Eponym of the week: German chemist Robert Bunsen. The Bunsen burner, familiar to high-school chemistry students, was named for him, though it was invented in 1865 jointly by him and his assistant. Its popularity in the lab comes from the simplicity of its design, which burns a continuous stream of flammable gas with maximum heat, while minimizing its luminosity.

In Margaret Mitchell's iconic novel "Gone With the Wind," Melanie Wilkes is pregnant for 21 months, based on the timing of the Civil War battles that are mentioned in the book. This was changed for the 1939 film adaptation, in which Melanie has a nine-month pregnancy. By the way, the novel was on the New York Times best-seller list for quite a while -- 21 months.

The famous Mercury Theatre "War of the Worlds" radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel, directed and narrated by Orson Welles, made headlines worldwide. The program was broadcast in 1938, on the day before:
A) April Fool's Day
B) Flag Day
C) Halloween
D) Christmas

Previous answer: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations credits George Lucas with the phrase "Evil Empire," as used in the 1977 film "Star Wars."

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Stanley Newman is the editor of the Newsday Crossword and author/editor of more than 125 books on crosswords, word games and trivia, including "15,003 Answers: The Ultimate Trivia Encyclopedia" (Random House). To find out more about Stanley Newman visit StanXwords.com, or e-mail him at StanTrivia@aol.com.
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