Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (217 page)

11.
Phil Jackson

12.
The Czech Republic

13.
The Nazis forced homosexuals to wear one

14.
The hypotenuse

15.
Snooker

GIVE PEAS A CHANCE

1.
Gregor Mendel’s

2.
Once Upon a Mattress

3.
Cocoa Puffs

4.
Cicero (from the Latin
ceci,
meaning chick peas)

5.
Nine days

DECEMBER 6

LANDMARK DECISIONS

1.
St. Louis’s Gateway Arch

2.
Agra

3.
Shackles

4.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa

5.
The Space Needle

6.
The Sydney Opera House

7.
Stonehenge

8.
Iraq (modern-day sites of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World)

9.
The Golden Gate Bridge

10.
Basil

OH CAROL, I’M SO IN LOVE WITH YOU

1.
The Czech Republic

2.
After “Merry”

3.
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

4.
Six (partridge, doves, hens, calling birds, geese, swans)

5.
A hula hoop

6.
“In Beverly Hills, L.A.”

7.
Parson Brown

8.
“Jingle Bells” (by a harmonica-playing Wally Schirra aboard
Gemini 6
)

9.
Mel Tormé

10.
“Greensleeves”

DECEMBER 7

DOCTOR, MY EYES

1.
Syria

2.
Warren Tay (Tay-Sachs disease)

3.
Esperanto

4.
Arthur Conan Doyle

5.
Minority Report

MESSAGE IN A BATTLE

Easy

1.
John Paul Jones

2.
David Farragut

3.
Douglas MacArthur

Harder

1.
William Tecumseh Sherman

2.
George Dewey

3.
Oliver Hazard Perry

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Anthony McAuliffe

2.
James Lawrence

3.
Charles E. Stanton

FOR INSTANTS

1.
Polaroid

2.
Network

3.
Folgers Crystals

4.
The Shining
(“We all shine on”)

5.
Age/sex/location

DECEMBER 8

LATIN LOVERS

Easy

1.
Rigor mortis

2.
Et cetera

3.
Non sequitur

4.
Vox populi

5.
Mea culpa

Harder

1.
Quid pro quo

2.
Caveat emptor

3.
Tabula rasa

4.
Persona non grata

5.
Ad nauseam

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Post hoc ergo prompter hoc

2.
Sine qua non

3.
Mirabile dictu

4.
Magna cum laude

5.
Sub poena

DOUBLE THREATS

1.
Marie Curie

2.
Jennifer Lopez (
J. Lo
and
The Wedding Planner
)

3.
Deion Sanders

4.
Theodore Roosevelt

5.
Dick Button

SEE YOU IN COURT

Easy

1.
Allen Iverson

2.
Pete Maravich

3.
Tracy McGrady

4.
Julius Erving

5.
Larry Bird

Harder

1.
George Gervin

2.
Charles Barkley

3.
Wilt Chamberlain

4.
Gary Payton

5.
Kevin Garnett

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Stacey Augmon

2.
Darrell Griffith

3.
Marvin Webster

4.
John Williams

5.
Bill Mlkvy

DECEMBER 9

LET US PREY

1.
A saber-toothed tiger, or smilodon

2.
The mosquito

3.
The shark (in
Jaws
)

4.
The polar bear

5.
The Cayman Islands

ALL KILLER, NO FILLER

1.
Woody Guthrie

2.
Don McLean

3.
The New York Dolls

4.
“Nebraska”

5.
Eric Roberts

BEST IN THEIR FIELD

1.
A

2.
G

3.
D

4.
H

5.
J

6.
B

7.
I

8.
E

9.
F

10.
C

DECEMBER 10

AND OTHER REALLY BAD IDEAS

1.
The Susan B. Anthony dollar

2.
David Caruso (
NYPD Blue
)

3.
The Aral Sea

4.
The Bay of Pigs invasion

5.
Speedo

6.
Crystal Pepsi

7.
André Maginot

8.
Kudzu

9.
DeLorean

10.
Life on Earth—the natural biosphere

11.
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

12.
The Chicago White Sox

13.
The Soviet Union

14.
Smell-O-Vision

15.
Felicity Porter

TUTU FUNNY

1.
Five

2.
The Turning Point

3.
Arabesque

4.
The Rite of Spring

5.
A swan (“The Dying Swan”)

DECEMBER 11

PUSSY GALORE

1.
Cabaret

2.
Siamese

3.
His bow tie

4.
Terry Bradshaw

5.
They’re hypoallergenic

6.
Cat

7.
Toxoplasmosis

8.
Puss-in-Boots

9.
Its whiskers

10.
His Bag of Tricks

GET READY TO MATCH THE STARS

1.
H (Katey Sagal in
Married…with Children
and
8 Simple Rules
)

2.
J (Michael Landon in
Bonanza
and
Little House on the Prairie
)

3.
K (Kate Jackson in
Charlie’s Angels
and
The Scarecrow and Mrs. King
)

4.
M (Harry Morgan in
Dragnet
and
M*A*S*H
)

5.
E (Michael J. Fox in
Family Ties
and
Spin City
)

6.
B (David Caruso in
NYPD Blue
and
CSI: Miami
)

7.
L (David McCallum in
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and NCIS
)

8.
F (Tyne Daly in
Cagney and Lacey
and
Judging Amy
)

9.
A (Nicollette Sheridan in
Knots Landing
and
Desperate Housewives
)

10.
G (Alyssa Milano in
Who’s the Boss?
and
Charmed
)

11.
D (Larry Hagman in
I Dream of Jeannie
and
Dallas
)

12.
N (Mary Tyler Moore in
The Dick Van Dyke Show
and
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
)

13.
I (Bill Cosby in
I Spy
and
The Cosby Show
)

14.
O (Jennie Garth in
Beverly Hills 90210
and
What I Like About You
)

15.
C (Ron Howard in
The Andy Griffith Show
and
Happy Days
)

DECEMBER 12

HOT FOR TEACHER

Easy

1.
Law (contracts)

2.
Music

3.
Poetry

4.
Phonetics

5.
Dance

Harder

1.
(U.S.) history

2.
Math (A.P. Calculus)

3.
English

4.
Art (pottery)

5.
Math

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Classics

2.
Science

3.
History

4.
Chemistry

5.
Biology

BOY BANDS

Easy

1.
The Beastie Boys

2.
Boyz II Men

3.
The Beach Boys

4.
The Backstreet Boys

Harder

1.
Pet Shop Boys

2.
Los Lonely Boys

3.
The Geto Boys

4.
The Oak Ridge Boys

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
The Jerky Boys

2.
The Dead Boys

3.
The Fat Boys

4.
The Waterboys

MOTEL SIX

1.
The Lorraine Motel (where Dr. King was shot)

2.
Black Flag

3.
Taxidermy

4.
“Alone Again Or”

5.
Jimmy Swaggart

6.
Tape

DECEMBER 13

A G THANG

Easy

1.
“Livin’ La Vida Loca”

2.
“Fallin’”

3.
“Livin’ on a Prayer”

4.
“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”

5.
“Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”

Harder

1.
“Travelin’ Man”

2.
“Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”

3.
“Cracklin’ Rosie”

4.
“Feel Like Makin’ Love”

5.
“Hangin’ Tough”

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
“Tossin’ and Turnin’”

2.
“Lightnin’ Strikes”

3.
“Keep on Truckin’”

4.
“You Haven’t Done Nothin’”

5.
“Lovin’ You”

YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND

1.
(Whirling) dervishes

2.
36

3.
Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault

4.
The Axis

5.
Swan Lake

6.
Her firstborn child

7.
“English”

8.
The earth

9.
“Unchained Melody”

10.
The Tasmanian devil

11.
All in the Family
(if you count
Archie Bunker’s Place and 704 Hauser
)

12.
Axel

13.
Carousel

14.
Ecclesiastes

15.
Tornadoes

DECEMBER 14

PASSING AWEIGH

1.
E. W. Scripps

2.
Casimir Pulaski

3.
“Big Pussey” Bonpensiero

4.
Sir Francis Drake

5.
Dennis Wilson

BAD BLOOD

1.
West Virginia–Kentucky

2.
Women’s figure skating at the Lillehammer Olympics (Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding)

3.
Aquafina

4.
(“The Thrilla in”) Manila

5.
Blu-Ray

6.
Alexander Hamilton versus Aaron Burr

7.
The Iron Bowl

8.
Tom Wolfe

9.
Betty and Veronica

10.
Sri Lanka

CONSUME MASS QUANTITIES!

Easy

1.
I Love Lucy

2.
The Simpsons

3.
Saturday Night Live

Harder

1.
The Twilight Zone

2.
Moonlighting

3.
King of the Hill

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Arrested Development

2.
The Andy Griffith Show

3.
Seinfeld

DECEMBER 15

IF YOU LEAF ME NOW

1.
(Bay) laurel

2.
Eucalyptus

3.
Marijuana

4.
Fig

5.
Grape

6.
Oak

7.
Ivy

8.
Tea

9.
Acacia

10.
Holly

ICY DEAD PEOPLE—ALL THE TIME!

1.
Ted Williams’s

2.
Timothy Leary

3.
Sleeper

4.
Futurama
’s

5.
Mr. Bigglesworth

BOARD SILLY

1.
The murder victim in Clue

2.
Cranium

3.
Short Line

4.
Germany

5.
“twelve”

6.
Happy

7.
(Settlers of ) Catan

8.
The knight

9.
Plumpy

10.
Milton Bradley

DECEMBER 16

WE’RE NUMBER TWO!

Easy

1.
Belgium

2.
Colombia