Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Ken Jennings Tuesday Trivia - August 11
THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. The Crab and the Horsehead are famous examples of what kind of astronomical feature? nebula
2. The new film Tony Manero is about a Chilean man who idolizes the main character of what 1970s movie classic? Saturday Night Fever. I am assuming the Tony Manero stance as I write this.
3. Where would you see a thimble, a hat, a dog, a wheelbarrow, and a battleship that are all about the same size? are those the tokens used in a game of Monopoly
4. In the 1840 "retour des cendres," what object was returned to Paris from the Atlantic island of St. Helena? St. Helena --> Napoleon. Napoleon's body or some part of his body
5. What pre-1957 name for an African nation is shared by the second largest city in Queensland, Australia? I think Queensland is the east/northeast coast of Australia. Brisbane is the biggest city. Second biggest? No idea. Tanganyika? Zanzibar?
6. In Greek myth, who led the quest to find the wool of the winged ram Chrysomallos? Jason was on a quest for the golden fleece
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these TV shows? Hill Street Blues, Hunter, In the Heat of the Night, Julia, Little House on the Prairie, My Two Dads, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Webster. I can see one thread - former athletes turned actor. Michael Warren, Merlin Olsen, Alex Karras, Fred Dryer. Wikipedia helped me with the rest. Carl Weathers played football briefly for the Raiders and was in In The Heat of the Night. Fred Williamson was in Julia. Dick Butkus was on My Two Dads. Bob Golic was on Saved By The Bell.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. Who was the only one of the Spice Girls to be named for an actual spice? Posh, Scary, Sporty, and Baby are four spices that have never been in my kitchen. But Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell qualifies. as much as I like gingerbread, I should have thought of this
2. What famed European and Nobel laureate spent the last forty years of his life in the city of Lambarene, Gabon? Albert Schweitzer's namesake clinic still sees patients and performs malaria research in this small Gabonese city. correct
3. What is the (innocuous) f-word referred to in the title of Gordon Ramsay's hit TV series The F Word? Ramsay is a (famously profane) TV chef; the f-word is "food." correct
4. What are the only two U.S. states never to have a battleship named after them? The navy hasn't commissioned a battleship since World War II, so obviously Alaska and Hawaii (states only since 1959) missed the party. correct
5. Harold Schonberg's classic book The Lives of the Great Composers includes chapters on two different classical composers with what same last name? Richard and Johann Strauss (no relation). why isn't PDQ Bach deserving of a chapter in The Lives of the Great Composers?
6. What director's first movie was the independent 1968 short film Amblin'? Amblin Entertainment, with a bicycle-across-the-moon logo that still makes Neil Diamond a little bit weepy, is the production company of Steven Spielberg, who named it after his first commercially released film. correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these teams in the four major North American professional sports, and (as far as I can tell) no others? The Buffalo Sabres, the Chicago White Sox, the Houston Rockets, the Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Toronto Maple Leafs? Each of these teams is currently coached (or "managed," baseball fans) by someone who used to play for the team as well. Yeah, this was pretty hard, but I thought there were a few high-profile ex-players here, like Ozzie Guillen of the White Sox and Lindy Ruff of the Sabres, that might make this gettable. Not one of the areas that I researched. I thought it might be history in a playoff series (since no NFL teams). Or a player with a unique name. Lindy Ruff and Ozzie Guillen are high profile ex-players? Wayne Gretzky would be high profile.
1. The Crab and the Horsehead are famous examples of what kind of astronomical feature? nebula
2. The new film Tony Manero is about a Chilean man who idolizes the main character of what 1970s movie classic? Saturday Night Fever. I am assuming the Tony Manero stance as I write this.
3. Where would you see a thimble, a hat, a dog, a wheelbarrow, and a battleship that are all about the same size? are those the tokens used in a game of Monopoly
4. In the 1840 "retour des cendres," what object was returned to Paris from the Atlantic island of St. Helena? St. Helena --> Napoleon. Napoleon's body or some part of his body
5. What pre-1957 name for an African nation is shared by the second largest city in Queensland, Australia? I think Queensland is the east/northeast coast of Australia. Brisbane is the biggest city. Second biggest? No idea. Tanganyika? Zanzibar?
6. In Greek myth, who led the quest to find the wool of the winged ram Chrysomallos? Jason was on a quest for the golden fleece
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these TV shows? Hill Street Blues, Hunter, In the Heat of the Night, Julia, Little House on the Prairie, My Two Dads, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Webster. I can see one thread - former athletes turned actor. Michael Warren, Merlin Olsen, Alex Karras, Fred Dryer. Wikipedia helped me with the rest. Carl Weathers played football briefly for the Raiders and was in In The Heat of the Night. Fred Williamson was in Julia. Dick Butkus was on My Two Dads. Bob Golic was on Saved By The Bell.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. Who was the only one of the Spice Girls to be named for an actual spice? Posh, Scary, Sporty, and Baby are four spices that have never been in my kitchen. But Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell qualifies. as much as I like gingerbread, I should have thought of this
2. What famed European and Nobel laureate spent the last forty years of his life in the city of Lambarene, Gabon? Albert Schweitzer's namesake clinic still sees patients and performs malaria research in this small Gabonese city. correct
3. What is the (innocuous) f-word referred to in the title of Gordon Ramsay's hit TV series The F Word? Ramsay is a (famously profane) TV chef; the f-word is "food." correct
4. What are the only two U.S. states never to have a battleship named after them? The navy hasn't commissioned a battleship since World War II, so obviously Alaska and Hawaii (states only since 1959) missed the party. correct
5. Harold Schonberg's classic book The Lives of the Great Composers includes chapters on two different classical composers with what same last name? Richard and Johann Strauss (no relation). why isn't PDQ Bach deserving of a chapter in The Lives of the Great Composers?
6. What director's first movie was the independent 1968 short film Amblin'? Amblin Entertainment, with a bicycle-across-the-moon logo that still makes Neil Diamond a little bit weepy, is the production company of Steven Spielberg, who named it after his first commercially released film. correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these teams in the four major North American professional sports, and (as far as I can tell) no others? The Buffalo Sabres, the Chicago White Sox, the Houston Rockets, the Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Toronto Maple Leafs? Each of these teams is currently coached (or "managed," baseball fans) by someone who used to play for the team as well. Yeah, this was pretty hard, but I thought there were a few high-profile ex-players here, like Ozzie Guillen of the White Sox and Lindy Ruff of the Sabres, that might make this gettable. Not one of the areas that I researched. I thought it might be history in a playoff series (since no NFL teams). Or a player with a unique name. Lindy Ruff and Ozzie Guillen are high profile ex-players? Wayne Gretzky would be high profile.
