magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

For prosperity, my rounds, both tangentially related to Labor Day; rollover the grey bars to reveal the answers.

Born Today

1. Q) Today marks the 373 birthday of Louis XIV of France, and, according to a fictional theory set forth by the prolific 19th century historical novelist Alexandre Dumas in the third and final part of the third and final book of his Musketeers trilogy, also Louis's twin brother who was jailed by the French court and hidden from the public. What is the popular moniker of the actual prisoner whose true identity remains unknown, but who was posited by Dumas to have been the Sun King's twin?
   
   A) The Man in the Iron Mask


2. Q) Posthumously celebrating a 65th birthday today is Farrokh Bulsara, the rapt-Bohemian himself, Freddie Mercury. Mercury was born in Zanzibar but spent most of his childhood in the state of Gujarat in western India. Mercury's family were Parsis, practitioners of Zoroastrianism who had left their ancestral homeland in the 10th century due to religious oppression from the growing Islamic majority, and settled in India. From which middle-eastern country did Mercury's ancestors emigrate?
   
   A) Iran or Persia


3. Q) Born today in 1942, bad-ass filmmaker Werner Herzog. In 1980, to settle a bet with fellow director Errol Morris, Herzog cooked and ate his own shoe. In 2006 Herzog was shot with an air riffle by an unknown assailant during an interview, but shrugged it off with a smile, saying "It is not a significant bullet." Herzog's films include Heart of Glass, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man, and this 2009 film, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, starring Nicholas Cage and sharing a name with a cult 1992 film by Abel Ferrara (in which Harvey Keitel goes the full Monty), though Herzog claims it is not a remake or a sequel, and that in fact, he had never even heard of Ferrara or seen any of his films.
   
   A) Bad Lieutenant


4. Q) Turning sixty years old today is Mr. Mom, actor Michael Keaton. In addition to the titular Mister, and being a stalwart of Tim Burton's early feature films—playing both Betelgeuse and Batman—Keaton played four roles, construction worker Doug Kinney and three clones, in this 1996 box office bomb.
   
   A) Multiplicity


5. Q) 99 years ago today, the world welcomed into it visionary modern-music pioneer John Cage. Cage explored silence (4'33"), graphical scores and alternative musical notation, non-traditional instruments, and the connection of the human form to music through his collaborations with life-partner Merce Cunningham. But perhaps his most iconoclastic move came in his embrace of chance as his primary compositional tool. Throughout his career Cage used this ancient Chinese divination text, known in English as the Book of Changes.
   
   A) The I Ching (易經)


6. Q) Lets all wish a very happy 82nd birthday to beloved comedian Bob Newhart. Newhart is certainly best known for his series of eponymous sitcoms: 1972's The Bob Newhart Show, 1982's Newhart, and 1992's shortlived Bob. On Newhart Newhart plays Dick Louden, a New York City transplant to rural Vermont, where he runs a bed and breakfast and acts as straight-man to a cast of crazy and quirky locals. Among said crazies is one of my favourite character actors, William Sanderson, who is the ringleader and eldest brother of a backwoods trio always introduced with the line "Hi, I'm _____, this is my brother _____, and this is my other brother _____." Fill in the blanks.
   
   A) Larry, Darryl, and Darryl

The Colour Pink

1. Q) In June 1918, the children's clothing trade magazine Earnshaw's wrote: "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls." This flip-flopped after World War II, and now pink is girly, girly, girly. Barbie even has her very own shade. Matched to Pantone 219, Barbie Pink is a trademark owned by what toy manufacturer?
   
   A) Mattel


2. Q) In 1955, a 20 year old Elvis Presley bought his first Cadillac, which had been re-painted pink by a previous owner. Within six months it was destroyed in a ball of flame on the side of an Arkansas highway. He bought a new blue Caddy and painted it pink too, giving birth to an American icon, which no doubt inspired the founder of this cosmetics company to buy a Cadillac in 1968 and have it custom painted to match the firm's mountain laurel shade of blush. She soon began giving custom pink Cadillacs as incentives to the company's top earners. According to Wikipedia, as of 2006 GM had produced an estimated 100,000 pink Cadillacs for what Texas-based cosmetics giant?
   
   A) Mary Kay Cosmetics


3. Q) 1963's The Pink Panther featured an ensemble cast led by Academy Award-winning British actor David Niven as Sir Charles Lytton, a dashing playboy thief planning the heist of the titular Panther, a giant pink diamond. On Lytton's trail was the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Clouseau was portrayed by this British actor whose comedic delivery and pratfalls stole his scenes and spawned a franchise (11 films to date). Inspector Clouseau would be played by other actors—Alan Arkin, Roger Moore, and Steve Martin—but is still most closely associated with the man who first played the role, name him.
   
   A) Peter Sellers


4. Q) The pink land iguana is, well, a big pink lizard. A big. Pink. Lizard. The pink iguana was only recently, in 2009, identified as a separate species from its more common cousin, which a famous naturalist described as "ugly" and possessing a "singularly stupid appearance." Both species exist only on this island chain, better known for its tortoises.
   
   A) The Galapagos Islands


5. Q) Flamingoes are pink because of all the bubblegum they chew, right? Or something like that. In fact it is this decidedly un-pink planktonic substance that imparts the distinctive pink colour to their feathers. Flamingoes whose diet is made up primarily of this substance are darker pink, whereas flamingoes who eat more tiny brine shrimp who have themselves fed on this substance tend to be paler. What turns flamingoes pink?
   
   A) Blue-green algae (or, cyanobacteria)


6. Q) Reuters. Field Day for the Sundays. Three Girl Rhumba. Ex-Lion Tamer. Lowdown. Start to Move. Brazil. It's so Obvious. Surgeon's Girl. Pink Flag. The Commercial. Straight Line. 106 Beats That. Mr Suit. Strange. Fragile. Mannequin. Different to Me. Champs. Feeling Called Love. 12XU. What I just read is the track listing for Pink Flag. Released in 1977, Pink Flag is the first studio album by this seminal British art-punk group. It is also, since 2000, the name of the band's own record label. Who recorded Pink Flag?
   
   A) Wire