Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (197 page)

NOVEMBER 27

1928
T
HE
C
USTOMS
C
OURT
decides in favor of Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, who was assessed a $ 4, 000 import duty when customs officials decided his modernist masterpiece
Bird in Space
didn’t qualify as art, merely as “a manufacture of metal.”

GENTLEMEN PREFER BRONZE

1.
What appropriate sculpture appeared on the cover of the first issue of the puzzle magazine
Games
?

2.
What name did Marcel Duchamp suggest for the distinctive hanging sculpture of Alexander Calder?

3.
What is the naked man doing in the most famous bronze by the Greek sculptor Myron?

4.
What play is named for a mythical sculptor who fell in love with his ivory statue?

5.
What city is overlooked by the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado?

1941
T
HE
“S
TATE OF
J
EFFERSON,”
a big chunk of southern Oregon and Northern California with its “capital” at Yreka, proclaims its independence from the U.S., even setting up an armed roadblock on Highway 99. But the secession movement will peter out the following month with the death of its founder and then the attack on Pearl Harbor.

WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE

From what country have these proposed states hoped to secede?

Easy

1.
Chechnya

2.
Kosovo

3.
Chiapas

4.
Tibet

5.
Darfur

Harder

1.
Biafra

2.
Tamil Eelam

3.
Waziristan

4.
Aceh

5.
Zanzibar

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Cabinda

2.
Chittagong

3.
Nagorno-Karabakh

4.
Euskal Herria

5.
Caprivi

1971
T
HE
S
OVIET PROBE
Mars 2
crashes on the Martian surface, becoming the first man-made object to land on the red planet.

MARTIAN CHRONICLES

1.
Veronica Mars
takes place in a California town with what planetary name?

2.
What Mars product was originally sold as three separate pieces of candy: one chocolate, one vanilla, and one strawberry?

3.
What is Laura’s occupation in
The Eyes of Laura Mars
?

4.
The last surviving veteran of the American Revolution shared his name with what author of
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
?

5.
What band named the disks of its double album
Stadium Arcadium
“Jupiter” and “Mars”?

NOVEMBER 28

1888
N
INA
W
ILCOX IS BORN
in Connecticut. Later in life, as Nina Wilcox Putnam, she will draft the first 1040 form for the IRS in 1913
and
write the story for Universal’s
The Mummy
in 1932.

THEORY OF FORMS

1.
What movie introduced “TPS reports” as shorthand for “pointless paperwork”?

2.
What band is named for a British government form for claiming unemployment benefits?

3.
What color was 1945’s I-151 form, the “Alien Registration Receipt Card”?

4.
What letter is used for the series of IRS forms covering relationships between employers and taxpayers?

5.
What movie “religion” did 390,000 Britons put on their 2001 census form, causing the government to assign an official code to this new faith?

1951
J
OHN
V
AN
D
RUTEN’S PLAY
I Am a Camera
opens on Broadway, leading Walter Kerr to write perhaps the most famous bad review in history: the three-word “Me no Leica.”

THUMB WAR

They say that living well is the best revenge, but sometimes slamming your critics by name is just more fun. Match each movie with the film critic it names a nasty character for.

1985
NBC
SPORTCASTER
A
HMAD
R
ASHAD
proposes to network-mate Phylicia Ayers-Allen on live TV during halftime at a Jets-Lions game. They will divorce in 2001, though not on live TV.

JOCK HITCH

What athlete was or is married to…

Easy

1.
Nomar Garciaparra

2.
Bridgette Wilson

3.
Andre Agassi

4.
Posh Spice

5.
Halle Berry

Harder

1.
Brigitte Nielsen

2.
Janet Jones

3.
Andy Mill

4.
Ashley Judd

5.
Vanessa Williams

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Ray Knight

2.
Jane Russell

3.
Terry Bradshaw

4.
Colleen Kay Hutchins

5.
Carol Alt