Totally Random Trivia: 2022

Answers to Monday, June 13, 2022

1. What four-letter arboreal term is also used to describe the dark, crispy outer crust on barbecued ribs?

Bark

2. The person who has been named People magazine’s “Most Beautiful Woman in the World” a record five times shares her last name with the first-ever author inducted into the Romance Writers Hall of Fame. What is that last name?

Roberts
(Julia/Nora)

3. The winner of many of 2009’s “Game of the Year” awards was a “tower defense” game that pitted zombies against what seemingly harmless obstacles?

Plants

4. It’s kind of weird that what city is the southernmost state capital in the continental United States?

Austin
(“Keep Austin Weird” is the city’s unofficial slogan)

5. The gruff but wise Mr. Badger helps Mr. Toad save Toad Hall in what 1908 children’s novel by the British writer Kenneth Grahame?

“The Wind in the Willows”

HockeyBum wrote…

2.  Boysen

Found this interesting

“Boysen worked as Anaheim City Parks superintendent from 1921 to 1950. In 1923, his hybrid grafted successfully and grew to bear fruit. However, unable to make his new berry a commercial success, Boysen abandoned his crop after breaking his back in an accident. In 1927, he took specimens to Coolidge Rare Plant Nursery in Altadena. 3 Years later, a fellow grower named Walter Knott heard about the berry and tracked down Boysen. Knott was able to bring a few dying vines back to life at his farm, now known as Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. He named the fruit after Boysen.“

• This reply was modified 1 week, 6 days ago by Zwak.

Answers to Tuesday, June 14, 2022

1. The Bosporus is also known as the “Strait of Istanbul.” It connects two seas. Name one of them.

The Black Sea, Sea of Marmara

2. If you cross a blackberry, a raspberry, a loganberry, and a dewberry, you get a berry named after the Anaheim parks superintendent who discovered them in 1923. His first name was Rudolph. What was his last name?

Boysen

3. The Roman goddess of wisdom is the counterpart of the Greek goddess Athena, and is commonly pictured with her pet owl. Name that Roman goddess.

Minerva

4. What actor began her career in Broadway productions of “Les Misérables” when she was 8 years old, and later found fame as Rachel Berry on the Fox series “Glee”?

Lea Michele

5. In “The Music Man,” Harold Hill visits a Midwestern state that is so stubborn its residents claim they could “stand touching noses for a week at a time and never see eye-to-eye.” Which state is that?

Iowa
(the song is “Iowa Stubborn”)

Answers to Wednesday, June 15, 2022

1. Major League Baseball ranked a 1992 Penny Marshall film as the second-best baseball movie of all time. It’s getting a reboot as a TV series later this summer. What is it?

“A League of Their Own”

2. When a battery forms that white crusty bit, that means it’s leaking potassium hydroxide, and is probably dead. Potassium hydroxide is non-acidic and therefore lends what eight-letter adjective to most household batteries?

Alkaline

3. Simon’s first name is Paul. What is Garfunkel’s first name?

Art
(or Arthur)

4. Baby bok choy is a smaller version of the Chinese cabbage commonly used in stir fries. It’s also the name of a DJ friend of what SNL “Weekend Update” correspondent?

Stefon

5. What 1986 movie borrowed a rare 1961 Ferrari GT California to film close-up shots, but used a Modena Spyder California for the final shots, because it was too expensive to ruin a Ferrari?

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

Answers to Thursday, June 16, 2022

1. Jay-Z’s problems, divided by Millie Bobby Brown’s breakout role.

9 (99/11)
(“99 Problems,” Eleven from “Stranger Things” – come to “Stranger Things” trivia in July!)

2. The weight of a human soul in grams, according to a 2003 Alejandro González Iñárritu film, divided by the number of laws that appear in Isaac Asimov’s short story “Runaround.”

7 (21/3)
(“21 Grams,” The Three Laws of Robotics)

3. The number of miles in a marathon (rounding down) divided by the number in the only non-sequel Tom Hanks movie with a number in its title to debut at No. 1.

2
(26/13) (26.219 miles, “Apollo 13”)

4. The number of something, maybe a type of lizard, in Laura Les and Dylan Brady’s band name, divided by the number of minutes Madonna and Justin Timberlake have to save the world.

25
(100/4) (100 gecs, “4 Minutes”)

5. The jersey number shared by Magic Johnson, Jim Brown, and Sandy Koufax, divided by the regnal number of the last king of France before the French Revolution.

2
(32/16) (Louis XVI)

MNNavy wrote…

1. Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, ??

 

Djibouti?

davescharf wrote…

4.   Granny Smith?  No clue on the others unless McIntosh is also named after a person

Harrelson?

Questions for Monday, June 20, 2022

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

1. What infectious disease, which was originally confused with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, was first diagnosed in a coastal Connecticut town in 1975?

2. Jekyll or Hyde: Which one was evil?

3. What elementary particle shares its name with a “Star Trek” character, a European dairy product, and a brand of design software, and was originally a nonsense word invented by author James Joyce?

4. “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” is the first line of what farm-based 1952 children’s novel, which got an animated adaptation in 1973 and a live-action one in 2006?

5. The Boeing Stratofortress made its maiden flight in 1952, and remains in active duty to this day. By what alphanumeric designation is the Stratofortress better known?

1.  Lyme disease

Questions for Tuesday, June 21, 2022

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

1. What singer and actor got her big break as a backup dancer for New Kids on the Block in 1991, 11 years before she released a single claiming that she herself is “from the block”?

2. As N.K. Jemisin fans know, what is the geometric name for a three-dimensional ring—the classic donut shape?

3. What six-word greeting is traditionally answered, “And the rest of the day to yourself”?

4. What model of Chevrolet dates back to 1935, making it the granddaddy of SUVs?

5. What team became the first professional sports team ever to be valued over $3 billion, which it did in 2013?

Questions for Wednesday, June 22, 2022

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

1. With her 1993 film “The Piano,” Jane Campion became the first ever Oscar-nominated director from what Southern Hemispheric country?

2. What is the longest and strongest bone in the human body?

3. What rapper and actor, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., had to drop the word “Sense” from his stage name in 1994 after he was sued by a California reggae band with the same name?

4. What aquatic name was given to Chevrolet Corvettes made between 1963 and 1982, as well as a popular model of Schwinn bicycle sold during that exact same period?

5. Whose tomb, according to legend, is inscribed with the words “The once and future king”?

Answers to Wednesday, June 22, 2022

1. With her 1993 film “The Piano,” Jane Campion became the first ever Oscar-nominated director from what Southern Hemispheric country?

New Zealand

2. What’s the longest and strongest bone in the human body?

Femur

3. What rapper and actor, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., had to drop the word “Sense” from his stage name in 1994 after he was sued by a California reggae band with the same name?

Common

4. What aquatic name was given to Chevrolet Corvettes made between 1963 and 1982, as well as a popular model of Schwinn bicycle sold during that exact same period?

Stingray

5. Whose tomb, according to legend, is inscribed with the words “The once and future king”?

King Arthur

3.  30 Rock

Answers to Thursday, June 23, 2022

1. In 2006, what actor became the first Spanish woman to be nominated for an Oscar for her role in the movie “Volver”?

Penélope Cruz

2. Sisters Lyn and Emma Hernandez reunite in L.A. and learn about their recently deceased mother’s life in what recently canceled Starz series, whose title means “life”?

“Vida” (and come to Pride on TV Trivia!)

3. Jack’s girlfriend Elisa can’t get her grandmother to approve of their relationship, because Jack perfectly resembles the evil Generalissimo on her favorite soap opera, “Los Amantes Clandestinos.” On what NBC sitcom did that plotline take place?

“30 Rock”

4. Released in 2001 with the highest-grossing opening in the history of Mexican cinema, what film faced distribution issues in the U.S. due to its explicit depiction of drug use and sexual content?

“Y Tu Mamá También”

5. What CW show, itself adapted from a telenovela, shows the main character’s father as an actor on such telenovelas as “Pasión Intergalactica” and “Tiago a Través del Tiempo”?

“Jane the Virgin”