Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Ken Jennings Tuesday Trivia - November 5
THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
1. The Everything Store is a new book profiling what American businessman? Jeff Bezos
2. In the song "The House of the Rising Sun," what is the occupation of the singer's mother? is she a seer or fortune teller or voodoo queen? I don't recall that part of the lyrics
3. What is the better-known nickname for the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944? the GI Bill
4. In 2011, what soda passed Pepsi for the first time to become the country's second-most popular soft drink? Diet Coke
5. Which major league baseball team moved to the American League in 2013 after 51 seasons in the National League? Houston Astros
6. What lepton was renamed by scientist Enrico Fermi in 1932 to avoid confusion with a much larger atomic particle, whose name it previously shared? quark?
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, and no others that I can be sure of? Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, India, Jordan, Moldova, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Uruguay, Zambia. A river runs through it with the same name as the country?
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What famous Italian became a symbol of the Risorgimento movement in the 1850s, with nationalists using his name as an Italian acronym for "Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy"? Legendary opera composer Giuseppe Verdi saw his name repurposed by Italian patriots as shorthand for "Victor Emmanuel, Rei d'Italia." In last week's comments, Alex offered a good tip to figure this out
2. In the famous Universal horror movies of the 1930s and 1940s, Boris Karloff only played one of the title characters. Which movie? As all good trivia pedants know, Karloff did NOT play Frankenstein: he played Frankenstein's monster. But he did play Imhotep, aka The Mummy. Curses!
3. The activist author of the new boooook I Am Malala is a native of what country? Malala Yousafzai is the remarkable 16-year-old who took a bullet for her dedication to women's education in her home country of Pakistan. correct
4. Five of what type of bone fuse together to form the sacrum? The sacrum, atthe base of your spine, is made of vertebrae. correct
5. 2003 American Idol winner Ruben Studdard this season became the first "celebrity" contestant on what other reality show? He's trying to lose some of those teddy bear pounds on The Biggest Loser. He's been widely reported in the press as the show's first celebrity contestant, but a few people pointed out to me that wrestler Rulon Gardner competed on The Biggest Loser back in 2011. I guess an Olympic gold medal doesn't make you a celebrity if it's in Greco-Roman wrestling? I forgot that Biggest Loser is even a show
6. The number three in Japanese is "san," borrowed from Chinese, but car enthusiasts might know the native Japanese word for three as well. What is it? Mitsubishi, as you might have guessed from its logo, is Japanese for "three diamonds." In the native Japanese counting system, "mitsu" means three. ok, this is probably trivia that I should know
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these songs? "Beat It" by Michael Jackson, "The Enemy Within" by Rush, "Family Man" by Hall & Oates, "Follow the Leader" by Eric B. & Rakim, "It's Four in the Morning" by Faron Young, "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits, "The Pretender" by Foooooo Fighters, "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Marvin Gaye, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles, "Where It's At" by Beck. These were the first videos ever played on various TV series and channels. Respectively: "Friday Night Videos," MuchMusic, "Night Tracks," "Yo! MTV Raps," CMT, MTV Europe, 4Music, VH-1, MTV, and MTV2. correct
1. The Everything Store is a new book profiling what American businessman? Jeff Bezos
2. In the song "The House of the Rising Sun," what is the occupation of the singer's mother? is she a seer or fortune teller or voodoo queen? I don't recall that part of the lyrics
3. What is the better-known nickname for the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944? the GI Bill
4. In 2011, what soda passed Pepsi for the first time to become the country's second-most popular soft drink? Diet Coke
5. Which major league baseball team moved to the American League in 2013 after 51 seasons in the National League? Houston Astros
6. What lepton was renamed by scientist Enrico Fermi in 1932 to avoid confusion with a much larger atomic particle, whose name it previously shared? quark?
7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, and no others that I can be sure of? Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, India, Jordan, Moldova, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Uruguay, Zambia. A river runs through it with the same name as the country?
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS
1. What famous Italian became a symbol of the Risorgimento movement in the 1850s, with nationalists using his name as an Italian acronym for "Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy"? Legendary opera composer Giuseppe Verdi saw his name repurposed by Italian patriots as shorthand for "Victor Emmanuel, Rei d'Italia." In last week's comments, Alex offered a good tip to figure this out
2. In the famous Universal horror movies of the 1930s and 1940s, Boris Karloff only played one of the title characters. Which movie? As all good trivia pedants know, Karloff did NOT play Frankenstein: he played Frankenstein's monster. But he did play Imhotep, aka The Mummy. Curses!
3. The activist author of the new boooook I Am Malala is a native of what country? Malala Yousafzai is the remarkable 16-year-old who took a bullet for her dedication to women's education in her home country of Pakistan. correct
4. Five of what type of bone fuse together to form the sacrum? The sacrum, atthe base of your spine, is made of vertebrae. correct
5. 2003 American Idol winner Ruben Studdard this season became the first "celebrity" contestant on what other reality show? He's trying to lose some of those teddy bear pounds on The Biggest Loser. He's been widely reported in the press as the show's first celebrity contestant, but a few people pointed out to me that wrestler Rulon Gardner competed on The Biggest Loser back in 2011. I guess an Olympic gold medal doesn't make you a celebrity if it's in Greco-Roman wrestling? I forgot that Biggest Loser is even a show
6. The number three in Japanese is "san," borrowed from Chinese, but car enthusiasts might know the native Japanese word for three as well. What is it? Mitsubishi, as you might have guessed from its logo, is Japanese for "three diamonds." In the native Japanese counting system, "mitsu" means three. ok, this is probably trivia that I should know
7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these songs? "Beat It" by Michael Jackson, "The Enemy Within" by Rush, "Family Man" by Hall & Oates, "Follow the Leader" by Eric B. & Rakim, "It's Four in the Morning" by Faron Young, "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits, "The Pretender" by Foooooo Fighters, "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Marvin Gaye, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles, "Where It's At" by Beck. These were the first videos ever played on various TV series and channels. Respectively: "Friday Night Videos," MuchMusic, "Night Tracks," "Yo! MTV Raps," CMT, MTV Europe, 4Music, VH-1, MTV, and MTV2. correct
