Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (173 page)

OCTOBER 16

1814
N
INE PEOPLE ARE KILLED
as thousands of barrels of beer from the Meux and Company Brewers flood central London.

BREWTOPIA

1.
What musical instrument is the trademark of Guinness?

2.
What city is home to Germany’s annual Oktoberfest celebration?

3.
Who made this endorsement? “I had this beer brewed just for me. I think it’s the best I’ve ever tasted. And I’ve tasted a lot. I think you’ll like it, too.”

4.
What “smells like a beer,” according to Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”?

5.
What Mexican beer got its name because it was created to commemorate the dawn of the twentieth century?

6.
Which team won only two “Bud Bowls” over the event’s eight-year life?

7.
What kind of grain is malted to make nearly all modern beer?

8.
Who was sentenced to jail for treason for leading the Beer Hall Putsch?

9.
According to its longtime slogan, what city did Schlitz beer make famous?

10.
Which signer of the Declaration of Independence owned a successful brewery?

1991
B
OXER
G
EORGE
F
OREMAN
names his second daughter “Freeda George.” Though Freeda will be the only one of his five daughters to bear her father’s name, she has a sister Georgetta and five brothers, all named George. George, Sr., likes to joke that he still forgets their names.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

These pairs of people pronounce their names the same but spell them differently. What name is shared by…

1.
The author of “The Outcasts of Poker Flats” and the pro wrestler called “the Hit Man”

2.
The creator of
The X-Files
and a longtime Minnesota Vikings wide receiver

3.
The lone American buried in Red Square and the Lone Ranger

4.
The English king who cracked down on witches and the actor who fell for a witch in
Bell, Book and Candle

5.
The actress who created the stage role of Peter Pan and the actress who created the screen role of Octopussy

6.
The novelty bandleader who wrote a “William Tell Overture” adaptation for kitchen utensils and the director of
Adaptation

7.
The playwright of
The Alchemist
and the Canadian sprinter whose gold medal turned to lead in 1988

8.
The Cleveland point guard who still leads the NBA in all-time free-throw percentage and the actor who played Skippy on
Family Ties

9.
The onetime cohost of
The PTL Club
and the onetime cochair of the Iraq Study Group

10.
The man who replaced Craig Kilborn in 1999 and the man who replaced Hal “Green Lantern” Jordan in 1984

OCTOBER 17

1956
A
FTER CHATTING ABOUT
breast-feeding at a church picnic, seven suburban Chicago moms meet at Mary White’s home to continue the conversation. Their little circle will grow into La Leche League International.

ACHTUNG BABY

1.
Meconium makes up a baby’s first what?

2.
What denomination of money is the baby swimming toward on the cover of Nirvana’s
Nevermind
?

3.
What was theologically disavowed in a 2007 Vatican document called “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized”?

4.
What was the 1928 claim to fame of Ann Turner Cook, today a Tampa mystery novelist?

5.
According to the credits of her series, what TV baby is worth $847.63?

6.
Who was the first baby to be depicted in wax in Madame Tussaud’s?

7.
What Stevie Wonder song ends with the sounds of his daughter Aisha playing in the bath?

8.
According to the Social Security Administration, what has been America’s most popular baby girl name for the past ten years running?

9.
What letter did the media use to identify the baby in the Mary Beth Whitehead surrogate case of 1987?

10.
What 1915 Irish novel begins with “baby tuckoo” meeting a “moocow”?

1966
O
N THE VERY FIRST
Hollywood Squares,
Paul Lynde isn’t in the center square. Instead, it’s Ernest Borgnine…whom I’ve always considered to be the straight Paul Lynde.

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU

1.
What kind of device works because it has a part called a “gnomon” at its center?

2.
What is the seldom-used last name of
Malcolm in the Middle
and his family?

3.
What two NBAers, who can both play center, shared
Sports Illustrated
Sportsmen of the Year honors in 2003?

4.
Whose castle stands in the middle of Disneyland?

5.
What two kinds of particles make up the nucleus of an atom?

6.
The U.S.’s center of population was in eastern Maryland at the time of the first census, but it’s since moved seven states westward. What state is it in today?

7.
What’s in the center of a Pay-Day bar?

8.
What’s the name for the infinitely dense region at the center of a black hole?

9.
What does New York’s Goat Island sit smack dab in the middle of?

10.
In Dante’s
Inferno,
what biblical character dangles from the middle of Lucifer’s three mouths in the center of hell?