Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (210 page)

DECEMBER 18

1912
T
HE DISCOVERY OF
the “Piltdown Man” fossils in Sussex is announced to the Geological Society of London. Not until 1953 will the remains (a mixture of human and ape bones, actually) be discredited as a hoax.

UNEARTHED

1.
What was the brontosaurus renamed in 1903, when it was discovered that the original fossils of that dinosaur had been given an earlier name?

2.
Thanks to DNA testing, from where was the body of Vietnam vet Michael Blassie disinterred in 1998 and returned to his family?

3.
What ancient city did Heinrich Schliemann discover under the Turkish hill of Hisarlik?

4.
What is the “big W” under which $350,000 is buried in
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
?

5.
Taylor, Tyler, or Taft—what U.S. president was exhumed in 1991 to look for signs of arsenic poisoning?

1952
P
ATTI
P
AGE ASKS
the immortal musical question “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”

NO REST FOR THE QUERY

1.
What does New Mexico’s official state question, “Red or green?” refer to?

2.
What clothing line uses a question mark as its emblem?

3.
Who was the target of Joseph Welch’s 1954 question “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

4.
What question was popularized when it was used as the subtitle of Charles Sheldon’s 1896 religious novel
In His Steps?

5.
When is the Ma Nishtana—“Why is this night different from all other nights?”—recited?

6.
What 1982 musical question prompts the line “This indecision’s bugging me;
esta indecisión me molesta”?

7.
What not-yet-famous actor was the first target of Mae West’s question “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?”

8.
What’s the only TV show with a question for a title ever to lead the Nielsen ratings for a season?

9.
What question did Alfred E. Neuman first ask on a July 1955 magazine cover?

10.
About what Baroness Orczy title character is the question asked “Is he in heaven? Is he in hell?”

1983
T
HE
T
ALKING
H
EADS
are in the middle of a three-night set of concerts at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater, which Jonathan Demme films for his hit Talking Heads concert film.

TALKING HEADS

Answer these questions on TV pundits.

1.
What
McLaughlin Group
regular once had the star of
From Here to Eternity
as a brother-in-law?

2.
What pundit had an executive producer credit on
All the King’s Men,
a film based on a former governor of his home state?

3.
What controversial commentator once briefly dated
Politically Incorrect
host Bill Maher?

4.
What pundit does Bill O’Reilly regularly refer to as “Stuart Smalley”?

5.
Who announced in 2006 that he would no longer wear bow ties on air, saying, “I wanted to give my neck a break”?

DECEMBER 19

1942
R
OBERT
S
TROUD BECOMES
prisoner 594-AZ, as he’s transferred to Alcatraz Prison. The famed “Birdman” actually raises no birds at Alcatraz—he gained his ornithological fame during his earlier years at Leavenworth.

I AM NOT A NUMBER!

1.
What literary character’s prison number, 24601, is sometimes said to refer to the date of Victor Hugo’s conception?

2.
Who was known as “466/64” during his eighteen years breaking rock on Robben Island?

3.
What Scrooge McDuck nemeses typically wear numbers 176-167, 176-671, and 176-761, even when they’re out of jail?

4.
What French novel’s title character is prisoner 34 in Château d’If?

5.
What was Patrick McGoohan’s number on
The Prisoner
?

6.
Who was addressed for decades only as “prisoner number seven” in Berlin’s Spandau Prison?

7.
What Alexander Solzhenitsyn title character was prisoner S-854?

8.
In what film does the prison guard always call Alex De Large “six-double-five-three-two-one”?

9.
Who played prisoner #95H522, the narrator of HBO’s
Oz
?

10.
Name one of the two movies in which Dan Aykroyd wears prisoner number 7474505B, a tribute to John Belushi’s Joliet number in
The Blues Brothers.

1980
J
ERRY
S
EINFELD MAKES
his final appearance as “Frankie, the mail boy” on the sitcom
Benson.
After being abruptly fired, he vows never again to return to sitcoms unless he can have creative control.

A QUIZ ABOUT NOTHING

1.
According to “Me and Bobby McGee,” what’s “just another word for nothing left to lose”?

2.
What two American scientists proved, in an 1887 experiment, that the vacuum of space
wasn’t
filled with a mysterious “ether” that allowed light to propagate?

3.
What ex–chief executive ran again for the presidency as the anti-immigrant “Know-Nothing” candidate in 1856?

4.
How many blank tiles are there in a game of Scrabble?

5.
Who began to formulate his trademark philosophy in the essay
Being and Nothingness
?

6.
Whose lead role as a blacklisted comedian in the Woody Allen film
The Front
mirrored his own experience during the McCarthy era?

7.
Who sings the “I want my MTV” falsetto on the Dire Straits hit “Money for Nothing”?

8.
What Judy Blume title character first appeared as the bratty younger brother in
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
?

9.
In British sport, it’s a “clean sheet.” What would an American sports fan call it?

10.
On what day of the year do anticonsumerism activists celebrate “Buy Nothing Day”?

11.
What 1988 action movie was based on Roderick Thorp’s novel
Nothing Lasts Forever
?

12.
What word did Buddha define as “where is no-thing, where naught is grasped, the isle of No-beyond”?

13.
Who wrote Sinéad O’Connor’s number one hit “Nothing Compares 2 U”?

14.
What symbol did Andre Weil adopt from Norwegian to represent the “empty set” in mathematics?

15.
What U.S. Steel tycoon is famous for the sentiment “I owe the public nothing!”?