Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (6 page)

JANUARY 9

1912
T
WO THOUSAND
M
ARINES
invade Honduras to protect “U.S. economic interests” during a local revolt. I can just picture President Taft standing on a battleship in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner, chomping on a recently liberated banana.

IT TAKES A STEADY HAND TO PLAY OPERATION!

What countries were invaded in these carefully named U.S. operations?

1929
T
HE
S
EEING
E
YE,
America’s first guide dog school, is founded in Nashville.

EYES CAPADES

Keep an eye out for the answers to these ocular questions.

1.
Deuteranopia, or Daltonism, is one of the most common varieties of what condition?

2.
What TV actor recorded an album of pop standards appropriately titled
Ol’ Yellow Eyes Is Back
?

3.
What media company’s logo is a black dog whose left eye is a five-pointed star?

4.
What website began with a 1989 Usenet post called “Those Eyes,” listing actresses with beautiful eyes?

5.
What boxer’s eye injuries led to his retirements in 1982, 1984, 1987, and 1991?

6.
In what Edgar Allan Poe story does an old man’s oddly clouded eye lead to murder?

7.
What battle in American history was the origin of the famous quote “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes”?

8.
What part of the eye changes shape in LASIK surgery?

9.
What author’s Jamaican estate was called Goldeneye?

10.
How many “fab” makeover artists hosted Bravo’s
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
? actress, who didn’t enjoy her stay in Rishikesh, India?

1956
T
HE FIRST
“D
EAR
A
BBY”
column appears in the
San Francisco Chronicle.

THE “DEAR” HUNTER

1.
What movie is narrated by Jack Nicholson’s “Dear Ndugu” letters to a Tanzanian boy he’s sponsoring?

2.
What nation refers to its current dictator as “Dear Leader”?

3.
What well-known children’s author finally won a Newbery Medal in 1984 for
Dear Mr. Henshaw
?

4.
The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” is named for the sister of what

5.
What ominous signature first appeared at the bottom of the “Dear Boss” letter of September 25, 1888?

JANUARY 10

1947
F
INIAN’S
R
AINBOW
opens on Broadway. Its signature tune, “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?,” refers to a nonexistent village in Ireland. In fact, “Glocca Morra” isn’t even real Gaelic.

A LITTLE TOWN IN THE MOUTH

Fill in the missing cities from these Broadway tunes.

1.
From
42nd Street:
“Shuffle Off to_____”

2.
From
Hairspray:
“Good Morning_____”

3.
From
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes:
“A Little Girl from_____”

4.
From
Kiss Me, Kate:
“We Open in_____”

5.
From
Jesus Christ Superstar:
“Poor_____”

1949
L
INDA
S
USAN
B
OREMAN
is born in the Bronx. In 1972, under the name “Linda Lovelace,” she will star in the hugely successful
Deep Throat;
in 1980, she’ll become a leading antiporn advocate.

LOVE LACE?

1.
What’s the word for the small plastic tag at the end of a shoelace?

2.
What president does the nutty middle brother in
Arsenic and Old Lace
believe himself to be?

3.
What suburb of Paris produced the silk lace later made famous by the Big Bopper?

4.
In America, the lacy plant that Europeans call wild carrot is given the name of what monarch?

5.
What owner-bartender of Chicago’s Lone Star Saloon was famous for his drug-laced drinks?

2000
AOL
ANNOUNCES
a $162 billion deal to buy Time Warner, the biggest corporate merger in history. Does the A in AOL stand for “albatross”?

ORIGINAL SYNERGY

Can you match up these now-merged companies from the post-1990 acquisition mania?