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  | DESCRIBING THE PULITZER FICTION WINNER |  
   
 
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    | On this innermost planet, a solar day lasts twice as long as its year & is equal to about 176 earth days | 
    Mercury
 
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    | 1953: Sharks plunder elderly Santiago's catch | 
    The Old Man and the Sea
 
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    | R.J. Reynolds & Liggett & Myers were 2 of the companies created when the trust for this crop was broken up in 1911 | 
    tobacco
 
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    | Tami Taylor, on this Texas-set drama: "It's part of my job to make sure that you don't grow up stupid. It's bad for the world" | 
    Friday Night Lights
 
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    | San Francisco junior college track team member Don Bryant was the first of 200,000 to get across this on its 1937 opening day | 
    the Golden Gate Bridge
 
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    | The IRS generally has 3 years to initiate this proceeding | 
    an audit
 
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    | The brightest star in the night sky is this binary star in Canis Major | 
    Sirius
 
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    | 1988: Once enslaved, Sethe is plagued by memories of a plantation & a baby lost | 
    Beloved
 
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    | The movie trust nicknamed for this inventor limited most films to 2 reels & was dissolved in 1917 | 
    Edison
 
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    | Malory, mom of this title spy: "Who put out a burn notice on Sterling?... but I would never...! Oh, dear God" | 
    Archer
 
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    | In 1952, a quick-thinking bus driver saved 20 passengers by accelerating & jumping the gap when this drawbridge rose unexpectedly | 
    (Sarah: What is London Bridge?)
  Tower Bridge
 
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    | To exonerate in court | 
    acquit
 
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    | In 2019 Green Bank Observatory found the most massive of this superdense type of star (a teaspoon weighs more than all of humanity) | 
    (T.J.: What is a red giant?)
  a neutron star
 
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    | 2007: Lawless bands scour a ravaged America; a man & his son walk alone | 
    The Road
 
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    | This 4-word phrase was used back in 1984 as Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust was rescued by the govt. due to its size | 
    too big to fail
 
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    | Now this is a story all about how Janet Hubert split time with Daphne Reid as Vivian Banks on this '90s sitcom | 
    The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
 
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    | In March 1945 German troops failed to blow up the bridge at Remagen over this river, allowing U.S. troops an unexpected dry crossing | 
    the Rhine
 
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    | Paul of Thebes, who lived alone in a desert cave, was a famous early one | 
    a hermit
 
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    | Going 1,000 mph, it would take more than 2.8 million years to travel the 4.2-light-year distance to this nearest star system | 
    (T.J.: What is the Andromeda Galaxy?)
  Alpha Centauri
 
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    | 2015: The lives of a German boy & a blind French girl intersect in World War II France | 
    All the Light We Cannot See
 
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    | The breaking up of Standard Oil of N.J. into 34 companies gave this man stock that made him the richest man in the world | 
    J.D. Rockefeller
 
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    | A sitcom with this title featuring single mom Ann Romano began in 1975; another, with single mom Penelope Alvarez, in 2017 | 
    One Day at a Time
 
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    | You'll have to wait to cross the Forbes Ave. bridge in this city; it collapsed in 2022 just before a presidential visit about infrastructure | 
    (Mattea: I'm not obsessed with the BRIDGE category, I'll do $2,000.) (Ken: It'd be a little weird if you were obsessed with the BRIDGE category.) ... (Mattea: Oh, my gosh. Um... what is... Miami?)
  Pittsburgh
 
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    | Theodore Roosevelt loved his "bully" one | 
    a pulpit
 
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    | This comet with a hyphenated name was broken up by the gravity of Jupiter & fragments of it crashed into the planet in 1994 | 
    (Mattea: What is Hale-Bopp?)
  Shoemaker-Levy 9
 
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    | 1980: A book about Gary Gilmore, a real-life death row inmate | 
    (T.J.: What is The Green Mile?) (Sarah: What is Dead Man Walking?) ... (Ken: This is Norman Mailer's [*].)
  The Executioner's Song
 
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    | This 3-letter event has ruined trusts as well as banks; in 1907 an $8 mil. one on the Knickerbocker Trust led to the panic of 1907 | 
    a run
 
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    | When not helping special victims in about 500 episodes, this "Law & Order: SVU" character adopted an orphan named Noah | 
    Olivia Benson
 
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    | A petition seeks to rename Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge for this late congressman who was beaten trying to cross it in 1965 | 
    John Lewis
 
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    | 2-word term for the traditional warm, welcoming disposition of the people of Hawaii | 
    the Aloha Spirit
 
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