Totally Random Trivia: 2022

Questions for Theme Thursday, September 1, 2022

Postal Abbreviations, Out of Context: Every state has a two-letter postal abbreviation. I’ll give you a hint regarding that abbreviation. You name the state, NOT the abbreviation.

Answers in tomorrow’s email.

1. You can call Paul Simon which state?

2. Which state wrote “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,” and created the series “Elephant and Piggie”?

3. Which state was defined by Sigmund Freud as the “dark, inaccessible part of our personality”?

4. What gaseous state’s atomic number is 10?

5. Which state comes before tea—at least according to a Rodgers and Hammerstein song?

Posted by: @zwak

1. Which branch of the U.S. Armed Forces uses more fuel than any other individual part of the federal government?

The Air Force

Interesting. I would have bet with ships operating 24/7, plus nearly as many aircraft as the USAF, that Uncle Sam's Canoe Club would have been #1.

Posted by: @zwak

3. Which state was defined by Sigmund Freud as the “dark, inaccessible part of our personality”?

Idaho

Posted by: @zwak

5. Which state comes before tea—at least according to a Rodgers and Hammerstein song?

Louisiana - actually had to sing through the song a bit.

1 - Alabama (You can call me Al.....) 

4 - Nebraska

2. Missouri

Answers to Thursday, September 1, 2022
1. You can call Paul Simon what state?

Alabama (“You Can Call Me Al”)

2. Which state wrote “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,” and created the series “Elephant and Piggie”?

Missouri (Mo Willems)

3. Which state was defined by Sigmund Freud as the “dark, inaccessible part of our personality”?

Idaho (id)

4. What gaseous state’s atomic number is 10?

Nebraska (Ne = neon)

5. Which state comes before tea—at least according to a Rodgers and Hammerstein song?

Louisiana (“La, a note to follow so; Tea, a drink with jam and bread…”)

Questions for Friday, September 2, 2022

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

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: Paramedics and emergency response teams are trained in the four primary vital signs of the human body. Name as many of those vital signs as you can for one point each. Zero total if you get any wrong.

2. Huckleberry Pie and Blueberry Muffin are two friends of what character, who debuted in a line of greeting cards in the 1970s?

3. Patti Labelle claims that she was totally unaware of the meaning of her hit 1974 song because she does not speak French. What song was that?

4. What was the last name of the woman whose cow was falsely blamed for starting the Great Chicago Fire?

5. Today is September 2. On this day in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt delivered his “Big Stick” speech at the Minnesota State Fair. What office did he hold at the time? (Do you want to go to the State Fair just like TR? Come see us at the Star Tribune booth asking exclusive questions at 1pm every day!)

 

4. What was the last name of the woman whose cow was falsely blamed for starting the Great Chicago Fire?   O’Leary

 

5. Vice Pres

3- Lady Marmalade 

1. Heart rate, Respiration rate, blood pressure, body temperature. 

1. Pulse, respiration, blood pressure, ??

2: Strawberry Shortcake

Posted by: @zwak

Huckleberry Pie

Actual huckleberry pie is the best. 20 years ago when I would go to the cabin you would only find huckleberry jams, pancakes, pie, ice cream and candies in stores or restaurants. Now it's in and on everything you can imagine and it's everywhere.  You can make a small fortune huckleberry picking (beware of bears) and selling in the Flathead Valley.

Posted by: @gator

Posted by: @zwak

Huckleberry Pie

Actual huckleberry pie is the best. 20 years ago when I would go to the cabin you would only find huckleberry jams, pancakes, pie, ice cream and candies in stores or restaurants. Now it's in and on everything you can imagine and it's everywhere.  You can make a small fortune huckleberry picking (beware of bears) and selling in the Flathead Valley.

Huckleberry ice cream from Wilcoxson’s in Billings ain’t bad either!

Posted by: @youngeagle

Posted by: @gator

Posted by: @zwak

Huckleberry Pie

Actual huckleberry pie is the best. 20 years ago when I would go to the cabin you would only find huckleberry jams, pancakes, pie, ice cream and candies in stores or restaurants. Now it's in and on everything you can imagine and it's everywhere.  You can make a small fortune huckleberry picking (beware of bears) and selling in the Flathead Valley.

Huckleberry ice cream from Wilcoxson’s in Billings ain’t bad either!

We had huckleberry ice cream at Glacier NP last month. Seemed like huckleberries were everywhere out there.

Posted by: @norm

We had huckleberry ice cream at Glacier NP last month. Seemed like huckleberries were everywhere out there.

It was a bumper crop this year.

Answers to Friday, September 2, 2022

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: Paramedics and emergency response teams are trained in the four primary vital signs of the human body. Name as many of those vital signs as you can for one point each. Zero total if you get any wrong.

Body temperature, blood pressure, pulse (heart rate), breathing (respiratory rate)

2. Huckleberry Pie and Blueberry Muffin are two friends of what character, who debuted in a line of greeting cards in the 1970s?

Strawberry Shortcake

3. Patti Labelle claims that she was totally unaware of the meaning of her hit 1974 song because she does not speak French. What song was that?

“Lady Marmalade”

4. What was the last name of the woman whose cow was falsely blamed for starting the Great Chicago Fire?

O’Leary

5. Today is September 2. On this day in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt delivered his “Big Stick” speech at the Minnesota State Fair. What office did he hold at the time? (Do you want to go to the State Fair just like TR? Come see us at the Star Tribune booth asking exclusive questions at 1pm every day!)

Vice President (under William McKinley)

Questions for Monday, September 5, 2022

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

1. What office supply company added a bright red stapler to its catalog in the early 2000s in response to demand from fans of the movie “Office Space”?

2. There are three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls. Name one of them!

3. Mobile, Alabama novelist Winston Groom is best known for a 1986 novel. He imagined John Goodman playing the title character if the book ever became a movie—which it did in 1994, though with a smaller leading actor. Name that novel/movie.

4. There is a hotel chain and a Nissan vehicle whose names are anagrams of each other. Name both the hotel and the vehicle.

5. The planet orbited by the Galilean moons—so called because Galileo first observed them via telescope—also has the fastest rotation, and therefore shortest days, of any planet in the Solar System. Which planet is that?

1: Swingline  (edit:  stinking phone)

2:  Horseshoe, Bridal Veil, American

4. Ramada, Armada

5. Jupiter 

3.  Forrest Gump

Answers to Monday, September 5, 2022

1. What office supply company added a bright red stapler to its catalog in the early 2000s in response to demand from fans of the movie “Office Space”?

Swingline

2. There are three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls. Name one of them!

American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Horseshoe (or Canadian) Falls

3. Mobile, Alabama novelist Winston Groom is best known for a 1986 novel. He imagined John Goodman playing the title character if the book ever became a movie—which it did in 1994, though with a smaller leading actor. Name that novel/movie.

“Forrest Gump”

4. There is a hotel chain and a Nissan vehicle whose names are anagrams of each other. Name both the hotel and the vehicle.

Ramada, Armada

5. The planet orbited by the Galilean moons—so called because Galileo first observed them via telescope—also has the fastest rotation, and therefore shortest days, of any planet in the Solar System. Which planet is that?

Jupiter

Questions for Tuesday, September 6, 2022

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

1. Math! A swimming pool takes three hours to fill with water. The same pool takes five hours to drain. If the drain was accidentally left open while the pool was filled, how long would the pool take to fill?

2. The cultivar also known as a “butter bean” was first developed 6,000 years ago high in the Andes mountains. Name that bean.

3. What nine-letter word did L. Ron Hubbard define as “the modern science of mental health” in a 1950 book?

4. What famously large animal, born on Christmas Day in 1861 in Sudan, now lends his name to Tufts University’s sports teams, among other big things?

5. What 1986 movie, which won the Oscar for “Best Makeup,” would be called Musca domestica in Latin?

3.  Dianetics 

2 - Lima Bean (?)

1 Seven and a half

4 Jumbo

1. In this scenario if you start to add water to a full pool at the same time the drain was left open would it not only not drain at all, but in fact start to overfill since it can be filled at a rate faster than it can be drained?  It would lose 20% of the pool per hour but 33% of the pool can be filled in that same hour?  I would think the trickier question is how long would it take to fill starting from empty which would be a roughly a 13% gain per hour or 7.7 hours. 

Maybe my mind is mush this morning. 

5. The Fly

Posted by: @slap-shot

1. In this scenario if you start to add water to a full pool at the same time the drain was left open would it not only not drain at all, but in fact start to overfill since it can be filled at a rate faster than it can be drained?  It would lose 20% of the pool per hour but 33% of the pool can be filled in that same hour?  I would think the trickier question is how long would it take to fill starting from empty which would be a roughly a 13% gain per hour or 7.7 hours. 

Maybe my mind is mush this morning. 

Hmmm... I think you might be right here.

Answers to Tuesday, September 6, 2022

1. Math! A swimming pool takes three hours to fill with water. The same pool takes five hours to drain. If the drain was accidentally left open while the pool was filled, how long would the pool take to fill?

7.5 hours

2. The cultivar also known as a “butter bean” was first developed 6,000 years ago high in the Andes mountains. Name that bean.

Lima bean
(named after Lima, Peru)

3. What nine-letter word did L. Ron Hubbard define as “the modern science of mental health” in a 1950 book?

Dianetics

4. What famously large animal, born on Christmas Day in 1861 in Sudan, now lends his name to Tufts University’s sports teams, among other big things?

Jumbo the Elephant

5. What 1986 movie, which won the Oscar for “Best Makeup,” would be called Musca domestica in Latin?

“The Fly”

Questions for Wednesday, September 7, 2022

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

1. What European city is known by the nicknames “Queen of the Adriatic” and the “Floating City”?

2. Tim Burton directed two feature films before he was hired to direct “Batman” in 1989. Name one of those two movies.

3. What famous sculpture was originally called “The Poet,” and portrayed Italian poet Dante in front of the Gates of Hell?

4. Cajun people get their name from the French colony where they originated, before being exiled to Louisiana. Name that colony, which covered much of eastern Canada as well as parts of Maine.

5. There are two battery companies that currently use a pink bunny as their mascot. Which of those batteries created their bunny mascot first, debuting it way back in 1973?

4 Acadia

3. The Thinker

2.  Pee Wees Big Adventure 

Venice

Posted by: @zwak

2.  Pee Wees Big Adventure 

The other I think is Beetlejuice

1.  Venice

5. Duracell

Answers to Wednesday, September 7, 2022

1. What European city is known by the nicknames “Queen of the Adriatic” and the “Floating City”?

Venice

2. Tim Burton directed two feature films before he was hired to direct “Batman” in 1989. Name one of those two movies.

“Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure,” “Beetlejuice”

3. What famous sculpture was originally called “The Poet,” and portrayed Italian poet Dante in front of the Gates of Hell?

“The Thinker”

4. Cajun people get their name from the French colony where they originated, before being exiled to Louisiana. Name that colony, which covered much of eastern Canada as well as parts of Maine.

Acadia

5. There are two battery companies that currently use a pink bunny as their mascot. Which of those batteries created their bunny mascot first, debuting it way back in 1973?

Duracell
(the Energizer bunny is a parody of the Duracell bunny and was introduced in 1988)

Questions for Theme Thursday, September 8, 2022

Famous Namesakes: Five questions about famous people named after other famous people.

Answers in tomorrow’s email.

1. A woman named Irmelin says that the first time her baby kicked, she was looking at a famous painting in a museum in Florence, Italy. That was in 1974. What did she name the baby?

2. What Civil War general got his middle name from a Shawnee leader whom his father admired?

3. In what film does the protagonist say that she and her best friend get along because they were “named after great singers of the past who now do infomercials”?

4. A baby born in 1992 in Texas was named after a mononymous singer who would die in that state three years later. They are both successful musicians, who share what first name?

5. The most-followed person on Instagram is a soccer player who was named after a U.S. president. Name that president!

1 - Leonardo DiCaprio (??)  

2 - Gen William Tedumseh Sherman

3. Clueless 

4. Selena

5. Ronald Reagan

Answers to Thursday, September 8, 2022

1. A woman named Irmelin says that the first time her baby kicked, she was looking at a famous painting in a museum in Florence, Italy. That was in 1974. What did she name the baby?

Leonardo
(DiCaprio is named after da Vinci)

2. What Civil War general got his middle name from a Shawnee leader whom his father admired?

William Tecumseh Sherman

3. In what film does the protagonist say that she and her best friend get along because they were “named after great singers of the past who now do infomercials”?

“Clueless”
(Cher and Dionne)

4. A baby born in 1992 in Texas was named after a mononymous singer who would die in that state three years later. They are both successful musicians, who share what first name?

Selena
(Quintanilla and Gomez)

5. The most-followed person on Instagram is a soccer player who was named after a U.S. president. Name that president!

Ronald Reagan
(Cristiano Ronaldo—full name Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro)

Questions for Friday, September 9, 2022

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

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: There are five African countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. Name as many of them as you can for one point each. Zero points total if you get any wrong.

2. What do the names Anna, Bill, Clarabella, Eleanor, Martha, Michelle, Pam, and Rita all have in common?

3. News flash: What nine-letter word is the opposite of menarche?

4. What element—atomic number 78—gets its name from the Spanish for “little silver”?

5. Today is September 9. Happy 37th birthday to the former shooting guard who was called the most heavily tattooed player in the NBA in 2012 by the New York Times. The league forced him to cover up a Supreme tattoo while playing due to their advertising regulations. Name that player!

1 Egypt, Lybia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco

3. Menopause

2 - Beatles songs ??

(Lovely Rita just came up in a playlist I'm listening to then Michelle & Eleanor jumped out at me)