The last of these was posted over 10 years ago, so the pain should have gone by now. And you'll have forgotten any of the recycled answers...
Twenty-six questions, each answer starting with a different letter of the alphabet. Some of the clues are precise, some deliberately vague, some quirky or cryptic . The clues are not in any sort of order.
Unless stated otherwise, when the answer is a name, the surname is what is required. When a title or phrase is needed, it’s the first word of the title or phrase that counts (excluding definite and indefinite articles, both English and foreign!). Feel free to Google after the first 24 hours.
Grab a couple if the mood takes you
-1. Betty Perske was the real name of who?
-2. Inventor of the ice-rink resurfacer
-3. Grateful Dead singer/guitarist
-4. Highest register of the male voice
-5. Birthstone – for the cynics we hear?
-6. 1979 film loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin
-7. Bottle size equal to two bottles of champagne
-8. Had hit with “Germ-free Adolescents”
-9. Thought to be the most luminous and distant objects in the universe
-10. Country with saw-toothed shape national flag
-11. Diacritical mark
-12. Phileas Fogg’s valet
-13. Country that contains the Negev desert
-14. Planet lying between Earth and Sun
not Mercury -15. Spicy dish of rice cooked with seafood, meat and onions
-16. Airport serving Chicago
-17. Wolfram is another name for what?
-18. Pen-name of Mary Ann Evans
-19. Fabulous author
-20. Film based on “Everybody Comes to Ricks”
-21. Day of atonement
-22. Italian sports car maker
-23. He links “South Park” and “Shaft”
-24. Guitar with steel resonators
-25. A boomer is the adult male of which species ?
-26. Ridge found between the shoulder-blades of a horse