Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (22 page)

FEBRUARY 5

1869
T
WO
C
ORNISH MINERS
digging near Moliagul, Australia, discover a huge nugget of gold just below the surface of the soil, so big it breaks their pick when they try to unearth it. The 158-pound “Welcome Stranger” is still the largest gold nugget ever discovered.

KISS MY AUROUS

There’s gold in them there questions!

1.
What country was called the Gold Coast prior to its 1957 independence?

2.
What Ray Charles song was the basis for Kanye West’s “Gold Digger”?

3.
Who gave the “Cross of Gold” speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention?

4.
In what two California cities did Neil Young say he looked for a “Heart of Gold”?

5.
At the 1996 Olympics, what American tied Mark Spitz’s lifetime record of nine golds?

6.
What 1980s sitcoms featured sisters Missy and Tracey Gold, respectively?

7.
What are Quivira and Cíbola?

8.
After a 2005 visit to Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, who announced he would “never wear [his] gold again—it’s an insult to God”?

9.
What title character of an 1876 novel earns $12,000 when he finds the Murrel Gang’s gold in McDougal’s Cave?

10.
As with all heavy metals, all the gold in the universe was formed by what kind of astronomical event?

1897
T
HE
I
NDIANA
H
OUSE OF
R
EPRESENTATIVES
unanimously passes a measure that would square the circle and redefine pi, both mathematical impossibilities. An aghast math professor who happens to be visiting the legislature persuades the Senate to kill the bill.

GOING IN CIRCLES

1.
In what city would you find the fashionable Dupont Circle neighborhood?

2.
What Manhattan intersection, at the southwest corner of Central Park, was America’s first traffic circle?

3.
What country’s founder, Father Miguel Hidalgo, is buried under the Columna de la Independencia in the middle of a busy traffic roundabout?

4.
The world’s first aluminum statue was the statue of Eros placed in the middle of what famed London roundabout?

5.
The Place de l’Étoile is the traffic circle that surrounds what landmark?

1919
F
OUR OF
H
OLLYWOOD’S
biggest draws—Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., D. W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford—form their own studio, which they dub United Artists.

UNITED ARTISTS

Can you match up these once-married couples from the art world?

FEBRUARY 6

1672
I
N A LETTER TO
the Royal Society, Isaac Newton reveals his new discovery about light. White light, he has found, is actually composed of every other color of light—he calls it a “spectrum.”

I GOT HUE, BABE

Some colorful trivia to brighten up your day.

1.
What’s the most common color of Reese’s Pieces, almost two thirds again as numerous as the other shades?

2.
Who’s the only sportcaster who’s done both play-by-play and color commentary for
Monday Night Football
?

3.
What political figure is married to former
In Living Color
star Alexandra Wentworth?

4.
The Apgar score is used to measure the color and condition of what?

5.
What color is the one-ball in a traditional billiards set?

6.
Whose paintings include
The Red Room, The Green Stripe, The Blue Nudes,
and
The Yellow Odalisque
?

7.
What
Sesame Street
Muppet was bright orange during the show’s first season?

8.
What’s the “safest” color on the Homeland Security Advisory System’s color scale?

9.
What genus of vines has lent its name to: a Crayola color, in 1993; a Sherlock Holmes “Lodge,” in 1908; and a TV “Lane,” in 2004?

10.
In what city do all three of the pro sports franchises use the same two main team colors?

1968
T
HE
W
INTER
O
LYMPICS
open in Grenoble, France, featuring the first unofficial Olympic mascot ever—“Schuss the Skier”—and the debut of the Games’ unofficial theme song, a little trumpet piece that its composer, Leo Artaud, originally called “Bugler’s Dream.”

THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG

1.
What “broke down,” according to the lyrics of the
Looney Tunes
theme song?

2.
What NHL team’s theme music is Aram Khachaturian’s most famous composition?

3.
What signature tune of Glenn Miller’s orchestra was originally called “Now I Lay Me Down to Weep”?

4.
What musical feat has been accomplished by only four artists: Jan Hammer, the Heights, Rhythm Heritage, and John Sebastian?

5.
According to his theme song, what is the
most
wonderful thing about Tiggers?

6.
Who’s the only character in
Peter and the Wolf
represented by a brass instrument?

7.
Mets closer Billy Wagner earned jeers in New York for adopting what metal anthem as his entrance music, since it has long been used by the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera?

8.
What 1986 Europe hit was GOB’s magic-act theme song on TV’s
Arrested Development
?

9.
What movie’s theme is called “Gonna Fly Now”?

10.
What New Age musician composed “Roundball Rock,” the ubiquitous
NBA on NBC
theme of the 1990s?