Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (96 page)

JUNE 10

1898
D
ALMATIAN GOES EXTINCT
—not the firehouse dog but the ancient Balkan language. The last native speaker was a deaf, toothless old man named Tuone Adaina, who tried to teach it to Italian linguists but was blown up by a land mine before he could conclude the lessons.

A CIVIL TONGUE

1.
In what country is Magyar, unrelated to any of its neighbors’ languages, spoken?

2.
What’s the world’s most common second language?

3.
What language has official status in more Asian countries than any other—twelve?

4.
King Sejong appears on the 10,000-won bill for having created
hangul,
the written alphabet of what language?

5.
What children’s game takes its name from the Swahili word for “build”?

6.
In which EU country is the first national language spoken fluently by fewer than a tenth of its people?

7.
What fruit’s name comes from the Nahuatl word for “testicle,” because of its shape?

8.
Which of the U.N.’s six languages is an official language of the fewest of its member countries, only two?

9.
What’s the only common English loanword from Finnish?

10.
In what novel is the language Nadsat spoken?

1935
A
LCOHOLICS
A
NONYMOUS IS FOUNDED
when stockbroker “Bill W.” gives cofounder “Dr. Bob” a bottle of beer—his last ever—to steady his hand during surgery. Wait, A.A. celebrates two buddies having a beer as its founding date?

12-STEP PROGRAM

Answer these questions about other “A.A.”s.

1.
What city is threatened by the effects of acqua alta?

2.
What punk band’s last album was 1995’s
¡Adios Amigos!
?

3.
What’s the common household name for diluted acetic acid?

4.
Besides Arthur Ashe, who’s the only other black man ever to win a Grand Slam tennis event?

5.
What foreign army occupied Addis Ababa in May 1936?

6.
What was the home state of Alan Alda’s characters in both
M*A*S*H
and
The Aviator
?

7.
In slang, what’s “Adam’s ale”?

8.
What nation’s flag has the phrase “Allahu Akbar” written between the green stars?

9.
What amino acid is popularly linked to turkey’s drowsiness-inducing properties?

10.
Who did the Anaheim Angels defeat in their only World Series win ever?

11.
Who left his Air America radio show in 2007 to run for the U.S. Senate?

12.
What’s the only movie remake (not just a second adaptation of a literary work) to win a Best Picture Academy Award?

JUNE 11

1938
J
OHNNY
V
ANDER
M
EER NO-HITS
the Boston Braves at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. Four days later in Brooklyn, he will no-hit the Dodgers, despite walking the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, for the only consecutive no-hitters in major league history.

BACK TO BACK

1.
What two covers of Tommy James and the Shondells songs hit number one in consecutive weeks of November 1987?

2.
What two consecutive signs of the Zodiac begin with the same letter?

3.
What happens to Neo twice in a row that clues Trinity in to a glitch in
The Matrix
?

4.
What are the only two consecutive prime numbers?

5.
What’s the only team ever to repeat as NCAA basketball champions with the same five starters?

6.
Who’s the last artist to win two consecutive Album of the Year Grammys, for
Innervisions
and
Fulfillingness’ First Finale
?

7.
In 1983, Francis Ford Coppola filmed back-to-back adaptations of two books by what Oklahoma novelist?

8.
What person was specifically exempted from the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution, limiting U.S. presidents to two terms?

9.
Yawning, sneezing, or hiccuping—according to Japanese superstition, doing what twice in a row is a sign that someone’s gossiping about you?

10.
What’s the only stadium ever to host two consecutive Super Bowls?

1966
M
ELODY
M
AKER
REPORTS
the secret rehearsals of a new band composed of the Yardbirds’ Eric Clapton, Manfred Mann’s Jack Bruce, and the Graham Bond Organisation’s Ginger Baker. The trio’s current bands aren’t happy about the bombshell, but when Cream first performs a month later, it becomes rock’s first “supergroup.”

SUPER TROUPERS

What supergroups were composed of members of…

1.
The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Hollies

2.
Free, Mott the Hoople, King Crimson

3.
Santana, the Steve Miller Band, the Tubes

4.
The Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra, the Heartbreakers

5.
Cream, Traffic, Family

6.
Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N’ Roses, Wasted Youth

7.
Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine

8.
The Nice, King Crimson, Atomic Rooster

9.
New Order, the Smiths, Pet Shop Boys

10.
Yes, the Buggles, King Crimson