Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (148 page)

SEPTEMBER 2

1752
T
HE
B
RITISH
E
MPIRE FINALLY SWITCHES
over to the Gregorian calendar, going straight from Wednesday, September 2, to Thursday, September 14. This is the only eleven-day gap in British history that
can’t
be explained away with alcohol.

DAYS OF OUR LIVES

Answer these questions inspired by the calendar.

1.
What’s the only sign of the Zodiac that starts with the same letter as one of the months during which it falls?

2.
What is more correctly called a Chanukiah when it has nine branches instead of seven?

3.
What are the only two days of the year that never have any scheduled games in the four major North American professional sports associations?

4.
What company’s slogan comes from a 1953 ad campaign that offered a different product “for every day of the month”?

5.
To what nation does Easter Island belong?

6.
The biblical Book of Esther explains the origins of which Jewish feast day?

7.
What post went unfilled for the only time ever in March 1955, due to a missed publishing deadline?

8.
What are Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith?

9.
What’s the only month whose birthstone isn’t a mineral?

10.
What two U.S. states don’t observe Daylight Saving Time?

11.
Years in the Islamic calendar are numbered “a.h.” rather than “a.d.” What does the
H
stand for?

12.
According to AT&T, on what day of the year are the most collect calls placed?

13.
Of the eleven U.S. federal holidays, which is observed only by D.C.-area federal employees?

14.
What are known as “Nochebuena” and “Nochevieja,” or “Good Night” and “Old Night,” in the Spanish-speaking world?

15.
What’s the only day of the week still given a Latinate name in English?

1990
T
HE
G
OLDEN
G
ATE
P
ARK
P
OLICE
having cracked down on the annual burning of a giant wooden effigy every summer at San Francisco’s Baker Beach, the bonfire takes place in the Black Rock Desert for the first time. The Burning Man festival has found its permanent home.

JUST DESERTS

1.
By a strict definition of desert, what’s the earth’s largest, half again the size of the Sahara?

2.
What’s the more common name for the desert planet of Arrakis?

3.
On TV’s
Vega$,
Tony Curtis played the owner of Las Vegas’s Desert Inn, who shared his name with what novelist?

4.
What Chinese desert is said to have a name meaning “If you go in, you won’t come out”?

5.
What late world leader met his second wife, British secretary Antoinette Gardiner, during the shooting of
Lawrence of Arabia
?

6.
Complete this numerical analogy. Two: Bactrian:: one: _______.

7.
Where would you find the Gibson and Simpson Deserts?

8.
What California national park (not Joshua Tree!) is pictured on the cover of U2’s album
The Joshua Tree
?

9.
In what desert do Africa’s Bushmen people live?

10.
What U.S. city’s second largest paper is the
Deseret Morning News
?

SEPTEMBER 3

590
G
REGORY
I
BECOMES POPE.
Among his other papal achievements, Gregory is responsible for the first formulation of the so-called Seven Deadly Sins.

ACCESS OF EVIL

1.
The U2 song “
Pride
(In the Name of Love)” mistakenly places what 6 p.m. event in the “early morning”?

2.
In a 1908 article, who coined the term “penis
envy
”?

3.
From what state does the Joad family begin its journey west in
The Grapes of
Wrath
?

4.
What animals make up the suborder Vermilingua, the closest living cousins to the
sloth
s?

5.
What
gluttony
poster boy is the first child to find a Golden Ticket in
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

6.
What artist is the subject of Irving Stone’s novel
Lust
for Life
?

7.
What Wall Street figure helped inspire the movie
Wall Street
when he told a Berkeley audience, “I think
greed
is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself”?

1979
T
HE
C
OWBOYS BEAT
St. Louis 22–21 in their home opener. The announcer of this nationally televised game calls the Cowboys “America’s Team,” the title of their recently released NFL Films highlights package, and the nickname sticks.

CLUBLAND

Which sports team was home to the lineup nicknamed…

Easy

1.
Monsters of the Midway

2.
Phi Slamma Jamma

3.
The Steel Curtain

4.
The Bronx Bombers

5.
Showtime

Harder

1.
Run TMC

2.
Orange Crush

3.
The No-Name Defense

4.
Broad Street Bullies

5.
The Fab Five

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
The Electric Company

2.
Harvey’s Wallbangers

3.
The Hitless Wonders

4.
The Over the Hill Gang

5.
The French Connection

1997
I
N THE HOPE OF
sexing up
Star Trek: Voyager
a new cast member, Jeri Ryan, is introduced. Her character, “Seven of Nine,” brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “Borg implants.”

NINE OF SEVEN

1.
Which member of the so-called Chicago Seven had the same last name as the judge in the case?

2.
What athlete’s name is slang for a score of 7 on a golf hole?

3.
Which of George Carlin’s famous “seven dirty words” is now commonplace on network TV?

4.
How many of
The Seven Samurai
survive the film?

5.
Who has done seven times what Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx, among others, have each done five times?

6.
According to Judges 16, whose hair was worn in seven braids?

7.
Who self-medicated with a “seven-per-cent solution” of cocaine and water?

8.
What scientific genius is responsible for the “ROY G BIV” seven-color spectrum still commonly used today?

9.
After “You Give Good Love” peaked at number three, who passed the Beatles’ and Bee Gees’ record by hitting number one with seven consecutive singles?