Read Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac Online
Authors: Ken Jennings
6.
Thursday (
The Man Who Was Thursday
)
7.
Archibald Cox
8.
Chris Tucker
9.
Marie Antoinette
10.
714
GRAZE ANATOMY
Easy
1.
Collarbone
2.
Eardrum
3.
Belly button or navel
4.
Skin
Harder
1.
Armpit
2.
Shoulder blade
3.
Adam’s apple
4.
Buttocks
Yeah, Good Luck
1.
Nostril
2.
Knuckles
3.
Big toe
4.
Cuticle
AUGUST 28
HOMETOWN BUFFET
Easy
1.
Cairo
2.
Munich
3.
Los Angeles
4.
Madrid
5.
Naples
Harder
1.
Warsaw
2.
Moscow
3.
Jerusaleum
4.
Cape Town
5.
Newcastle(-upon-Tyne)
Yeah, Good Luck
1.
Halifax
2.
Buenos Aires
3.
Mexico City
4.
Manchester
5.
Rio de Janeiro
DREAM ACADEMY
1.
“Yesterday”
2.
Benzene
3.
“Kubla Khan”
4.
St. Patrick
5.
The Terminator
6.
Acetylcholine
7.
The American flag
8.
Frankenstein
9.
Richard Wagner
10.
The sewing machine
COMFORTABLY NUMB
1.
The Velvet Underground
2.
Eric Clapton
3.
Faith No More
4.
Everclear
5.
Brad Paisley
AUGUST 29
START SEEING MOTORCYCLES
1.
HOG
2.
Two
3.
“Evel” Knievel
4.
Larry Wilcox
5.
Phil Jackson
6.
Kawasaki
7.
“Bat Out of Hell” (Meat Loaf)
8.
Captain America
9.
Che Guevara
10.
Lawrence of Arabia
GHOST STORIES
Easy
1.
Jane Austen
2.
J. R. R. Tolkien
3.
Anne Frank
4.
Johann Wilhelm von Goethe
5.
Ian Fleming
Harder
1.
John Kennedy Toole
2.
Charles Dickens
3.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
4.
Niccolò Machiavelli
5.
Isaac Asimov
Yeah, Good Luck
1.
Mikhail Bulgakov
2.
Samuel Butler
3.
Philip K. Dick
4.
Gustave Flaubert
5.
Louisa May Alcott
SKY NET
1.
Rocket Boys
2.
The Thing (from Another World)
3.
Penélope Cruz
4.
Adam Horovitz (the Beastie Boys)
5.
Laurence Olivier
AUGUST 30
“
JR.” SAMPLES
1.
Jaromir Jagr (“Jaromir” is an anagram of “Mario, Jr.”)
2.
Robert Downey, Jr. (
Chaplin
)
3.
Morehouse
4.
Ed Wood, Jr.
5.
Harry Connick, Jr.
6.
Jodie Foster
7.
Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken, Jr.
8.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
9.
“Ghostbusters”
10.
Randall
THE INN CROWD
1.
Las Vegas
2.
Rafer Johnson and Rosey Grier
3.
“Hotel Yorba”
4.
César Ritz
5.
Hoyt Axton’s
6.
A bear
7.
Just one: Best Picture
8.
The Toll House Inn
9.
The Montecito
10.
Keys
AUGUST 31
THESE BOOTS AREN’T MADE FOR WALKING
1.
Denver
2.
A German U-boat
3.
The trunk
4.
Control-Alt-Delete
5.
The Gulf of Taranto
PARTY OF FIVE
Easy
1.
C
2.
H
3.
I
4.
P
5.
S
Harder
1.
L
2.
A
3.
T
4.
E
5.
R
Yeah, Good Luck
1.
M
2.
A
3.
U
4.
D
5.
E
THEMED SONGS
1.
The title isn’t sung until the last line
2.
Name-check baseball players (Sadaharu Oh, Juan Pierre, Rod Carew, Joe DiMaggio)
3.
Based on classical compositions
4.
Mention Elvis
5.
B-sides that became hits
6.
Spoofed by “Weird Al” Yankovic
7.
Controversial
Saturday Night Live
performances
8.
Beatles guest on each (George, John, Ringo, and Paul, respectively)
9.
Backward-masked vocals
10.
About listening to other songs (“Coming On Strong,” “Runaway,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Only the Lonely”)
SEPTEMBER 1
1271
T
HE ELECTION OF
Gregory X ends the longest interregnum, or pope-free gap, in Catholic history. The intrigue-filled three-year vacancy ends only when the mayor of Viterbo locks the College of Cardinals in a palace with a bare minimum of food, saying they can’t come out until they elect a pope. And clean their rooms.
HELP WANTED
1.
What position was filled using this 1860 want ad? “Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry fellows. Not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”
2.
What movie begins with front man Dewey Finn being kicked out of his band, leaving a vacancy in No Vacancy?
3.
What president oversaw the longest vice presidential vacancy in America’s history?
4.
Why did a September 8, 1967,
Variety
ad seek “4 insane boys, ages 17-21”?
5.
Who, following his 1951 firing, was replaced by Matthew B. Ridgway?
1903
M
ASSACHUSETTS ISSUES
the country’s first license plates. A car enthusiast named Frederick Tudor gets the coveted plate number 1.
BETTER PLATE THAN NEVER
What state’s plates have used these slogans?
Easy
1.
10,000 Lakes
2.
America’s Dairyland
3.
Famous Potatoes
4.
The First State
5.
Big Sky Country
Harder
1.
You’ve Got a Friend in
2.
400th Anniversary
3.
Amber Waves of Grain
4.
Sportsman’s Paradise
5.
Live Free or Die
Yeah, Good Luck
1.
Wild, Wonderful
2.
Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places
3.
Vacationland
4.
The Hospitality State
5.
Discover the Spirit
1977
R
ENEE
R
ICHARDS LOSES
in straight sets in her women’s singles debut to Virginia Wade at the U.S. Open. The match makes history because Renee is the former Dr. Richard Raskind,
men’s
singles player in the 1960 U.S. Open.
NET GAIN
Tennis trivia, anyone?
1.
Who was the first living person to appear on a Swiss postage stamp?
2.
What Elton John hit was a tribute to Billie Jean King?
3.
What number one–ranked tennis player of the 1990s was named for a number one–ranked player of the 1980s?
4.
The U.S. Open’s main tennis court is named for whom?
5.
Whose $20-million-plus annual income makes her the highest-paid female athlete of all time?
6.
Who’s the only player ever to win tennis’s singles Grand Slam twice?
7.
What tennis player called her occasional lapses of concentration “going walkabout”?
8.
What’s the term for a tennis serve that touches the net on its way into the service box?
9.
What tennis champ of the 1920s was jailed twice, later in life, for picking up teenage boys?
10.
What city is home to the Australian Open?