host a trivia contest

Our regular trivia contest is expanding; the guy running it is taking in a few more bars, which increases the chance he’ll need a backup.

Oh, and our team didn’t bet enough points on the next to last question…so we took second in the tournament. Dammit! X-c (It was a good game anyway.)

Finally got hold of the answer sheet for last week’s quiz! Here’s an example of what we answer at trivia night on Tuesdays at the pub. It’s actually pretty easy compared to most nights; we only missed one on this sheet. (A few of the questions have been left off because either I didn’t get them transcribed or they have something like a music component to them.)

1. What knot is named for the King of England?
2. In what activity would you encounter the terms “dovetail”, “dado”, and “rabbet”?
3. In the comic books, whose mother was Queen Hippolyta?
4. What mushroom is named for the tree in Japan that it grows on?
5. What animals, who show up on California beaches at this time of year, are known for their large bodies and prominent noses?
6. Sascha Baron Cohen and Robert Downey Jr. are both scheduled to play this fictional character in separate upcoming movies. Name the character.
7. What comedienne’s TV show on FOX hosted the first appearance of the Simpsons?
8. In what 1864 poem does “the six hundred” ride into “the Valley of Death”?
9. How many sides does a rhombus have?
10. Who won the last three NASCAR Chase for the Cup championships?
11. Name the four U.S. states which are actually termed “Commonwealths”.
12. A New Jersey man recently sold his phone number on eBay due to it receiving too many phone calls. What was the number?
13. What percentage (within 10%) of the world’s personal computers run a version of Windows, as of 2008?
14. In the movie Shakespeare in Love, William considers this name for the female character opposite Romeo in his play, before he changes it to Juliet. What name?
15. What is the only word in the English language which has the letters “RIJU”, consecutively and in that order?
16. What French city is known for supposed miraculous happenings?

And the final two – sort of a “Final Jeopardy!” thing:

17. At 38 million square miles as of 1215, this was the largest empire ever on Earth. What empire was it?
18. In 1890, Thomas Edison campaigned to have this invention named for his rival George Westinghouse, due to its negative connotations. What invention was it?

As I noted earlier on my little “is doing…” descriptor, we won the trivia championship at the local pub. It’s a 3 times yearly thing, roughly but not exactly seasonal, and the result of a 12-week “season” getting us into the final, which was held on Tuesday. We got a $400 prize, which we are splitting seven ways for each member of the team.

Final questions, which we got both right, were:

1. The most watched TV interview of all time was in 1999. Barbara Walters was the interviewer; who was the interviewee?

2. What is the largest country, by area, that is entirely within Europe?

Only ten questions, ‘cause that’s all I could think of. They’re from older songs, for the most part…I tried to work in a few newer ones, but I’m not as good with that. Obviously.

1. The song “American Pie” by Don MacLean makes frequent reference to “The Day the Music Died”. What three rock ‘n’ rollers died on that day (3 Feb 1959)? (Half credit if you can name any of them!)

2. On Warren Zevon’s song “Werewolves of London”, the bassist and drummer were borrowed from what band?

3. On Meat Loaf’s album, Bat Out of Hell, the pianist and drummer were borrowed from what band?

4. What 1970’s band’s first album featured narration by Orson Welles and was based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe?

5. What actor, who later appeared in two Harry Potter films, recorded a version of “MacArthur Park”, which went to #2 on the U.S. charts in 1968?

6. What singer had the longest span between number one hits on the Billboard charts, getting the first as part of a duo in 1965, and the most recent as a solo act in 1999?

7. According to the lyrics of “Smoke on the Water”, by Deep Purple – which told a true story – what band was starring “at the best place around” in Montreux, Switzerland, prior to the venue burning down?

8. What song was Justin Timberlake singing when Janet Jackson had her “wardrobe malfunction” during Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004?

9. John Ondrasik released a song called “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” in 2001. What band name did he use? (And for a bonus point: what sport is the band’s name most commonly associated with?)

10. The Dixie Chicks first performed where in Dallas: at a Cowboys game, on a street corner, or in a church?

Everyone guessed one of the answers below…except for one: #4. The answer there was the album “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” by…the Alan Parsons Project!

Here’s my latest quiz: the 2008 Year in Review quiz! Think back and answer these:

1. Hurricane Gustav came ashore in New Orleans at the end of August, postponing what event that was to have had President Bush speak?

2. The final of the Euro 2008 soccer championship saw what country defeat Germany by a score of 1-0?

3. Two U.S. state governors were arrested in 2008: Elliott Spitzer, for soliciting a prostitute, and Rod Blagojevich, for soliciting bribes. What two states do, or did, they represent?

4. Delta Air Lines merged with what other airline at the end of October?

5. This singer, who was the voice of Chef on South Park, died in August. Who was he?

6. What was the first Guitar Hero game to be based around the music of a single band?

7. The Phoenix spacecraft successfully landed where on May 25?

8. Who said in 2008, “I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal”?

9. The Iowa caucuses were held on January 3; they were the first state U.S. Presidential primary elections. Barack Obama won for the Democratic Party. Who won for the Republican Party?

10. What comedian appeared as a U.S. Presidential candidate in a Spider-Man comic book in 2008, after he really attempted to run in South Carolina the year before?

11. What two government mortgage companies, which had amusing personal-style names, were among the first to go into bankruptcy as a result of the mortgage crisis, in September?

12. Who retired on March 4, but un-retired on August 4, and ended up in New York, in a green uniform with a “4” on it?

13. Who released their first album since 1991, called Chinese Democracy?

14. Who declared 2008 the International Year of Planet Earth, Languages, Sanitation, the Potato, and the Frog?

15. The death of this actor was voted 2008’s top entertainment story by U.S. newspaper and broadcast editors surveyed by The Associated Press. Who was he?

16. “Big Brown” was the winner of what event in May of 2008?

17. Who said, “I can see Russia from my house!” – Tina Fey or Sarah Palin?

18. Who resigned as the President of Cuba after 49 years?

19. what country won the most Gold Medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing?

20. In 2008, No Country for Old Men was given the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture. Name any one of the films that were nominated but lost.

21. A huge fuel explosion which killed two people rocked what major North American city on August 10?

22. The former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, won what major award on October 10?

23. What team ended 2008 with the most losses ever in a single season in National Football League history, failing to win a single game?

24. Who won season 7 of American Idol in 2008?

25. Who released a novel called Duma Key in 2008?

Okay, I made it a little bit easier for everybody – which is really tough! Anybody can make a quiz that stumps everybody, which is what I’d been doing…it’s much harder to give everyone a fighting chance.

1. What are the names of Barack and Michelle Obama’s two children?
2. Name one of the two elements which is liquid at room temperature (_{20 C/}70 F).
3. Which member of Monty Python is an American?
4. The United States adopted the Constitution in 1787. What was used as its basis for government for the eleven years before that?
5. Who had the most hits in Major League Baseball history?
6. In the comics, who was Clark Kent’s boyhood girlfriend?
7. Chinstrap, macaroni, gentoo, and emperor are all species of what animal?
8. North of this line, the sun stays up for the whole day in the summer. What is the line called?
9. What do the letters “AM/FM” stand for?
10. In what country is the southernmost point in Europe?
11. What Will Smith film, named after the book it is based on, was previously filmed as The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man?
12. What are the names of the two warring street gangs in West Side Story?
13. By what single name is Alecia Beth Moore better known as?
14. Who is the leader of the ThunderCats?
15. The order one would place to a bartender for a beer and a shot of whiskey has the same name as the one given to Purdue University’s sports teams. What is it?
16. What composer was completely deaf when he wrote and, in 1824, conducted his last symphony?
17. What European country has a President whose father is Hungarian and whose wife is Italian?
18. What is the famous last line of Casablanca, as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Louis (Claude Rains) walk off into the fog?
19. The first commercial radio station went on the air in what decade: the 1920s, the 1930s, or the 1940s?
20. What celebrity mocked a John McCain campaign ad by announcing a fake campaign for the Presidency herself – and thanking McCain for his “endorsement”?
21. What common condition is medically known as a “synchronous diaphragmatic flutter”?
22. Stephenie Meyer has written only one novel that’s not in the Twilight series. What is its title?
23. If a football (soccer) team kicks the ball over its own end line, what is the correct call to restart play: a corner kick, a goal kick, or a penalty kick?
24. A bottle which holds 1.5 liters of champagne is known as a what?
25. Savoy Court (in front of the Savoy Hotel in London) is the only place in the United Kingdom where vehicles are required to do what?

Well, after the overwhelming response to the first one (which didn’t happen, but I’m doing this anyway), here’s another trivia quiz!

Rules are slightly different this time. You still can’t use any outside sources – no Google, no Wikipedia, no phone-a-friend (though I suppose you could do it in pairs or something…anyway, you’re on your honor). And I might drop a hint or two if it’s too tough…but otherwise, I won’t give any idea whether you’re right or wrong until I reveal the answers, sometime probably on Monday. The winner receives a free air guitar, a sky hook, a peace dividend, and the admiration of all on 43T!

This quiz has a theme, however. All of the answers are four letters long. So in this case, spelling does count! C’mon, it’s four letters!

So, name what is being described by the following:

1. Capital of Latvia
2. On TV, it employed Venus Flytrap and Dr. Johnny Fever
3. Eye makeup worn by ancient Egyptian queens
4. U.S. destroyer damaged by a terrorist attack in 2000
5. 1978 hit by the Village People
6. Label for brandy aged at least five years in a wood casque
7. State that was the setting for The Music Man
8. New Wave group formed in Akron, Ohio, in 1973
9. First artist to have #1 and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – twice
10. Won men’s college basketball championships in 1991, 1992, and 2001
11. “So be it” in Hebrew
12. Last name of the Supreme Court Chief Justice who was a former President
13. An old source of blue dye in Europe
14. Best Picture Oscar winner with the shortest title
15. Island where Napoleon was first exiled (1814)
16. Common nickname of Ernest Hemingway
17. Played Stan’s girlfriend in the Eminem video
18. What tailor’s chalk is made from
19. Beavis and Butt-head’s favorite band
20. German territory controlled by France for 9 years after WWII

So I decided to post my first quiz! Took me about an hour or so to write. It’s U.S.-centric, I’m afraid; sorry, but I live here.

Here are the rules:

1. There are three categories: Easy, Medium, and Hard. You get one point each for answering the Easy questions, two points for a Medium, and three points for a Hard.

2. No Google, no Wikipedia, no outside sources! That wouldn’t be sporting at all…and far, far too easy.

3. I’ll post the answers on Monday morning. No hints or any other indicators before that…

4. If you win, you get the Special Scooterbird Prize for Excellence in Trivia…and that and a few bucks will get you an overpriced cup of coffee at Starbuck’s. :-)

And here is the quiz!

Easy
1. Animals. What is the only mammal that can fly?
2. U.S. Government. If the President and Vice President are unable to fulfill the duties of their offices (sickness, death, impeachment and removal, etc.), who becomes the President?
3. Exploration. Who was the first human being in space?
4. Companies. What company’s motto is “That was easy!”?
5. History. Who was the longest reigning monarch in British history?

Medium
6. Vocabulary. What English word, in reference to an animal’s coat, means “striped in a slightly darker pattern than the base coat”?
7. Baseball. In the Abbott & Costello routine, “Who’s on First?”, what is the name of the shortstop? (“No, what’s on second!”)
8. Also Known As… What is the National Railroad Passenger Corporation better known as?
9. Rock Bands. What suburban Chicago band got its name from a superhero character on The Simpsons?
10. Soccer. Two countries have won the World Cup only once – one in 1966 and the other in 1994. Which countries?

Hard
11. Trios. Who are William Guest, Edward Patten, and Merald Knight better known as?
12. TV Shows. On Gilmore Girls, what is the name of Lorelei’s dog?
13. Cars. The book Unsafe at Any Speed, written in 1965 by Ralph Nader, contains an entire chapter famously detailing the multiple safety problems with what car?
14. Houses. After the White House, what is the most visited personal home in the U.S.?
15. Cities. What is the largest city in the U.S. with no direct passenger access by railroad?

One of the things I really look forward to each week is a trivia contest that’s held at a local pub. Our team is one of the better ones – hey, we’re all geeks! – and I just have a whole lot of fun. (I describe us as “a drinking team with a trivia problem”. :-) It’s the perfect break for the week.

I hang out and have a pint with the guy that runs the contest, and he and I have become friends. I’ve thought I might like to try running it sometime – Rick seems to have fun doing it, and I think I can come up with questions that are as good as his. (There’s a real trick to it. Anyone can come up with something obscure and just stump the whole room; there’s no challenge to that. The trick is to ask questions that about half the room can get…stuff where you can get the right answer, but you really have to use your noodle.)

Barring that, I might want to post trivia quizzes here on 43T and have folks try their luck. Sure, you could just Google everything, but where’s the challenge in that?