Hiya SUPER SPECIAL Skeleton Crew,

Another hidden theme today! Just a tiny hint, this one ain’t particularly seasonal, so don’t get too focused on thinkin ’bout turkeys or thankfulness or what have you.

OK, let’s get to it!

Trivia 1

What English author had works of hers adapted to the silver screen no fewer ’n THREE TIMES by Mr. Alfred Hitchcock: one that won the Oscar for Best Picture, one that starred Tippi Hedren, & Jamaica Inn.

Trivia 2

What actor has on his IMDb page the fun bit of trivia that he’s the first person to’ve been featured on Inside the Actor’s Studio who’s the offspring of a former guest? (That’s how they say it, “offspring”—which I assume they use to exclude an adoption situation or somethin like that? Otherwise, that’s kinda a weird way to phrase it.)

Anyway, this fella wasn’t a CANONICAL member of the Brat Pack in the ’80s, but I’d say he was, like, Brat-adjacent, seein as how he was in movies like Stand By Me, The Lost Boys, & Young Guns.

Trivia 3

Where was the treaty signed that withdrew Russia from WWI? Nowadays this city’s in Belarus, but at the time of the treaty it was part of the Belarusian SSR region under German occupation, & before that it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (or as the Russians would’ve called it, Литовск).

Trivia 4

Who painted this self-portrait?

Trivia 5

Predator Gaming (formerly Aspire Predator) is what company’s primary line of high-end gaming hardware?

Trivia 6

Didja know that California’s got high-speed rail? Kinda??

OK, not really. But there IS somethin called the “Initial Operating Segment” that’s fully funded and will PROBABLY be done in 2026. Or at least done with “civil construction”, whatever that means.

But EVENTUALLY people’ll start bein able to ride it, right??? At the get-go there’ll be five stations total: you’ll be able to hop on at Merced station in the north & ride it all the way down to Bakersfield in the south, passin through Madera, Kings–Tulare, & what other central California city?

Trivia 7

Yesterday I mentioned I’m kinda obsessed with this new Rosalía album. The first single is a track called “Berghain” that features contributions by Yves Tumor & what artist, a noted mute swan enthusiast?

Trivia 8

What North Carolina university unfortunately no longer features in crossword puzzles quite as often as it used to? This is ’cause of the relative increase in fame of someone who ... well, if I’m bein honest, I find this guy pretty annoying! Not to get overly political or anything, but I just do!!!

Answer 1

It was Daphne du Maurier who had three Hitchcock adaptations of her works: Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, & The Birds.

Answer 2

Kiefer Sutherland was on a 2005 episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, while his pop Donald had been on the show back in ’98.

Answer 3

It was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (or just Brest nowadays) that ended Russia’s involvement in WWI. The Litovsk part of the name comes from Литовск, the Russian for “Lithuanian”.

Answer 4

That painting was Tamara de Lempicka’s “autoportrait” in a green bugatti.

Answer 5

Acer’s the company behind the Predator laptops.

Answer 6

Once California’s long-delayed high speed rail project’s up & runnin, you’ll finally be able to take that dream trip to Fresno you’ve always wanted!

Answer 7

Björk’s got a feature on the new Rosalía album, & I mentioned the mute swan as a kinda reference to her famous dress that’s got its own Wikipedia article.

Answer 8

From a trivia perspective, there’s honestly really little that’s interesting to know ’bout Elon University. It ain’t even really that useful for cruciverbalists anymore, not now that Elon Musk’s so dang famous!

Secret Theme

All the answers are ARBOREAL in nature! I.e., they’re words for various types of trees in various non-English languages.

• Daphne is Greek for a laurel tree
• Kiefer is German for a pine tree
• Brest is the Slavic word for an elm tree
• Tamara comes from the Arabic for a (date) palm tree
• Acer is Latin for a maple tree
• Fresno is Spanish for an ash tree
• Björk is Icelandic for a birch tree
• Elon is Hebrew for an oak tree