Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (10 page)

JANUARY 17

1912
R
OBERT
S
COTT’S EXPEDITION
reaches the South Pole, only to find that Roald Amundsen has beaten them there by more than a month. Scott’s entire party dies of frostbite and hunger on its return trip.

SONGS OF THE SOUTH

1.
What’s the Latin name for the atmospheric glow also called the “southern lights”?

2.
What’s Cartman’s first name on
South Park
?

3.
At what nation does Panama “attach” onto South America?

4.
What’s the dominant fruit flavoring in Southern Comfort?

5.
According to the trivia chestnut, the first foreign country you’ll hit traveling due south from Detroit is…Canada. What Canadian city sits just across the Detroit River?

6.
What TV family lived at Southfork Ranch?

7.
In 2002, the NFL created the AFC and NFC South divisions. Which of their eight teams actually plays its home games to the north of two of its “North” division counterparts?

8.
What style of “Dirty South” hip-hop was pioneered by Atlanta rapper Lil Jon?

9.
From 1968 on, what group used the so-called Southern strategy?

10.
What’s the most populous city in the Southern Hemisphere?

1921
D
IRECTOR
R
OBERT
F
LAHERTY
and Nanook, his Inuit leading man, leave Port Harrison, Quebec, to film the big bear hunt scene for Flaherty’s pioneering documentary
Nanook of the North.
Flaherty actually took liberties with facts that would make Michael Moore blush—“Nanook”’s real name was Allakariallak, and he usually hunted with a gun, not the primitive spear that Flaherty insisted on.

DOC HOLLYWOOD

How much do you know about other classic documentaries?

1.
What 1994 documentary focused on Chicago high school students William Gates and Arthur Agee?

2.
What legendary director-to-be was one of the editors of 1970’s

Woodstock
?

3.
All the numbers in the titles of Michael Apted’s
Up
documentary series are multiples of what number?

4.
What’s the only title shared by an Oscar-nominated Best Picture and an Oscar-nominated Best Documentary Feature?

5.
The 1991 doc
Hearts of Darkness
follows what movie’s chaotic production?

1950
E
LEVEN MEN VANISH
with $2 million in Boston’s Great Brink’s Robbery, at the time the biggest robbery in U.S. history.

HEIST HEIST BABY

1.
What famous 1963 heist was masterminded by Bruce Reynolds, author of
The Autobiography of a Thief
?

2.
Pablo Picasso was one of the suspects questioned when what item was stolen in Paris in 1911?

3.
What is the Jules Rimet Trophy, which was stolen in England in 1966?

4.
What Amish country village in Pennsylvania, where
Witness
was filmed, is a frequent victim of street-sign theft?

5.
What literary pickpocket’s real name is Jack Dawkins?

JANUARY 18

1788
T
HE FIRST SHEEP ARRIVE
in Australia, brought from South Africa with the British First Fleet. Today there are 120 million sheep in Australia, six for every human.

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK

For that many sheep you’ll need a few shepherds.

1.
What traditionally tops the meat in shepherd’s pie?

2.
What did “Kristin Shepard” do on March 21, 1980, that sealed her TV fame?

3.
What are German shepherds called in Great Britain, due to lingering anti-German sentiment following World War II?

4.
What actress has lived with playwright Sam Shepard for more than twenty-five years?

5.
Where will I “fear no evil,” according to Psalm 23, the “Shepherd Psalm”?

6.
What entrepreneur did Cybill Shepherd portray in 2003 and 2005 TV movies?

7.
What explorer wrote the famous reply poem to Christopher Marlowe’s 1599 poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”?

8.
Alan Shepard was scheduled to command the ill-fated
Apollo 13
before switching missions with what astronaut?

9.
The Good Shepherd,
about the founding of the CIA, was only the second movie ever directed by what legendary actor?

10.
“Shepherd moons” in the solar system, such as Prometheus and Pandora, are so called because they help shape what?

1943
T
HE
U.S. D
EPARTMENT OF
A
GRICULTURE
bans the sale of sliced bread, so that the metal in commercial bread slicers can be used in war munitions.

THE GREATEST THING SINCE…

1.
Why did
The Greatest American Hero
’s name hurriedly change to “Ralph Hanley” in 1981?

2.
In what city was Cassius Clay born in 1942?

3.
Who appropriately spelled their 2005 greatest hits collection
Greatest Hitz
?

4.
Max von Sydow, Donald Pleasance, and Telly Savalas—three stars of
The Greatest Story Ever Told
—all went on to play what screen role?

5.
Almost since its 1961 inception, what has humbly billed itself as “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine”?

1952
C
URLY WILL NYUK NO MORE,
dying after a series of strokes and a long illness. His brother Shemp Howard has already replaced him, reluctantly rejoining the Three Stooges.

TRIO BRAVO

Give the missing last member in these famous threesomes.

Easy

1.
Emerson, Lake, and…

2.
Athos, Porthos, and…

3.
Executive, legislative, and…

4.
Kukla, Fran, and…

5.
Alvin, Simon, and…

Harder

1.
Brahma, Vishnu, and…

2.
Liberté, égalité,…

3.
Cyan, magenta, and…

4.
Wynken, Blynken, and…

5.
Gaspar, Melchior, and…

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Clotho, Lachesis, and…

2.
Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and…

3.
Duty, honor, and…

4.
Triassic, Jurassic, and…

5.
The Bad News Bears, Breaking Training,
and…