Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (32 page)

FEBRUARY 25

1779
J
UST A WEEK AFTER
Captain Cook’s death, his surviving crew become the first Europeans to sight the island of Lanai. Lanai will become known as “Pineapple Island” in 1922, when the Hawaiian Pineapple Company purchases it and turns it into the world’s largest plantation.

ON THE DOLE

1.
What word is the actual title of the 1979 hit usually called “The Piña Colada Song”?

2.
Where would you see the consumer warning “Do not use fresh or frozen pineapple, kiwi, gingerroot, papaya, figs, or guava”?

3.
In what undersea city does SpongeBob SquarePants live?

4.
What was the MK2 “Pineapple,” later replaced by the M67 and M61?

5.
What Latin American dictator was called “Carepiña”—“Pineapple Face”—because of his acne-scarred complexion?

1956
N
IKITA
K
HRUSHCHEV RENOUNCES
Stalinism in the so-called secret speech, “On the Personality Cult and Its Consequences,” at a closed session of the Soviet Party Congress.

PUBLIC SERVICE RENOUNCEMENT

1.
In what 1863 short story does Philip Nolan renounce his U.S. citizenship?

2.
If you give something up for Lent, how many days are you going without?

3.
In 1969, who returned his MBE medal “against our support of America in Vietnam, and against ‘Cold Turkey’ slipping down the charts”?

4.
Who was ordered to recant heliocentrism in 1633 by the Inquisition and spent the last decade of his life under house arrest as a result?

5.
In 2004, Norodom Sihanouk renounced the throne of what Asian country?

2006
A
CCORDING TO
U.S. C
ENSUS
B
UREAU
predictions, the earth’s population hits 6.5 billion—at 7:16 P.M. Eastern Time, in fact.

CENSUS WORKING OVERTIME

1.
What’s the most populous county in the U.S., with almost twice as many residents as the runner-up?

2.
What’s the EU’s largest member by population?

3.
What’s the most populous city located north of the Arctic Circle?

4.
What’s the U.S. island with the largest population?

5.
What’s the world’s most populous country whose most populous city is also its capital?

6.
What state capital is the most populous American city without a team in any of the four large North American sports organizations?

7.
Monaco, Andorra, or Vatican City—by a wide margin, what European nation has the world’s highest population density?

8.
What’s the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country by population?

9.
What was the world’s most populous city before Tokyo surpassed it in the 1960s?

10.
What’s the second most populated continent on Earth?

FEBRUARY 26

1852
J
OHN
H
ARVEY
K
ELLOGG
is born in Michigan. His invention of corn flakes really caught on—his other big idea, yogurt enemas, not so much. (Seriously. Sort of gives new meaning to “fruit on the bottom.”)

TCBY

Trivia concerned by yogurt

1.
In
Spaceballs,
what magic power is taught by the sage Yogurt?

2.
Who is elected mayor due to the title scandal in the
Seinfeld
episode “The Non-Fat Yogurt”?

3.
What brand began in 1919 with a Barcelona yogurt shop that Isaac Carasson named for his son, “little Daniel”?

4.
What vegetable is most commonly added to yogurt to make Indian
raita
?

5.
According to legend, what “Magnificent” Ottoman sultan brought yogurt to France when he sent a court doctor to treat King Francis I’s diarrhea?

1976
S
ECRETARY
-G
ENERAL
U T
HANT
proclaims the United Nations’ first celebration of Earth Day.

THE GREATEST SHOWS ON EARTH

What “earthy” movie featured these costars?

Easy

1.
Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal

2.
David Bowie and Rip Torn

3.
John Travolta and Forest Whitaker

Harder

1.
Chris Rock and Regina King

2.
Winona Ryder and Roberto Benigni

3.
Geena Davis and Jim Carrey

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
James Mason and Pat Boone

2.
Chris Klein and Josh Hartnett

3.
Joan Chen and Tommy Lee Jones

1986
A
LL THE
K
ING’S
M
EN
AUTHOR
Robert Penn Warren is named the U.S.’s first official poet laureate consultant in poetry.

VERSED-CASE SCENARIO

Five more poet laureates—or is it poets laureate?

1.
What Oscar-winning actor has restored the hyphen to his name that his poet laureate father, Cecil, dropped in 1927?

2.
In 1968, Gwendolyn Brooks replaced what man as only the second poet laureate of Illinois?

3.
Super glue, sandpaper, or X-Acto knives—what hobby essential was invented by the father of U.S. Poet Laureate Louise Glück?

4.
Robert Southey became Britain’s poet laureate in 1813 only because what author of
Rob Roy
refused the honor?

5.
What animated film is based on a story that future poet laureate Ted Hughes told his children to comfort them after their mother’s suicide?