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  | STARTS & ENDS WITH THE SAME VOWEL |  
   
 
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    | We're not neutral about "Un ballo in maschera", about the assassination of a king of this Scandinavian country | 
    Sweden
 
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    | This Russian president helped put down the 1991 coup that briefly imprisoned Mikhail Gorbachev | 
    (Boris) Yeltsin
 
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    | "Ocular" term for something unpleasant to see | 
    an eyesore
 
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    | The Sterns of New Jersey won a 1980s custody battle with the surrogate mother of Melissa, better known as "Baby" this | 
    (Leslie: What is Jessica?)
  "M"
 
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    | The idea for this 1954 Elia Kazan film came from a series of newspaper articles about corruption on the docks | 
    On the Waterfront
 
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    | Thunder Bay in Ontario, an arm of this Great Lake | 
    (Richard: What is Huron?) ... (Alex: Thunder Bay in Ontario.  The one on Lake Huron is in the United States.)
  Superior
 
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    | Smitten by Mathilde Wesendonck, Wagner composed this lovey-dovey 1865 opera | 
    (Richard: What is... Tannhäuser?) (Leslie: What is The Meistersinger of Nürnberg?)
  Tristan und Isolde
 
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    | In 1989 the Soviets left this country where they'd suffered 15,000 dead during a 10-year quagmire | 
    Afghanistan
 
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    | This pea family crop is like steak to horses | 
    alfalfa
 
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    | The 1984 U.S. law mandating treatment of seriously ill newborns is known by this generic name | 
    Baby Doe
 
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    | William Holden's acceptance speech upon winning the Oscar for playing a P.O.W. in this film was a terse "Thank you" | 
    Stalag 17
 
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    | Mount Katahdin in this New England state | 
    (Tom: What is New Hampshire?)
  Maine
 
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    | In an 1893 opera, Lescaut seems to have no first name, but this sister of his does | 
    Manon
 
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    | The name of this Soviet foreign minister during WWII became synonymous with a bottle bomb | 
    Molotov
 
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    | This palindromic male given name comes from a Germanic word meaning "rich" | 
    Otto
 
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    | They're called whitecoats, & people got mad at Canada in the '80s for hunting them | 
    baby fur seals
 
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    | Steve McQueen's first starring role was in this film about a gelatinous mass from outer space | 
    The Blob
 
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    | The Museum of Porcelain on Grande Rue in this city just outside Paris, famous for making the stuff | 
    (Richard: What is Limoges?) ... (Alex: Just outside of Paris.)
  Sèvres
 
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    | One of the many composers to write a "Faust" opera, he was buddies with Bizet | 
    (Richard: Who is... Berlioz?)
  Gounod
 
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    | This official Soviet news agency was the main news source for all newspapers & radio & TV stations | 
    (Richard: What is... Pravda?)
  TASS
 
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    | This term for ignorant folks sounds like but is the opposite of illuminati | 
    illiterati
 
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    | She survived for 21 days in 1984 with a transplanted baboon heart | 
    (Leslie: Now, that's Baby Jessica. What is Baby Jessica?) (Alex: No.) (Leslie: Oh, my God!) [Laughter]
  Baby Fae
 
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    | This actress was a frequent presence in the films of John Ford | 
    (Alex: That is the beautiful [*].)
  Maureen O'Hara
 
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    | The banks of this African river that flows between Zimbabwe & Zambia on its way to the Indian Ocean | 
    (Leslie: What is the Limpopo?) (Alex: No, the "Z"s might have helped you there; it's [*].) [Leslie groans.]
  the Zambezi River
 
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    | Like its heroine, "The Italian Girl in Algiers" did some traveling as this composer's first opera staged in France & Germany | 
    Rossini
 
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    | The USSR mounted a 1958 exhibit not of Norman Rockwell but of this left-wing artist with Rockwell as his first name | 
    Rockwell Kent
 
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    | From the Italian, it's heartburn or anxiety | 
    (Tom: What is angina?)
  agita
 
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    | In 1981 Elizabeth Carr became the USA's first of these babies, with less fanfare than the one across the pond | 
    a test-tube baby
 
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    | Leopoldine Konstantin tells Claude Rains, "We are protected by the enormity of your stupidity" in this Hitchcock film | 
    (Alex: How much are you risking?) (Tom: $400.) (Alex: Okay.) [Laughter] ... (Tom: Don't know.)
  Notorious
 
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    | This country to gaze up at the cuneiform Behistun Inscription 300 feet up a sheer limestone cliff | 
    Iran
 
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