Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (57 page)

APRIL 4

1851
A
FTER THE
C
OMPROMISE
of 1850 creates the Utah territory, the provisional government votes to dissolve Deseret, a proposed state covering most of modern-day Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The name “Deseret” is a word in the Book of Mormon meaning “honeybee.”

PLAN BEE

1.
What large U.S. city calls its newspaper the
Bee
?

2.
Bee yellow, bee orange, or bee purple—what invisible “color” can bees see on flower petals?

3.
In 2007, who jumped from the roof of Cannes’s Carlton Hotel wearing a giant bee costume?

4.
What are male honeybees called?

5.
What sports term is the shortest word ever to decide the National Spelling Bee?

6.
Whose tombstone, in Siler City, North Carolina, bears the inscription “Aunt Bee”?

7.
Whose opera
The Tale of Tsar Saltan
contains “The Flight of the Bumblebee”?

8.
Who was the only one of the Astros’ “Killer Bs” ever to win an MVP award?

9.
In what movie does Walter Brennan annoy people with the question “Was you ever bit by a dead bee?”

10.
Which member of the Bee Gees played no instruments onstage?

1984
W
INSTON
S
MITH BEGINS
keeping his diary of life in “Oceania” (a dystopian future nation consisting of Britain, the Americas, the South Pacific, and southern Africa) in George Orwell’s
Nineteen Eighty-four.

MAPS AND LEGENDS

Match these fictional nations to their locations and the books that take place there.

APRIL 5

1734
H
ENRY
F
IELDING’S PLAY
Don Quixote in England
premieres at the Haymarket Theatre, including the first known use of the exclamation “Odds bodkins!” “Odds bodkins” is actually a “minced oath” for the more profane “God’s body!”

GOD’S BODY

1.
Who scored the famous “Hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup?

2.
What was the unusual hit single from the Crash Test Dummies’ 1993 album
God Shuffled His Feet
?

3.
Which of his ten fingers is God using to give Adam life on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?

4.
Mexico, India, or Egypt—in what nation did the woven-yarn craft of “God’s eyes” originate?

5.
What’s the correct name of the famous John Gillespie Magee sonnet that ends “Put out my hand and touch the face of God”?

1984
W
ITH A TWELVE-FOOT SKYHOOK
from the right baseline, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpasses Wilt Chamberlain’s 31,419-point record to become the highest scorer in NBA history.

PLAYING HOOKY

1.
What trade name comes from combining the French words for velvet and hook?

2.
Whose number one 1990 album
To the Extreme
simply repackaged the songs from his indie-label debut,
Hooked
?

3.
What poker hand are you holding if you have “two fishhooks”?

4.
How does the hook-handed Woody Harrelson lose his right hand in the film
Kingpin
?

5.
What Reds and Tigers manager was nicknamed “Captain Hook” for his tendency to pull pitchers early?

6.
What U.S. president was born in Kinderhook, New York?

7.
Until their 2007 breakup, Peter Hook spent almost three decades as the bassist for what Manchester band?

8.
In 1990s ads, what was the memorable 800 number of Hooked on Phonics?

9.
On
The Simpsons,
what character’s wife is voiced by
SNL
’s Jan Hooks?

10.
Scientist Robert Hooke was chosen to assist what man in rebuilding London following the Great Fire?

2004
T
HE TOWN OF
H
ASLACH,
in Upper Austria, revokes the honorary citizenship it awarded Adolf Hitler in 1938. Haslach, the last town to so honor Hitler, apparently took sixty-six years to notice the Führer’s civic shortcomings.

MR. NATURAL(IZED)

Only seven foreigners have ever been made honorary citizens of the United States. Which of them hailed from…

1.
France

2.
United Kingdom

3.
Albania

4.
Poland

5.
England (a married couple)

6.
Sweden