Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (194 page)

NOVEMBER 21

1846
S
WEENEY
T
ODD, THE
famed barber/serial killer, makes his debut in a penny-dreadful story titled “The String of Pearls.”

A LITTLE OFF THE TOP

1.
Who hires a barber in Judges 16:19?

2.
What Mozart opera functions as a sequel to Rossini’s
The Barber of Seville,
though it was written thirty years earlier?

3.
What two award-winning directors, who share the same last name, both worked on the 1982 student film
Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
?

4.
What cartoonist was raised a barber’s son, just like his most famous creation?

5.
What band sang the 1994 indie anthem “Cut Your Hair”?

1916
A
GERMAN MINE
sinks the British hospital ship
Britannic.
The
Britannic
was originally slated to be named
Gigantic,
but the 1912 sinking of its similarly named sister ship, RMS
Titanic,
changed that idea.

WHICH CRAFT?

1.
Who was killed in his sleep when his own rotting ship, the
Argo,
collapsed on top of him?

2.
What modern-day nation is the “Lusitania” after which the ship was named?

3.
By the word’s original definition, who, specifically, would sing a barcarole?

4.
The
Argus
is the ship visible at the upper right of what Théodore Géricault painting commemorating a famous shipwreck?

5.
On its most famous voyage, what ship lost its companion ship, the
Speedwell,
to a leak?

6.
Why did Joseph Hazelwood spend three years working at Bean’s Café, an Anchorage, Alaska, soup kitchen?

7.
What Oscar winner was present the night Natalie Wood drowned on Robert Wagner’s yacht?

8.
In what Richard Wagner opera does the Norwegian sea captain’s daughter Senta fall in love with the title ship’s captain?

9.
The name of Bill Murray’s ship in
The Life Aquatic
is the
Belafonte,
a musical joke on what real-life ship’s name?

10.
What famous diamond is Bill Paxton hunting for in the film
Titanic
?

1980
I
N THE WORST DISASTER
in Nevada history, fire strikes the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. When flames reach the casino floor, many gamblers actually refuse to leave their tables. “No, don’t you see? I’m hot here! I’m
on fire
!”

AND I AM TELLING YOU I’M NOT GOING

1.
On what TV show did Thom McKee last a record eighty-eight consecutive games in 1980?

2.
What fad did Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly begin in 1924?

3.
Whose tenure as U.S. chief justice was a record thirty-four years?

4.
What’s the name of the recluse in
To Kill a Mockingbird
who, according to town rumor, hasn’t left home in daylight for decades?

5.
What place mentioned in Joshua 5 is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving city, having been located on the Jordan’s west bank for 11,000 years?

NOVEMBER 22

1183
D
URING THE
C
RUSADES,
Saladin besieges the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Kerak Castle. When informed that Humphrey IV of Toron is marrying Princess Isabella within the castle walls, Saladin agrees not to target the wedding pavilion and is even sent some of the wedding feast by the groom’s mother.

A GROOM OF ONE’S OWN

1.
What novel opens with the traditional Lithuanian wedding feast of the Rudkus family?

2.
Prince Charles and Diana Spencer bucked royal tradition by getting married in what building?

3.
The familiar “Wedding March” was written by Felix Mendelssohn to accompany the wedding in what Shakespeare play?

4.
What slang term for marriage comes from the Celtic practice of “handfasting”?

5.
The would-be groom from Britney Spears’s fifty-four-hour quickie Vegas wedding was a childhood friend who shared his name with what sitcom star?

6.
Who took time out at his wedding feast to ask all his groomsmen a weird riddle about a beehive nested inside the carcass of a lion?

7.
What musical begins with Sophie planning to marry Sky but ends with her mother, Donna, marrying Sam instead?

8.
At the end of the Adam Sandler film, what 1983 hit is sung at
The Wedding Singer
’s own wedding?

9.
Traditionally, what’s the only event in a marriage celebration paid for by the groom’s family, not the bride’s?

10.
Peter Boyle was the best man at the wedding of what rock couple?

1950
T
HE LOWEST-SCORING GAME
in NBA history sees the Fort Wayne Pistons defeat the Minneapolis Lakers 19–17. Four years later, the twenty-four-second shot clock will save basketball.

SUITE IN LOW

1.
What’s the lowest card of each suit in a pinochle deck?

2.
The sacral and coccygeal are the two lowest types of what?

3.
Why did rocker Nick Lowe name his debut EP
Bowi
?

4.
What novelist cowrote the U2 song “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”?

5.
What two nations share the world’s lowest point on land?

1967
T
HE
R
OBOT ON
Lost in Space
utters the phrase “Danger, Will Robinson!” for—believe it or not—the one and only time in the series’ run.

METALHEADS

On what TV series would you meet these robots?

Easy

1.
Cylons

2.
Data

3.
Rosie the Maid

Harder

1.
Tom Servo

2.
Megatron

3.
Twiki

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
H.E.L.P.eR.

2.
Conky 2000

3.
Hymie