Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Ken Jennings Tuesday Trivia - July 17
THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete? Lou Gehrig
2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent? must be Asia or Africa. I'll guess Africa.
3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what? Lead(belly)
4. What title character of a 2007 movie gets called "the cautionary whale" by her classmates at Dancing Elk High School? after some brainstorming, the answer came to me - Juno!
5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere? weather occurs in the troposphere. I'll guess the troposphere.
6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people? writers?
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? Avatar, The Freshman, Hud, In the Cut, Mildred Pierce, Monkeybone, No Country for Old Men, The Specialist, That's My Boy. Which The Freshman and which That's My Boy does he mean? There are multiple movies with those titles.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What animal is popularly known in North America as a polecat? In Europe, the polecat was a type of weasel, but in North America, as far back as the 17th century, the term's been borrowed to refer to the skunk. correct
2. The chorus of what 2012 hit song begins, "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number"? ...So call me maybe. I'm sorry I got this stuck in your head again. correct
3. From his 1306 coronation until his 1329 death, who led the Wars of Scottish Independence against England? Robert the Bruce. If you got this because of Braveheart, that's okay. guess I should pay more attention to the characters (and the question - I should have realize that William Wallace was killed at the end of that movie and was not crowned).
4. What device, invented at Bell Labs in 1947 by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley, made possible the next half-century of miniaturized radios and other electronics? Those three shared a Nobel Prize for inventing the transistor. correct
5. Mohammed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq are recent political rivals in what nation? They recently vied for the presidency of Egypt. This was a little more current a month ago when I wrote it before leaving on vacation. correct
6. Brick, lumber, wool, grain, and ore are the five original resources found on what imaginary island? Catan, as in "Settlers of" and its Euro-board game sequels. Michael Rooney would have answered this correctly in his sleep
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, listed in this order? Sudan, Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro, Indonesia, the United States, Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the USSR. These are the countries from which the world's newest independent nations were carved: respectively, South Sudan, Kosovo, both Serbia and Montenegro, East Timor, Palau, Eritrea, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kazakhstan. (Admittedly, I left off Germany, a merger that didn't really fit the list.) I am calling this correct. Did not know that Palau separated from the US in the recent past. I am learning US history from Ken Jennings!
1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete? Lou Gehrig
2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent? must be Asia or Africa. I'll guess Africa.
3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what? Lead(belly)
4. What title character of a 2007 movie gets called "the cautionary whale" by her classmates at Dancing Elk High School? after some brainstorming, the answer came to me - Juno!
5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere? weather occurs in the troposphere. I'll guess the troposphere.
6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people? writers?
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? Avatar, The Freshman, Hud, In the Cut, Mildred Pierce, Monkeybone, No Country for Old Men, The Specialist, That's My Boy. Which The Freshman and which That's My Boy does he mean? There are multiple movies with those titles.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What animal is popularly known in North America as a polecat? In Europe, the polecat was a type of weasel, but in North America, as far back as the 17th century, the term's been borrowed to refer to the skunk. correct
2. The chorus of what 2012 hit song begins, "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number"? ...So call me maybe. I'm sorry I got this stuck in your head again. correct
3. From his 1306 coronation until his 1329 death, who led the Wars of Scottish Independence against England? Robert the Bruce. If you got this because of Braveheart, that's okay. guess I should pay more attention to the characters (and the question - I should have realize that William Wallace was killed at the end of that movie and was not crowned).
4. What device, invented at Bell Labs in 1947 by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley, made possible the next half-century of miniaturized radios and other electronics? Those three shared a Nobel Prize for inventing the transistor. correct
5. Mohammed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq are recent political rivals in what nation? They recently vied for the presidency of Egypt. This was a little more current a month ago when I wrote it before leaving on vacation. correct
6. Brick, lumber, wool, grain, and ore are the five original resources found on what imaginary island? Catan, as in "Settlers of" and its Euro-board game sequels. Michael Rooney would have answered this correctly in his sleep
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, listed in this order? Sudan, Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro, Indonesia, the United States, Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the USSR. These are the countries from which the world's newest independent nations were carved: respectively, South Sudan, Kosovo, both Serbia and Montenegro, East Timor, Palau, Eritrea, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kazakhstan. (Admittedly, I left off Germany, a merger that didn't really fit the list.) I am calling this correct. Did not know that Palau separated from the US in the recent past. I am learning US history from Ken Jennings!
