Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (119 page)

JULY 20

1802
A B
APTIST CONGREGATION
in Cheshire, Massachusetts, gathers to make Thomas Jefferson a giant wheel of cheese, in gratitude for his commitment to religious tolerance. The thirteen-foot cheese wheel, weighing more than 1, 200 pounds, will be delivered that winter as a holiday gift to the White House, where it will pungently remain for more than two years.

IDLE CHEDDAR

Say “cheese”!

1.
Who described his most famous painting as “the Camembert of time”?

2.
Britain’s Wensleydale cheese dairies were facing bankruptcy when they were saved in 1995 by what fictional character declaring it his favorite cheese?

3.
What common lasagna ingredient is actually a by-product of making another lasagna ingredient, mozzarella?

4.
What 6-foot, 5-inch-tall comedian came from a family surnamed “Cheese” before his father changed it?

5.
What do Americans commonly call Emmental cheese?

6.
Milwaukee’s Ralph Bruno carved up his family’s sofa in 1987 to make the first what?

7.
What is traditionally served in a
caquelon
heated above a
rechaud
?

8.
What kind of animal is Chuck E. Cheese?

9.
The title of Robert Cormier’s novel
I Am the Cheese
is a reference to the last line of what song?

10.
Gouda and Edam are cities in what country?

1976
T
HE
U.S.
ISSUES
one Richard McFee the first patent ever for a “lightweight compact unit which simulates the exercise obtained while climbing stairs.” The StairMaster is born!

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Can you master these ten questions?

1.
In a symphony orchestra, what instrument is played by the concertmaster?

2.
Sigourney Weaver plays the Gatekeeper in
Ghostbusters,
but who plays the Keymaster?

3.
What rock band brought suit in 1994 claiming that Ticketmaster was an illegal monopoly?

4.
Who was the U.S.’s first postmaster general?

5.
Which Old Master signed his paintings with his full Cretan name, Doménicos Theotokópoulos?

6.
Sir Frances Walshingham was what English monarch’s “spymaster”?

7.
What Transfiguration teacher succeeded Armando Dippet as headmaster of his alma mater?

8.
Oldest son Al was the first ringmaster of what famous circus?

9.
What group, fronted by Grandmaster Flash, was the first hip-hop act ever inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

10.
In July 1999, what chess grand master achieved an “Elo rating” of 2851, the highest in history?

JULY 21

1861
G
ENERAL
B
ARNARD BEE
, during the first battle of Bull Run, gives Thomas Jackson his famous nickname when he notes that Jackson is “standing like a stone wall.” Bee died minutes later, so we can’t ask him, but some witnesses believe that he was expressing annoyance, not admiration, at Jackson—that he was saying, in effect, “Little help here?!”

BATTLEFIELD MIRTH

Name these military legends from their affectionate nicknames.

Easy

1.
The Little Corporal

2.
Stormin’ Norman

3.
Unconditional Surrender

4.
Ol’ Blood and Guts

5.
The Red Baron

Harder

1.
The Swamp Fox

2.
Cump

3.
Mad Anthony

4.
The G.I. General

5.
The Desert Fox

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Old Fuss and Feathers

2.
The Marble Man

3.
Light Horse Harry

4.
The Fighting Quaker

5.
Gentleman Johnny

1972
G
EORGE
C
ARLIN IS ARRESTED
at Milwaukee’s annual Summerfest for delivering his famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine.

FOUR-LETTER WORDS

1.
What four letters were removed from the end of Los Angeles’s Hollywood sign in 1949?

2.
What’s the only four-letter movie title to win a Best Picture Oscar?

3.
What four colors in a box of sixty-four Crayola crayons have four-letter names?

4.
In the King James Bible, all but three books of the New Testament end with what word?

5.
There are seven
adjacent
world countries whose names end with the same four letters. What are the four letters?

6.
By a wide margin, what Internet term was the most-looked-up word on Merriam-Webster’s dictionary website in 2004?

7.
What’s the only four-letter TV show ever to win a Best Drama Emmy?

8.
What’s the only Asian country whose common name is only one syllable? How about Africa?

9.
What two words are tattooed on Robert Mitchum’s knuckles in
The Night of the Hunter
?

10.
What’s the only U.S. city to boast a radio station whose call letters are the exact name of the city?

11.
According to the latest
Oxford English Dictionary,
what’s the most common noun in the English language?

12.
What song, written as a birthday present for Suzanne DeYoung in 1978, is the only four-letter song by a four-letter band ever to top the
Billboard
charts?

13.
Besides being topics of concern for farmers, what do the words clay, root, hull, and rice have in common?

14.
What are the only two four-letter cities to host a Summer and a Winter Olympics, respectively?

15.
What masculine first name is also the zoological term for “fish semen”?

JULY 22

1994
R
OGER
E
BERT REVIEWS
Rob Reiner’s flop
North,
awarding it zero stars. Ebert’s 2000 book
I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie
will draw its title from this review.

TRIVIA BOREALIS

Ten questions with northern exposure.

1.
What’s the northernmost city ever to host a Summer Olympics?

2.
What woman, who rose to fame as Oliver North’s secretary in 1987, later married ex–Doors manager Danny Sugerman?

3.
What Inuit word for “our land” names Canada’s newest territory, split off from the Northwest Territories in 1999?

4.
Despite his death in 1994, who is still “Eternal President” of North Korea, according to its constitution?

5.
What film’s climax came from the director’s desire to shoot a movie called
The Man Who Sneezed in Lincoln’s Nose
?

6.
In what country is Africa’s northernmost point?

7.
What North American Soccer League team signed Pelé in 1975?

8.
In the TV holiday favorite
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,
what would the North Pole’s misfit elf, Hermey, rather be than a toymaker?

9.
What TV title role did Jay North play for four seasons?

10.
What country was called Northern Rhodesia until 1984?

2002
M
ATTEL LOSES ITS COURT CASE
against Scandinavian pop group Aqua, the one-hit wonders of “Barbie Girl” fame. The judge’s much-quoted decision ends, “The parties are advised to chill.”

DRESS ME UP, TAKE YOUR TIME, I’M YOUR DOLLIE

What character from a pop song wears…

1.
Electric boots and a mohair suit

2.
A face that she keeps in a jar by the door

3.
A hat strategically dipped below one eye and an apricot scarf

4.
Baggy clothes that made her friends stick up their nose

5.
A screwed-down hairdo and snow-white tan

6.
Heavy boots of lead

7.
Her vest, while Jack’s in his corset

8.
Fancy gloves, so there’s never, never a trace of red

9.
Clothes ripped like the Incredible Hulk

10.
Fancy clothes, diamond rings, a 32 gun in his pocket for fun, and a razor in his shoe