Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (26 page)

FEBRUARY 13

1709
A
MAROONED SEAMAN
named Alexander Selkirk leaves the Juan Fernández Islands aboard the privateer
Duke,
ending the lonely four-year exile that will inspire Daniel Defoe to write
Robinson Crusoe.

ISLE BE THERE

1.
Mount Suribachi is the highest point where?

2.
Eunice, Henrietta, or Geraldine—what is “Lovey” Howell’s real first name on
Gilligan’s Island
?

3.
The word “serendipity” comes to us from Serendip, the Persian name for what island?

4.
Of the world’s seven most populous islands, what’s the only one not in Asia?

5.
What island was once called Van Diemen’s Land?

6.
What two neighbors are the only islands ever to host Winter Olympics?

7.
What iconic island, seen in movies such as
Point Blank
and
So I Married an Axe Murderer,
is named for the Spanish word for “pelican”?

8.
Whose adventures take place on the fictional Island of Sodor?

9.
On what island was Napoleon born?

10.
What island is home to nearly all the world’s lemurs?

1984
T
HE
R
AINBOW
C
OALITION
is surprised at its founder’s, um, colorful language, when
The Washington Post
quotes the Reverend Jesse Jackson, in a front-page story, calling New York City “Hymietown.”

THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM

What do you know about these chromatically named groups?

1.
What Italian patriot led the Redshirts, volunteers so named because they couldn’t afford complete uniforms?

2.
Who was the U.S. Green Party’s first presidential candidate?

3.
What five-letter word did
Time
magazine coin in 1926 to refer to left-leaners?

4.
What nickname was given to the brutal Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force in 1920?

5.
What coalition of conservative Democrats was named for the George Rodrigue paintings that hung on the walls of two Louisiana congressmen?

1998
A
DAM
S
ANDLER’S
The Wedding Singer
premieres. Unfortunately for Billy Idol, that awesome deaging software from
X-Men: The Last Stand
hasn’t been invented yet.

A FLOCK OF SYNONYMS

Give the 1980s New Wave band whose name might be literally redefined as…

1.
Enoch’s grandfather and the
Myrmecia

2.
The abbreviated ratios of sonic intensity

3.
Our language, using post-Elizabethan phonology

4.
Nostrum; panacea

5.
Panamanian lightweight Panamanian lightweight

6.
Symphonic and tenebrous tactics

7.
Stratofortresses

8.
Lacrimation for trepidation

9.
Jean-Luc Godard’s 1955 sci-fi noir

10.
The art of harmonious bodily movements

FEBRUARY 14

270
S
AINT
V
ALENTINE IS MARTYRED
in Rome. Wow, on Valentine’s Day! I wonder if they noticed what a coincidence that was.

HEARTBEEPS

1.
Nancy Wilson, of the band Heart, scores the films of what director, her husband?

2.
How many chambers does the human heart have?

3.
Who is pictured on a U.S. Purple Heart medal?

4.
Though the rest of him lies in Westminster Abbey, what writer’s heart is buried near his native Dorchester, the basis of his fictional town of Casterbridge?

5.
Which Smurf has a heart tattooed on each arm?

1816
C
OMPOSER
J
EAN
-P
AUL
-E
GIDE
M
ARTINI
dies in Paris. Only his vocal romance “Plaisir d’amour” is much remembered today, since its melody is the basis of the Elvis and UB40 hit “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

SILLY LOVE SONGS

Who had the biggest hit singing about these kinds of love?

Easy

1.
Baby

2.
Higher

3.
Muskrat

4.
Burning

5.
Endless

Harder

1.
California

2.
Radar

3.
No Ordinary

4.
Tainted

5.
One

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
100% Pure

2.
Fast

3.
Cool

4.
Butta

5.
Modern

1994
P
RINCE MARRIES HIS GIRLFRIEND
Mayte Garcia, the woman for whom he wrote “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.” Awww.

HEY, GOOD-LOOKIN’

1.
The adjective “callipygian” refers to someone who has a beautiful what?

2.
Who is both the youngest person ever named People’s Sexiest Man Alive and, ironically, the only deceased ex–Sexiest Man?

3.
What city’s Mount Washington did
USA Today
determine to be the second Most Beautiful Place in America, in 2003?

4.
What 1990s one-hit wonder wrote Christina Aguilera’s hit “Beautiful”?

5.
Whose namesake equation,
+ 1 = 0, has been called the most beautiful formula in mathematics?