dish made with the shallow-fried leftover vegetables from a roast dinner. The chief ingredients are potato and cabbage, but carrots, peas, brussels sprouts, and other vegetables can be added. The cold chopped vegetables and meat are fried in a pan together with mashed potato until the mixture is well-cooked and brown on the sides.
11. Romulus and Remus, founders of an ancient civilization. Romulus and Remus are the traditional founders of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the priestess Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars. According to the tradition recorded as history by Plutarch and Livy, Romulus served as the first King of Rome. Romulus slew Remus over a dispute about which one of the two brothers had the support of the local deities to rule the new city and give it his name.
12. Bonny and Clyde, outlaws. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were notorious outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States during the Great Depression. Their exploits were known nationwide. They captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is sometimes referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1935.
13. Watson and Crick, biochemists. A Molecular Structure for DNA was published by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in the scientific journal Nature in its 171st volume on page 737-738 (dated April 25, 1953). It was the first publication which described the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. This discovery had a major impact on genetics in particular and biology in general.
14. Bartles and Jaymes, purveyors of wines. Bartles & Jaymes is a popular beverage line produced by the E & J Gallo Winery in the United States. The product line is well remembered for its folksy television commercials. Two elderly gentlemen characters, Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes, sat on a front porch and related their new discoveries or projects on which they were working. Bartles did all the talking, and ended each commercial with the tagline, "... and thank you for your support.
15. Spic and Span, cleaning agent. Spic and Span is a major U.S. brand of all-purpose household cleanser, invented by two housewives in Saginaw, Michigan in 1933. The women experimented until they came up with a formula that included equal parts of ground-up glue, sodium carbonate and trisodium phosphate. The product took the name from a common phrase meaning extremely clean, "spick and span", which was a British idiom. A spick was a spike or nail, a span was a very fresh wood chip, and thus the phrase meant clean and neat and all in place, as in being nailed down.
16. Advice and Consent, a legal convention in constitutional law. Article II, Section 2, paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution states:
[The President] shall have power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court...
17. Shake and Bake, 1960's convenience food. Shake 'n Bake is a brand owned by Kraft Foods. It is a flavored coating for chicken (and sometimes pork) which is applied by placing chicken pieces in a bag containing the coating, closing the bag, and shaking. The coated chicken is then oven baked. Shake 'n Bake is designed to mimic fried chicken, and was particularly noted for its iconic television commercials in the 1980s and 1990s starring child actors. In the ads, the children help make Shake 'n Bake with their mothers, enthusiastically exclaiming "And I helped!"
18. Siegfried and Roy, illusionists. Siegfried & Roy are two German-American entertainers who worked in Las Vegas. Their long running show of magic and illusion was famous for including white tigers. In 1972 they received an award for the best show of the year. In 1990 they were hired by The Mirage, with an annual guaranteed income of $57.5 million. In 2001, they signed a lifetime contract with the hotel. The duo appeared in around 5,750 shows together, mostly at The Mirage. Their long-running act closed October 3, 2003 after Roy was badly injured by one of the act's tigers during a performance.
19. Rogers and Hammerstein, composers. Rodgers and Hammerstein were an American songwriting duo consisting of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. They are most famous for creating a string of immensely popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, during what is considered the golden age of the medium. Five of their shows were outstanding successes: Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music.
20. Hammer and Tongs, vigorous effort. The phrase "hammer and tongs" means "with great energy and force", often phrased "to go at it with hammer and tongs". The origins of this phrase is from blacksmithing, where tongs are used during forging to hold the hot iron as it is hammered into shape.
21. Fibber Magee and Molly, 1940's radio program. Fibber McGee and Molly was a radio show that played a major role in determining the full form of what became classic, old-time radio. Existing in a kind of Neverland where money never came in yet no one living or visiting went wanting, 79 Wistful Vista (the McGees' address) became the home Depression-exhausted Americans visited to remind themselves that they were not the only ones finding cheer in the middle of struggle. Blowhard McGee wavered between mundane tasks and hare-brained schemes (like digging an oil well in the back yard), and patient Molly indulged his foibles before catching him lovingly as he crashed back to earth yet again. The series was a pinnacle of American popular culture from its 1935 premiere until its end in 1959.
22. War and Peace, Tolstoy's classic. War and Peace is a novel by Leo Tolstoy, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy's two major masterpieces as well as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, marriage, age, and death.
23. Lady and The Tramp, Disney movie. Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney, and originally released to theaters on June 22, 1955. The fifteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, it was the first animated feature filmed in the Cinemascope widescreen film process. The story pairs a female Cocker Spaniel named Lady who lives with a rich family and a male mutt stray named Tramp.
24. Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare characters. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of William Shakespeare about two teenage "star-cross'd lovers" whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding households. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and is still one of his most frequently performed plays. Its influence is still seen today in such musicals as "West Side Story".
25. Abbot and Costello, comic actors. William (Bud) Abbott and Lou Costello (born Louis Francis Cristillo) were an American comedy duo whose work in radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s. Their most popular and influential routine, "Who's on First?"- is featured in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bonus triplet:
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