JanIQ's Third Common Bond Quiz

Answer: Jack Lang

Melina Mercouri (1920-1994) was a Greek actress, singer and politician. She was Minister for Culture from 1981 until 1989 and again from 1993 until her death. One of her achievements was the creation of the title of "European Capital of Culture": every year, one or more cities in Europe are honoured with this title for their sponsoring of cultural activities.
Charles Aznavour (born 1924) is French singer-songwriter. He never took up a post as Minister.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit (born 1945) is a politician whose career is divided over France and Germany. He held the office of deputy mayor of Frankfurt (Germany) and president of the Green Party in France.
Jack Lang was born in 1939. He was the French Minister of Culture from 1981 until 1986 and again from 1988 until 1992. He also led the Education Ministry from 2000 until 2002.

Answer: Kate Mosse

Linda Evangelista (born 1965) was a Canadian top model. She also appeared in one episode of "Sex and the City".
Larry Hagman (born 1931) is a famous American actor, producer and director. He attained worldwide fame with his role of J.R. Ewing in the series "Dallas".
Joan Collins (born 1933) is an English actress and author. Her books include novels, lifestyle books and memoirs.
The author of "Labyrinth" and "Sepulchre" is Kate Mosse (born 1961) - not to be confused with the English top model Kate Moss (born 1974).

Answer: Cook Strait

The Strait of Malacca is near Malacca - as its name suggests. It separates Sumatra and the Malaysian peninsula.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean. It is situated between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Bass Strait lies south of Australia. It separates Tasmania from the rest of Australia.
If you knew all of these, you'd realise that only the Cook Strait is situated in New Zealand.

Answer: Richard Wagner

These German operas were first performed in 1868 and 1876 respectively and were composed by a German composer specialising in dramatic operas. We'll get to his identity later on.
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) was of German descent, but worked mostly in England. He is best known for his oratorios (including "The Messiah", with the chorus "Hallelujah") and for operas with Italian libretti (for instance "Serse", with the notorious "Largo").
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) was born in Germany and worked in France. He composed various operettas and one single opera: "The Tales of Hoffmann". His best known composition is the French can-can, which featured in several of his operettas and ballet works.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) never completed a single opera. He is known for his symphonies and for the overture "A Midsummer Night's Dream", including "The Wedding March".
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a famous German opera composer. He left us more than a dozen operas, all based upon a libretto he wrote himself. Besides composing the music and writing the libretto, he also conducted and directed his operas and had a monumental opera house built for his oeuvre. "The Ring" is his masterpiece: four operas based upon German and Norse myth, with a total playing time of over fifteen hours.

Answer: Larry Harmon

Laurent Fabius (born 1946) was French Prime Minister from 1984 until 1986. Other offices he held were Minister of Budget (1981-1983), Minister of Research and Industry (1983-1984) and Minister of Finance, Economy and Industry (2000-2002).
Larry King is the stage name of the American television host Lawrence Zeiger (born 1933). He has hosted a popular talk show on CNN.
Gary Larson (born 1950) is a comic strip author. He received world fame with his cartoon series "The Far Side".
Lawrence Weiss (1925-2008) adopted the stage name Larry Harmon before buying the rights for the character "Bozo the Clown" in 1956. He continued to play this role for thirty years, and made a brief comeback with it in 1996.

Answer: Ben Jones

David Ben Gurion (born David Grun, 1886-1973) was the first Prime Minister of Israel from 1948 until 1953.
Mohammed Ahmed Ben Bella (born 1918) was the first Prime Minister of Algeria in 1962. From 1963 until 1965, he was the President of his country.
Ben Bernanke (born 1953) succeeded to Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in 2006.
The British athletes I mentioned in the question were named Ben Jones. The cyclist was born in 1882, the equestrian in 1932.

Answer: John Langdon Down

Sergei Korsakoff (1854-1900) was a Russian psychologist, who studied neuropathologies related to alcoholism. Korsakoff's syndrome is characterized by memory deficiencies (forgetting recent events, false memories of what one seems to remember) and polyneuropathy (to put it very unscientifically: hampered movement) caused by long term alcohol abuse and/or malnutrition. Genetic causes for Korsakoff's syndrome are very rare.
Vladimir Bekhterev (1857-1927) was another Russian scientist. He studied neurophysiology and psychiatry. Bekhterev's disease, nowadays known as ankylosing spondylitis, is a form of chronic arthritis. Genetic predisposition can influence the occurrence of Bekhterev's disease.
Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884-1983) was an American gastroenterologist. He was one of the first to examine Crohn's disease, an autoimmune disease resulting in inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The cause for Crohn's disease is not yet identified, but genetic factors can contribute to developing this disease.
John Langdon Down (1828-1896) was a British doctor. He identified Down's syndrome in 1866. In 1959, the French doctor Jerome Lejeune identified the cause of this disorder as being the presence of an extra 21st chromosome (or at least part of it). This genetic disorder can result in underdevelopment of physical and mental abilities.

Answer: William Henry Harrison

Garfield (1831-1881) was the 20th President of the US. He reigned from March 4th until September 19th, 1881. He was shot by Charles Guiteau on July 2nd, 1881 and died two months later because of medical complications of the bullet wound.
McKinley (1843-1901) was the 25th President. He served a full term (1897-1901) and was killed by Leon Czolgosz on September 5th, 1901.
Kennedy (1917-1963) served as the 35th President. He was campaigning for his re-election when he was shot in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963. Official reports blame Lee Harvey Oswald for the killing, but there are many differing theories.
Harrison was the 9th President. He was inaugurated March 4th, 1841 and died April 4th, 1841. He died of pneumonia. Most sources state that Harrison became ill because of his too long inauguration speech in cold weather, but apparently he contracted the cold only three weeks after his speech.

Answer: Martin Eakes

Bernard Madoff (born 1938) was convicted in 2009 to imprisonment for 150 years because of his scheme to trick credulous investors. Total losses because of his fraud are estimated on 65 billion dollars.
Jerome Kerviel (born 1977) was another example of how the public doesn't want a banker to work. He traded money for the Société Générale, a French investment bank. But Kerviel started trading with too high stakes and finally engaged funds that largely exceeded the book value of the bank. The fraud ran into about 50 billion euros, leading to an exceptional loss for Société Générale of about 5 billion euros (equalling about 7 billion dollars).
Lehman (1822-1855) was one of the founders of Lehman Brothers. In 2008, this American bank succumbed because of overexposure to loans to people without income, jobs or assets. At one point losses were estimated at 129 billion dollars.
Martin Eakes was born in 1953. He is an advocate for people who can't pay their loans anymore. In the financial world, Eakes has a reputation as Ralph Nader had for the car manufacturing industry (remember Nader's book "Unsafe at Any Speed").

Answer: Bold

All the previous answers in this common bond quiz are linked to the cast of "The Bold and the Beautiful".
Let's have a quick overview.
1. Jack Lang shares his surname with Katherine Kelly Lang, the actress who plays Brooke Logan.
2. Kate Mosse's surname is a homonym with Ron Moss', the actor who stars as Ridge Forrester.
3. Cook Strait refers to John McCook, the actor who plays the role of Eric Forrester.
4. Richard Wagner is a namesake of Jack Wagner, who plays Dominick Marone.
5. Larry Harmon shares his pseudonym with Winsor Harmon, one of the actors having portrayed Thorne Forrester. (Sometimes the original actor is replaced by another one, with only a spoken cue to announce the actor change).
6. The two athletes Ben Jones share their surname with Ashley Jones, who portrays Bridget Forrester.
7. John Haydon Down has the same surname as Lesley Ann Down, the British actress playing Jacqueline Payne Marone.
8. William Henry Harrison shares his surname with Schae Harrison, the actress who played Darla Einstein.
9. Martin Eakes has the same surname as Bobbie Eakes, who played Macy Alexander.
As for the three actresses I have mentioned in this last question: Susan Flannery plays Stephanie Forrester, Darlene Conley played Sally Spectra and Hunter Tylo acts as Dr. Taylor Hayes.
If some of you don't know the show, I'll try and resume the general plot. The Forrester family heads a fashion company. One of its principal competitors is the fashion company directed by Sally Spectra, the mother of Macy Alexander. Darla Einstein works for Sally Spectra, and Brooke Logan marries every male Forrester one after the other. After the competition with Sally is terminated, the Marone family (who made a fortune in sailing) tries to buy the Forrester Company.