Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (13 page)

JANUARY 23

1960
T
HE
B
ATHYSCAPHE
T
RIESTE
reaches the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the lowest point on the sea floor. A specially made Rolex Oyster watch, strapped to the outside of the craft, survives the descent and keeps perfect time.

WRIST-Y BUSINESS

How much time do you need for these questions about watches?

1.
What Briton was honored by a 1994 50 pence coin depicting a pair of running legs and a stopwatch?

2.
What does the protagonist of “The Gift of the Magi” sell to buy a watch fob?

3.
007 has been wearing a Swatch since 1995, when what upscale Swatch brand became the official wristwatch of the James Bond films?

4.
What two chemical elements make up the mineral quartz?

5.
What movie begins with actress Elise McKenna giving playwright Richard Collier an old pocket watch?

1979
P
LUTO MOVES INSIDE
the orbit of planet Neptune, meaning that, for the next twenty years, Neptune and not Pluto is the outermost planet of the solar system. Of course, now that Pluto’s been demoted to “trans-Neptunian loser object,” the whole point is moot.

AN OUTSIDE CHANCE

This is trivia that just grazes the surface of things.

1.
The “pinna” is the outer, visible part of what?

2.
What former president coined the phrase “lunatic fringe” to refer to the wackos in his own reform movement?

3.
What philosophical belief, from the Latin for “only the self,” holds that the external world doesn’t exist at all?

4.
What skyscraper’s exterior ornaments include radiator caps on the thirty-first floor and hood-ornament eagles on the sixty-first floor?

5.
The “Mohorovicic discontinuity” divides what two outer layers of the earth?

6.
What paint color was actually
un
available on the first Model Ts, though it became the only color used from 1914 to 1926?

7.
Who wears an alb and a chasuble over his street clothes?

8.
According to the popular 1970s ad jingle, what are “ooey, gooey, rich and chewy inside, tender flaky golden cakey outside”?

9.
What is the easternmost point of the Outer Banks?

10.
What would you find between the scute-covered carapace and the plastron?

1991
T
O CELEBRATE ITS FORMAT CHANGE
to classic rock, an Albuquerque FM station plays Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” for twenty-four straight hours, leading to a deluge of listener complaints and even a police call.

STAIR MASTERY

1.
In what non-Spanish-speaking world city would you find the Spanish Steps?

2.
Jefferson Davis was sworn in as Confederate president on the steps of what city’s state capitol?

3.
A bronze statue of whom stands at the foot of the steps to the Philadelphia Art Museum?

4.
What state is home to the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument?

5.
As unveiled by the Department of Agriculture in 2005, what now has eight vertical divisions and a figure climbing stairs on the left-hand side?

JANUARY 24

1908
T
HE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF
the first Boy Scout handbook,
Scouting for Boys,
is published by Robert Baden-Powell, an ex-soldier fascinated with molding young boys into a paramilitary organization. Isn’t it nice when old people have hobbies?

A SCOUT IS…

1.
Who was known to his Meccan customers as “al-Amin,” “the
trustworthy
one”?

2.
Whose posthumous album
Loyal
to the Game
was produced by Eminem?

3.
What’s the pen name of Kiah Michelle Cruse, who inherited her mother’s
helpful
household hints column in 1977?

4.
What “Good Little Witch” is Casper the
Friendly
Ghost’s friend?

5.
What city at the intersection of I-5 and I-84 is home to America’s most
courteous
drivers, according to a 2007 study?

6.
What food does Richard Dreyfuss use to sculpt Devils Tower, Wyoming, in
Close Encounters of the Third
Kind
?

7.
What were the surprisingly
obedient
subjects asked to do in Stanley Milgram’s famous 1961 experiments on authority?

8.
What inspirational poem of 1927 ends, “Be
cheerful.
Strive to be happy”?

9.
Dollar, Budget, or Enterprise—
Thrifty
Car Rental merged with what other discount car rental agency in 1990?

10.
What Hall of Famer is the only person to play as a
Brave
in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta?

11.
Who was president when Congress passed the first
Clean
Air Act?

12.
Who complained that his most famous book had been given the “more
reverent
” title
A Cynic’s Word Book
by his publisher?

1984
T
HE FIRST
A
PPLE
M
ACINTOSH
goes on sale. ( Justin Long, the “I’m a Mac” guy, is six years old.)

CORE SAMPLES

What fruits come in these varieties?

Easy

1.
Bartlett and Bosc

2.
Bing and Rainier

3.
Navel and blood

4.
Beefsteak and Roma

Harder

1.
Muscat and scuppernong

2.
Key and kaffir

3.
Hass and Florida

4.
Damson and Mirabelle

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Eureka and Meyer

2.
Redchief and Earliglow

3.
Redhaven and Harmony

4.
Chubby Gray and Jubilee

2006
H
ILARY
D
UFF AND
H
AYLIE
D
UFF
share a Worst Actress “Razzie” nomination, making them the first non-Olsen sisters to be so honored.

ANY MORE LIKE YOU AT HOME? WILL THEY STAY THERE?

Name the
even less talented
younger sister of these celebrities.

1.
Lindsay Lohan

2.
Paris Hilton

3.
Britney Spears

4.
Jessica Simpson

5.
Kylie Minogue