Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (37 page)

2.
Carl Sandburg

3.
X-Acto knives

4.
Sir Walter Scott

5.
The Iron Giant

FEBRUARY 27

THE TOWER AND THE GLORY

Easy

1.
Chicago

2.
Toronto

3.
New York City

4.
London

Harder

1.
Boston

2.
Moscow

3.
Shanghai

4.
San Francisco

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Tehran

2.
Dubai

3.
Houston (with smaller ones in Dallas and Baton Rouge)

4.
Canberra

WOUNDED KNEES

1.
Lawrence Taylor

2.
Serena Williams

3.
Daunte Culpepper

4.
Housemaid’s knee

5.
Kobe Bryant

UP WITH PEOPLE

Easy

1.
R.E.M.

2.
Sly & the Family Stone (also Arrested Development)

3.
Randy Newman

4.
John Legend

Harder

1.
Pulp

2.
Marilyn Manson

3.
The Happy Mondays

4.
Gordon Lightfoot

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
America

2.
The Prodigy

3.
Donna Summer

4.
R. Kelly

FEBRUARY 28

HOUSES OF THE HOLY

1.
Ivory Coast’s

2.
By bus

3.
The Emotions

4.
Atlanta

5.
Aimee Semple McPherson

6.
(Captain) Kirk and (Nurse) Chapel

7.
New Zealand’s

8.
The African Queen

9.
Far from the Madding Crowd

10.
J. R. “Bob” Dobbs

GOODBYE, FAREWELL, AND AMEN

1.
Marsha Mason

2.
The Civil War

3.
“The Lost Chord”

4.
Clarabell the Clown

5.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

6.
Augusta National Golf Club

YOU’RE NOT CUTE BUT EURO SO PRETTY

Easy

1.
Greece

2.
Spain

3.
France

4.
Austria

Harder

1.
Italy

2.
Ireland

3.
Germany

4.
Belgium and Monaco

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Cyprus

2.
Slovenia

3.
Finland

4.
Luxembourg

FEBRUARY 29

LEAPER COLONY

1.
Mao Tse-tung

2.
“Oh, boy”

3.
Mike Powell

4.
BASE jumping (building, antenna, span, earth)

5.
Breaching or lunging

6.
Mario

7.
Daniel Webster

8.
Neil Armstrong

9.
“Sic semper tyrannis”

10.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

BUNNY BUSINESS

1.
Albuquerque

2.
The Man in the Moon

3.
Mr. McGregor’s

4.
Angora (for Ankara, Turkey)

5.
Donnie Darko

DOZE WERE THE DAYS

1.
Valium

2.
Geronimo

3.
Christopher Walken

4.
Matthew Perry (“Which
Friends
alum starred in films with Bruce Willis?”)

5.
“Enter Sandman”

MARCH 1

1932
T
HE
J
APANESE INSTALL PUYI,
the deposed last emperor of China, as ruler of the puppet state in Manchuria that the Japanese call “Manchukuo.”

EMPIRE RECORDS

1.
What medical procedure do the Germans call the
kaiser-schnitt,
or emperor’s cut?

2.
Who traditionally occupied the Peacock Throne?

3.
Julius, Brutus, or Cassius—what’s the first name of Eugene O’Neill’s
The Emperor Jones
?

4.
Who was the last British monarch to also be an emperor?

5.
By what name was Augustus, Rome’s first official
imperator,
known before he became emperor?

1956
NATO’
S INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC RADIO
alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, etc.) is updated to its current form, to get rid of easily confused pairs like “Nectar” and “Extra.”

DID I CATCH A “NINER” IN THERE?

What’s the only word in the Alfa-Bravo-Charlie alphabet that’s also…

1.
A month of the year

2.
A world capital

3.
A Canadian province

4.
A hit network TV show

5.
An alcoholic drink

6.
A world nation

7.
A sport

8.
A comic strip

9.
An airline

10.
A truck model

1986
M
R.
M
ISTER
has the number one album in America with
Welcome to the Real World,
on the strength of the hit singles “Kyrie” and “Broken Wings.” Just a few years earlier, the band’s members were singing backing vocals for the Village People and Andy Gibb.

UNSOLVED MISTERS

Match these famous “Misters” with their given names.