When I was living in
LA, I invented a game for Says You!, a radio quiz
show on NPR.
They never used it, but I'm still inordinately fond of it. Here's how it works.
I took a film whose title contains the name of a
Example: "Jennifer
Jason Leigh stars in this adaptation of a Henry James novel about
the terminally uncool first president."
Answer: Square
As you'll notice, the
clue is a complex, multi-layered thing that contains information about the
president whose name appears in the title of the film ("first
president" – that's George Washington), about the original film
("Jennifer Jason Leigh stars in this adaptation of a Henry James
novel" – that's Washington Square), and about the effects of
the switch (the president is "terminally uncool"). Answers
appear below. Question 5 is the spawn of Brian Walter.
2. Robin
Williams stars in this bizarre nineteenth-century fable about a
family of Harvard-educated presidents who are raised as cabbages.
3. Clint
Eastwood directs the heart-warming story of an author of the Federalist
papers who, despite all his efforts, remains best known for coming from the
area that is home to the
4. Frank
Capra directs a zany comedy about an early president who mistakenly
enrolls in a prestigious all-female college.
5. Merchant-Ivory
bring us a remake of Innerspace in which one of the Hilton
sisters is miniaturized and injected into a slave-owning president.
2. Adams
Patch
3. The
Madison of Bridges County
4. Mr.
Washington Goes to Smith