Skeleton Trivia for Friday, 2025-08-08

Hiya SUPER SPECIAL Skeleton Crew,

This week we’re gonna do a classic trivia format, it’s called “Before & After”. Here’s how it works: I’m gonna write some kinda weird & wacky clue that’s meant to get ya thinkin about two different things that have some part of their names in common. Your answer should be the smushed-up version of those names!

Some examples of Before & Afters I’ve had in the past:

• The Iron Chancellor + the Clown Prince of Hip Hop = Otto von Biz Markie
• A Pearl S. Buck novel + a video game annelid = The Good Earthworm Jim
• A Toyota truck + Japanese for “I’ll leave it up to you” = Tacomakase

Got it? OK, let’s go!

Trivia 1

It’s the distant future, & massive tectonic shifts have completely scrambled the region of the U.S. that we used to know as New England!

For example, that New Hampshire ski resort where a bunch of economists once-upon-a-time got together to design a international monetary system? That’s not in the mountains anymore! Now it’s beachfront property, occupyin the same spot where a Massachusetts town once housed the U.S.A.’s largest independent oceanographic research institution. What’s the name of this newly combined locale?

Trivia 2

In a somewhat surprisin second act to his career, the guy who played the baddie in Titanic recently announced he’s gonna start writin cowboy novels set in the Old West. What pen name should he use?

Trivia 3

Have ya ever seen that movie Madagascar? I’ve got this idea for a spinoff: basically, the character King Julien gets shipwrecked in the Indian Ocean & stumbles on a mythical lost sunken continent—which he names what?

Trivia 4

Didja hear ’bout that crazy fella who’s puttin on a version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle operas, except all the main characters have been replaced by ... cans of soda? It’s, uh, pretty weird! Like, the legendary title character of Die Walküre is portrayed by the “other national drink” of Scotland, & therefore’s been given what name?

Trivia 5

What’s it called when ya write down somethin (uncomplimentary) usin a certain specific brand of yellow-&-green No. 2 pencil?

Trivia 6

If ya ever get to visit the famous “End of the Trail” Route 66 sign in SoCal, make sure to try out one of the delicious li’l potato dumplings they sell down there. What’re they called?

Trivia 7

A quintet of vintners bonded over their love of aromatic Tyrolean white wine & hardcore punk to form what cover band that played classics like “Straight Edge” & “Out of Step”?

Answer 1

If ya smush together the site where the Bretton Woods system was ironed out & the home of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, ya get Bretton Woods Hole.

Answer 2

Billy Zane played the annoying Caledon Hockley that famous sinking-boat movie, & Zane Gray wrote some famous Western novels, so Billy Zane Gray could be a perfect pen name!

Answer 3

If King Julien the ring-tailed lemur stumbled upon the lost continent of Lemuria, maybe he’d call it Ring-Tailed Lemuria.

Answer 4

The most popular soda in Scotland ain’t Coca-Cola or Pepsi—nah, it’s Irn-Bru! So ya can smash that up with the legendary Brunhilda to get Irn-Brunhilda.

Answer 5

Ticonderoga is that famous brand of No. 2 pencil, so if ya write somethin derogatory using one ya might could call it Ticonderogatory (oof).

Answer 6

Route 66 “ends” at Santa Monica Pier, where someone’s really gotta start sellin pierogi so they can market ’em as—what else?—Santa Monica Pierogi!

Answer 7

“Straight Edge” was a song by the hardcore punk band Minor Threat, & I think the only Tyrolean white wine that’d work for a Before & After here is Gewürztraminer, which’d give ya Gewürztraminor Threat.