The Battle of the Bryans (and Brians) Quiz

Answer: Figure skating

These were the Winter Olympics, held that year in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Orser, a Canadian born in 1961, and Boitano, an American born in 1963, had each won a world championship and the adulation of skating fans. Orser was well regarded for his artistry; Boitano was famous for his technical skill, embodied in his trademark 'Tano Triple Lutz. And after two-thirds of the figure-skating competition at the 1988 Olympics, the two were essentially tied as they entered the long form finale. Boitano took home the gold after winning the technical tiebreaker, but both enjoyed professional success in the following years.

Answer: My Heart Will Go On

Born in Kingston, Ontario, in 1959, Adams rose to fame with his third album, "Cuts Like a Knife" (1983). His distinctive tenor voice, expressive and slightly hoarse, helped him stand out from the crowd. "Summer of '69", released as a single in 1985, hit Number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 with its message of nostalgia for teenage self-discovery. The other two songs listed here were both associated with movie soundtracks and both nominated for Oscars (although neither won). "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" was released in 1991 in tandem with the "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" soundtrack, and rapidly hit Number One on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian Singles Chart; the song even won a Grammy the following year. In 1995, Adams landed in those same chart positions again with "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?", written for "Don Juan DeMarco."

"My Heart Will Go On" was a single from the 1997 "Titanic" soundtrack, performed by another Canadian artist: Céline Dion.

Answer: Playing cards

Berg, born in 1974, has literally built his professional life on a house of cards -- and it's working out pretty well for him! His card-stacking construction method requires no glue, tape, or bending, yet he has used it to rise to great heights, repeatedly breaking his own records.

In 2007, for example, he used 1100 decks to build a card skyscraper nearly 26 feet (8 meters) high! This project was completed at the African-American Museum in Dallas, Texas, but Berg has traveled to many different countries to build structures on commission.

He's also showcased his skills on television talk shows and even in a music video. It takes some creativity to make ends meet this way, but creativity is clearly something Berg has in spades. (Sorry.)

Answer: String theory

"String theory" describes a whole framework of theoretical physics, in which particles are treated not as points but as vibrations of infinitesimal strings, which exist in eleven or more dimensions. While the theory has not been experimentally validated, it is compelling to many scientists because -- if it's correct -- it would be able to describe both quantum mechanics and gravity with the same fundamental equations. A "theory of everything" has to be able to cover everything, and string theory is one of the few approaches that may be able to do it.

Greene, born in 1963, wrote "The Elegant Universe" while working as a professor at Columbia University, and continued to conduct academic research even as he became a popular-science celebrity. "The Elegant Universe" and Greene's next book, "The Fabric of the Cosmos", were both made into public-television specials, and Greene wound up spending quite a lot of time on the television talk-show circuit. In 2012, the American Association of Physics Teachers gave him an education award in recognition of his efforts to explain cutting-edge theories to the world.

Answer: The Usual Suspects

After appearing at a few film festivals, the noir thriller "The Usual Suspects" received wide release in the summer of 1995. Its convoluted storyline and surprising twist earned Oscars for the screenwriter and lead actor, and a ticket to Hollywood success for its director. Singer, born in 1965 in New York City, seized the opportunity. "X-Men" (2000) and "X2" (2003), which centered on the Marvel Comics team of mutant heroes, ushered in a new era for superhero movies: amusing, thrilling, and with some attention to character development, they reminded a new generation that the genre could actually be fun. (Sadly, Singer's next superhero effort, 2006's "Superman Returns," didn't achieve liftoff the same way.)

Answer: Scott Pilgrim

O'Malley, born in 1979 in London, Ontario, began publishing the six-volume "Scott Pilgrim" series in 2004. Scott is a part-time musician and full-time failure who falls hard for delivery girl Ramona Flowers -- but her past romantic interests are determined to sabotage them. Scott must engage these evil exes in video-game-style combat, and hilarity ensues. The last book was released in 2010, the same year as the movie and video game "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World".

The three incorrect answers are all nineteenth-century historical figures.

Answer: Business

Born in 1961, Burrough was working for the "Wall Street Journal" when he wrote and published "Barbarians at the Gate" with Helyar. The book recounts a hotly contested 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, a food and tobacco company. Reviews were extraordinarily positive; the "New York Times Book Review" wrote that the book was, "one of the finest, most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate America and Wall Street in the 1980's."

Burrough followed "Barbarians" with other nonfiction works in different parts of the Dewey Decimal System. The 2004 book "Public Enemies," for example, dealt with crime and law enforcement in 1933 and 1934. (That book became a major motion picture in 2009, a step up from the 1993 TV movie that adapted "Barbarians.")

Answer: Brian May

Born in 1947, May began his PhD work at Imperial College London in 1970. It soon became clear, however, that his band was more than just a hobby. In 1974 May abandoned his work on zodiacal dust (the huge, flattened dust cloud along the plane of the ecliptic in our solar system) in order to seek international stardom with band mates Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon. They found it.

In addition to playing guitar, May also sang backup and wrote several successful singles. (Ironically, given his research interests, he did NOT write "Another One Bites the Dust" (1980); that was Deacon.) After Mercury's death, May launched a solo music career, and later did a reunion tour with Taylor. In 2007, after about a year of work, May finally finished his PhD thesis and graduated; he was lucky that there hadn't been much work in the area in the intervening 33 years.

Answer: Brian Boru

Brian Boru, or Bóruma, may have been born as early as the 920s, although the date is much debated. His father was a king, although the Irish hierarchy was so fractured and replete with local and regional kings that perhaps "chieftain" would be a better word. After Brian succeeded to his father's and elder brother's kingship, he was able to consolidate his power and become king of the whole province of Munster, which served as a base for further conquest. He became High King of Ireland in 1002, and spent the next 12 years trying to make this more than a ceremonial title. His efforts were contested, though, and open warfare broke out in 1012. Brian Boru died in the Battle of Clontarf. So did his son; so did his chief enemy.

Brian Boru's name survives in the O'Brien dynasty, which ruled Munster for the next hundred years or so and the smaller kingdom of Thomond until the 1500s. One of his grandsons and one of his great-grandsons were also High King, although they too faced violent opposition.

Answer: Bryan Cranston

Born in California in 1956, Cranston threw himself into acting after graduating from college. After a large number of bit parts, the role of Hal was a breakout part for him when "Malcolm in the Middle" began airing in 2000. People noticed his work, too: he was nominated for three Emmy awards (for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series) over the show's seven-season run.

After the show came to an end in 2006, he had a brief break from major roles until "Breaking Bad" was picked up for 2008 on HBO. Walter White was a very different role for him, desperate and conflicted and spiraling into darkness, but Cranston had no trouble making the character his own. And again, people noticed: nominated seven times for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, he won that Emmy in 2008, 2009, 2010, and finally in 2014, the year after the show's original run ended.