| "CROSS" WORDS (& PHRASES) |  
   
 
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    | During this, an opposing party gets to question a witness during a trial & perhaps raise issues of credibility | 
    cross-examination
 
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    | In his "Principia", Newton laid out his foundational 3 laws of this as related to the effects of force & mass | 
    (David: What are thermodynamics?)
  motion
 
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    | What's the opposite of brotherly love? This British band calling it quits in 2009 after Liam allegedly attacked Noel with a guitar | 
    Oasis
 
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    | His 2025 thriller "The Secret of Secrets" is another adventure for the intrepid professor of symbology Robert Langdon | 
    (Ken: Robert Langdon gets into so much trouble.)
  Dan Brown
 
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    | There being no "New" city yet, the 1911 Britannica calls it an "ancient capital" & a "huddle of mean houses in mean streets" | 
    (Ken: Yeah, mean review of [*].)
  Delhi
 
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    | (Ari Shapiro presents the clue.) Even though they use the same language, my listening skills were tested in two years as NPR's London correspondent; I needed a Scottish accent interpreter & also found out that a "stag do" is this pre-wedding event | 
    a bachelor party
 
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    | It fires a projectile called a bolt | 
    a crossbow
 
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    | Produced in the disintegration of radioactive atomic nuclei, these rays have the shortest wavelength & highest energy | 
    gamma
 
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    | Fans got unlucky in 2021 when this legendary house music duo hung up their Parisian robot helmets after 28 years | 
    Daft Punk
 
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    | This Dav Pilkey superhero has his own series of books & has spawned the spinoffs Dog Man & Cat Kid | 
    Captain Underpants
 
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    | Home to Russia's Pacific Fleet, this city lies close to the border with China & North Korea | 
    Vladivostok
 
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    | (Ari Shapiro presents the clue.) For "Och & Oy!", my cabaret show with Alan Cumming, he's the Och; we've got a pretty good line of this, the talking performers do between numbers; it's also a tongue-twisting type of song | 
    patter
 
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    | This act by Julius Caesar in 49 B.C. led to war against Pompey & the Senate | 
    crossing the Rubicon
 
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    | Thicker around the edge than at the center, this type of lens causes light waves to diverge when passing through it | 
    concave
 
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    | The contentious history of this band, in brief: Roth, Hagar, Roth, Cherone, Hagar & back to Roth, then they broke up | 
    Van Halen
 
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    | Taffy Brodesser-Akner's tale of a dysfunctional family is called this home to the Hamptons "Compromise" | 
    Long Island
 
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    | If you worked with your usual political opponents in a bipartisan way, you've done this | 
    crossed the aisle
 
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    | This 4-letter property is the angular momentum associated with a subatomic particle | 
    spin
 
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    | Billy Corgan blamed this band's 2000 breakup on the strain of "fighting the good fight against the Britneys of the world" | 
    The Smashing Pumpkins
 
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    | "Table for Two" is a short story collection by this bestselling author of "A Gentleman in Moscow" | 
    (Amor) Towles
 
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    | This Lebanese city was created when 3 sections settled by people from Tyre, Sidon & Arvad merged into one city | 
    (Ken: Steven?) (Steven: What's Beirut?) (Ken: Sorry, no, after Beirut, the second-largest city is called [*], just like Libya.)
  Tripoli
 
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    | (Ari Shapiro presents the clue.) You can learn a lot about a region that's new to you by talking to people over a meal, but not with your mouth full; some of the best food I've had is in this -stan that stretches over several countries but isn't a country of its own | 
    Kurdistan
 
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    | Robert Johnson said he learned guitar by selling his soul to the devil at one of these | 
    a crossroads
 
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    | Einstein described this man's work on the structure of the atom as "the highest form of musicality in the sphere of thought" | 
    (Niels) Bohr
 
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    | In March 2015, he apparently found an additional direction, becoming the first member of One Direction to leave the band | 
    Zayn Malik
 
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    | This author of "Lincoln in the Bardo" offers a course on Russian short stories in his book "A Swim in the Pond in the Rain" | 
    George Saunders
 
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    | Life's no day at the beach in Ürümqi, China, 1,400 miles from the nearest ocean & the scene of 2009 riots by these oppressed Muslims | 
    the Uyghurs
 
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    | (Ari Shapiro presents the clue.) For about a quarter century, I've been talking to this legal journalist; I interned for her in my first journalism job, & now I throw to her as I host "All Things Considered" | 
    Nina Totenberg
 
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