Just a short quiz this week. I'm calling this and possible future quizzes like it a "jukebox quiz". This probably isn't a new idea at all, but I haven't thought of it or seen it before now (please humor me). The quiz has eleven questions, and the answer to the 11th question is the title of a song. The lyrics of that song also happen to contain the answers to the previous ten questions.
Clear as mud? Well, this jukebox won't cost you even a quarter (what do jukeboxes charge these days, I wonder?), go ahead and give it a spin...
1. John Mellencamp sang about where he was born, where he lives, and where he'll “probably die” in what 1985 song?
2. What do Gladys Knight and the Pips take to Georgia in a 1973 classic hit?
3. What was the last city to have the defending World Series, Stanley Cup and NFL champions all at the same time (1936)?
4. What's the last name of this acting brother and sister? He was in Beastmaster and the original V miniseries; she was in the TV version of Fame and starred in the original Footloose.
5. What's the more familiar first name of singer/songwriter William Robinson Jr.?
6. What does an oenophile particularly enjoy?
7. What word derived from Dutch and French describes a wide street often lined with trees or having a landscaped median?
8. New York City recently had to replace 29,000 LED bulbs it had installed in what public safety devices after citizens complained they were too bright?
9. Speaking of Gladys Knight, what gaming items each have 21 pips?
10. Reaching #11 in 1977, what was the title of singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop’s highest-charting single on Billboard’s pop chart?
11. Now for the kicker:
The answers to the first 10 questions are also found in the lyrics of what 1981 song?
Too hard? Too
easy? Too stupid? Lemme know: @TriviaRoad
1. Jack and Diane
2. Midnight Train
3. Detroit
4. Singer (Marc and Lori)
5. Smok(e)y
6. Wine
7. Boulevard
8. Streetlights
9. Dice
10. On and On
11. Click to play
By God, this blog is going to be early for something for once... Happy New Year!
And logically, this would be a good year for us to know our 19's, so here are between 18 and 20 questions about that very number!
19 FOR '19
1. What Steely Dan song released in 1980 mentions a musical legend who passed away in 2018?
2. Who was the 19th President of the United States?
3. What notable speech, just a few minutes in length, was delivered on the 19th of November, 1863?
4. What is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet?
5. What right was established by the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
6. What #19 was the first NBA player to win Most Valuable Player (for the season), MVP of the NBA Finals and MVP of the All-Star game, all in the same season?
7. What was the 19th state admitted to the Union?
8. What was Product 19, which was available in grocery stores from 1967 to 2016?
9. What Hall-of-Fame quarterback made his only Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XIX, a 38-16 loss to the San Francisco 49ers?
10. “Your mother who neglected you owes a million dollars tax” is a line from what 1965 song?
11. Juneteenth was first officially observed in which state that abolished slavery on June 19, 1865?
12. What Hall-of-Fame center and three-time Stanley Cup winner was named the best player ever to wear #19 by NHL.com?
13. William A. Wheeler was the 19th man to hold what American high office?
14. Channel 19 is most commonly used by truck drivers on what medium?
15. What observance that started in the mid-1990s encourages people to speak a little differently on September 19th?
16. Number 19 on the periodic table, what chemical element gets its symbol from its Latin name, kalium?
17. Who won her only Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1999, the 19th time she had been nominated for the award?
18. What #19's NFL record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass was broken by Drew Brees in 2012?
19. What was the subject of Paul Hardcastle's 1985 single titled 19?
Too hard? Too
easy? Too stupid? Lemme know: @TriviaRoad
1. Hey Nineteen (mentions Aretha Franklin)
2. Rutherford B. Hayes
3. the Gettysburg Address
4. Tau
5. Women's right to vote / women's suffrage
6. Willis Reed (1969-70)
7. Indiana
8. a Kellogg's breakfast cereal
9. Dan Marino
10. 19th Nervous Breakdown
11. Texas
12. Steve Yzerman
13. Vice President. (Hayes', oddly enough)
14. CB radio
15. International Talk Like A Pirate Day
16. Potassium
17. Susan Lucci
18. John Unitas
19. the Vietnam War
Welcome (me) back to Trivia Road! Keep an
eye out on this space for more quizzes again. Your author here has
finally got a little bit of time on his hands, and writing quizzes is
a good way to learn a lot of trivia, which your author has stunk at
competitively lately. Let's see if this week's
ripped-from-the-headlines categories can sharpen your edge and mine:
(Clicking the Answers button will
reveal all 20 answers)
FICTIONAL NATIVE
AMERICANS
1. In Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha, who is the object of
Hiawatha's love?
2. Uncas is the title character of which James Fenimore Cooper novel?
3. What book made into a 1975 movie is narrated by a half-Native
American named Chief Bromden who is pretending to be deaf and mute?
4. What trusted friend has been portrayed on the big screen by Johnny
Depp and Michael Horse, among others?
5. I should have just made this a Michael Horse category. What
character did Michael Horse portray on Twin Peaks?
EMBASSY
NOT-SO-SWEETS
6. Who has Ecuador's embassy to the United Kingdom ordered to clean
his bathroom and take care of his cat?
7. For how many days were Americans held hostage at the United States
embassy in Tehran from 1979-1981?
8. Security guards beat 20 protesters outside the home of what
country's ambassador in Washington, D.C. in 2017?
9. On August 7, 1998, 224 people were killed by Al-Qaeda bombings at
U.S. embassies in what two countries?
10. In 1996, in what country did Tupac Amaru rebels hold 72 hostages
for 126 days at the Japanese embassy?
LOTTERY MADNESS
11. Which team won the first NBA draft lottery (which will always be
believed to have been rigged) in 1985?
12. Who “wins” the lottery in Shirley Jackson's famous short
story The Lottery?
13. Which team won the 2018 NHL draft lottery and used the first pick
to select defenseman Rasmus Dahlin?
14. In 2019, what state will become the 45th to offer a
state lottery, though over Gaming Commission objections that a state
lottery will be a competitive force for gambling dollars spent at its
casinos?
15. What country has the world's oldest continuous lottery, dating
back to 1726?
THAT'S AN
UNUSUAL THING TO STEAL
16. Vincenzo Peruggia became famous for stealing what museum item in
1911?
17. Which MLB player stole home more times in his career: Rickey
Henderson, Lou Brock or Lou Gehrig?
18. Who stole one of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft's Super
Bowl rings at a meeting in 2005?
19. In April 2018, what airline had a plane stolen from
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and eventually fatally crashed
into an island in Puget Sound by one of its employees?
20. Thieves in Kansas last week stole a ten-foot model of what
body part that averages 61-65 inches in length in humans?
Too hard? Too
easy? Too stupid? Lemme know: @TriviaRoad
FICTIONAL NATIVE AMERICANS 1. Minnehaha
2. The Last of the Mohicans
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
4. Tonto
5. Deputy Hawk, or Tommy "Hawk" Hill
EMBASSY NOT-SO-SUITES
6. Julian Assange
7. 444
8. Turkey
9. Kenya and Tanzania
10. Peru
LOTTERY MADNESS
11. New York Knicks
12. Tessie Hutchinson
13. Buffalo Sabres
14. PSYCH! The answer is Mississippi. That will leave Alabama, Nevada, Utah, Alaska and Hawaii as the only states that do not have a lottery.
15. The Netherlands. Spain's famous annual Christmas lottery is the second-oldest, dating back to 1812.
THAT'S AN UNUSUAL THING TO STEAL
16. the Mona Lisa
17. You smelled a rat, didn't you? Lou Gehrig stole home 15 times in his career, Rickey Henderson 4, Lou Brock 2. Babe Ruth, of all people, stole home
10 times. (The double steal was used a lot more in their era of baseball.) The all-time leader in home steals is, not too surprisingly, Ty Cobb with 54.
18. Vladimir Putin. He tried Kraft's ring on, pocketed it and walked off with it! (according to Kraft) Diplomacy has turned this interaction into a "gift of respect and admiration",
and according to Wikipedia, the ring is on display at the Kremlin.
19. Horizon Air. Also accepting: Alaska Air, Alaska Airlines
20. They stole a 10-foot inflatable colon. If you said large intestine, eh, close enough.
Happy Thanksgiving, and welcome to another once-in-a-blue-moon Trivia Road quiz, this one vaguely inspired by today's holiday. Try it on for size when the football game gets boring...
(Free trivia: the painting pictured is Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell)
TURKEY
1. Mentioned in the Bible, what peak is Turkey's highest point?
2. Turkey is bordered by which three seas?
3. Which Turkish city was known as Byzantium until the 4th century A.D.?
4. The Turkish city of Bursa was the original capital city of what empire?
5. Who are these people?
DRESSING
1. What part of men's formal wear gets its name from the Hindi word for waistband?
2. What style of hat gets its name from an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou?
3. According to legend, what clothing item plunged in popularity thanks to a Clark Gable scene in 1934's It Happened One Night?
4. White wedding dresses didn't become popular until who wore one for her wedding in 1840?
5. Which fashion designer has trademarked the shade of red used on the soles of his highly sought-after high-heel shoes?
PI
1. What day is celebrated as Pi Day?
2. What is pi's position in the Greek alphabet? (alpha is first, beta is second...)
3. What shape's volume is calculated with the formula 4/3π
r3?
4. Who is credited with calculating the first accurate (3.14) value of pi?
5. Does the sequence 123456 occur anywhere in the first million decimal places of pi?
FOOTBALL
1. What do the 7th, 9th and 10th QBs on the NFL's all-time-passing yardage list have in common?
2. What many-times injured QB is the oldest Heisman Trophy winner currently on an NFL roster?
3. What team has had nine (the most) different head coaches, including Hue Jackson, since the Patriots hired Bill Belichick in 2000?
4. What's the only NFL team that hasn't qualified for the playoffs yet this century?
5. What's the only company with naming rights to more than one NFL stadium?
ALSO ON THE THANKSGIVING TABLE
1. What dance move mentioned in "Do You Love Me?" by the Contours was made famous by James Brown?
2. What Irish band hit #1 in 1994 with the protest song "Zombie"?
3. Green Giant recently set a world record by creating a 637-pound version of what Thanksgiving standard?
4. First published 100 years ago, the recipe for what dish was influenced by the Cracker Jack company?
5. What piece of a table setting is also known as a sauciere?
TURKEY 1. Mount Ararat
2. Aegean, Black and Mediterranean
3. Istanbul. Byzantium became Constantinople around 330 AD. Constantinople in turn became Istanbul in the 15th century.
4. Ottoman
5. If the link isn't broken, they're whirling dervishes
DRESSING
1. cummerbund
2. fedora. In the title role of Princess Fedora in the play Fedora, actress Sarah Bernhardt wore a hat that became a popular women's style around 1882. Prince Edward made the fedora popular with men in the 1920's.
3. men's undershirts. Gable took off his shirt in one scene, revealing -gasp- nothing underneath! According to legend, sales of undershirts plunged afterward; Snopes, however, says this has actually never been proven
4. Queen Victoria
5. Christian Louboutin
PI
1. March 14th
2. Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet
3. a sphere
4. Archimedes
5. No (see University of Exeter webpage)
FOOTBALL
1. Those QBs, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger, were all selected in the first round of the 2004 draft.
2. I wrote this to bait St. Louis people into answering Sam Bradford, but the answer is 2002 Heisman winner Carson Palmer of the Cardinals
3. I would have guessed Cleveland even without the Hue Jackson misdirect, but the answer is the Oakland Raiders. (Jackson was head coach there in 2007)
4. The Buffalo Bills, whose last playoff appearance was in 1999, where they succumbed to the Titans' "Music City Miracle"
5. Mercedes-Benz (Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans; Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)
ALSO ON THE THANKSGIVING TABLE
1. mashed potato
2. Cranberries
3. green bean casserole
4. Sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping. The Cracker Jack company also made marshmallows at the time. The recipe was a way to boost marshmallow sales.
5. gravy boat
This quiz was meant for the start of soccer season a couple of weeks ago, hence all the soccer-related questions. Guam isn't a soccer power, but made the news for the first time in many years this month when North Korea, well, threatened to blow it up. What did the people of Guam ever do to Kim Jong-Un? People of Guam? Isn't there a shorter way to say that? Keep quizzing and find out...
GUAM
1. The United
States gained control of Guam during what conflict?
2. Who was the
first European explorer to visit Guam?
3. Formerly known
as Agana, what is the capitol city of Guam:
Agat, Barrigada, Dedeno, Hagatna?
4. The back of the
2009 Guam commemorative quarter shows a flying proa. What is that?
5. Which is the
proper term (demonym) used to describe a person from Guam:
Guamian, Guamese, Guamanian, Guamesian?
SOCCER
1. What Brazilian
star transferred from Barcelona to Paris-St. Germain before this
season for an all-time record 222 million Euros ($265 million)?
2. Which La Liga
club is currently the defending UEFA Champions League champion?
3. Which
now-Everton player is both the Premier League's active career leading
scorer and the England national team's all-time leading scorer?
4. What current
MLS player was the last player other than Cristiano Ronaldo (the
current holder) or Lionel Messi to win the Ballon D'Or honor as the
world's best soccer player?
5. Which country
won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in July?
DIRECTIONAL ANSWERS
Each answer
will contain one or more points of the compass
1. Who was born June 15, 2013, to Kanye and Kim Kardashian West?
2. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have both spoken at what annual Austin,
TX music/film/technology gathering?
3. The Perfect Storm tells of the 1991 sinking of the Andrea
Gail due to what weather phenomenon?
4. Which Steinbeck title comes from the fourth chapter of Genesis?
5. Alice Braga stars in what USA Network narco-thriller series that
first aired in 2016?
ALSO A SOCCER
TEAM
Each answer is
or includes the name of a Premier League team but you don't have to
know any soccer to get the answers. (Not that it hurts)
1. The Cavern Club is a favorite site for music fans visiting what
city on the Mersey River?
2. What verb can mean to shake up the coals of a fire?
3. Who did investment banker Mark Mezvinsky marry in December 2010?
4. What port did the Titanic depart on its only voyage?
5. What building was originally built in Hyde Park to host the Great
Exhibition of 1851?
GUAM 1. the Spanish-American War
2. Ferdinand Magellan
3. Hagatna (you can kind of see Agana hiding in the new name)
4. a sailboat
5. Guamanian SOCCER
1. Neymar
2. Real Madrid
3. Wayne Rooney
4. Kaka'
5. USA DIRECTIONAL ANSWERS
1. North West
2. South By Southwest
3. a nor'easter
4. East of Eden
5. Queen of the South ALSO A SOCCER TEAM
1. Liverpool
2. Stoke
3. Chelsea Clinton
4. Southampton
5. Crystal Palace
Since I've been writing quizzes about
as often as there's a major solar eclipse in the United States, I
thought my first quiz in a blue moon should be themed around the
eclipse coming to America next Monday. I hope that'll be worth your
while even if this quiz isn't:
TOTALITY CITY questions involving cities in the path of totality of the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse
(the number after each indicates how long it will experience total solar eclipse)
1. What two state capitols named for
Presidents are in the path of totality?
2. Fairview, Kentucky (2:40) is the
birth place of what American president named after another president?
3. Which former terminal of the Pony
Express is in the path
of totality?
4. The campuses of which current NCAA
(Division I) champions in football and basketball are in the path of
totality?
5. Chester, Illinois (2:40) is the
birthplace of cartoonist Elzie Segar. What Segar character debuted in
the funny pages in 1929 with the line, “Ja think I'm a cowboy?”
6. What author had a home in Ketchum,
Idaho (1:04) from 1939 until his self-inflicted death there in 1961?
7. Hermitage, Tennessee (2:17) and
Hillsboro, Missouri (2:39) are named after the homes of which two
Presidents?
8. What Missouri city is named for the
patron saint of Paris?
9. What Tennessee city is named for
America's longest-serving Treasury Secretary?
10. What lead actress of the Alfred
Hitchock film Lifeboat got
her name from a Georgia city in the path of totality?
ECLIPSES
1.
Which automaker produced a 2-door compact car called the Eclipse from
1989 – 2011?
2.
What Welsh singer hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart with “Total
Eclipse of the Heart” in 1983?
3.
Which of the following is not the name of a visual effect of a solar
eclipse?
a)
shadow bands
b)
umbrella effect
c)
Baily's beads
d)
diamond ring
4. In
what novel does main character Hank Morgan avoid being burned at the
stake by predicting a solar eclipse?
5. The
next total solar eclipse in North America will occur in the same year
Paris is scheduled to next host the Summer Olympics. What year will
that be?
“SUN” SONGS
Name the song (or songs), given the artist, year
and that the word or syllable “sun” is in the title
1. Soundgarden, 1994
2. Katrina and the Waves, 1985
3. Donovan, 1966
4. Bobby Hebb, 1976
5. The Beatles, 1964, 1966, 1969
“MOON” TITLES
Name the title of the work, given the
year, author or lead actor, and that “moon” is somewhere in the
title
1. novel, Stephenie Meyer, 2006
2. movie, Roger Moore, 1979
3. movie, Nicolas Cage, 1992
4. album, Ozzy Osborne, 1984
5. movie, Jim Carrey, 1999
Should I ever make it back over here to
write a quiz again, it's likeliest to be in this format, 20-25
questions in 4-5 different categories.
TOTALITY CITY1. Lincoln, NE (1:25) and Jefferson City, MO (2:29)
2. Jefferson Davis
3. St. Joseph, MO (2:38)
4. Clemson (2:37, football) and South Carolina (2:30, women's basketball). Sorry, Tar Heels; most of North Carolina
is not in the path.
5. Popeye
6. Ernest Hemingway
7. Andrew Jackson for Hermitage is the easier one; Hillsboro is supposedly the English translation of
the Italian for "little mount", or Monticello, so Thomas Jefferson is the other answer
8. Ste. Genevieve (2:40)
9. Gallatin (2:40). Albert Gallatin was Treasury Secretary for 14 years under three Presidents,
Jefferson, Madison and Monroe.
10. Tallulah Bankhead, whose grandmother Tallulah was named for Tallulah Falls, GA (2:21) ECLIPSES
1. Mitsubishi
2. Bonnie Tyler
3. b) umbrella effect
4. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
5. 2024 "SUN" SONGS
1. Black Hole Sun
2. Walking On Sunshine
3. Sunshine Superman
4. Sunny
5. I'll Follow The Sun, Good Day Sunshine, Here Comes The Sun "MOON" TITLES
1. New Moon
2. Moonraker
3. Honeymoon in Vegas
4. Bark at the Moon
5. Man on the Moon
2017 should be a prime year for trivia or whatever else you're into in life, because 2017 is a prime number. 2011 was the last year that was a prime number, and we won't have one again until 2027, so savor this prime year like it's a delicious prime rib. Or, if you're vegan, binge-watch Transformers and savor some Optimus Prime.
On with the quiz. Name the year these events happened. In each case, the year is also a prime number...
1. George Washington inaugurated as the first U.S. President
2. The original King Kong movie is released
3. Jamestown colony founded
4. Pan-American exposition opens in Buffalo, New York
5. South Park debuts on American TV
6. An earthquake and tsunami lead to a nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan
7. Partial core meltdown occurs at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania
8. The Simpsons make their first appearance on American TV
9. NAFTA signed into law
10. Eiffel Tower opened to the public
11. John Elway wins Super Bowl MVP, retires
12. The Human Genome Project is completed
13. George Steinbrenner buys the New York Yankees (from CBS!) (for $10 million!)
14. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg tried for espionage and sentenced to death
15. "The Star-Spangled Banner" becomes the national anthem of the United States
16. The deadliest fire in U.S. history kills at least 1,500 in and around Peshtigo, Wisconsin, the same day as the Great Chicago Fire
17. The first NASCAR race is run, the first Emmy Awards are awarded, the first round-the-world flight is completed and the first monkey is launched into space
18. Levi Strauss and Co. begin manufacturing Levi's jeans, the first Preakness Stakes is run, the Heineken Brewery, and, ironically, the Women's Christian Temperance Union are both founded
19. The first Wimbledon tournament is held, the first Westminster Kennel Club show is held, and a President who won the Electoral College but not the popular vote is inaugurated
Sure, I could go for 20, but 19 is a prime number, so that's a prime excuse for me to close this one out. Watch for trivia nuggets on Twitter (@TriviaRoad) and various quizzes and articles here at the blog.
1. 1789
2. 1933
3. 1607
4. 1901 (McKinley was assassinated there)
5. 1997
6. 2011
7. 1979. Yipes, prime number years seem very ripe for nuclear accidents!
8. 1987 (On The Tracey Ullman Show)
9. 1993
10. 1889
11. 1999
12. 2003
13. 1973
14. 1951
15. 1931
16. 1871
17. 1949
18. 1873
19. 1877 (Rutherford B. Hayes)
