Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (151 page)

SEPTEMBER 8

1973
N
ONE OTHER THAN
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
’s Ted Knight is the narrator (“Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice…”) when
Super Friends
makes its TV debut.

B.F.F.!!!

Buddy up to these super-friendly questions.

1.
What is an
amicus curiae
a friend of?

2.
What ballpark is sometimes called “The Friendly Confines”?

3.
Which U.S. state was specifically founded as a haven for members of the Society of Friends?

4.
What computer company sold the Amiga from 1985 to 1996?

5.
Who had a sister named Minga, a dog named Nopey, and friends named Prickle and Goo?

6.
At what Civil War battle was “Stonewall” Jackson killed by friendly fire?

7.
According to Norman Bates in
Psycho,
who is a boy’s best friend?

8.
What’s the minimum age to open an account on

MySpace.com?

9.
What’s the better-known title for best friends Valentine and Proteus?

10.
What are the first two words of every
Friends
episode title but the first and last ones?

2001
V
ENUS
W
ILLIAMS DEFEATS
her sister Serena in the U.S. Open finals, the first all-sister Grand Slam final match since the very first Wimbledon ladies’ final 117 years earlier.

SIBLING RIVALRY

1.
What were the professions of Cain and Abel, respectively?

2.
What rock band faced a near breakup after a 2000 fistfight in a Barcelona bar?

3.
For what 1941 movie did Joan Fontaine win a Best Actress Oscar, kicking off her feud with fellow nominee and older sister Olivia de Havilland?

4.
According to legend, who took the throne in 445 a.d. after killing his brother Bleda on a hunting trip?

5.
Who were Pauline Esther Friedman and Esther Pauline Friedman?

6.
In
The Godfather Part II,
Michael Corleone has Fredo killed during a fishing trip on what lake?

7.
What two teams faced off in the first NFL game between two brothers as starting quarterbacks?

8.
What band, which never contained any actual siblings, reunited for the 2000 album
Sibling Rivalry
?

9.
Who invented a fictional boyfriend named “George Glass” to keep up with her older sister?

10.
In literature, what two traits are famously represented by Elinor and Marianne Dashwood?

SEPTEMBER 9

1836
A
BRAHAM
L
INCOLN RECEIVES
his license to practice law from the Illinois Supreme Court.

PRE-OCCUPATIONS

What U.S. presidents had these former jobs on their résumés?

Easy

1.
President of Princeton

2.
Sports team executive

3.
Peanut farmer

4.
Architect

5.
B-movie actor

Harder

1.
Haberdasher

2.
Police commissioner

3.
Engineer

4.
President of Columbia

5.
Sheriff and hangman

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Ordained minister

2.
Male model

3.
Tailor

4.
Law school dean

5.
Newspaper editor

1947
H
ARVARD RESEARCHERS TRACE
a problem with the Mark II, an early electromechanical computer, to a live moth trapped in a relay. It’s the first computer bug ever to be caused by an
actual
bug.

BUGGY RIDE

1.
Enterprise, Alabama, erected a statue to what beetle, for helping spur it on to plant more diversified crops?

2.
What members of family Odonata are also called darning needles?

3.
What kind of insect was Master Po’s nickname for Caine on
Kung Fu
?

4.
Dolbear’s Law states the relationship between air temperature and what?

5.
In the four major North American sports leagues, what’s the only team whose name is that of an insect?

6.
The scarab beetle was sacred to what civilization?

7.
What social insects are so numerous that they make up about a fifth of the earth’s total biomass?

8.
What do insects use their spiracles for?

9.
One third of all U.S. states that have official state insects have chosen what insect?

10.
What kind of insect made Jurassic Park possible?

2002
B
UZZ
A
LDRIN, THE SECOND MAN
on the moon, punches Bart Sibrel in the jaw. Sibrel is a conspiracy theorist who stalks former astronauts, hoping they’ll admit that the Apollo missions were a massive hoax.

BORN TO RUNNER-UP

When you care enough to send the second best.

1.
After the U.S., what island nation was the second New World colony to declare independence from Europe?

2.
What’s the second most abundant element in the earth’s atmosphere?

3.
Robert Byrd is currently the longest-serving U.S. senator, but who’s runner-up?

4.
The Jets were, of course, the first AFL team to win a Super Bowl. Who was the second?

5.
What Alaskan river is the U.S.’s second longest, after the Mississippi-Missouri?