Double Duty - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) ARod (Alex Rodriguez and Andy Roddick). The company where I worked for many years time used a similar naming convention for our email addresses long before it became trendy, which is partly why one of my web sites is rjen.com.
• A2) Apple (Apple Corps, the owner of Apple Records, and Apple Computer, now known as Apple Inc.). Despite promising never to enter the music business, the computer company created the iTunes Music Store (now the iTunes Store) and the Garage Band music creation application.
• A3) Bazooka. Bob Burns's unusual 1930s musical instrument sporting two gas pipes and a funnel lent its name to both the gun and the gum.
• A4) Brandy. Brandy Norwood's first album was as surprisingly successful as Manilow's "Mandy", a remake of "Brandy" from only three years earlier.
• A5) Crossfire. The CNN current events debate pitted the liberal left against the conservative right. The action game was revamped and still being sold in the mid 1990s.
• A6) Egghead. Price's "world's smartest criminal" deduced Batman's secret identity but had his memory purged by Robin. The Egghead.com domain still exists but simply redirects to Amazon.com's software department silently.
• A7) Jaguar. The entire Mac OS X line has been named for big cats: Cheetah (10.0), Puma (10.1), Panther (10.3), Tiger (10.4), and Leopard (10.5). The Ford Motor Company acquired Jaguar Cars Ltd. in January 1990 but is currently considering spinning it back out.
• A8) Laser. Jim Starr competed as a gladiator from 1990 to 1996. The Chrysler and Plymouth Lasers were both sold in the U.S., while the Ford Laser was primarily in Australasia.
• A9) Madeleine. 7- or 8-year-old Madeleine Fogg appeared in many sequels during the 1940s and 1950s. The French, shell-shaped, lemon and butter cake is similar to a pound cake.
• A10) Mirage. The pop album was embroiled in a payola controversy, causing it to bounce up and down the charts as a group of independent promoters controlled its radio airplay. The casino, which cost a then-record $630 million to build, was the first to be financed through the sale of junk bonds.
• A11) Mosaic. Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina developed the early browser at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, initially running under X-Windows but later on the Amiga, Macintosh, and PC. "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" was kept out of the #1 spot on the Hot 100 by the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian".
• A12) Odyssey. Other abandoned Microsoft OS versions include Nashville ("Windows 96") and Cairo (partially cannibalized for Windows 95 and other products). The original working Magnavox Odyssey prototype from 1968, dubbed the "Brown Box", now lives at the Smithsonian's National Institute of American History.