Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (49 page)

MARCH 24

1937
A
UTHOR
E
RNEST
V
INCENT
W
RIGHT
tells the AP that he’s finally finished his magnum opus: a novel called
Gadsby: A Story of over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter “E.
” Wright tied down the
E
key on his typewriter to make sure he succeeded in his quixotic quest.

THIS INSPIRING, WIT-TICKLING QUIZ

Each answer uses only a single vowel, though it may be repeated many times.

1.
Keren Woodward, of what 1980s band, is married to Andrew Ridgeley of Wham?

2.
Who was the first female comic ever to be called over to the couch by Johnny Carson on
The Tonight Show
?

3.
What two-word football nickname is thought to derive from William Corby, a former university president and chaplain to the 88th New York Volunteer Infantry at Gettysburg?

4.
What 1977 novel ends with Milkman Dead learning to fly?

5.
What’s the Latin name for the common mouse, the world’s second most abundant mammal species (after man)?

6.
What’s the astronomical term for three celestial bodies aligning?

1975
C
HUCK “THE
B
AYONNE
B
LEEDER”
W
EPNER
challenges Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight championship. When Wepner goes the distance, even knocking Ali down in the ninth, a young actor in the crowd named Sylvester Stallone gets the idea for a movie called
Rocky.

TITLE ROLE CALL

What actor played the title role in the original version of these first-name-basis movies?

Easy

1.
Arthur

2.
Charly

3.
Ray

4.
Alfie

5.
Alexander

Harder

1.
Oliver!

2.
Michael

3.
Jack

4.
Rudy

5.
Dave

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Edmond

2.
Maurice

3.
Lucas

4.
Max

5.
Tex

1984
A
CCORDING TO THE LETTER
read at the film’s end, this is the day
The Breakfast Club
convenes for detention in the Shermer High School library.

BREAKFAST CLUB

What was the original brand of cereal pitched by these mascots?

Easy

1.
Dig ’Em

2.
Tony the Tiger

3.
Snap, Crackle, and Pop

4.
BuzzBee

5.
Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble

Harder

1.
Sugar Bear

2.
Crazy Craving

3.
Cornelius

4.
Sonny

5.
Sunny

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Wendell

2.
Chip the Wolf

3.
Swerdloc

4.
Sir Laffitup and Sir Craven-leigh

5.
CinnaMon

MARCH 25

1199
R
ICHARD THE
L
ION-HEARTED
laughs at a French boy defending a castle wall with a crossbow and a frying pan. The boy then shoots King Richard in the neck, a wound that will kill the king two weeks later.

THE MANE ATTRACTION

Can you brave these lion-hearted questions?

1.
What is called the “bark lion sentinel dog” in its native Tibet?

2.
What beer-centric movie begins with the MGM lion belching rather than roaring?

3.
What word did songwriter Pete Seeger inadvertently coin, misunderstanding the Zulu word “uyimbube,” meaning “you’re a lion”?

4.
What nation’s flag features a Sinhalese lion holding a sword?

5.
After his 1930 coronation, whose imperial motto was “The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered”?

6.
James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair, who play the king and queen in
The Lion King,
had also played an African king and queen in what earlier film?

7.
What’s the only country outside Africa where lions still live in the wild?

8.
What mountain of Centre County, Pennsylvania, lent its now-famous name to the mountain lions that lived there until the 1880s?

9.
What was formed by the five robot lions of the planet Arus?

10.
Who began his famous penance by killing and skinning the Nemean lion?

1843
T
HE WORLD’S FIRST UNDERWATER TUNNEL,
under London’s Thames River, opens to the public after an eighteen-year construction plagued by floods, fires, and toxic gas leaks.

TUNNEL VISION

1.
What movie features three tunnels named Tom, Dick, and Harry?

2.
What tunnel does Tony Soprano use in the
Sopranos
opening credits?

3.
What nation is home to the only tunnel in the world longer than the Chunnel?

4.
What bloody battle resulted when the Union set off a gunpowder-packed tunnel under Confederate lines at the siege of Petersburg?

5.
In 1900, Texas biologist Vernon Bailey discovered a network of tunnels the size of the state of Maryland. What had dug them?

1983
D
URING A
M
OTOWN TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
TV
SPECIAL,
the Supremes spontaneously reunite to sing “Someday We’ll Be Together.” That title starts to look pretty ironic midway through the song, when Diana Ross shoves Mary Wilson toward the back of the stage.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

1.
Whose song “Together Again” was the very first track ever to appear on a U.S.
Now That’s What I Call Music!
collection?

2.
The BBC once banned the Beatles’ “Come Together” for “advertising” what product in the lyrics?

3.
What personal nickname of Mariah Carey was revealed by the title of the album that produced her comeback hit “We Belong Together”?

4.
In 1967, what did
The Ed Sullivan Show
force the Rolling Stones to sing instead of the title of their song “Let’s Spend the Night Together”?

5.
In what film is Bruce Willis’s first scene backed by Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”?