Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (184 page)

NOVEMBER 2

1949
T
HE POPULAR PARLOR GAME
“Twenty Questions” becomes a TV hit, debuting on New York’s WWOR-TV station.

“20” QUESTIONS

1.
In what mountain range did Rip van Winkle take his twenty-year nap?

2.
What Matchbox 20 song was a number one hit in the U.S. but hit only number 79 in the U.K., where its title is a synonym for “gay”?

3.
Who was the only twentieth-century president never to appoint a Supreme Court justice?

4.
What TV drama will equal
Gunsmoke
’s twenty-season longevity record if it lasts through 2010?

5.
H20
wasn’t the twentieth
Halloween
film. What number in the title would have been more accurate?

6.
Of the twenty possible first moves in chess, how many don’t involve a pawn?

7.
In the measurement for “20/20 vision”—twenty of what?

8.
What was unusual about pitcher Bartolo Colón’s twenty-win season in 2002?

9.
What shape is each of the twenty faces on a regular icosahedron?

10.
When a CB radio user asks “What’s your 20?” what should you tell him?

11.
What U.S. president broke the “Twenty-Year Curse”?

12.
What two star Detroit Lions running backs both had the same initials, both won a Heisman, and both wore number 20?

13.
What brand of cleaner was represented by a “20-Mule Team”?

14.
What’s the more modern word for a vicenarian?

15.
What economist, on Britain’s new £20 note, is the first Scotsman ever to appear on Bank of England currency?

16.
The city of Paris is divided into twenty boroughs called what?

17.
What TV show set each of its six seasons exactly twenty years in the past?

18.
What two cities were connected by the 20th Century Limited?

19.
Who wrote the twenty-novel series that stretched from 1969’s
Master and Commander
to 1999’s
Blue at the Mizzen
?

20.
The Beatles had twenty U.S. number one hits, but what Beatles song has the word “twenty” in its first line?

1959
C
HARLES
V
AN
D
OREN
admits to Congress that he was fed the answers on TV’s
Twenty-One.

TWENTY-ONE
QUESTIONS

Without being given the answers, can you answer these questions from Van Doren’s
Twenty-One
streak?

1.
What Massachusetts statesman said, “Taxation without representation is tyranny”?

2.
What synthetic fiber has replaced silk in women’s stockings?

3.
Who preceded Joe Louis as world heavyweight champion?

4.
What two countries’ armies faced each other at Lake Ladoga?

5.
Who was the cruel wife of the biblical king Ahab?

NOVEMBER 3

1948
“
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN”
trumpets the early edition of the
Chicago Daily Tribune.
When Dewey’s lead starts to vanish overnight, the frantic
Tribune
sends out staff to recover as many of the papers as possible, but thousands have already been sold.

MASTHEAD HUNTING

What’s the largest U.S. city whose largest paper is called…

Easy

1.
The
Globe

2.
The
Sun-Times

3.
The
Rocky Mountain News

4.
The
Post

5.
The
Plain Dealer

Harder

1.
The
Star-Ledger

2.
The
Times-Picayune

3.
The
Free Press

4.
The
Inquirer

5.
The
Star Tribune

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
The
Mercury News

2.
The
Sentinel

3.
The
Beacon Journal

4.
The
Courant

5.
The
Observer

1948
A
YOUNG DIPLOMAT’S WIFE,
the former Julia McWilliams, arrives in Le Havre, France, with her husband. She has no particular interest in food, but the simple lunch they order at a Rouen restaurant—oysters, sole, salad, and wine—makes history, since it introduces Julia Child to French cuisine.

BROADCAST STEWS

What
nom de cuisine
did these chefs use to title their TV programs?

1.
Ina Garten

2.
Jeff Smith

3.
Jamie Oliver

4.
Graham Kerr

5.
Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright

1983
I
N THE BASEMENT
of the University of Vermont’s Slade Hall, a quartet formerly called Blackwood Convention gives its first concert under its new name, Phish.

JAM BANDS

1.
What former frontman of the Jam played lead guitar on Oasis’s “Champagne Supernova”?

2.
What Detroit rock band was dropped by Elektra Records during the controversy over its song “Kick Out the Jams”?

3.
What NBA player was Pearl Jam originally named for?

4.
What 1986 New Wave hit, written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, is the only
Billboard
number one ever in which the artist’s name contains the title of the song?

5.
Who became president of Def Jam Records in 2005?