Totally Random Trivia: 2022

Answers to Monday, March 6, 2023
1. Which country, worldwide, is home to the largest number of redheads?

The United States

2. The first animated film to receive an X rating is also the highest-grossing independent animated film of all time. It came out in 1972 and was based on a cat drawn by Robert Crumb. Name that cat.

Fritz the Cat

3. “The Book of Changes” is the English name for what Chinese divination text, which converts random numbers into meaning using hexagrams?

“I Ching”

4. What time signature—or how many beats per measure—is typically used in polka music: 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4?

2/4

5. What 1970s-era car’s name is in the dictionary as “a small gnome responsible for equipment malfunction,” while AMC’s marketing defined it as “a pal to its friends and an ogre to its enemies”?

Gremlin

Questions for
Tuesday, March 7, 2023

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

1. What basic cable channel didn’t air an original sitcom until 2010, when it debuted “Hot in Cleveland”?

2. Queen Elizabeth I saw her closest rival to the throne beheaded in 1587. This beheadee was the only surviving child of King James V, and she was also Elizabeth’s cousin. Name her.

3. What anesthesia medication is nicknamed as “Special K” when it is used recreationally?

4. In 1951, during the first nationally televised baseball game, New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson hit a game-winning three-run home run to win the National League pennant. It is known in baseball lore as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” The losing team that day were the Giants’ cross-town rivals. Name that team.

5. According to formal table-setting rules, on which side of the plate is the entrée fork supposed to be placed for a right-handed diner?

2 Mary Queen of Scots

3.  Ketamine

4. Brooklyn Dodgers 

4.  Dem Bums (Brooklyn Dodgers)

5) left side nearest the plate

If you want to get all fancy smanacy it goes outside in…fish fork, salad fork, dinner/entree fork.  Dessert fork goes at the top of the plate.  I worked tabletop at JBHudson Jewelers for more than 10 years.  Innumerable brides hands were held as they pondered silverware.  

I can set a ?table with my eyes closed! 

@kelly-red 

I learned all this in a required class/course my freshmen year college... lol!!!  It was a trail class/course that the college powers to be thought would be good.  They taught all this stuff like being proper, courteous, manors, socially and so on. You would've thought it was the 50's, not 1994. It turned out to be a major fail on the college side. So to make it up, the college credited us 1 credit our Sr. year if we graduated.   

1. TV Land

Posted by: @gator

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@kelly-red 

I learned all this in a required class/course my freshmen year college... lol!!!  It was a trail class/course that the college powers to be thought would be good.  They taught all this stuff like being proper, courteous, manors, socially and so on. You would've thought it was the 50's, not 1994. It turned out to be a major fail on the college side. So to make it up, the college credited us 1 credit our Sr. year if we graduated.   

?you laugh but more people need a course in basic social skills.  My husband was an attorney at a big Mpls firm.  He noted new “baby lawyers” would accompany him to dinners or lunch with clients who then proceeded to: wipe their mouths with the back of their hands, talk with their mouth full ?, grip their fork in a fist like a toddler, etc.  He was appalled and embarrassed by a surprising number of them.  He said they didn’t have any idea how to eat at a nice restaurant or even at a table!  People think it doesn’t matter, but their careers were being judged.  Junior Associates who behave like pigs don’t get asked to stay.  

Posted by: @kelly-red

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Posted by: @gator

↑

@kelly-red 

I learned all this in a required class/course my freshmen year college... lol!!!  It was a trail class/course that the college powers to be thought would be good.  They taught all this stuff like being proper, courteous, manors, socially and so on. You would've thought it was the 50's, not 1994. It turned out to be a major fail on the college side. So to make it up, the college credited us 1 credit our Sr. year if we graduated.   

?you laugh but more people need a course in basic social skills.  My husband was an attorney at a big Mpls firm.  He noted new “baby lawyers” would accompany him to dinners or lunch with clients who then proceeded to: wipe their mouths with the back of their hands, talk with their mouth full ?, grip their fork in a fist like a toddler, etc.  He was appalled and embarrassed by a surprising number of them.  He said they didn’t have any idea how to eat at a nice restaurant or even at a table!  People think it doesn’t matter, but their careers were being judged.  Junior Associates who behave like pigs don’t get asked to stay.  

 

I'm surprised that more colleges/universities don't require a class like this for graduation.  It was required at Mankato State when I graduated.

Posted by: @kelly-red

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5) left side nearest the plate

If you want to get all fancy smanacy it goes outside in…fish fork, salad fork, dinner/entree fork.  Dessert fork goes at the top of the plate.  I worked tabletop at JBHudson Jewelers for more than 10 years.  Innumerable brides hands were held as they pondered silverware.  

I can set a ?table with my eyes closed! 

I knew about the outside in, and there was something about how you placed your utensil on the plate to notify the server that you were actually finished, instead of just setting it down before you started eating again, IIRC. 

Fork crossed over knife with tines down if i recall

Posted by: @chill-kessel

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Fork crossed over knife with tines down if i recall

That sounds right. And once you pick up your utensil, it never touches the tablecloth again? Just the plate, it's just placement?

I give my word I'm not looking this up, I did learn all this once, but have long forgotten the details. 

Posted by: @chill-kessel

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Fork crossed over knife with tines down if i recall

Crossed means you are still eating.  Finished you place knife and fork side by side along upper edge of plate, handles at 4 o’ clock, tines/blade at 12.  Tines down in both cases.

*Tines down is a holdover from European style of always holding your fork in your left hand tines down as you eat.  They don’t switch the fork to their right hand like we do.  My French grandmother beat that little habit into me.  Honestly it’s an easier way to eat.

My fork stays in my left as well. My grandmother (mom’s mom) always joked that I “ate like a German.”

Answers to Tuesday, March 7, 2023
1. What basic cable channel didn’t air an original sitcom until 2010, when it debuted “Hot in Cleveland”?

TV Land

2. Queen Elizabeth I saw her closest rival to the throne beheaded in 1587. This beheadee was the only surviving child of King James V, and she was also Elizabeth’s cousin. Name her.

Mary, Queen of Scots
(or Mary Stuart, or Mary I)

3. What anesthesia medication is nicknamed as “Special K” when it is used recreationally?

Ketamine

4. In 1951, during the first nationally televised baseball game, New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson hit a game-winning three-run home run to win the National League pennant. It is known in baseball lore as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” The losing team that day were the Giants’ cross-town rivals. Name that team.

Brooklyn Dodgers

5. According to formal table-setting rules, on which side of the plate is the entrée fork supposed to be placed for a right-handed diner?

Left
(for a left-handed diner, the fork should be on the right)

Questions for
Wednesday, March 8, 2023

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

1. The Razzie Awards are the bizarro Oscars. They used to present an award for the “Worst Original Song from a Movie,” and the last song to win that award was “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” by Britney Spears. It appeared on the soundtrack of what 2002 Shonda Rhimes movie?

2. The Balearics are an archipelago located off the coast of Spain. Its four largest islands are Mallorca, Menorca, Formentera, and what other island—famous for its EDM scene?

3. The 1964 film “My Fair Lady” is based on a George Bernard Shaw play. This play shares its name with a sculptor from Greek myth who falls in love with his statue. Name that sculptor!

4. In text-speak, what does “IIRC” stand for?

5. Mother Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016. She’s now known as “Saint Teresa of BLANK.” What Indian city of 5 million people, located just west of the Bangladeshi border, fills that blank?

4. If I Recall (or Remember) Correctly

5. Avila

1. Crossroads

2. Ibiza

5:  Calcutta

3) Pygmalion

Going back to etiquette, here’s a couple things I’ve learned/read along the way.

1.  If you need to remove any food from your mouth for whatever reason (piece of bone, shell, etc) you take it out how you put it in.  If eating a chicken wing by hand and you need to take out a small bone, you use your hand.  If you’re eating a piece of cherry pie with a fork and you find a pit, you take it out with your fork.

2.  Adding ‘-ish’ to a time means up to twenty minutes on either side of that time.  If you say you will arrive at 7:00-ish that means 6:40 - 7:20.

Posted by: @zwak

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 If you’re eating a piece of cherry pie with a fork and you find a pit, you take it out with your fork.

If I use a fork to take a cherry pit out of my mouth, there's a 100% chance it'll end up on my shirt.  

Posted by: @don-adams-wheel-of-justice

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Posted by: @zwak

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 If you’re eating a piece of cherry pie with a fork and you find a pit, you take it out with your fork.

If I use a fork to take a cherry pit out of my mouth, there's a 100% chance it'll end up on my shirt.  

Posted by: @zwak

↑

Going back to etiquette, here’s a couple things I’ve learned/read along the way.

 

1.  If you need to remove any food from your mouth for whatever reason (piece of bone, shell, etc) you take it out how you put it in.  If eating a chicken wing by hand and you need to take out a small bone, you use your hand.  If you’re eating a piece of cherry pie with a fork and you find a pit, you take it out with your fork.

 

I use a napkin to "wipe my mouth." 

Answers to Wednesday, March 8, 2023
1. The Razzie Awards are the bizarro Oscars. They used to present an award for the “Worst Original Song from a Movie,” and the last song to win that award was “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” by Britney Spears. It appeared on the soundtrack of what 2002 Shonda Rhimes movie?

“Crossroads”

2. The Balearics are an archipelago located off the coast of Spain. Its four largest islands are Mallorca, Menorca, Formentera, and what other island—famous for its EDM scene?

Ibiza

3. The 1964 film “My Fair Lady” is based on a George Bernard Shaw play. This play shares its name with a sculptor from Greek myth who falls in love with his statue. Name that sculptor!

Pygmalion

4. In text-speak, what does “IIRC” stand for?

“If I Remember (or Recall) Correctly”

5. Mother Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016. She’s now known as “Saint Teresa of BLANK.” What Indian city of 5 million people, located just west of the Bangladeshi border, fills that blank?

Calcutta (or Kolkata)

Questions for
Theme Thursday, March 9, 2023

75 and Counting: Happy birthday to my dad, who is turning 75 today and is a dedicated reader of the Morning Rounds! Love you, Dad – Editor Ruby

Answers in tomorrow’s email.

1. A French 75 is made with gin, lemon juice, sugar, and what effervescent ingredient?

2. Edwin Lowe came across a game of chance called “Beano” at a traveling carnival in 1920s Georgia, where a caller drew beans. Today, that game uses 75 balls, rather than beans, and goes by what name?

3. Aside from prisms and antiprisms, there are 75 possible uniform polyhedra in three-dimensional space. One of them is the half-cube, or tetrahedron. D&D players might know a half-cube has how many sides?

4. In most Western systems, the 75th anniversary is celebrated with what precious material?

5. The 1975 World Series is widely considered to be one of the best series in MLB history. Both teams in that series had what word in their team names?

3 - Four

4 - Diamond

2. Bingo

5. Red (Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds)

1) champagne or cava, a sparkling wine

Answers to Thursday, March 9, 2023
75 and Counting: Happy birthday to my dad, who is turning 75 today and is a dedicated reader of the Morning Rounds! Love you, Dad – Editor Ruby

1. A French 75 is made with gin, lemon juice, sugar, and what effervescent ingredient?

Champagne

2. Edwin Lowe came across a game of chance called “Beano” at a traveling carnival in 1920s Georgia, where a caller drew beans. Today, that game uses 75 balls, rather than beans, and goes by what name?

Bingo

3. Aside from prisms and antiprisms, there are 75 possible uniform polyhedra in three-dimensional space. One of them is the half-cube, or tetrahedron. D&D players might know a half-cube has how many sides?

Four

4. In most Western systems, the 75th anniversary is celebrated with what precious material?

Diamonds (or gold)

5. The 1975 World Series is widely considered to be one of the best series in MLB history. Both teams in that series had what word in their team names?

Red
(The Cincinnati Reds, the Boston Red Sox)

Questions for
Friday, March 10, 2023

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

1. Quit While You’re Ahead: The New York metropolitan area is home to five major daily newspapers (circulation over 50,000). Name as many of them as you can for one point each. Zero total if you get any wrong.

2. According to the rules of Monopoly, how much money does each player start with?

3. What island was beset by three decades of sectarian violence in the latter half of the 20th century, collectively known as “The Troubles”?

4. The German word for “fright” is, coincidentally, also the last name of the actor who played Nosferatu in 1922. Drop a “c” and it is the last name of Christopher Walken’s character in “Batman Returns.” Drop another “c” and it’s the name of a children’s book character invented in 1990, who became a movie character in 2001. What is that German word?

5. Today is March 10. Happy 40th birthday to the author of “Redefining Realness” and executive producer of the TV series “Pose.” Who is she?

2. $1500 

3.  Ireland 

4. Schreck 

1. New York Times, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, ??, ??

1. Daily News

5) oh snap, that would be Janet Monk 

1. Newark Star Ledger ??

1. Newsday

Answers to Friday, March 10, 2023
1. Quit While You’re Ahead: The New York metropolitan area is home to five major daily newspapers (circulation over 50,000). Name as many of them as you can for one point each. Zero total if you get any wrong.

Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Post, Newsday, New York Daily News

2. According to the rules of Monopoly, how much money does each player start with?

$1,500

3. What island was beset by three decades of sectarian violence in the latter half of the 20th century, collectively known as “The Troubles”?

Ireland

4. The German word for “fright” is, coincidentally, also the last name of the actor who played Nosferatu in 1922. Drop a “c” and it is the last name of Christopher Walken’s character in “Batman Returns.” Drop another “c” and it’s the name of a children’s book character invented in 1990, who became a movie character in 2001. What is that German word?

Schreck
(“Max Schreck” is the actor; “Max Shreck” is the Batman villain)

5. Today is March 10. Happy 40th birthday to the author of “Redefining Realness” and executive producer of the TV series “Pose.” Who is she?

Janet Mock

Questions for
Monday, March 13, 2023
Five questions to wake up your noodle. Answers in tomorrow’s email.

1. The furthest distance on Earth between two cities that are capitals of countries that share a land border is about 4,000 miles. Name one of those two capital cities.

2. What family of vegetables gets its name from the Latin for “cross-bearing,” which is a nod to the shape of their flowers?

3. “White Coat Syndrome” is the informal name for a real medical condition in which a person’s blood pressure rises whenever they do… what?

4. From the Civil War through World War II, U.S. soldiers often slept in what kind of shelter, which got its nickname from the fact that it looked like a dog kennel?

5. Fans of nursery rhymes may know that an ottoman or sitting stool with no visible feet or legs is known by what six-letter name?

1.  Moscow & Pyongyang  ??

3) See a Dr.

5.  Tuffet

2: Cruciferous

4: Pup Tent

Answers to Monday, March 13, 2023
1. The furthest distance on Earth between two cities that are capitals of countries that share a land border is about 4,000 miles. Name one of those two capital cities.

Moscow, Pyongyang

2. What family of vegetables gets its name from the Latin for “cross-bearing,” which is a nod to the shape of their flowers?

Cruciferous (or brassica)

3. “White Coat Syndrome” is the informal name for a real medical condition in which a person’s blood pressure rises whenever they do… what?

Visit the doctor

4. From the Civil War through World War II, U.S. soldiers often slept in what kind of shelter, which got its nickname from the fact that it looked like a dog kennel?

Pup tent

5. Fans of nursery rhymes may know that an ottoman or sitting stool with no visible feet or legs is known by what six-letter name?

Tuffet (from “Little Miss Muffet”)

Questions for
Tuesday, March 14, 2023

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

1. The modern use of “happy hour” to describe a scheduled period of revelry derives from which branch of the U.S. military, as dramatized in such films as “On the Town” and “Hail, Caesar!”?

2. Which African country—whose largest ethnic groups are the Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba—is home to the continent’s largest economy?

3. In which part of your body can you find three bones known as the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrups?

4. The website Ask.com was founded in 1996 under what longer name? It returned to its roots as a question-and-answer site in 2010 after a decade in the search engine game.

5. Who was the youngest U.S. president ever sworn into office?

3.  Ear

5. John Kennedy