Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (43 page)

MARCH 12

1924
B
ELVA
G
AERTNER APPARENTLY MURDERS
her lover Walter Law, who threatened to kill her. She will go on to be acquitted and become the basis for the “Velma” character in the musical
Chicago.

STAGE, LEFT

Before they were household names, who originated the roles on Broadway later played on screen by…

1.
Vivien Leigh in
A Streetcar Named Desire

2.
Timothy Dalton in
The Lion in Winter

3.
John Travolta in
Grease

4.
F. Murray Abraham in
Amadeus

5.
Gene Kelly in
Inherit the Wind

1951
D
ENNIS THE
M
ENACE
DEBUTS
in newspapers. In his debut appearance, Dennis angrily taunts a cop. He’s mellowed out a bit since then.

A FEW GOOD MENACE

1.
What Broadway team first collaborated on
Flora the Red Menace
before going on to write
Cabaret
and
Chicago
?

2.
What future star plays Natalie Portman’s stand-in queen in the
Star Wars
prequel
The Phantom Menace
?

3.
What gangster movie was originally titled
The Menace
and eventually subtitled
The Shame of the Nation
?

4.
What newspaper editor wrote the headline “Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?”

5.
Still using her unmarried name, what actress made her film debut playing Ronnie in
Menace II Society
?

1967
S
UHARTO TAKES OVER
from Sukarno as president of Indonesia. (No, they’re not just being pretentious—
lots
of people from Java have just the one name.)

MAKING A NAME FOR THEMSELVES

What one-named musicians have these last names?

Easy

1.
Ciccone

2.
Sarkisian LaPiere

3.
Kilcher

4.
Gudmundsdottir

5.
Norwood

Harder

1.
Haughton

2.
Quintanilla

3.
Douglas

4.
Armstrong

5.
Forte

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Leitch

2.
Safka

3.
Ockerse

4.
Darwish

5.
DiMucci

MARCH 13

1781
W
ILLIAM
H
ERSCHEL DISCOVERS
a new planet. Disregarding the convention that planets be named for Roman gods, he calls it
Georgium Sidus
(George’s Star), kissing up to King George III. Speaking of butt-kissing, his discovery is later renamed “Uranus.”

WHEN IN ROME…

Give the Roman names of these Greek gods and goddesses.

Easy

1.
Ares

2.
Zeus

3.
Artemis

4.
Hermes

5.
Aphrodite

Harder

1.
Hephaestus

2.
Hera

3.
Eros

4.
Cronus

5.
Athena

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Hestia

2.
Hypnos

3.
Eris

4.
Persephone

5.
Pan

1954
T
INY MILAN HIGH SCHOOL,
enrollment 161, beats mighty Muncie Central to win the Indiana state basketball championship. The game will inspire the movie
Hoosiers
(though in real life Milan won with a boring fourth-quarter stall, not a dramatic last-second jumper).

THE NAME OF THE GAME

What sport is the focus of each of these movies?

Easy

1.
The Color of Money

2.
Tin Cup

3.
Days of Thunder

4.
Bend It like Beckham

5.
National Velvet

Harder

1.
Breaking Away

2.
Over the Top

3.
Blue Chips

4.
Cool Runnings

5.
Lords of Dogtown

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
The Stratton Story

2.
Lagaan

3.
The Freshman
(1925)

4.
Youngblood

5.
Fat City

1994
T
HE
A
MERICAN
C
HEMICAL
S
OCIETY
stirs up controversy by announcing that element 106, a newcomer to the periodic table, will be named seaborgium, after its codiscoverer Glenn Seaborg. It marks the first time such an announcement has ever been made while the honoree is still living.

TRACE ELEMENTS

Which chemical elements’ names can be spelled by the symbols for these other elements?

1.
Titanium, nitrogen

2.
Iridium, oxygen, nitrogen

3.
Arsenic, tantalum, titanium, neon

4.
Argon, selenium, nickel, carbon

5.
Calcium, rubidium, oxygen, nitrogen