Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (178 page)

OCTOBER 26

1676
B
ACON’S
R
EBELLION, THE FIRST
frontiersmen’s uprising in the American colonies, ends unexpectedly when dysentery fells ringleader Nathaniel Bacon.

ONE DEGREE

In what movie did these actors costar with the ubiquitous Kevin Bacon?

Easy

1.
Tom Hanks

2.
Jack Nicholson

3.
Sarah Jessica Parker

4.
Sean Penn

5.
Neve Campbell

Harder

1.
Meryl Streep

2.
Robert De Niro

3.
Reba McEntire

4.
Steve Guttenberg

5.
Walter Matthau

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Sharon Stone

2.
Jamie Lee Curtis

3.
Wallace Shawn

4.
John Cleese

5.
Keshia Knight Pulliam

1977
S
OMALI COOK
A
LI
M
AOW
M
AALIN
is the last person in the world to be diagnosed with naturally occurring smallpox. (He got better.)

DOC TALK

What’s the more colloquial name for these medical conditions?

Easy

1.
Rubella

2.
Tetanus

3.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

4.
Pertussis

5.
Hypertension

Harder

1.
Conjunctivitis

2.
Trisomy 21

3.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

4.
Nocturnal enuresis

5.
Tinea pedis

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Hansen’s disease

2.
Epidemic parotitis

3.
Herpes zoster

4.
Pyrosis

5.
Strabismus

2003
WINDSOR, CALIFORNIA, BAKES
the world’s largest pumpkin pie. It weighs 300 pounds and measures 6
¹
/4 feet across.

EASY AS PIE

You shouldn’t find these difficult at all.

1.
What real-life couple played the intergalactic lovers in
Earth Girls Are Easy
?

2.
“The Big Easy” sits on the southern shore of what lake?

3.
What future movie star played “Easy Reader” on PBS’s
The Electric Company
?

4.
What DC Comics NCO led the men of Easy Company?

5.
What are the Commodores and Faith No More “easy like”?

OCTOBER 27

1967
R
ETIRED TENNIS PLAYER
M
ARGARET
S
MITH
marries a wool broker named Barry Court. When she comes out of retirement and wins the 1970 Grand Slam, she’s therefore the most fittingly named player in tennis.

APTRONYMS

Name these other famous folks with appropriate names.

1.
Who began singing with college friend Bobby Hatfield in 1962?

2.
Who paid $39 to earn a seat at the 2003 World Series of Poker and went on to win the $2.5 million grand prize?

3.
Who filled in as Ronald Reagan’s press secretary for seven years after James Brady was wounded in the John Hinckley shooting?

4.
Who coined the word “Cablinasian” to describe his unusual ethnic background?

5.
What poet was inspired by the belt of daffodils he and his sister Dorothy saw during an 1802 walk around Lake Ullswater?

1971
P
RESIDENT
M
OBUTU
S
ESE
S
EKO
renames the Democratic Republic of the Congo “Zaire.” The new name puts a crimp in a cool map oddity I’ve always liked: five neighboring nations (the two Congos, Chad, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic) whose names all start with the same letter.

IN ALPHABETICAL BORDER

What neighbor-beginning-with-the-same-letter is bordered by these countries?

Easy

1.
Iran

2.
Bolivia

3.
Zambia

4.
Latvia

Harder

1.
Burma

2.
Armenia

3.
Ethiopia

4.
Swaziland

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Burkina Faso

2.
Mozambique

3.
Kazakhstan

4.
Guinea

2001
TV
INTERIOR-DECORATING CELEB
Paige Davis (
Trading Spaces
) marries actor Patrick Page. For some reason, she elects to keep her maiden name.

AN INSIDE JOB

Answer these questions about other interior things.

1.
What novel ends with a famous forty-page, eight-sentence interior monologue by Molly Bloom?

2.
What Sean Connery movie shares its name with the trophy given annually to college football’s best interior lineman?

3.
What secretary of the interior resigned in 1983 after calling his staff “a black, a woman, two Jews, and a cripple”?

4.
What material was used for the interior of the 1976 Chrysler Cordoba, according to the famous TV ads starring Ricardo Montalban?

5.
In what country’s interior would you find the cleverly named Great Sandy Desert?