Sunday, July 01, 2012
Ken Jennings Tuesday Trivia - June 26
THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. What reggae-inflected hit was the only a cappella song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, in September 1988? Don't Worry, Be Happy
2. Kosovo and Cyprus are the only two nations whose map can be found where? this is confusing. A map that only includes Kosovo and Cyprus? Very mysterious question. Is this a reference to a book like The Da Vinci Code?
3. According to a famous quote in Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, what will also gaze into you if you gaze too long at it? the sun? your soul? the sun? your navel? Is this where the term "navel gazing" comes from?
4. What two actors, currently playing the same character in one of the biggest movies of summer 2012, also played reluctant antagonists in the Best Picture-winning film of 2007? Best Picture winner in 2007 was The Departed, I believe. Leo DiCaprio was in it and it is about Boston gangsters. Don't know much else about the movie. One of the biggest summer movies of 2012 would seem to be The Avengers. A reference to The Hulk? I think Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner, but I don't know which actor is The Hulk.
5. What Elizabethan term for the lowest-paying members of a theater audience was appropriated by a legendary Los Angeles comedy troupe? Groundlings
6. In humans, over 90% of digestion and absorption takes place in what organ? large intestine?
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these Shakespearean characters? Coriolanus, Falstaff, Henry IV, Kent, Prospero, Romeo, Rosalind, Valentine. They appear in disguise? This would not seem to be very unusual in Shakespeare plays however.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What are you calculating if you subtract course rating from five scores, multiply each by 113, and then divide by the appropriate slope rating? This is part of the (surprisingly algebra-intensive) process of computing your golf handicap. (In the American system, anyway. The rest of the world uses a slightly different formula.) correct
2. The "Denmark Strait" is actually located over a thousand miles away from Copenhagen, and lies between what two islands? Iceland and Greenland--which is, after all, an overseas territory of Denmark. correct
3. In the U.S., federal inmates in prison or on furlough must agree not to eat baked goods containing what (generally harmless) ingredient? Poppy seeds. The thing about them producing false positives on drug tests is absolutely true. correct
4. Shale, limestone, and sandstone belong to which of the three basic categories of rock? Sedimentary, since all three are formed from the compaction of accumulated minerals (and organic shells and stuff, in the case of limestone). correct
5. What TV show's characters often repeat the slogan "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose"? This is the locker room mantra of the Dillon Panthers, on Friday Night Lights. Whose house? THEIR HOUSE. correct
6. On April 18, 1975, President Ford visited what building to light in one of its windows a lantern that still hangs there today? Ford was visiting Boston's Old North Church, to commemorate the bicentennial of Paul Revere's famed ride, which began, as you might recall, with a lantern signal from that very church. correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these bands? Alabama, Backstreet Boys, the Beach Boys, the Dandy Warhols, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Kings of Leon, the Miracles, Rascal Flatts. All these bands have or had a pair of cousins in them. (Some have siblings too, but not all.) correct
1. What reggae-inflected hit was the only a cappella song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100, in September 1988? Don't Worry, Be Happy
2. Kosovo and Cyprus are the only two nations whose map can be found where? this is confusing. A map that only includes Kosovo and Cyprus? Very mysterious question. Is this a reference to a book like The Da Vinci Code?
3. According to a famous quote in Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, what will also gaze into you if you gaze too long at it? the sun? your soul? the sun? your navel? Is this where the term "navel gazing" comes from?
4. What two actors, currently playing the same character in one of the biggest movies of summer 2012, also played reluctant antagonists in the Best Picture-winning film of 2007? Best Picture winner in 2007 was The Departed, I believe. Leo DiCaprio was in it and it is about Boston gangsters. Don't know much else about the movie. One of the biggest summer movies of 2012 would seem to be The Avengers. A reference to The Hulk? I think Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner, but I don't know which actor is The Hulk.
5. What Elizabethan term for the lowest-paying members of a theater audience was appropriated by a legendary Los Angeles comedy troupe? Groundlings
6. In humans, over 90% of digestion and absorption takes place in what organ? large intestine?
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these Shakespearean characters? Coriolanus, Falstaff, Henry IV, Kent, Prospero, Romeo, Rosalind, Valentine. They appear in disguise? This would not seem to be very unusual in Shakespeare plays however.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What are you calculating if you subtract course rating from five scores, multiply each by 113, and then divide by the appropriate slope rating? This is part of the (surprisingly algebra-intensive) process of computing your golf handicap. (In the American system, anyway. The rest of the world uses a slightly different formula.) correct
2. The "Denmark Strait" is actually located over a thousand miles away from Copenhagen, and lies between what two islands? Iceland and Greenland--which is, after all, an overseas territory of Denmark. correct
3. In the U.S., federal inmates in prison or on furlough must agree not to eat baked goods containing what (generally harmless) ingredient? Poppy seeds. The thing about them producing false positives on drug tests is absolutely true. correct
4. Shale, limestone, and sandstone belong to which of the three basic categories of rock? Sedimentary, since all three are formed from the compaction of accumulated minerals (and organic shells and stuff, in the case of limestone). correct
5. What TV show's characters often repeat the slogan "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose"? This is the locker room mantra of the Dillon Panthers, on Friday Night Lights. Whose house? THEIR HOUSE. correct
6. On April 18, 1975, President Ford visited what building to light in one of its windows a lantern that still hangs there today? Ford was visiting Boston's Old North Church, to commemorate the bicentennial of Paul Revere's famed ride, which began, as you might recall, with a lantern signal from that very church. correct
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these bands? Alabama, Backstreet Boys, the Beach Boys, the Dandy Warhols, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Kings of Leon, the Miracles, Rascal Flatts. All these bands have or had a pair of cousins in them. (Some have siblings too, but not all.) correct
