Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Ken Jennings Tuesday Trivia - January 8
THIS WEEK'S QUIZ
1. What is the knife called an "izmel" specifically used for?
2. What world leader officially holds only the rank of colonel, despite being commander-in-chief of his nation's military? didn't Pervez Musharraf step down from the military? If so, this could be Hugo Chavez
3. What mountain of Centre County, Pennsylvania still has a famous name today because of the mountain lions that lived there until the 1880s? Nittany Mountain (for the PSU Nittany Lions)
4. What city is often threatened by the acqua alta? sounds like it could be Venice
5. What Greek philosopher founded a secret society of followers called the Mathematikoi, whose members were forbidden to eat beans? never heard of this one so I'll guess a Greek philosopher who also is know to math students - Euclid
6. What street is conspicuously missing from Washington, D.C.'s street grid--as a stab at a Supreme Court Chief Justice, according to one popular myth? J Street (the clue leads me to Chief Justice John Jay)
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these movies? Blade Runner, Chicken Little, ConAir, Hard Boiled, I Am Sam, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Pearl Harbor, and Red Dragon.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. The Empire State Building extinguished its lights for fifteen minutes in August 2004 to mourn the death of what Canadian-born woman? Fay Wray, who dangled from the building back in 1933's King Kong. arrrgh. could not come up with this
2. What common item is tracked by the website Where's George? The "George" is George Washington--the website tracks dollar bills (and other US paper currency). this falls into the "I did not know that" category
3. What nation is home to the militant nationalists called the Tamil Tigers? The Tamil Tigers want independence from Sri Lanka. correct
4. What's the only single in the history of the Billboard Top Ten to share its name with a book of the Bible? ("Theme from Exodus" is NOT a biblical book.) Elton John's "Daniel" is the only exact match I could find. correct
5. LDL and HDL are the two main types of what substance? LDL = "bad" cholesterol. HDL = "good" cholesterol correct
6. Who's the only coach in NBA history to lead seven different teams to the playoffs? Larry Brown has coached seven different NBA teams in the last 25 years, none for longer than six seasons. Maybe Larry needs some Ritalin for that attention span of his. my guess Lenny Wilkins has not been peripatetic enough
7. What color comes last in this list, and why? Gold, silver, green, copper, blue, purple, ____. I thought this might be hard, and it was. Still, I though the fact that there were seven items in the list might help people out. I thought the metallic colors might help people out. I thought the fact that tens of millions of American have these very colors on their bookshelves might help people out. Those are the colors of foil on the covers of the first six Harry Potter books (in US hardcover), which makes the seventh one "red." Sorry, non-US readers.
1. What is the knife called an "izmel" specifically used for?
2. What world leader officially holds only the rank of colonel, despite being commander-in-chief of his nation's military? didn't Pervez Musharraf step down from the military? If so, this could be Hugo Chavez
3. What mountain of Centre County, Pennsylvania still has a famous name today because of the mountain lions that lived there until the 1880s? Nittany Mountain (for the PSU Nittany Lions)
4. What city is often threatened by the acqua alta? sounds like it could be Venice
5. What Greek philosopher founded a secret society of followers called the Mathematikoi, whose members were forbidden to eat beans? never heard of this one so I'll guess a Greek philosopher who also is know to math students - Euclid
6. What street is conspicuously missing from Washington, D.C.'s street grid--as a stab at a Supreme Court Chief Justice, according to one popular myth? J Street (the clue leads me to Chief Justice John Jay)
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these movies? Blade Runner, Chicken Little, ConAir, Hard Boiled, I Am Sam, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Pearl Harbor, and Red Dragon.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. The Empire State Building extinguished its lights for fifteen minutes in August 2004 to mourn the death of what Canadian-born woman? Fay Wray, who dangled from the building back in 1933's King Kong. arrrgh. could not come up with this
2. What common item is tracked by the website Where's George? The "George" is George Washington--the website tracks dollar bills (and other US paper currency). this falls into the "I did not know that" category
3. What nation is home to the militant nationalists called the Tamil Tigers? The Tamil Tigers want independence from Sri Lanka. correct
4. What's the only single in the history of the Billboard Top Ten to share its name with a book of the Bible? ("Theme from Exodus" is NOT a biblical book.) Elton John's "Daniel" is the only exact match I could find. correct
5. LDL and HDL are the two main types of what substance? LDL = "bad" cholesterol. HDL = "good" cholesterol correct
6. Who's the only coach in NBA history to lead seven different teams to the playoffs? Larry Brown has coached seven different NBA teams in the last 25 years, none for longer than six seasons. Maybe Larry needs some Ritalin for that attention span of his. my guess Lenny Wilkins has not been peripatetic enough
7. What color comes last in this list, and why? Gold, silver, green, copper, blue, purple, ____. I thought this might be hard, and it was. Still, I though the fact that there were seven items in the list might help people out. I thought the metallic colors might help people out. I thought the fact that tens of millions of American have these very colors on their bookshelves might help people out. Those are the colors of foil on the covers of the first six Harry Potter books (in US hardcover), which makes the seventh one "red." Sorry, non-US readers.
