Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (55 page)

1.
The golden apple of Paris

2.
Japan

3.
Goofy

4.
Michael Ironside

5.
Polo

6.
The Latin Quarter

7.
Warren Spahn

8.
A condom

9.
Cerebral palsy

10.
Reagan, Bush, and Clinton (though Reagan learned to favor his right)

SALAD DAZE

1.
Sulfur

2.
A zucchini

3.
Spinach

4.
Fergie

5.
The leek

6.
Rapunzel

7.
Mr. Bean

8.
Broccoli

9.
Don Rickles

10.
Lettuce

MARCH 27

OILY EDITION

1.
Balthazar Getty (great-grandson of J. Paul Getty)

2.
Omega-3 fatty acids

3.
“Black gold” and “Texas tea”

4.
Linseed oil

5.
Venezuela

CLONE WARS

1.
Ciabatta

2.
Yoga

3.
Java

4.
CBGB

5.
Mannequin

ARTIFICIAL ERECTIONS

1.
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

2.
The Little Mermaid

3.
Samantha Stephens (
Bewitched
)

4.
Bremen

5.
Peter Pan

MARCH 28

FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

1.
John Ashcroft

2.
Tupac Shakur

3.
Steve McQueen

4.
Vincent van Gogh

5.
E. M. Forster

6.
Orson Welles

7.
Eva Cassidy

8.
Roberto Clemente

9.
The Darwin Awards

10.
Francis Gary Powers

THREE-MILE ISLANDS

1.
Campobello

2.
Coney Island

3.
Rock Island

4.
Pitcairn Island

5.
Somewhere in Time

KEEPING IT REAL

Easy

1.
The Notorious B.I.G.

2.
Eminem

3.
Snoop Dogg

4.
Ludacris

5.
Jay-Z

Harder

1.
Ice Cube

2.
Akon

3.
LL Cool J

4.
DMX

5.
Vanilla Ice

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
RZA

2.
Bow Wow

3.
T.I.

4.
Coolio

5.
Ghostface Killah

MARCH 29

BACK TO THE SALT MINES

1.
Lake Bonneville

2.
Iodine

3.
Lot’s wife

4.
An umbrella

5.
Nabisco

6.
Salary

7.
Squirrels

8.
Chef (
South Park
)

9.
Sweden and Finland

10.
Rock salt

11.
Spinderella

12.
The University of Florida (hence, Gators)

13.
Leonid Brezhnev

14.
Brine shrimp

15.
Pringles

RECORD PLAYERS

Easy

1.
Jerry Rice

2.
Ty Cobb

3.
Nolan Ryan

4.
Jack Nicklaus

Harder

1.
Bill Russell

2.
Rocky Marciano

3.
Richard Petty

4.
Wayne Gretzky

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Pete Maravich

2.
Rickey Henderson

3.
Larissa Latynina

4.
Karl Malone

MARCH 30

CURRENT EVENTS

1.
A key

2.
Gaffer

3.
Mhos (“ohm” spelled backward)

4.
Leon Czolgosz

5.
Wichita State’s

6.
Alkaline batteries

7.
“Maggie’s Farm”

8.
Wintergreen (Wint-O-Green)

9.
Alessandro Volta

10.
Blade Runner

11.
South America

12.
“Shock Me”

13.
Phil Esposito

14.
Synapses

15.
1.21 gigawatts

CONCERT MASTERY

1.
André Previn

2.
Philadelphia’s

3.
Leonard Bernstein’s

4.
Lorin Maazel

5.
India

MARCH 31

CITY OF LIGHT

1.
Shoe sizes

2.
Jules Verne’s

3.
Bastille Day and the end of the Tour de France

4.
Blue

5.
Julie Delpy

6.
Jim Morrison

7.
George Gershwin (
An American in Paris
)

8.
Montmartre

9.
St. Bartholomew’s Day

10.
The Tuileries

OVAL OFFICE BOX OFFICE

Easy

1.
Harrison Ford

2.
Michael Douglas

3.
Peter Sellers

4.
Kevin Kline

5.
Bill Pullman

Harder

1.
Jack Nicholson

2.
Morgan Freeman

3.
Gene Hackman

4.
Chris Rock

5.
Alan Alda

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Robert Culp

2.
Jack Warden

3.
E. G. Marshall

4.
Fredric March

5.
Henry Fonda

EN MASSE-COTS

1.
The Lions (Detroit and B.C.)

2.
The Bulldogs (Georgia and Mississippi State)

3.
The Rangers (New York and Texas)

4.
The Sun(s) (Phoenix and Connecticut)

5.
The Dynamo (Denver and Houston)

APRIL 1

1931
A T
EXAS TRANSPORTATION
and energy law firm is so impressed with the young attorney who beat them in court that they hire him, which is how future Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski comes to join Fulbright and Jaworski.

BAR SCENE

Match these law firms to their fictional origins.

1950
A B
IRMINGHAM SOLICITOR’S CLERK
named Anthony Pratt is granted a patent for his new board game Cluedo (later shortened to Clue in the United States). Pratt’s original application specifies nine weapons, many of which (the Ax, the Shillelagh, the Syringe) would be unfamiliar to today’s players.

A LEAD PIPE CINCH

One question apiece for Clue’s six weapons.

1.
What common English word derives from the Latin for “lead,” for the Roman practice of making water
pipe
s out of lead?

2.
Which
Revolver
track is the only Beatles song on which no Beatle plays an instrument?

3.
What Hartford manufacturing company began making hex-head
wrench
es during World War II?

4.
What actor—half of a fifty-two-year Hollywood marriage—also adapted the screenplay for Hitchock’s movie
Rope
?

5.
On October 17, 1989, what happened twenty-six minutes before game three of the World Series was about to begin at
Candlestick
Park?

6.
What is the surgical
knife
called an
izmel
used for?

1957
T
HE
BBC
AIRS
a deadpan April Fools’ Day report on a bumper spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. The next day, hundreds of gullible Britons phone the BBC to ask how they can grow spaghetti trees at home.

GROWING PAINS

1.
According to Chairman Mao, “political power grows out of” what?

2.
Who fretted over exponential population growth in his
An Essay on the Principles of Population
?

3.
In what gland is HGH, human growth hormone, produced?

4.
What flower name completes the title of the state song of Colorado, “Where the Grow”?

5.
What 1904 play was subtitled “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”?