Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Ken Jennings Tuesday Trivia - October 19
THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. What three numbers make up the smallest "Pythagorean triple"? I assume that a Pythagorean triple are three whole numbers that represent the length of the legs and hypotenuse of a right triangle. If so, the smallest would be 3, 4, 5.
2. What's the only country in the world that includes territory where drivers drive on the right *and* some territory where drivers drive on the left? a guess - China. You might drive on the right in most of the country but on the left in Hong Kong.
3. What does a "wildcatter" spend his days looking for? oil. As I would hear it in Oklahoma, wildcatters are in the "awl bidness."
4. What English entrepreneur, who made his millions by inventing "penny packets" of garden seeds, donated a gold trophy in 1927 to encourage his fellow golfers to play at the same level as top Americans? Samuel Ryder
5. What identical song title appears shortly before "My Best Friend" on Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow LP, and shortly before "You're My Best Friend" on Queen's Greatest Hits? As I was working through possibilities, I hit on the answer - Somebody To Love. I was going to be really surprised if it was Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, I Want to Ride My Bicycle or Fat Bottomed Girls.
6. Of whose death did Robert E. Lee say, "I have lost my right arm"? RELee would say this about a fellow soldier, wouldn't he? I can only think of one other confederate general - Stonewall Jackson.
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? The Born Losers, First Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Love Story, Pitch Black, A Shot in the Dark, The Silence of the Lambs, and True Grit. This does not seem as hard as I thought it might be. They are all movies with sequels whose titles are different from the prequel (most include the character name) - Billy Jack, Rambo, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, Oliver's Story, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Pink Panther, Hannibal, Rooster Cogburn
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What passion does a "railbird" enjoy? Lots of people mixed up "railfans" and "railbirds"; "railfans" are the weirdos who stalk trains. "Railbirds" merely lose their family's hard-earned income betting on horse racing. correct
2. What unusual item was worn by both Werner Klemperer and Burgess Meredith in their most familiar TV roles? Colonel Klink and the Penguin both wore a monocle. Maybe they also both liked to wear silky women's underwear, but we can't accept that answer without proof, sorry. correct
3. Which U.S. senate candidate has released a video to explain that he was *not* named for his father's favorite author, as has been claimed? Rand Paul isn't named after Ayn Rand, sorry. Do nerd libertarians named their children "Heinlein"? correct
4. What profession made Louis Sullivan and Louis Kahn famous? They were architects, like Mike Brady, only better. correct
5. One "astronomical unit," or AU, is defined as the distance between the Earth and what? Between us and the Sun...well, our average distance from the Sun. correct
6. Who played Elvis Presley's mother in Blue Hawaii and Laurence Harvey's mother in The Manchurian Candidate, despite being only a few years older than both? I hope Angela Lansbury didn't take it personally. correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, listed in this order? Rwanda, Peru, the U.S., China, Mongolia, Mongolia, China, Brazil, China, and Zambia. These are the respective sources of the world's ten longest rivers: the Nile, the Amazon, and so on. (Obviously there's some wiggle room here since no two lists of river length and origin agree. I used the World Almanac's "longest rivers" list and defined a river's "source" as its farthest headwaters, not its most abundant ones.) My, that was tough. It was a top 10 list, but not one that I recognized. I did not know for example that the Nile headwaters are in Rwanda. I also did not realize that 5 of the 10 longest rivers are mostly in Asia.
1. What three numbers make up the smallest "Pythagorean triple"? I assume that a Pythagorean triple are three whole numbers that represent the length of the legs and hypotenuse of a right triangle. If so, the smallest would be 3, 4, 5.
2. What's the only country in the world that includes territory where drivers drive on the right *and* some territory where drivers drive on the left? a guess - China. You might drive on the right in most of the country but on the left in Hong Kong.
3. What does a "wildcatter" spend his days looking for? oil. As I would hear it in Oklahoma, wildcatters are in the "awl bidness."
4. What English entrepreneur, who made his millions by inventing "penny packets" of garden seeds, donated a gold trophy in 1927 to encourage his fellow golfers to play at the same level as top Americans? Samuel Ryder
5. What identical song title appears shortly before "My Best Friend" on Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow LP, and shortly before "You're My Best Friend" on Queen's Greatest Hits? As I was working through possibilities, I hit on the answer - Somebody To Love. I was going to be really surprised if it was Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, I Want to Ride My Bicycle or Fat Bottomed Girls.
6. Of whose death did Robert E. Lee say, "I have lost my right arm"? RELee would say this about a fellow soldier, wouldn't he? I can only think of one other confederate general - Stonewall Jackson.
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? The Born Losers, First Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Love Story, Pitch Black, A Shot in the Dark, The Silence of the Lambs, and True Grit. This does not seem as hard as I thought it might be. They are all movies with sequels whose titles are different from the prequel (most include the character name) - Billy Jack, Rambo, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, Oliver's Story, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Pink Panther, Hannibal, Rooster Cogburn
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What passion does a "railbird" enjoy? Lots of people mixed up "railfans" and "railbirds"; "railfans" are the weirdos who stalk trains. "Railbirds" merely lose their family's hard-earned income betting on horse racing. correct
2. What unusual item was worn by both Werner Klemperer and Burgess Meredith in their most familiar TV roles? Colonel Klink and the Penguin both wore a monocle. Maybe they also both liked to wear silky women's underwear, but we can't accept that answer without proof, sorry. correct
3. Which U.S. senate candidate has released a video to explain that he was *not* named for his father's favorite author, as has been claimed? Rand Paul isn't named after Ayn Rand, sorry. Do nerd libertarians named their children "Heinlein"? correct
4. What profession made Louis Sullivan and Louis Kahn famous? They were architects, like Mike Brady, only better. correct
5. One "astronomical unit," or AU, is defined as the distance between the Earth and what? Between us and the Sun...well, our average distance from the Sun. correct
6. Who played Elvis Presley's mother in Blue Hawaii and Laurence Harvey's mother in The Manchurian Candidate, despite being only a few years older than both? I hope Angela Lansbury didn't take it personally. correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, listed in this order? Rwanda, Peru, the U.S., China, Mongolia, Mongolia, China, Brazil, China, and Zambia. These are the respective sources of the world's ten longest rivers: the Nile, the Amazon, and so on. (Obviously there's some wiggle room here since no two lists of river length and origin agree. I used the World Almanac's "longest rivers" list and defined a river's "source" as its farthest headwaters, not its most abundant ones.) My, that was tough. It was a top 10 list, but not one that I recognized. I did not know for example that the Nile headwaters are in Rwanda. I also did not realize that 5 of the 10 longest rivers are mostly in Asia.
