Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (185 page)

NOVEMBER 4

1899
S
IGMUND
F
REUD PUBLISHES
his landmark
The Interpretation of Dreams.

THESE DREAMS

What kinds of dreams are described by the names of…

1.
Smashing Pumpkins’ major-label debut

2.
The winner of the 1994 Sun-dance Audience Award for Best Documentary

3.
The play that ends with Theseus’s wedding to the Amazon Hippolyta

4.
The German band that provided the soundtracks to
Risky Business
and
Legend

5.
The TV series on which Nick Lachey played Tom Jones and Usher played Marvin Gaye

1952
D
WIGHT
E
ISENHOWER DEFEATS
Adlai Stevenson in the baldest presidential election in U.S. history.

CUE-BALL LIBRE

Ten other famous men with no hair apparent.

1.
Larry David’s real-life wife was named Laurie, but what was her name on
Curb Your Enthusiasm
?

2.
What politician’s first wife, Regina Peruggi, was also his second cousin?

3.
Michael Jordan is now a part owner of what NBA team?

4.
Who was the only member of the Magnificent Seven to appear in the sequel
Return of the Seven
?

5.
What prime minister did Nikita Khrushchev interrupt with his famous shoe-banging routine at the U.N.?

6.
In what foreign country did Gandhi spend more than twenty years of his life?

7.
What was the first name of TV’s Kojak?

8.
What austere phase in Pablo Picasso’s painting was influenced by his friend Carlos Casagemas’s suicide?

9.
What Oscar-winning singer did Andre Agassi date before marrying Brooke Shields?

10.
What does the
J
in “Homer J. Simpson” stand for?

1991
T
HE
R
ONALD
R
EAGAN
Presidential Library is dedicated in Simi Valley, California. For the first time in history, five U.S. presidents are present at the same event.

THE BOOKS STOP HERE

What president’s library is located in each of these spots?

Easy

1.
Atlanta, Georgia

2.
Little Rock, Arkansas

3.
Yorba Linda, California

4.
Springfield, Illinois

5.
Hyde Park, New York

Harder

1.
Abilene, Kansas

2.
West Branch, Iowa

3.
Austin, Texas

4.
Ann Arbor, Michigan

5.
College Station, Texas

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Canton, Ohio

2.
Biloxi, Mississippi

3.
Fremont, Ohio

4.
Northampton, Massachusetts

5.
Staunton, Virginia

NOVEMBER 5

1917
W
ALTER
B
UTLER SENDS
a postcard from the Flanders trenches to let his fiancée know he’s still alive and well. Sadly, the postcard is lost on its way to Swindon and isn’t delivered until February 2007. (Butler’s now-86-year-old daughter Joyce will take delivery.) And that’s what happens when you don’t give the postman a Christmas present.

MAIL BONDING

1.
Canadian postal codes use both letters and numbers: the prime minister’s code, for example, is K1A 0A2. What postal code is reserved for the one million letters to Santa that Canada receives every year?

2.
In the New Testament, what two Greek congregations received two letters each from the apostle Paul?

3.
What’s the updated name for the USPS mail class once known as “Book Rate”?

4.
What notorious figure was well known for his consistent use of $1 Eugene O’Neill postage stamps?

5.
What Missouri city was the eastern terminus of the Pony Express?

6.
C. S. Lewis’s
The Screwtape Letters
are written to what junior devil, Screwtape’s nephew?

7.
What was Fred Rogers’s middle name, which he gave to the “Speedy Delivery” mailman on
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
?

8.
Who is pictured on the penny black, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp?

9.
Who replaced the U.S. Postal Service as sponsor of its champion cycling team in 2004?

10.
The postman in the film
Il Postino
delivers the mail to what exiled poet?

1935
P
ARKER
B
ROTHERS RELEASES
the board game Monopoly. Though it was patented by Philadelphia salesman Charles Darrow, he’d actually ripped off the design from an older board game called The Landlord’s Game.

COMMUNITY CHEST

Ten U.S. states have Monopoly properties named for them. Can you match them up?