Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (205 page)

DECEMBER 8

65
B.C
.
T
HE
R
OMAN POET
H
ORACE
is born. He will pen some of the best-remembered Latin phrases of the classical era, including “
Carpe diem
” and “
Dulce et decorum est.
”

LATIN LOVERS

Give the common Latin phrase that literally translates as…

Easy

1.
Stiffness of death

2.
And the rest

3.
It does not follow

4.
Voice of the people

5.
My fault

Harder

1.
Something for something

2.
Let the buyer beware

3.
Blank slate

4.
A not-pleasing person

5.
To the point of disgust

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
After this, therefore because of this

2.
Without which not

3.
Wonderful to say

4.
With great praise

5.
Under penalty

1938
T
HE
L
ESLIE
H
OWARD
–Wendy Hiller film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s
Pygmalion
premieres in New York. Shaw himself helped adapt the play for the screen, and as a result he will become the only person ever to win both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar.

DOUBLE THREATS

1.
Who’s the only scientist to have won Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry?

2.
In 2001, who became the first person ever to have America’s number one album and number one movie in the same week?

3.
Who’s the only person to have played in both a World Series and a Super Bowl?

4.
Who received a Congressional Medal of Honor, for war, as well as a Nobel Prize for Peace?

5.
What longtime ABC analyst is the only winner of both of an Emmy and an Olympic gold medal?

1981
NBA
STAR
L
LOYD
B. F
REE
makes his old playground nickname official, legally changing his name to World B. Free.

SEE YOU IN COURT

Name these basketball players from their nicknames.

Easy

1.
The Answer

2.
Pistol Pete

3.
T-Mac

4.
Dr. J

5.
Larry Legend

Harder

1.
The Iceman

2.
The Round Mound of Rebound

3.
The Big Dipper

4.
The Glove

5.
The Big Ticket

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Plastic Man

2.
Dr. Dunkenstein

3.
The Human Eraser

4.
Hot Plate

5.
The Owl Without a Vowel

DECEMBER 9

1898
L
IEUTENANT
C
OLONEL
John Henry Patterson kills the first of the two lions that have eaten almost 140 workers building the Uganda Railway in Tsavo, Kenya. The attacks inspired Patterson’s book
The Man-Eaters of Tsavo
and the movie
The Ghost and the Darkness.

LET US PREY

1.
What’s the “predator” in the Nashville Predators’ NHL logo?

2.
According to the World Health Organization, what’s the world’s deadliest animal, killing more than two million people every year?

3.
What’s the only animal on the American Film Institute’s list of the fifty greatest villains in movie history?

4.
“Nanook,” of “of the North” fame, is named for the Inuit word for what predator?

5.
What Caribbean island chain did Frances Drake name for the ten-foot crocodiles that lived there?

1970
J
ERRY
L
EE
L
EWIS
is divorced from his third wife and second cousin, Myra Gale Brown. Or was it second wife and third cousin? Anyway, the thirteen-year-old.

ALL KILLER, NO FILLER

1.
Who wrote the slogan “This machine kills fascists” on his guitar?

2.
A concert by what 1970s singer-songwriter was the inspiration for “Killing Me Softly with His Song”?

3.
Arthur “Killer” Kane played bass for what seminal punk band?

4.
What Bruce Springsteen title track is narrated by a serial killer?

5.
What celebrity sibling appears in the video to the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside”?

1990
A
IR
F
ORCE’S
C
HRIS
H
OWARD
becomes the inaugural winner of the Vincent de Paul Draddy Award for scholar-athletes, often called the “Academic Heisman.” Former Manhattan College QB Vin Draddy was best known, later in life, for introducing Izod and Lacoste shirts to America.

BEST IN THEIR FIELD

Match the college football awards to their position.