Here are today’s questions. Answers will be published tomorrow. The theme runs from Mon-Thu:

1. The Curse of Tippecanoe is an urban legend about the deaths in office of presidents of the USA, who were elected in years divisible by 20. The curse gets its name from William Harrison, who died a month after the start of his term in 1841; Harrison was nicknamed ‘Old Tippecanoe’. What disease, spread orally and caused by Salmonella, did he die of?
2. Who replaced Warren G. Harding as President after the latter’s death in office in 1923? Harding was very popular at the time of his death, but subsequent scandals eroded his reputation.
3. The Dying President is a 1998 book by historian Robert Ferrell about whose last year in office? The book explores the lengths to which this President and his staff kept the public in the dark regarding his illness.
4. Ronald Reagan broke the curse of Tippecanoe by surviving an assassination attempt, when he was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in March 1980. Who was Hinckley attempting to impress through the attack?
5. [Theme: 2 of 4] What word can refer to a distilled alcoholic drink, an incorporeal being, or the essence of a living creature?

Here are the answers to 2026: Week 44, Quiz 1:

1. Autobiography of Red
2. Marilyn Monroe, Helen of Troy
3. TS Eliot
4. Sappho
5. Theme – will be revealed on Friday