Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (138 page)

AUGUST 19

1839
T
HE
F
RENCH
G
OVERNMENT,
having bought the patent to Louis Daguerre’s namesake photographic process, announces that it will make the daguerreotype a “free gift to the world.”

IN CAMERA

Answer these questions on great photographers.

1.
In what mountain range is the 12,000-foot Mount Ansel Adams?

2.
Who died a penniless alcoholic in a New York charity ward just blocks from the gallery where his “The Dead of Antietam” exhibition opened in 1862?

3.
Fred Astaire’s character in
Funny Face
was based on what fashion photographer?

4.
Eadward Muybridge took his famous pictures of bodies in motion in order to answer what unsettled nineteenth-century question?

5.
What photographer had a twenty-year relationship with late author Susan Sontag?

1913
C
LARENCE
C
RANE
T
RADEMARKS
his new invention: Life Savers candy. The trademark Life Savers shape wasn’t in the original design—it was added by the pill manufacturer Crane hired to make the candies. His malfunctioning machine couldn’t press them without a hole in the middle.

THE HOLE TRUTH

1.
Who sang lead vocals for the rock band Hole?

2.
Who is Dinah, whom Alice thinks about nostalgically as she falls down the rabbit hole to Wonderland?

3.
What world leader, according to state-run media, hit eleven holes in one in his very first round of golf?

4.
What kind of object is smaller than its own Schwarzschild radius?

5.
What was the name of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ hobbit hole?

6.
What movie star founded the Hole in the Wall summer camps for ill children?

7.
How many hole cards is each player dealt in Texas hold ’em?

8.
The “goddess of peace” sits atop what Berlin landmark, which was, ironically, restored in 2002 to remove World War II–era bullet holes?

9.
What’s the “toad” in traditional English toad-in-the-hole?

10.
Who said, “Except…I thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe”?

11.
What 1968 film takes place partially in the Sea of Holes?

12.
Montreal, Buenos Aires, or Kyoto—what city names the 1987 accord designed to shrink Antarctica’s “ozone hole” by banning CFCs?

13.
What river, America’s thirteenth longest, flows through Jackson Hole, Wyoming?

14.
In
The Shawshank Redemption,
Andy initially hides his escape hole behind a poster of what actress?

15.
Trepanation is the practice of drilling holes where?

AUGUST 20

1896
T
HREE
K
ANSAS
I
NVENTORS
apply for a patent on the dial telephone.

TEXTONYMS

Textonyms are words that map to the same number sequence on a telephone keypad, like BARMAID and CARNAGE (2276243). Can you figure out these pairs of textonyms?

1.
What song won Johnny Cash his last Country Music Award? / What title was given to Nanak, the founder of Sikhism?

2.
How did Ponce de León, Claudius, and Tycho Brahe all die? / What is the world’s bestselling vodka?

3.
What did Keats call a “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”? / What item would a tailor measure in lignes?

4.
What company owns Gatorade, Quaker Oats, and Frito-Lay? / What language do natives call Farsi?

5.
What kind of cuisine gave us kimchi and bulgogi? / What river is formed by the merging of the Hasbani, the Banias, the Dan, and the Ayoun?

6.
What is Johnny Chase’s nickname on
Entourage
? / What currency is used by twenty different African nations?

7.
On what island is King Arthur buried? / What kind of bird is the mascot for Cocoa Puffs?

8.
What name for military battle dress is derived from the tiring manual work performed by soldiers? / What relation was psychiatrist Anna Freud to Sigmund?

9.
What kind of “Girls” are Haylie and Hilary Duff, in the title of their first film together? / On what TV show did Roger Moore replace James Garner?

10.
In what month does Hispanic Heritage Month begin? / In math, what lists can be summed into series?

1999
F
RENCH “URBAN CLIMBER”
Alain Robert, aka “Spiderman,” climbs Chicago’s Sears Tower at dawn, using no tools but his bare hands and climbing shoes. He is arrested when he reaches the roof and booked for trespassing.

WORLD WIDE WEBS

Can your spider-sense handle these arachnid questions?

1.
What whirling Italian folk dance was said to cure the bite of the large local wolf spider?

2.
What’s the only U.S. university to currently name its athletic teams after spiders?

3.
How did black widow spiders—or, more specifically, their silk—help win World War II?

4.
Who plays the title character in the 1955 musical
Daddy Long Legs
?

5.
Complete this analogy: Clark Kent:
The Daily Planet
:: Peter Parker: ________.

6.
What two singers, who have forty-five number one country songs between them, were both born with the last name Webb?

7.
Who received a speeding ticket while driving his Porsche Spyder on September 30, 1955?

8.
What poisonous American spider is sometimes called the “violin” or “fiddleback” spider, for its distinctive markings?

9.
Who was found in a “spider hole” on December 13, 2003?

10.
“Spiders,” from the
Scream 3
sound track, was the second single ever from what Armenian-American metal band?