Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (68 page)

APRIL 26

1819
T
HE
I
NDEPENDENT
O
RDER OF
O
DD
F
ELLOWS
is formed in Baltimore.

ODD FELLOWS

1.
What eccentric artist based his famous mustache on that worn by painter Diego Velázquez?

2.
With what team did Dennis Rodman win his first NBA title?

3.
What inventor of the Difference Engine once baked himself in an oven for five minutes, “to see what would happen”?

4.
What doctor, whose life was fictionalized in a 1998 film, founded the Gesundheit! Institute and named his oldest son “Atomic Zagnut”?

5.
After his trial, Michael Jackson fled Neverland Ranch for what island nation?

1910
T
OMOYUKI
T
ANAKA,
the Toho film producer who gave the world Godzilla, is born in Japan.

DESTINATION TOKYO

Sure, Mothra’s a moth. But what are these Japanese monsters?

2000
N
ATIONAL
S
ECRETARIES
D
AY,
observed since the Commerce Department created it in 1952, is officially renamed “Administrative Professionals’ Day” for the new millennium. Washington’s powerful greeting card and flower lobbies chortle with glee.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Yeah, we’re gonna need you to go ahead and have this workplace trivia done by the end of the day…

1.
What did Ray Tomlinson send in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in late 1971?

2.
What is distinctive about the hair of
Dilbert
’s unnamed boss?

3.
May Day, as an international workers’ celebration, dates back to what 1886 event?

4.
“Gem” is the trade name for the most common, three-loop design of what?

5.
Complete this analogy: BBC: Slough:: NBC: _____.

6.
What kind of animal dangles from a tree branch in the famous 1970s motivational poster captioned “Hang in there, baby!”?

7.
Tellurium, selenium, or germanium—what chemical element provides the photoconductive surface covering the drum in most photocopiers?

8.
What item didn’t exist in the Swingline catalog until its appearance in the 1999 film
Office Space
created a popular demand for it?

9.
Liquid Paper was invented by Bette Graham, the mother of which of the Monkees?

10.
What federal agency, which targets workplace discrimination, was chaired by Clarence Thomas for most of the 1980s?

APRIL 27

1667
J
OHN
M
ILTON SELLS
the copyright for his upcoming epic
Paradise Lost,
essentially a retelling of the Book of Genesis from the much more interesting point of view of Lucifer. Milton’s book deal is the oldest author’s contract known to exist.

SECOND PERSON SINGULAR

What literary works have been retold from a different character’s viewpoint as…

Easy

1.
Ahab’s Wife

2.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

3.
Grendel

4.
Finn

Harder

1.
Lo’s Diary

2.
The Wind Done Gone

3.
Wicked

4.
The Penelopiad

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
March

2.
Wide Sargasso Sea

3.
An Assembly Such as This

4.
Mary Reilly

1897
G
RANT’S
T
OMB IS DEDICATED.
Who’s buried in it? Well, nobody. Have you seen it? It’s
above ground.
Duh.

NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND

Name these famous corpses from their excerpted epitaphs.

1.
LOVE WILL TEAR US APART

2.
EVERY HOUSEWIFE’S FRIEND.
-30-

3.
THE CELEBRATED NAVIGATOR WHO FIRST TRANSPLANTED THE BREADFRUIT TREE FROM OTAHETTE TO THE WEST INDIES

4.
HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME WAS WRIT IN WATER

5.
THAT’S ALL FOLKS

6.
HIS SPIRIT IS IN VERMONT NOW

7.
THE LAST STOOGE

8.
FAITHFUL TO THE CAUSE OF PROHIBITION—SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD

9.
EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY SOMETIME

10.
QUOTH THE RAVEN, “NEVERMORE
”

1964
J
OHN
L
ENNON’S POETRY COLLECTION
In His Own Write
is released in the United States. It is the first solo Beatles project of any kind.

EVERY DAY I WRITE THE BOOK

What literary work inspired each of these pop songs?

Easy

1.
“White Rabbit,” Jefferson Airplane

2.
“Big Brother,” David Bowie

3.
“The Ghost of Tom Joad,” Bruce Springsteen

4.
“Who Wrote Holden Caulfield,” Green Day

5.
“The Battle of Evermore,” Led Zeppelin

Harder

1.
“Patrick Bateman,” the Manic Street Preachers

2.
“Killing an Arab,” the Cure

3.
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” the Police

4.
“Scentless Apprentice,” Nirvana

5.
“Holland 1945,” Neutral Milk Hotel

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
“Love and Destroy,” Franz Ferdinand

2.
“Pull Me Under,” Dream Theater

3.
“Chapter 24,” Pink Floyd

4.
“Moon Over Bourbon Street,” Sting

5.
“Tomorrow Never Knows,” the Beatles