Monday, September 16, 2013
Ken Jennings Tuesday Trivia - August 27
Still catching up. Only three weeks behind.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. In what European city would you find Hotel Europa, called "the most bombed hotel in the world" for the 28 bomb attacks it suffered between 1971 and 1998? Athens? Belfast? Wasn't the Good Friday peace agreement signed under Clinton? I'll guess Belfast.
2. NINJA loans, a mortgage industry product made famous when the housing bubble popped, were (according to the expansion of the acronym) available even to people lacking what three things? no income, no job and no assets
3. What two summer Olympic sports award medals for "synchronized" events? swimming and diving
4. What bacteria is the best known member of genus Escherichia? ecoli? I am hard pressed to think of too many other bacteria
5. What fictional characters were briefly joined by a fifth member, a female called Venus de Milo? Venus de Milo might have joined the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
6. What Chinook word meaning "to give away" refers to an economic system based on gift-giving gatherings and practiced by many Indian tribes? tupperware party. Not that? how about barter
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these kitchen mainstays? Cheese puffs, chocolate chip cookies, corn flakes, matches, microwave ovens, Popsicles, potato chips, saccharin, stainless steel, teabags, Teflon, and Worcestershire sauce? common names for these items are corporate-owned trademarks - Cheetos cheese puffs, Toll House cookies, Kelloggs corn flakes, Diamond matches, etc.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. The mouth of the Amazon River is in Brazil, but its main source is found in what other country? A tiny glacial stream called the Nevado Mismi, in the Andres Mountains of Peru, is the birthplace of the mighty Amazon. shoot, once again I narrow down to 2 answers and pick the wrong one.
2. The philosopher Diogenes is best-known for his practice of carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for what? An honest man. Oh, you're a cut-up, Diogenes. correct
3. What ubiquitous new word was popularized as the title motto of Drake's 2011 song "The Motto"? The titular motto is "you only live once," or, in acronym form, YOLO. I'm sure you're not tired of that yet. Alex knew this but I did not. It may show up on a future pub quiz in some form.
4. What quantity is defined in physics as the product of force and displacement, and usually measured in joules? Work. If you got this one wrong, your parents probably aren't surprised, lazy-ass. correct. I asked this question on my most recent quiz but I actually wrote it months before KJ included it on TT.
5. What youngest U.S. Navy pilot in 1943 flew 58 World War II combat missions in his plane, the "Barbara"? That pilot went on to marry the plane's namesake, Barbara Pierce, in 1945, and eventually became the 41st President of the United States: George H. W. Bush. I am kind of tired of presidential trivia, but this is a fun factoid
6. The four Halliwell sisters on TV's Charmed all had first names beginning with what letter? Well, one was a half-sister, I guess. Their names were Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. yeah ok
7. What surprising (but not unusual!) distinction is shared by these famous people? Cesar Chavez, Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Stephen Hawking, James Joyce, Lise Meitner, Dmitri Mendeleev, Vladimir Nabokov, Marcel Proust, Nikola Tesla. Despite their eminence in their fields of literature, science, or statesmanship, none of these people have ever received a Nobel Prize. (Obviously not an unusual distinction, as you and I haven't won one either, but it's a little weird that Proust and Gandhi and Hawking never won, right?) correct!
THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. In what European city would you find Hotel Europa, called "the most bombed hotel in the world" for the 28 bomb attacks it suffered between 1971 and 1998? Athens? Belfast? Wasn't the Good Friday peace agreement signed under Clinton? I'll guess Belfast.
2. NINJA loans, a mortgage industry product made famous when the housing bubble popped, were (according to the expansion of the acronym) available even to people lacking what three things? no income, no job and no assets
3. What two summer Olympic sports award medals for "synchronized" events? swimming and diving
4. What bacteria is the best known member of genus Escherichia? ecoli? I am hard pressed to think of too many other bacteria
5. What fictional characters were briefly joined by a fifth member, a female called Venus de Milo? Venus de Milo might have joined the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
6. What Chinook word meaning "to give away" refers to an economic system based on gift-giving gatherings and practiced by many Indian tribes? tupperware party. Not that? how about barter
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these kitchen mainstays? Cheese puffs, chocolate chip cookies, corn flakes, matches, microwave ovens, Popsicles, potato chips, saccharin, stainless steel, teabags, Teflon, and Worcestershire sauce? common names for these items are corporate-owned trademarks - Cheetos cheese puffs, Toll House cookies, Kelloggs corn flakes, Diamond matches, etc.
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. The mouth of the Amazon River is in Brazil, but its main source is found in what other country? A tiny glacial stream called the Nevado Mismi, in the Andres Mountains of Peru, is the birthplace of the mighty Amazon. shoot, once again I narrow down to 2 answers and pick the wrong one.
2. The philosopher Diogenes is best-known for his practice of carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for what? An honest man. Oh, you're a cut-up, Diogenes. correct
3. What ubiquitous new word was popularized as the title motto of Drake's 2011 song "The Motto"? The titular motto is "you only live once," or, in acronym form, YOLO. I'm sure you're not tired of that yet. Alex knew this but I did not. It may show up on a future pub quiz in some form.
4. What quantity is defined in physics as the product of force and displacement, and usually measured in joules? Work. If you got this one wrong, your parents probably aren't surprised, lazy-ass. correct. I asked this question on my most recent quiz but I actually wrote it months before KJ included it on TT.
5. What youngest U.S. Navy pilot in 1943 flew 58 World War II combat missions in his plane, the "Barbara"? That pilot went on to marry the plane's namesake, Barbara Pierce, in 1945, and eventually became the 41st President of the United States: George H. W. Bush. I am kind of tired of presidential trivia, but this is a fun factoid
6. The four Halliwell sisters on TV's Charmed all had first names beginning with what letter? Well, one was a half-sister, I guess. Their names were Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. yeah ok
7. What surprising (but not unusual!) distinction is shared by these famous people? Cesar Chavez, Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Stephen Hawking, James Joyce, Lise Meitner, Dmitri Mendeleev, Vladimir Nabokov, Marcel Proust, Nikola Tesla. Despite their eminence in their fields of literature, science, or statesmanship, none of these people have ever received a Nobel Prize. (Obviously not an unusual distinction, as you and I haven't won one either, but it's a little weird that Proust and Gandhi and Hawking never won, right?) correct!
