Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (219 page)

9.
“
Simba
”

10.
The Gambia

DECEMBER 27

EVE OF DESTRUCTION

1.
Pete Townshend’s

2.
The temple in Jerusalem

3.
Singapore

4.
The bridge on the river Kwai

5.
Plymouth Rock

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUN

Easy

1.
Japan

2.
South Africa

3.
Great Britain

4.
China

5.
Israel

Harder

1.
Guatemala

2.
Thailand

3.
Brazil

4.
Indonesia

5.
Panama

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Albania

2.
Venezuela

3.
Ukraine

4.
Angola

5.
Bhutan

NO-SEA-UMS

1.
Switzerland

2.
Juneau

3.
Ethiopia and Serbia

4.
Vatican City and Mongolia

5.
Pennsylvania (which had a short Great Lakes border but no Atlantic coast)

DECEMBER 28

ON THE BUBBLE

1.
Nitrogen

2.
Pink

3.
A chimpanzee

4.
The Moops (or Moors)

5.
A drinking fountain

6.
The Powerpuff Girls

7.
Bubble Wrap

8.
Lawrence Welk’s

9.
Tulip mania

10.
The jukebox

SPLISH SPLASH

1.
Marcello Mastroianni (who splashed there in
La Dolce Vita
)

2.
Hungary

3.
The Bay of Fundy

4.
SpongeBob SquarePants

5.
Gus Grissom

TOWER OF DABBLE

1.
J

2.
H

3.
C

4.
E

5.
A

6.
I

7.
B

8.
G

9.
D

10.
F

DECEMBER 29

LEGENDS OF THE FOLLICLES

1.
N

2.
B

3.
K

4.
G

5.
E

6.
H

7.
F

8.
J

9.
D

10.
I

11.
L

12.
A

13.
C

14.
O

15.
M

BOY, IS MY NOSE RED

1.
A Little Night Music

2.
Sea anemones

3.
Willard Scott

4.
A rodeo clown

5.
Pagliacci

6.
Bobcat Goldthwait

7.
Goofy and Pluto

8.
Red Skelton

9.
Insane Clown Posse

10.
It

DECEMBER 30

BUY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

1.
San Francisco

2.
“Shoeless Joe” Jackson

3.
The Elephant Man’s

4.
It had the Virgin Mary’s face on it

5.
The Zapruder film (of the Kennedy assassination)

GRIN REAPERS

1.
India

2.
You, girl, and you should know it (Mary Richards)

3.
Have a nice day!

4.
America Ferrera

5.
“Don’t worry”

A CONSPIRACY OF CARTOGRAPHERS

Easy

1.
Thailand

2.
Iran

3.
Zimbabwe

4.
Sri Lanka

5.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo

Harder

1.
Burkina Faso

2.
Belize

3.
Botswana

4.
Suriname

5.
Cambodia

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
The United Arab Emirates

2.
Benin

3.
Kiribati

4.
Lesotho

5.
Vanuatu

DECEMBER 31

AND IN THE END…

1.
Natty Bumppo

2.
Craig MacTavish

3.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

4.
Pierre de Fermat’s

5.
B. J. Hunnicutt

6.
Gerald Ford

7.
David Bowie

8.
P. T. Barnum

9.
Omega

10.
Texas

11.
The Chicago Cubs

12.
Western Union

13.
Richard III

14.
Red River

15.
Bette Midler

HAPPY TRAILS

1.
Edward R. Murrow

2.
Red Skelton

3.
Tracey Ullman

4.
George Burns

5.
Walter Cronkite

6.
Jon “Bowzer” Bauman (of Sha Na Na)

7.
Linda Ellerbee

8.
Jimmy Durante

9.
Dennis Miller

10.
Dan Rather

Acknowledgments

The big
Ken Jennings
above the title of this book is a big lie. Sure, it helps sales within the coveted People Who Watched
Jeopardy!
Back in 2004 demographic, but getting a book this size together is a collaborative affair. I had a lot of help.

The trivia gods of my childhood—Fred L. Worth, the staff of
Games
magazine, and especially the
Jeopardy!
writers—inspired it.

My agent, Jud Laghi—one of the best-looking straight men in publishing—sold it.

Bruce Tracy, ably assisted by Ryan Doherty, edited it.

Simon Sullivan designed it.

Eight thousand Tuesday Trivia subscribers on Ken-Jennings.com unknowingly play-tested parts of it.

Some of the best trivia players and writers I know—Cannon Alsobrook, Steve Butler, Joshua Davey, Raj Dhuwalia, Ray Hamel, Robert Jen, Mitchell Kaufman, Ed Toutant, and Brad and Eric Williams—helped review and fact-check it.

Aileen Lau of StimulEye designed the “Electric Boogaloo” font for it.

My family—Mindy, Dylan, and Caitlin—put up with it.

You bought it.

So, really, the cover should more accurately say
Ken Jennings’s and Fred L. Worth’s and
Games
magazine’s and
Jeopardy!
’s and Jud Laghi’s and Bruce Tracy’s and Ryan Doherty’s and Simon Sullivan’s and Tuesday Trivia’s and Cannon Alsobrook’s and Steve Butler’s and Joshua Davey’s and Raj Dhuwalia’s and Ray Hamel’s and Robert Jen’s and Mitchell Kaufman’s and Ed Toutant’s and Brad and Eric Williams’s and Aileen Lau’s and Mindy, Dylan, and Caitlin’s and Your Trivia Almanac.

Please take a
very
fine-tip marker and edit your cover accordingly. Unless it’s a library book.

K
EN
J
ENNINGS
Seattle, August 2007

About the Author

K
EN
J
ENNINGS
spent much of his childhood in Seoul, South Korea. A graduate of Brigham Young University, he worked as a computer programmer until becoming an unlikely celebrity due to his unprecedented record-breaking streak on the television quiz show
Jeopardy!
He lives outside Seattle with his wife and two children. For more information, visit
www.ken-jennings.com
.

ALSO BY KEN JENNINGS

Brainiac

Copyright © 2008 by Ken Jennings

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Villard Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

V
ILLARD
and “V” C
IRCLED
Design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Jennings, Ken.

Ken Jennings’s trivia almanac: 8,888 questions in 365 days / Ken Jennings.

p. cm.

1. Questions and answers. I. Title. II. Title: Trivia almanac.

GV
1507.
Q
50
J
445 2007                            030—dc22                            2007032197

www.villard.com

eISBN: 978-0-345-50472-2

v3.0