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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Once again, this membership drive, we're having a 10-question quiz every day to break things up a little and have a little fun, and give away some swag, usually right after the newscast. Get two in a row right and win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap or the new WNYC tote for this membership drive that says You Can't Defund the Truth. Your choice.
Today's quiz, like yesterday's, is a Greater New York Geo quiz. It's Geo Quiz Part 2, Where Am I in New York City and Vicinity? I will say, before we go to our first caller, that this quiz is going to amp it up a little bit from yesterday. Yesterday was pretty easy. I wrote that one. Today, my tough-as-nails producer, Mary, has written a little bit of a tougher Geo quiz. I think it'll be really fun and interesting, but it's going to be a little harder. Casey in Ditmas Park, right there on Line 1. You get to go first and try for a prize. Hi, Casey, thanks for calling.
Casey: Hi, Brian. I'm shaking in my boots after that meeting, but I'm going to do my best.
Brian Lehrer: Question 1, and I will say often, even in hard quizzes, Question 1 is just to see if people are awake. I am driving or biking or walking over one of the three East River bridges between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Can you name any two of them?
Casey: Sure. The Williamsburg Bridge and-- Wow, I'm kind of just blanking here. I guess I'll say the Verrazzano Bridge.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, sorry, Casey, that was not right.
Casey: Yikes.
Brian Lehrer: Thanks for trying. See, I thought that was going to be easy. The three bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn over the East River. She got the Williamsburg Bridge right. The other two are named for the boroughs: The Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. Thomas in Summit, ready to play?
Thomas: Yes, I am.
Brian Lehrer: Okay. Question 2. Just by the luck of the draw, you're on Line 2. You're in New Jersey. You're going to get a New York City question. This one may be a little tough. Usually, we say all the boroughs in New York City are on islands except the Bronx. Only the Bronx is on the US Mainland. Now I am standing on the one little exception to that. I'm on the mainland, but I'm still in Manhattan. How can that be? Where am I?
Thomas: On the mainland but in Manhattan. Riverdale, your hometown.
Brian Lehrer: Close, but no. Riverdale is just north of there. I'm going to give one more listener a shot at this. Let's give the Manhattanite a shot at this. Eileen, is it, in Manhattan? Eileen, you're on WNYC. Do you know the answer? This is no harm if you get it wrong. You'll get your own question.
Eileen: Okay. Let me think. Wow, I should know this. I'm going to say, well, Spuyten Duyvil is the Bronx, so that's not Manhattan.
Brian Lehrer: You're so close.
Eileen: Oh, I know, I know it. Let's see. Is it Washington Heights? No.
Brian Lehrer: No, that's lower in Manhattan. I'm going to give it to you, but then you'll get your own question. The answer is Marble Hill. For those of you who don't know, it used to be physically connected to the northernmost part of Manhattan Island until a shipping canal was created to its south. That was a long time ago. After that, it was an island until 1913, when it was connected to the Bronx geographically by the way they fashioned the water when the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, as it's called, to its north was filled in.
Marble Hill across the Broadway Bridge, if you're going up Broadway past like 220th Street, feels like you're in the Bronx, but you're really technically, geographically, and for who represents it in City Council, still in Manhattan. By the time you get to the very next neighborhood, Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale, it is officially the Bronx.
All right, here's one for you, Eileen. Question 3. I'm standing on a major east-west street in the borough of Manhattan, which is named for a man-made body of water that the street paved over in the 1800s. This is another one about moving water and land around IN Manhattan, but in this case, an east-west street in Manhattan named for a man-made body of water that eventually got paved over. Where am I?
Eileen: All right, I'm going to guess that it's Canal Street.
Brian Lehrer: Canal Street is right. Of course, yes, it used to be a canal. That's how it got its name. For a hat or a tote, Question 4. Yesterday, I asked a question about Montauk, the furthest out you can go on Long Island. Montauk is on the South Fork. What's the name of the furthest out spot on the North Fork of Long Island? Do you know?
Eileen: Oh. Of course, I knew all of them yesterday. You were a much easier quiz master yesterday.
Brian Lehrer: Montauk is further out than this. Yesterday's question was based on an accurate premise. Still, you can go pretty far out on the North Fork. Where are you?
Eileen: I don't know. I'm just going to say Speonk because I like saying Speonk, just like I like saying Spuyten Duyvil.
Brian Lehrer: [laughs] Well, Speonk is great to say, but it's the wrong answer. The answer is Orient Point. All right, we're going to go next to Ellen in Sunnyside. Hi, Ellen. Ready to play?
Ellen: Hi, Brian. Yes, I am.
Brian Lehrer: I am at the last stop in Manhattan on the Q train, for Question 5. What stop am I at, or what line is this on, either one? The last stop in Manhattan on the Q train. Which stop am I at, or what is that line besides Q known as in that spot?
Ellen: I'll say 72nd Street.
Brian Lehrer: Saying what? 2nd Street?
Ellen: 72nd Street.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, 72nd Street. No, sorry. The answer is 96th Street.
Ellen: Oh, that was my next guess.
Brian Lehrer: I'll give you a shot at that. The other part of that, what famous line that we actually talked about briefly earlier in the show is that part of?
Ellen: The Second Avenue Subway line?
Brian Lehrer: Second Avenue Subway, that's right, which is supposed to go north of there. For the moment, Trump has canceled the funding to do that. Okay, Question 6 for a hat or a tote. I'm on a Metro-North train now, passing by stations called Ludlow, Yonkers, Glenwood, and Greystone, also Tarrytown. Which line am I on of Metro-North? They have three: Harlem, Hudson, or New Haven. Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington.
Ellen: Yes, the Hudson line.
Brian Lehrer: The Hudson line. Those are Hudson River towns.
Ellen: I grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, so-
Brian Lehrer: Oh, you did?
Ellen: -I shouldn't have gotten that one wrong.
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Brian Lehrer: Guess what? That's two in a row right.
Ellen: Woo-hoo.
Brian Lehrer: You knew the Second Avenue Subway, and you knew the Hudson Line. Would you like a You Can't Defund the Truth tote bag or a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap?
Ellen: I would love the tote. In honor of my win, I'm going to increase my monthly pledge for this station.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Ellen. Very nice.
Ellen: Thank you so much.
Brian Lehrer: Let us take your address off the air to send you the tote. Mike in the Bronx, ready to play?
Mike: Yes. Good morning, Brian.
Brian Lehrer: A little hesitant with that yes. Question 7.
Mike: Yes, I'm shaking in my boots like the first caller.
Brian Lehrer: Now I'm on a Long Island railroad train passing by stations called Hewlett, Woodmere, Cedarhurst, Lawrence, and Inwood. It's not Inwood, Manhattan; it's Inwood, Long Island. What are those villages known as collectively, those five villages, Hewlett, Woodmere, Cedarhurst, Lawrence, and Inwood?
Mike: The Five Towns?
Brian Lehrer: The Five Towns is correct. Now for the hat or the tote. Question 8. I'm on Staten Island, in the neighborhood where the ferry to Manhattan comes and goes from. Where on Staten Island am I?
Mike: This is quasi-guess. Just by the name of the train station, St. George.
Brian Lehrer: St. George is right. Two in a row right. Mike, do you want the You Can't Defund the Truth tote bag or The Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap?
Mike: Oh, tote bag for sure.
Brian Lehrer: Tote bag for sure coming your way. Hang on. We're going to take your address off the air. Erica in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Ready to play?
Erica: Yes.
Brian Lehrer: Okay. Hello, Erica. East New York is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, but now I'm in West New York. Where am I?
Erica: You're in New Jersey.
Brian Lehrer: That is correct. It's a town in New Jersey. For the tote or the hat, I'm in a town north of the city in Orange County, Orange County, New York, a town that has the same name as a very prominent state. Where am I?
Erica: You're in a town that has a name of a very prominent state?
Brian Lehrer: I'll give you a clue.
Erica: Thank you.
Brian Lehrer: A state where New Yorkers travel to fairly frequently, though you got to get on a plane.
Erica: Florida?
Brian Lehrer: Florida is right.
Erica: Oh, I think that was on an old Law & Order, so that was an educated guess.
Brian Lehrer: Mary said in my ear, "Tell her it's a state that a lot of New Yorkers retire to." I thought that would be too easy. You got it. Erica, do you want a You Can't Defund the Truth tote or a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap?
Erica: Absolutely need another tote.
Brian Lehrer: All right. Hang on. We'll take your address off the air. That's our 10-question quiz for today. We'll do another one right around the same time in the membership drive tomorrow. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Much more to come for the rest of this hour.
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