Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (115 page)

JULY 12

1794
C
ANNON FIRE AT THE SIEGE
of Calvi causes Horatio Nelson, the English admiral, to lose the sight in his right eye. More seriously, historians have since discovered, it also deprived him of his right eyebrow. A museum waxwork of Nelson was plucked accordingly in 2005.

BILL OF RIGHTS

Do you have the “right” stuff for this one-sided quiz?

1.
What’s the only currently minted U.S. coin whose “heads” side shows a profile facing right, not left?

2.
Which NFL team wears its logo only on the right side of its helmets?

3.
The heart’s right ventricle pumps directly into what blood vessel, the body’s only artery that carries deoxygenated blood?

4.
What rock guitarist lost most of his right middle finger to his brother Clifford’s ax during a wood-chopping accident at age four?

5.
All of the countries in the mainland Americas drive on the right side of the road—except for what two neighbors?

6.
What actor is the subject of R.E.M.’s “Monty Got a Raw Deal” and the Clash’s “The Right Profile”?

7.
Whose right-hand man—quite literally—is Mr. Smee?

8.
A right-handed pitcher’s curveball breaks from right to left. What pitch breaks the opposite way, from left to right?

9.
What artist painted himself sketching on the far right edge of his painting “The Gross Clinic”?

10.
On what TV show did Hillary Clinton describe “a vast rightwing conspiracy” in 1998?

1916
T
WO MEN ARE KILLED
by a shark in Matawan Creek, New Jersey, ending the spate of shark attacks that would inspire the novel
Jaws
.

JUST FOR FIN

1.
An episode of what sitcom spawned the phrase “jumped the shark”?

2.
What largest lake of Central America is home to unusual freshwater sharks?

3.
Which
Saturday Night Live
cast member played the Land Shark?

4.
What rock group was behind the infamous “Mudshark Incident” at Seattle’s Edgewater Inn in 1969?

5.
What’s the world’s largest predatory fish?

6.
The San Jose Sharks were the Bay Area’s first NHL team since what expansion team left in 1976?

7.
What network has aired “Shark Week” every summer since 1988?

8.
What street gang rumbles with the Sharks in
West Side Story
?

9.
What Hyundai coupe gets its name from the Spanish word for “shark”?

10.
In what ship’s 1945 sinking were as many as eighty sailors eaten by whitetip sharks?

JULY 13

1872
C
HARLES
G
OUNOD COMPOSES
a little piano ditty he calls “Funeral March of a Marionette.” No one really cares for eighty years, but then the tune becomes the famous theme of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

SHOW TUNES

What TV shows had each of these themes?

Easy

1.
“Believe It or Not”

2.
“Making Our Dreams Come True”

3.
“Where Everybody Knows Your Name”

4.
“I’ll Be There for You”

5.
“The Ballad of Jed Clampett”

Harder

1.
“Thank You for Being a Friend”

2.
“Boss of Me”

3.
“The Streetbeater”

4.
“Good Ol’ Boys”

5.
“Final Frontier”

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
“Then Came You”

2.
“The Toy Parade”

3.
“There’s a New Girl in Town”

4.
“There’s No Place like Home”

5.
“Falling”

1935
T
EDDY
W
ILSON AND
G
ENE
K
RUPA
join the “King of Swing” for the first recording session of the Benny Goodman Trio. The presence of Wilson, a black man, was particularly historic, since the trio became the first major integrated combo in jazz history.

KINGS OF SWING

1.
What sports team used the Swinging Friar as its team emblem until 1984?

2.
What Reagan appointee is currently the only “swing vote” on the Supreme Court?

3.
What’s the name of the rhythm guitarist who knows “all the chords” in Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing”?

4.
What noun is used as a slangy adjective for “good” or “cool” thirty-four times in the 1996 movie
Swingers
?

5.
What swing state is the U.S.’s most reliable political bellwether, having voted for the winning candidate in twenty-five of the last twenty-six presidential elections?

2002
A
REMIX OF
E
LVIS
P
RESLEY’S
“A Little Less Conversation” ends its chart-topping run in Britain, having broken the long-standing tie between Elvis and the Beatles for most number ones.

A LITTLE MORE CONVERSATION

What songs begin with these exchanges of dialogue?

1.
“Oh, my, God. Becky, look at her butt. It is so big.”

2.
“Betty, is that Jimmy’s ring you’re wearing?” “Mm-hmm.”

3.
“Hey, I can’t find nothing on the radio.” “Uh, yo, turn to that station.”

4.
“Hey Jack, what’s happenin’?” “Oh, I don’t know.” “Well, uh, rumor around town says you think you might be heading down to the shore.”

5.
“Wendy?” “Yes, Lisa?” “Is the water warm enough?” “Yes, Lisa.”

6.
“Hey bra’, how we doin’, man?” “All right.” “It’s been a while, man, life’s so rad!”

7.
“Are you ready, Theodore?” “Ready, Dave!”

8.
“What you gonna play now?” “Bobby, I don’t know, but whatever I play, it’s got to be funky.”

9.
“Got to get this airplane off.” “Naw, leave it, yeah.”

10.
“Whaddya think the teacher’s gonna look like this year?” “My butt, man!”