Totally Random Trivia: 2022

Answers to Monday, September 9, 2024

1. What four words have ended the opening narration of almost every one of the 501 episodes of “Law & Order”?

“These are their stories”

2. According to a 2005 BBC News article, it’s estimated that one in 10 Europeans was conceived on a bed made by what company?

Ikea

3. During a forced exile, what Florentine diplomat wrote “The Prince” and began work on “Discourses on Livy”?

Niccolò Machiavelli

4. Killarney National Park and Glenveagh National Park are two of eight national parks in what country?

Ireland

5. What breakfast cereal, which was originally going to be called “Nutties,” was created in 1921 after a worker at a Minneapolis mill accidentally spilled wheat bran onto a hot stove?

Wheaties

Questions for
Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Five questions to wake up your noodle. Answers in tomorrow’s email. 

1. What website used a mascot named “The Roaming Gnome” in a series of commercials beginning in 2004?

2. Charlie writes “Not Penny’s Boat” on his palm in the Season 3 finale of what ABC drama series?

3. Which U.S. state capital is named after the “Father of the Constitution”?

4. Zach Braff won a Grammy Award for producing the soundtrack to what 2004 movie, which he also wrote, directed, and starred in?

5. What snack flavor is known as “Cool American” in parts of Europe?

3.  Jefferson City, MO (not the Declaration you putz!) 🤨🤓

3. Madison, WI

1. Orbitz?

5. Cool Ranch Doritos

4. Garden State

2. Lost 

1.  Travelocity

Answers to Tuesday, September 10, 2024

1. What website used a mascot named “The Roaming Gnome” in a series of commercials beginning in 2004?

Travelocity  

2. Charlie writes “Not Penny’s Boat” on his palm in the Season 3 finale of what ABC drama series?

“Lost”

3. Which U.S. state capital is named after the “Father of the Constitution”?

Madison (Wisconsin)

4. Zach Braff won a Grammy Award for producing the soundtrack to what 2004 movie, which he also wrote, directed, and starred in?

“Garden State”

5. What snack flavor is known as “Cool American” in parts of Europe?

Cool Ranch (Doritos)

Questions for
Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Five questions to wake up your noodle. Answers in tomorrow’s email. 

1. What famous man-made landmark is located on Mount Lee in the Santa Monica Mountains?

2. What is the only current arena in the NBA that is not named after a corporate sponsor?

3. China and Britain famously went to war twice in the 1800s over what flower?

4. The numbers of the two standard pool balls that sport the color yellow appear together in the title of Adele’s debut album. Give both numbers!

5. In chess, a popular first move for black is named after what 10,000-square-mile island in the Mediterranean Sea?

1.  Hollywood(land) sign

3.  Poppies ?? Opium wars?

4. 1 and 9

5. Sicily 

2. Madison Square Garden

Posted by: @greyeagle

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1.  Hollywood(land) sign

Posted by: @kelly-red

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Posted by: @greyeagle

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1.  Hollywood(land) sign

Little fun facts…Hollywoodland was an advertising sign for a land developer.  Each letter was outlined in light bulbs and they flashed in sequence Holly…Wood…Land.  😂 Obnoxiously annoying!  The bulbs were eventually turned off because of cost and the sign fell into serious disrepair. 

It's one of those things that has always fascinated me.

I didn't know it was originally Hollywoodland until I saw the Champlin film with Robert Downey, Jr, the original sign (assume via special effects) was in the background of an early scene.  The sign has been through several different repairs over the years and I've done a little research into doing a hike to the sign.  You can get pretty close but the trailheads have limited parking.  Something we may do someday but frankly the view from the Griffith Observatory while enjoying an outdoor lunch or stopping at the Mulholland Drive Lookout - where you can also look down into the Hollywood Bowl - worked just fine for me.  

https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history-timeline

Fun Fact:  A high school classmate is the events director for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.  

Answers to Wednesday,
September 11, 2024

1. What famous man-made landmark is located on Mount Lee in the Santa Monica Mountains?

The Hollywood Sign

2. What is the only current arena in the NBA that is not named after a corporate sponsor?

Madison Square Garden

3. China and Britain famously went to war twice in the 1800s over what flower?

Poppy (opium)

4. The numbers of the two standard pool balls that sport the color yellow appear together in the title of Adele’s debut album. Give both numbers!

1, 9
(“19”)

5. In chess, a popular first move for black is named after what 10,000-square-mile island in the Mediterranean Sea?

Sicily
(the Sicilian Defense)

Questions for
Theme Thursday, September 12, 2024

Good Dogs: Every answer in this round will also be the name of a famous dog in pop culture.

Answers in tomorrow’s email. 

1. The Grammy-winning group the Melody Makers consisted of siblings Ziggy, Sharon, Cedella, and Stephen. They're members of what legendary musical family?

2. In 2007, the American Dialect Society officially recognized what heavenly new verb, meaning "to demote or devalue someone or something"?

3. What game became widely popular in the U.S. in the 1930s, after a toy merchandiser "borrowed" an idea from a carnival game played with dried beans, a rubber stamp, and cardboard sheets?

4. One current NHL team is named after an article of clothing. What color is that outerwear?

5. In 2018, Weezer hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart with their viral cover of a song by what ’80s prog rock band?

4. Blue

1. Marley

3. Bingo?

5: Africa

@steve-mn I believe it’s Toto

Posted by: @suesuck

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@steve-mn I believe it’s Toto

2. Pluto

Answers to Thursday, September 12, 2024

Good Dogs: Every answer in this round will also be the name of a famous dog in pop culture.

1. The Grammy-winning group the Melody Makers consisted of siblings Ziggy, Sharon, Cedella, and Stephen. They're members of what legendary musical family?

Marley
(“Marley and Me”)

2. In 2007, the American Dialect Society officially recognized what heavenly new verb, meaning "to demote or devalue someone or something"?

“Pluto”
(from the Mickey Mouse-verse)

3. What game became widely popular in the U.S. in the 1930s, after a toy merchandiser "borrowed" an idea from a carnival game played with dried beans, a rubber stamp, and cardboard sheets?

Bingo
(from the children's song)

4. One current NHL team is named after an article of clothing. What color is that outerwear?

Blue
(“Blue's Clues”; the team is the Columbus Blue Jackets)

5. In 2018, Weezer hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart with their viral cover of a song by what ’80s prog rock band?

Toto
(“The Wizard of Oz”; the song was “Africa”)

Questions for
Friday, September 13, 2024

Five questions to wake up your noodle. Answers in Monday’s email. 

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: According to both Domino’s and the industry magazine Pizza Today, there are five days of the year that see the greatest number of pizza orders. Identify as many of those days as you can for one point each. Zero points total if you get any wrong.

2. The energy conversion process known as photosynthesis takes place in which organelle, found only in plant cells?

3. In “Peanuts,” what German musician and composer of “Für Elise” is the hero of the character Schroeder?

4. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Paradise, Michigan, features the bell of what freighter, which sank in 1975?

5. Today is September 13. On this day in 1885, writer and philosopher Alain Locke was born. He is remembered as the “dean” or “father” of what cultural and artistic movement that took place in the 1920s and ’30s in Upper Manhattan?

3 Beethoven 

4 Edmund Fitzgerald 

3.  Beethoven  

1. Super Bowl Sunday, New Years Eve...

1. First two days of March Madness?

1.  I was thinking New Year's Day and maybe the day before Thanksgiving?

2. Chloroplast

5. Harlem Renaissance 

Posted by: @greyeagle

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1.  I was thinking New Year's Day and maybe the day before Thanksgiving?

The last one was a bit of a surprise to me.

Answers to Friday, September 13, 2024

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: According to both Domino’s and the industry magazine Pizza Today, there are five days of the year that see the greatest number of pizza orders. Identify as many of those days as you can for one point each. Zero points total if you get any wrong.

New Year’s Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Halloween, the day before Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve

2. The energy conversion process known as photosynthesis takes place in which organelle, found only in plant cells?

Chloroplasts

3. In “Peanuts,” what German musician and composer of “Für Elise” is the hero of the character Schroeder?

(Ludwig van) Beethoven

4. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Paradise, Michigan, features the bell of what freighter, which sank in 1975?

The Edmund Fitzgerald

5. Today is September 13. On this day in 1885, writer and philosopher Alain Locke was born. He is remembered as the “dean” or “father” of what cultural and artistic movement that took place in the 1920s and ’30s in Upper Manhattan?

Harlem Renaissance

Questions for
Monday, September 16, 2024

Five questions to wake up your noodle. Answers in tomorrow’s email.

1. What city-state saw a 13 percent bump in tourism from the U.S. in 2018, thanks largely to a film starring Constance Wu released in August of that year?

2. A San Francisco State design student named Charles Prior Hall received a patent in 1971 for “liquid support for human bodies.” What was his invention later known as?

3. One of the most popular door lock manufacturers in the U.S. is a company founded in San Francisco whose seven-letter name is German for “slap.” What lock company is that?

4. “Me Against the World” is the third of four studio albums released during the lifetime of what rapper, before his death in 1996?

5. Two South American countries are named for Simón Bolívar. They are Bolivia and the Bolivarian Republic of BLANK, which is also the country of Bolívar's birth and where he spent much of his life. Fill in that blank.

1.  Singapore

3. Schlage

2. The waterbed

4. Tupac

5. Venezuela

Posted by: @greyeagle

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1.  Singapore

 

Answers to Monday, September 16, 2024

1. What city-state saw a 13 percent bump in tourism from the U.S. in 2018, thanks largely to a film starring Constance Wu released in August of that year?

Singapore
("Crazy Rich Asians")

2. A San Francisco State design student named Charles Prior Hall received a patent in 1971 for “liquid support for human bodies.” What was his invention later known as?

Waterbed

3. One of the most popular door lock manufacturers in the U.S. is a company founded in San Francisco whose seven-letter name is German for “slap.” What lock company is that?

Schlage

4. “Me Against the World” is the third of four studio albums released during the lifetime of what rapper, before his death in 1996?

Tupac Shakur (2Pac)

5. Two South American countries are named for Simón Bolívar. They are Bolivia and the Bolivarian Republic of BLANK, which is also the country of Bolívar's birth and where he spent much of his life. Fill in that blank.

Venezuela

Questions for
Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Five questions to wake up your noodle. Answers in tomorrow’s email. 

1. What brand of “quality marshmallows” was introduced to the world in 1984, but wasn’t available for purchase until 2010, when a caffeinated variety hit shelves for a limited time?

2. The third letter of the Greek alphabet shares its name with what type of radiation?

3. "Slash fiction" gets its name from the punctuation mark between the two characters being portrayed in a romantic relationship. The first published slash fiction, titled "A Fragment Out of Time," is filed under "K/S." What do those two letters stand for?

4. What weapon gets its name from a fruit that gets its name from the Latin for “many-seeded apple”?

5. According to the famous first line of “Pride and Prejudice,” what must a single man with a good fortune always be in want of?

5. A wife

1 Stay Puft

2 Gamma

3. Kirk/Spock

4. Grenade (pomegranate)

Answers to Tuesday, September 17, 2024

1. What brand of “quality marshmallows” was introduced to the world in 1984, but wasn’t available for purchase until 2010, when a caffeinated variety hit shelves for a limited time?

Stay Puft

2. The third letter of the Greek alphabet shares its name with what type of radiation?

Gamma

3. "Slash fiction" gets its name from the punctuation mark between the two characters being portrayed in a romantic relationship. The first published slash fiction, titled "A Fragment Out of Time," is filed under "K/S." What do those two letters stand for?

“Kirk/Spock”

4. What weapon gets its name from a fruit that gets its name from the Latin for “many-seeded apple”?

Grenade
(from “pomegranate”)

5. According to the famous first line of “Pride and Prejudice,” what must a single man with a good fortune always be in want of?

“A wife”

Questions for
Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Five questions to wake up your noodle. Answers in tomorrow’s email. 

1. What product was invented in 1953 following 39 failed attempts to create a substance that effectively displaced water?

2. One of the first Netflix original series went on to become the first online-only show to receive a major Primetime Emmy nomination. Name that 2013 show.

3. What New England town is best known for being the site of a battle that kicked off the American Revolution, followed closely by its fruit cultivation?

4. In 2019, the daughter of what Wendy’s founder revealed that before his 2002 death, he apologized for naming the fast-food chain after her?

5. What 11-letter word was coined by John Milton in “Paradise Lost” to describe the center of Hell, where all demons live? Today, it describes any raucous situation, and is also a word for a group of parrots.

3. Concord MA?

1. WD-40

4.  Dave Thomas

5 Pandemonium