Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (120 page)

JULY 23

1973
A
T THE HEIGHT OF
the Watergate scandal, President Nixon refuses to turn over presidential tape recordings to the special prosecutor.

GATED COMMUNITY

Match these more recent “-gate” scandals with the targeted official.

1982
T
HE MEMBERS OF THE
International Whaling Commission vote to begin a moratorium on commercial whaling beginning in 1985.

TRAFFIC CETACEANS

1.
What whale took its name from the milky-white liquid eighteenth-century whalers harvested from its head?

2.
Who played in his twenty-third and final NHL All-Star Game as a Hartford Whaler?

3.
Whalebone corsets weren’t made from bone at all but from what part of the whale?

4.
The residents of what Danish islands kill almost a thousand pilot whales in their controversial annual hunt?

5.
What’s the appropriate stage name of musician Richard Melville Hall?

2000
C
ARLTON
F
ISK IS INDUCTED
into the Baseball Hall of Fame, making him the answer to the trivia question “Who’s the only Baseball Hall of Fame player whose first name is the last name of another Hall of Famer”? (Okay, I never said it was a
good
trivia question.)

SPORTMANTEAU

What superathlete can be created, à la “Steve Carlton Fisk,” by overlapping the names of…

1.
The 1982 NFL Rookie of the Year and the 1997 NBA Rookie of the Year

2.
The one-year leader of the “Gashouse Gang” and the thirty-six-year leader of the Tar Heels

3.
The first recipient of the Jesse Owens Award and the first high school basketball player to go straight to the pros

4.
The gymnast who starred in
American Anthem
and the pitcher who wrote
Me and the Spitter

5.
The oldest major leaguer ever to hit a home run and the first African-American Super Bowl MVP

6.
The Laker who coined the word “three-peat” and the winner of a 1981-84 “four-peat” at the World Figure Skating Championships

7.
The executive who broke baseball’s color barrier and the player who broke Lou Brock’s steals record

8.
The orchestrator of the “Miracle on Ice” and the “Human Vacuum Cleaner”

9.
A career .900 free-throw shooter (second place) and a career hitter of 700-something homers (first place)

10.
The 1995 Heisman Trophy winner, the 1980 AL MVP winner, and the 1991 Hart Memorial Trophy winner

JULY 24

1190
W
ILLIAM
D
E
F
ORCE
arrives at Lisbon, where he takes over the British navy for the Third Crusade. William delivers to the fleet King Richard’s rules of conduct for the voyage, which include “boyling pitch…and feathers or downe” to be poured on thieves. It’s history’s first recorded mention of tarring and feathering.

WHERE THERE’S A QUILL

These questions of a feather flock together.

1.
What did Yankee Doodle call the feather in his hat?

2.
Avian flu in China led to 2006 price hikes in what piece of sporting equipment?

3.
Who wore “yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there”?

4.
What Halle Berry movie is named for the password in the Marx Brothers’
Horse Feathers
?

5.
What dinosaur contemporary has a name meaning “ancient feather”?

6.
According to Emily Dickinson, what’s “the thing with feathers”?

7.
What kind of bird is Wallace and Gromit’s nemesis, Feathers McGraw?

8.
What civilization worshiped a feathered serpent called Quetzalcoatl?

9.
What kind of bird is an eider, from which true eiderdown comes?

10.
What movie begins with a feather coming to rest in front of a Savannah, Georgia, bus stop?

1901
W
ILLIAM
S
YDNEY
P
ORTER
is released from a Texas jail, having served three years for embezzlement. While in prison, he has written and sold his first magazine short stories, beginning a new career as “O. Henry.”

CON TRACTS

Who wrote the following while behind bars?

Easy

1.
Mein Kampf

2.
The Pilgrim’s Progress

3.
120 Days of Sodom

Harder

1.
The Pisan Cantos

2.
De Profundis

3.
Le Morte Darthur

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Our Lady of the Flowers

2.
Il Milione

3.
The Consolation of Philosophy

1908
I
TALIAN
R
UNNER
D
ORANDO
P
IETRI
becomes dehydrated and disoriented during the Olympic marathon in London. Near the end of the race, Pietri, in the lead, falls five times and is helped up each time by race officials. Though he still “wins” the race, his runners-up protest the assisted finish, and Pietri is disqualified.

HEAVY MEDAL

In what city did each of these athletes earn their greatest summer Olympic glory?

Easy

1.
Mary Lou Retton

2.
Jesse Owens

3.
Mark Spitz

4.
Nadia Comaneci

5.
Michael Phelps

Harder

1.
Bob Beamon

2.
Jim Thorpe

3.
Paavo Nurmi

4.
Babe Didrikson

5.
Cathy Freeman

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Michelle Smith

2.
Kristin Otto

3.
Bobby Joe Morrow

4.
Vitaly Scherbo

5.
Billy Mills