Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (93 page)

JUNE 4

278
B.C.
A
CCORDING TO LEGEND,
Chinese poet Qu Yuan, banished by his king, writes a very sad poem about political corruption and then kills himself by wading into the Miluo River holding a heavy rock. His neighbors try unsuccessfully to rescue him in fishing boats, which is said to be the origin of the modern Chinese “Dragon Boat Festival.”

HERE BE DRAGONS

1.
What was the name of Puff the Magic Dragon’s homeland?

2.
What future star’s neck is broken by Bruce Lee in the cave fight in
Enter the Dragon
?

3.
What is Gary Gygax’s claim to fame?

4.
What southern general, the hero of Shiloh and Murfreesboro, went on to become the first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan?

5.
What nation is home to the Komodo dragon?

6.
What hero of Wagner’s
Ring
opera cycle slays the dragon Fafner?

7.
What city’s Dragons lost the World League of American Football’s very first World Bowl?

8.
Where did this dragon appear?

9.
What part of Britain has Cadwalader’s red dragon on its flag?

10.
What kind of tea takes its name from the Chinese for “black dragon”?

1944
I
NTELLIGENCE AGENTS SHOW UP
at the Surrey home of crossword constructor Leonard Dawe, wondering why the top secret D-Day code words
UTAH, OMAHA, OVERLORD,
and
NEPTUNE
had all appeared in his
Telegraph
crosswords the previous month. A confused Dawe insists that the whole thing was merely a coincidence, and the agents “decided not to shoot us after all,” as he will later say.

BONDS…COMMON BONDS

What are these sets of four words all types of?

1.
Chinook, mistral, simoom, sirocco

2.
C, Java, Lisp, Python

3.
Braeburn, Cameo, Fuji, Gala

4.
Bezique, Bourré, rumino, slapjack

5.
Flemish, honda, Klemheist, sheepshank

6.
Buccinator, sartorius, soleus, trapezius

7.
Arial, Garamond, Palatino, Verdana

8.
Akita, Corgi, Samoyed, Viszla

9.
Bouzouki, psaltery, rebec, shamisen

10.
Charlotte, choctaw, lutz, twizzle

11.
Farfalle, gigli, mafaldine, orzo

12.
Bongo, duiker, kudu, lechwe

13.
Accio, Alohomora, Crucio, Expelliarmus

14.
Breve, crotchet, minim, quaver

15.
Fourchée, Lorraine, Maltese, Moline

16.
Gaff, gennaker, lateen, Marconi

17.
Bilbo, claymore, katana, spadroon

18.
Baht, dirham, forint, real

19.
Baldachin, percale, tricotine, tulle

20.
Do-si-dos, Samoas, Tagalongs, Trefoils

JUNE 5

1783
T
HE
M
ONTGOLFIER BROTHERS
first demonstrate their
globe aérostatique,
which they successfully fly a mile up in the air. It’s the first hot-air balloon.

THE NAME OF THE BRO’S

Show a little brotherly love for these famous brothers.

1.
Which was the oldest Marx brother?

2.
What was the last name of the seven Italian brothers whose company, in 1955, found a new household use for the agricultural pumps it was producing?

3.
What star small forward is the father of NBA brothers Scooter, Drew, Jon, and Brent?

4.
Where did Susie fall asleep in the Everly Brothers song “Wake Up Little Susie”?

5.
Which two disciples of Jesus were called the
Boanerges,
or “Sons of Thunder”?

6.
In what city was the Wright brothers’ bicycle shop?

7.
What’s the day job of the Mario Brothers of video-game fame?

8.
What youngest brother of the music world was a former host of
Solid Gold
?

9.
Whose girlfriends are named Callie Shaw and Iola Morton?

10.
What three brothers have more home runs than any other trio of brothers in baseball history?

1947
I
N A
H
ARVARD GRADUATION ADDRESS,
Secretary of State George Marshall offers American aid to rebuild Europe, a proposal that comes to be called the Marshall Plan.

ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN

What famous plans are outlined here?

1.
         • Create collective farms called
kolkhoz

• Set up Machine Tractor Stations

• Stimulate heavy industry

• Bring about massive famine

2.
         • Arrive on Earth in flying saucers

• Stimulate the pituitary and pineal glands of the recently deceased

• Create zombie army

• Raise hell

3.
         • Disregard neutrality of the Low Countries

• Sweep rapidly through northern France, bypass Paris

• Force French army to surrender or flee into Switzerland

• Next up: Russia!

4.
         • Find $4.4 million in crashed plane

• Suffocate snoopy local barber on snowmobile

• Shoot hunting buddies

• Burn money

5.
         • Blockade southern ports to stop cotton exports

• Prevent importation of war supplies

• Sail gunboats down the Mississippi

• Divide the Confederacy