Totally Random Trivia: 2022

1. George Romero

4: Birds

5:  Wicked Witch of the West

Posted by: @steve-mn

4: Birds

5:  Wicked Witch of the West

Glamorous Gale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch.  Then it was decided the Witch needed to be ugly and she didn’t want to play the role.  Margaret Hamilton was then hired.

Intersting fact: almost every main actor on screen in The Wizard of Oz was a second or third choice.

Dorothy…Shirley Temple (her studio wouldn’t  loan her out) then Deeana Durban (too old)

Tin Man…Ray Bolger (lobbied for role of Scarecrow), Buddy Ebson (severe reaction to original make up)

The Wizard…WC Fields (he was deemed too difficult to work with)

Wicked Witch…Gale Sondergaard (see above)

Posted by: @kelly-red

WC Fields (he was deemed too difficult to work with)

?

2 - Ross Perot

4. Hemoglobin

1.Cabaret, Chicago

1. Casablanca, Crash

3. "Angie"

Last years winner CODA.  Cimmaron and Cavalcade. Crash, Casablanca and Chicago already mentioned. 

Posted by: @kelly-red

Last years winner CODA.  Cimmaron and Cavalcade. Crash, Casablanca and Chicago already mentioned. 

Cool. ? ?

Posted by: @greyeagle

Posted by: @kelly-red

Last years winner CODA.  Cimmaron and Cavalcade. Crash, Casablanca and Chicago already mentioned. 

Cool. ? ?

I first put Chariots of Fire and then had to reread the question.  One word.

I’m back!  Thanks for GE for filling in for me while we were in Amsterdam.

Answers to Friday, October 28, 2022

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: There have been six movies with one-word titles beginning with the letter “C” that have won the Academy Award for “Best Picture.” Name as many of them as you can for one point each. Zero points total if you get any wrong!

“CODA,” “Crash,” “Chicago,” “Casablanca,” “Cavalcade,” “Cimarron”

2. Jesse Ventura’s 1998 gubernatorial win is the biggest success to date for the Reform Party, which was founded in 1995 by what businessman and political candidate?

Ross Perot

3. What 1973 Rolling Stones hit song was used as a campaign song in Germany in 2005?

“Angie”
(for Angela Merkel)

4. In medicine, the abbreviation “Hb” stands for what oxygen-transporting protein?

Hemoglobin

5. Today is October 27th. Happy World Immigration Day! Which country has a higher proportion of residents born in another country: Canada, or the United States?

Canada
(about 22% vs about 13%)

Questions for
Monday, October 31, 2022

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

1. There are nine villages and hamlets in the eastern tip of Long Island, including Montauk, Sag Harbor, Amagansett, and Sagaponack, that are collectively known as the… what?

2. What six-word phrase was popularized in an 1865 poem, and is followed by “… is the hand that rules the world”?

3. Assuming X goes first, what is the maximum number of Xs you can place in a tic-tac-toe game without winning?

4. What is the nickname for a seven-ounce bottle of beer? Some people incorrectly assume it’s a reference to the logo of Rolling Rock beer, which used to be sold in bottles of that size.

5. Treacle is a syrup made during the refining of sugar, and is a common ingredient in British desserts. What do we call “black treacle” in the United States?

2. The hand that rocks the cradle

3. Five

5 Molasses

Posted by: @zwak

I’m back!  Thanks for GE for filling in for me while we were in Amsterdam.

You're back.....Our long national nightmare is over!

1. The Hamptons? 4. Pony

Answers to Monday, October 31, 2022

1. There are nine villages and hamlets in the eastern tip of Long Island, including Montauk, Sag Harbor, Amagansett, and Sagaponack, that are collectively known as the… what?

Hamptons

2. What six-word phrase was popularized in an 1865 poem, and is followed by “… is the hand that rules the world”?

“The hand that rocks the cradle”

3. Assuming X goes first, what is the maximum number of Xs you can place in a tic-tac-toe game without winning?

5

4. What is the nickname for a seven-ounce bottle of beer? Some people incorrectly assume it’s a reference to the logo of Rolling Rock beer, which used to be sold in bottles of that size.

Pony
(the Rolling Rock logo is a horse)

5. Treacle is a syrup made during the refining of sugar, and is a common ingredient in British desserts. What do we call “black treacle” in the United States?

Molasses

Questions for
Tuesday, November 1, 2022

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

1. Only one person has won Academy Awards for both acting and screenwriting. She won “Best Actress” for “Howards End,” and “Best Adapted Screenplay” for “Sense and Sensibility” in which she also stars. Who is she?

2. What former NFL coach agreed to endorse a new football simulation game in 1984, but refused to put his name on it until the developers found a way to program full 11-man teams, a task that took another three years?

3. The Maastricht Treaty, named for the Dutch city where it was originally signed, took effect this week in 1993. What organization did that treaty establish?

4. John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke, is the full name of an Edgar Rice Burroughs character who is better known by what name?

5. According to the opening narration of a 1998 movie, who was “quite possibly the laziest man in Los Angeles County”? You can give the handle his parents gave him, or what he called himself.

2. John Madden

4. Tarzan

3 - The European Union

5 - Jeff Lebowski.  The Dude abides.

1. Emma Thompson

Answers to Tuesday, November 1, 2022
1. Only one person has won Academy Awards for both acting and screenwriting. She won “Best Actress” for “Howards End,” and “Best Adapted Screenplay” for “Sense and Sensibility,” in which she also stars. Who is she?

Emma Thompson

2. What former NFL coach agreed to endorse a new football simulation game in 1984, but refused to put his name on it until the developers found a way to program full 11-man teams, a task that took another three years?

John Madden

3. The Maastricht Treaty, named for the Dutch city where it was originally signed, took effect this week in 1993. What organization did that treaty establish?

The European Union

4. John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke, is the full name of an Edgar Rice Burroughs character who is better known by what name?

Tarzan

5. According to the opening narration of a 1998 movie, who was “quite possibly the laziest man in Los Angeles County”? You can give the handle his parents gave him, or what he called himself.

Jeffrey Lebowski/The Dude

Questions for
Wednesday, November 2, 2022

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

1. What Disney movie was called “The Concert Feature” in its earliest animation phases?

2. The mathematician who famously took two circles and, in his words, made them “include or exclude or intersect one another” had what last name?

3. Sylvester Stallone hired the band Survivor to write the song “Eye of the Tiger” for “Rocky III” after he tried and failed to acquire the rights to what Queen song? Hint: It’s one of the few Queen songs that was written by the band’s bass player, John Deacon.

4. The oldest city on the Korean peninsula was founded in 1122 BCE. Today it’s home to 3 million people, and its name means “flat land.” Name that city.

5. Following her death in 2005, what civil rights icon became the first woman ever to lie in honor in the rotunda of the United States Capitol?

2. Must be Venn

1. Fantasia?

2. Venn

5 - Rosa Parks

Had to look up the spelling...

4) P'yŏngyang

3. “Another One Bites the Dust.”

Posted by: @mnnavy

1. Fantasia?

2. Venn

It has to be Fantasia.

Answers to Wednesday, November 2, 2022
1. What Disney movie was called “The Concert Feature” in its earliest animation phases?

“Fantasia”

2. The mathematician who famously took two circles and, in his words, made them “include or exclude or intersect one another” had what last name?

Venn
(created the Venn Diagram)

3. Sylvester Stallone hired the band Survivor to write the song “Eye of the Tiger” for “Rocky III” after he tried and failed to acquire the rights to what Queen song? Hint: It’s one of the few Queen songs that was written by the band’s bass player, John Deacon.

“Another One Bites the Dust”

4. The oldest city on the Korean peninsula was founded in 1122 BCE. Today it’s home to 3 million people, and its name means “flat land.” Name that city.

Pyongyang

5. Following her death in 2005, what civil rights icon became the first woman ever to lie in honor in the rotunda of the United States Capitol?

Rosa Parks

Questions for
Theme Thursday, November 3, 2022

License To “Ill”: All answers this round will contain the letters “I-L-L” in a row.

Answers in tomorrow’s email.

1. Shania Twain’s “Come On Over” is the highest selling album by a solo female artist in history. It came out in 1997. The second-highest selling album by a solo female artist came out two years earlier. What was it called?

2. Sancho Panza is the squire to a delusional knight who thinks that what common countryside objects are actually ferocious giants?

3. Gatorade was created in 1965 by a team of scientists at the fourth-largest U.S. state university by enrollment, which can be found in what southeastern city?

4. What organ, which you don’t have, is composed of comb-like filaments called “lamellae”?

5. "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'" is the second track off what 2005 concept album, theoretically the second in a 50-part series?

3. Charlottesville?

2. Windmills

3. Gainesville 

1.  Jagged Little Pill

(note:  I had always heard that JLP was the highest selling album by a female and Come On Over was the highest selling country album and 2nd highest by a female)

4. Gill

Answers to Thursday, November 3, 2022
1. Shania Twain’s “Come On Over” is the highest selling album by a solo female artist in history. It came out in 1997. The second-highest selling album by a solo female artist came out two years earlier. What was it called?

“Jagged Little Pill”
(Alanis Morissette)

2. Sancho Panza is the squire to a delusional knight who thinks that what common countryside objects are actually ferocious giants?

Windmills
(“Don Quixote”)

3. Gatorade was created in 1965 by a team of scientists at the fourth-largest U.S. state university by enrollment, which can be found in what southeastern city?

Gainesville, Florida
(The University of Florida’s mascot is the Gators)

4. What organ, which you don’t have, is composed of comb-like filaments called “lamellae”?

Gills

5. "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'" is the second track off what 2005 concept album, theoretically the second in a 50-part series?

“Illinois”
(or “Sufjan Stevens Invites You to: Come on Feel the Illinoise”)

Questions for
Friday, November 4, 2022

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

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: Shaquille O’Neal played for six NBA teams during his professional playing career, which spanned from 1992-2011. Name as many of those six teams as you can for one point each. Zero points total if any are incorrect.

2. What Renaissance political philosopher wrote, “It is far safer to be feared than loved”?

3. Cottonmouth snakes are known by many alternate names. Which of those names contains a word from the Powhatan language?

4. In each of the computing acronyms HDMI, MIDI, DVI, and API, the final “I” stands for what word?

5. Today is November 4. Barack Obama was elected president on this day in 2008. John McCain came in second. Who came in third, with 0.56 percent of the popular vote?

• 2 Machiavelli
• 4 Interface 

1 - Magic, Lakers, Heat, 

Posted by: @greyeagle

1 - Magic, Lakers, Heat, 

I think he also played for Celtics, Cavs, and Suns.

3. Water Moccasin

5. Ralph Nader

Answers to Friday, November 4, 2022
1. Quit While You’re Ahead: Shaquille O’Neal played for six NBA teams during his professional playing career, which spanned from 1992-2011. Name as many of those six teams as you can for one point each. Zero points total if any are incorrect.

Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics

2. What Renaissance political philosopher wrote, “It is far safer to be feared than loved”?

(Niccolò) Machiavelli

3. Cottonmouth snakes are known by many alternate names. Which of those names contains a word from the Powhatan language?

(Water/Black/Swamp) Moccasin

4. In each of the computing acronyms HDMI, MIDI, DVI, and API, the final “I” stands for what word?

Interface

5. Today is November 4. Barack Obama was elected president on this day in 2008. John McCain came in second. Who came in third, with 0.56 percent of the popular vote?

Ralph Nader

Questions for
Monday, November 7, 2022

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

1. What five-letter honorary title means “head” or “president” in Turkish, and was given to high-ranking rulers and dignitaries throughout the Ottoman Empire, similar to British knighthood?

2. Tatum O’Neal, the youngest person ever to win a competitive Oscar, won it for her 1973 performance in what film?

3. A baby named Rerun Van Pelt was added to one of America’s most popular comic strips in 1973. What are his two older siblings’ names?

4. What field of mathematics studies the relationships between the side lengths and angles of triangles?

5. In which province or territory will you find the westernmost point in Canada, along its border with the U.S.?

3 - Linus & Lucy

5. The Yukon