Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (81 page)

MAY 17

1991
B
RIAN
B
OSWORTH
IS
…Stone Cold.
Sadly, he will lose to Vanilla Ice in the year’s unusually competitive Razzie race for Worst New Star.

HAM-DUNK

What athlete tried his hand at acting in these movies?

Easy

1.
Airplane!

2.
The Scorpion King

3.
There’s Something About Mary

4.
The Naked Gun

5.
The Dirty Dozen

Harder

1.
Action Jackson

2.
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

3.
Blazing Saddles

4.
Steel

5.
Dumb and Dumber

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Amazing Grace and Chuck

2.
Black Caesar

3.
Mitchell

4.
Old Yeller

5.
Harvard Man

1997
T
HE IDENTICAL
H
ANSEN QUADRUPLETS
make history when they all graduate from Baylor University on the same day.

FOUR BETTER OR WORSE

Give the missing last member in these famous quartets.

Easy

1.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and…

2.
Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, and…

3.
Strings, woodwinds, brass, and…

4.
Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and…

5.
Earth, air, fire, and…

Harder

1.
Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and…

2.
Solid, liquid, gas, and…

3.
Reading, Short Line, B&O, and…

4.
Carats, clarity, color, and…

5.
Swords, wands, coins, and…

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Of speech, of worship, from want, and…

2.
Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and…

3.
Adenine, thymine, guanine, and…

4.
“Burnt Norton,” “East Coker,” “The Dry Salvages,” and…

5.
Joe Greene, L. C. Greenwood, Ernie Holmes, and…

2005
F
LEET
S
TREET,
whose name was once synonymous with the British press, loses its last news office, as Reuters begins its relocation to new offices in Canary Wharf.

STREET SMARTS

1.
What famous street follows the line of a twelve-foot stockade begun in 1653 by Peter Stuyvesant?

2.
What thoroughfare was the site of Hollywood scandals like River Phoenix’s death and Hugh Grant’s arrest?

3.
The city of Liverpool recently stalled plans to rename streets historically linked to the slave trade when it realized that what famous street was on the list?

4.
What road, which names a 2002 film, divides Wayne County from affluent Oakland and Maycomb Counties?

5.
New York’s Tribeca neighborhood is so named because it’s the triangle south of what major street?

6.
Spartacus and his fellow slaves were crucified alongside what Roman highway, the “queen of the long roads”?

7.
What London street is home to a famous theater and, in a children’s song, to “the Muffin Man”?

8.
What is the official name of New York’s Sixth Avenue, though it’s used only by clueless out-of-towners?

9.
What runs from the Stratosphere in the north to McCarran Airport in the south?

10.
What American street is best known for its eight switchbacks between Hyde and Leavenworth?

MAY 18

1917
T
HE
S
ELECTIVE
S
ERVICE
A
CT
introduces the modern draft, requiring men aged 21 to 30 to register for military service in World War I.

DRAFTY IN HERE

What team drafted these number one picks from the world of professional sports?

Easy

1.
Terry Bradshaw

2.
Ken Griffey, Jr.

3.
Mario Lemieux

4.
Peyton Manning

5.
LeBron James

Harder

1.
John Elway

2.
Chipper Jones

3.
Rick DiPietro

4.
Lew Alcindor

5.
Larry Johnson

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Chris Webber

2.
Ben McDonald

3.
Aundray Bruce

4.
Matt Bush

5.
Dale McCourt

1964
E
RIC
B
URDON AND THE
Animals record their now-classic cover of “The House of the Rising Sun,” nailing it in one take. It becomes the first four-minute song ever to top the pop charts.

THE DAWN PATROL

1.
Who gave Impressionism its name with his 1873 painting
Impression, Sunrise
?

2.
What European city do Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy wander in
Before Sunrise
?

3.
What provides the red color in a Tequila Sunrise?

4.
The Hurricanes, the Panthers, or the Thrashers—what NHL team plays its home games in a suburb called Sunrise?

5.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the day with the earliest sunrise falls in what month?

1998
T
HE
N
EW
R
EPUBLIC
PUBLISHES
Stephen Glass’s story “Hack Heaven,” about teenage computer hackers. Unfortunately, Glass has invented every person and company in the story, even creating dummy websites and voice mail accounts when editors began checking his sources, and he’s soon fired.

THE FIVE
W
S (AND ONE
H
)

1.
Whose crime was witnessed only by Cindy Lou
Who
?

2.
What Big East school took the cryptic name for its sports teams from the Greek word for “
what
”?

3.
What Dublin, Ohio–based company trades under the ticker symbol
WEN
?

4.
After the 1990 NFL draft, who found himself teammates with his Heisman Trophy successor, Andre
Ware
?

5.
Who had the last number one hit of the 1950s with his song “
Why
”?

6.
What Steinbeck novel takes its title from a poem by Julia Ward
Howe
?