Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (2 page)

JANUARY 1

1953
J. D. S
ALINGER MOVES
to remote Cornish, New Hampshire, and is, for the most part, never seen again. Once asked what his initials stood for, Salinger said, “Juvenile delinquent.”

THE APPELLATION TRAIL

Name these famous folks, whose initials should link up into a nice chain for you.

1.
What running back won the biggest landslide in Heisman voting history, beating Leroy Keyes of Purdue by 1,750 points?

2.
What then-struggling English teacher did Portuguese TV journalist Jorge Arantes divorce in 1993?

3.
What Canadian singer appeared on the first cover of
Entertainment Weekly
?

4.
Who got his beloved New Mexico ranch in exchange for the original manuscript of his novel
Sons and Lovers
?

5.
Who set most of his most famous book in the year a.d. 802,701?

6.
Who was already Gilda Radner’s ex-husband when he was hired as bandleader at
Saturday Night Live
in 1980?

7.
Who collaborated with James Thurber on
Is Sex Necessary?
before turning to more family-friendly books?

8.
Who replaced John Paxson as Chicago Bulls point guard and was later replaced
by
him as the Bulls’ general manager?

9.
What playwright’s friendship with Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies’s family inspired a 2004 movie?

10.
Who has performed marriages for both Corey Feldman and Vince Neil?

1993
C
ZECHOSLOVAKIA IS NO MORE,
dividing peacefully—and syllabically!—into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Any other countries with long, tongue-twisting names want to help us out by doing the same? I’m looking at you, Trinidad and Tobago.

DIVISION DAY

1.
What book is divided into 114 chapters called “suras”?

2.
What process is divided into four parts: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase?

3.
What are divided by Botts’ dots?

4.
What nation is divided into twenty-six cantons, each of which was an independent state until 1848?

5.
What is divided into the duodenum, the jejunum, and the ileum?

6.
What movie is divided into chapters bearing title cards that include “The Gold Watch” and “The Bonnie Situation”?

7.
The Carboniferous period, 300 million years ago, is divided into two epochs with the names of U.S. states. What two states?

8.
What had Adams, Norris, Patrick, and Smythe divisions prior to 1993?

9.
What nation is divided in two by the Cook Strait?

10.
What incendiary novel is divided into three sections: “The Hearth and the Salamander,” “The Sieve and the Sand,” and “Burning Bright”?

11.
What kind of sporting event is divided into chukkas?

12.
What line of latitude was chosen as the boundary between North and South Korea after World War II?

13.
What “hip-hopera” did R. Kelly divide into twenty-two serialized chapters?

14.
Excepting Alaska and Louisiana, what U.S. state is divided into the fewest counties, with only three?

15.
Into how many numbered sections is a dartboard divided?

JANUARY 2

1834
L
OUIS
D
OBERMANN,
the tax collector and dog pound owner (there’s a popular guy!) for whom the pinscher will be named, is born in Germany.

BREEDER’S DIGEST

1.
For his tenacity, nineteenth-century biologist Thomas Huxley was nicknamed whose “bulldog”?

2.
Ironically, German shepherds now do the rescue work at what historic Alpine hospice?

3.
What detective would have made his eighth appearance in Raymond Chandler’s unfinished novel
Poodle Springs
?

4.
Who has coached the UConn Huskies to two national titles and an undefeated Final Four record?

5.
On what PBS TV show did the Bloodhound Gang solve mysteries?

6.
What two U.S. states border Mexico’s largest state, Chihuahua?

7.
What 1995 album did Billy Corgan describe as “
The Wall
for Generation X”?

8.
What nation was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol in 1901?

9.
The name of what nineteenth-century parson and avid hunter is still remembered today thanks to his beloved pet terrier Trump?

10.
Where did the
Beagle 2
crash and disappear on Christmas Day 2003?

1928
S
TUCK IN A SLOW
news week and still embarrassed to have left Charles Lindbergh off their cover following his famous transatlantic flight, the editors of
Time
institute an ad hoc “Man of the Year” award, awarding the first one to Lindy.

MAJOR ISSUES

1.
In 1989, what fifty-nine-year-old became
People
’s oldest Sexiest Man Alive ever?

2.
Who’s the only two-time
Sports Illustrated
Sportsman of the Year, so named in 1996 and 2000?

3.
What magazine gives out the “Golden Calipers” to its Car of the Year winner?

4.
Who beat out FDR and Gandhi (eat it, Gandhi!) to be named
Time
’s Person of the Century in 1999?

5.
Who’s the only
Playboy
Playmate of the Year also to make the cover of
Rolling Stone
?

1961
C
ALTECH STUDENTS PERFORM
one of history’s greatest pranks, on national TV at the Rose Bowl. By infiltrating the Washington cheer squad, the pranksters sabotage a routine in which giant images were to be displayed on thousands of flip cards held by the crowd. The word “
CALTECH
” replaces “
WASHINGTON,
” and UW’s Husky mascot was replaced by the Caltech beaver.

DAMMED IF I KNOW

Five questions for eager beavers.

1.
What city’s Summer Olympics had the beaver Amik as their mascot?

2.
In
Airplane!,
Barbara “June Cleaver” Billingsley proves to be fluent in what language?

3.
The
Dartmouth,
the
Eleanor,
and the
Beaver
were the three ships on which what famous event from American history occurred?

4.
What’s the only college football team whose home stadium is larger than Penn State’s Beaver Stadium?

5.
The beaver is North America’s largest rodent. What South American animal is the
world’s
largest?