Totally Random Trivia: 2022

Questions for Monday, June 27, 2022

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

1. The Tyrell Corporation specializes in the production of life-like androids in what 1982 film, as well as its 2017 sequel?

2. “Enlightening the World” is the lesser-known end of the name of what public art piece, which was a reddish color when it was first displayed?

3. What family drama series ran for 10 seasons on the WB and got its title from a religious concept that originated in ancient Mesopotamia around the second millennium BCE?

4. Whether you pronounce it with a hard “G” or a soft “G,” GIFs are a crucial part of the modern internet. What does “GIF” stand for?

5. The Yankees retired number 4 in 1939. It was the first time any team in Major League Baseball retired a number. Whose number was it?

Answers to Monday, June 27, 2022

1. The Tyrell Corporation specializes in the production of life-like androids in what 1982 film, as well as its 2017 sequel?

“Blade Runner”

2. “Enlightening the World” is the lesser-known end of the name of what public art piece, which was a reddish color when it was first displayed?

The Statue of Liberty

3. What family drama series ran for 10 seasons on the WB and got its title from a religious concept that originated in ancient Mesopotamia around the second millennium BCE?

“7th Heaven”

4. Whether you pronounce it with a hard “G” or a soft “G,” GIFs are a crucial part of the modern internet. What does “GIF” stand for?

“Graphics Interchange Format”

5. The Yankees retired number 4 in 1939. It was the first time any team in Major League Baseball retired a number. Whose number was it?

Lou Gehrig

Questions for Wednesday, June 29, 2022

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

1. Math! You have two candles. They are the same length, but the first one takes six hours to burn all the way down, and the second only takes three hours. You light them both at the same time and leave the room. When you come back, you notice that the first candle is exactly twice as long as the second candle. How long were you gone?

2. In the nursery rhymes, whose wife could eat no lean?

3. Which is the only Canadian province that is, in its entirety, unconnected to the North American mainland?

4. The gaming term “survival horror” was coined to describe what 1996 zombie attack video game, which has spawned nearly thirty sequels and remakes, as well as a long-running film franchise?

5. If you’re learning the stories of Grizabella, Bustopher Jones, and Old Deuteronomy, what musical are you watching?

Questions for Theme Thursday, June 30, 2022

On Grass: Wimbledon’s in full swing. Here are five questions about some other folks who also like to, ahem, “play on grass.”

Answers in tomorrow’s email.

1. What now 89-year-old singer was nominated for a Country Music Award in 2012 for the song “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die”?

2. Snoop Dogg also appeared on the song mentioned in question number 1. Fun fact: Cameron Diaz is pretty sure she bought weed from Snoop Dogg in high school. They both grew up in what Greater Los Angeles area city?

3. Which cast member of “The View” co-founded a cannabis brand in 2016 aimed at treating menstrual cramps?

4. At what city’s summer Olympics did Michael Phelps win a record eight gold medals in 2008?

5. The first federal law criminalizing cannabis was passed in 1937. Legislators called the drug “marijuana” as a way to implicate Mexican Americans in its proliferation. They didn’t spell it “marijuana,” though – what now-antiquated spelling did they use?

Answers to Thursday, June 30, 2022

1. What now 89-year-old singer was nominated for a Country Music Award in 2012 for the song “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die”?

Willie Nelson

2. Snoop Dogg also appeared on the song mentioned in question number 1. Fun fact: Cameron Diaz is pretty sure she bought weed from Snoop Dogg in high school. They both grew up in what Greater Los Angeles area city?

Long Beach

3. Which cast member of “The View” co-founded a cannabis brand in 2016 aimed at treating menstrual cramps?

Whoopi Goldberg

4. At what city’s summer Olympics did Michael Phelps win a record eight gold medals in 2008?

Beijing

5. The first federal law criminalizing cannabis was passed in 1937. Legislators called the drug “marijuana” as a way to implicate Mexican Americans in its proliferation. They didn’t spell it “marijuana,” though – what now-antiquated spelling did they use?

“Marihuana”

Questions for Tuesday, July 5, 2022

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

1. Which saint and former right-hand man to Jesus was the first pope?

2. Gloria Foster was a celebrated stage actor who passed away in 2001. Shortly before her death, she achieved worldwide fame for her role as “the Oracle” in what movie?

3. What word is Yiddish for “rendered chicken or goose fat,” and is also used today to describe music or movies that are deemed overly sentimental?

4. The 13th and 16th presidents were both born in log cabins. We know all about the 16th. What is the name of the 13th president—the last of the Whigs, who is primarily remembered for passing the buck on the issue of slavery after the Mexican-American War and inspiring the title of a political comic strip?

5. Is there a place in the Caribbean called “Kokomo”?

Answers to Tuesday, July 5, 2022

1. Which saint and former right-hand man to Jesus was the first pope?

Peter

2. Gloria Foster was a celebrated stage actor who passed away in 2001. Shortly before her death, she achieved worldwide fame for her role as “the Oracle” in what movie?

“The Matrix”

3. What word is Yiddish for “rendered chicken or goose fat,” and is also used today to describe music or movies that are deemed overly sentimental?

Schmaltz

4. The 13th and 16th presidents were both born in log cabins. We know all about the 16th. What is the name of the 13th president—the last of the Whigs, who is primarily remembered for passing the buck on the issue of slavery after the Mexican-American War and inspiring the title of a political comic strip?

Millard Fillmore
(“Mallard Fillmore”)

5. Is there a place in the Caribbean called “Kokomo”?

No
(there is a county in Indiana, though)

3.  Talc

Answers to Wednesday, July 6, 2022

1. What is the U.S.’s largest island by area?

Hawaiʻi
(The Big Island)

2. The Hays Code was implemented in the 1930s to curb so-called profanity in film. It radically changed what cartoon character, who, in pre-Code times, was shown in a short skirt that exposed her garter, dancing topless, and dating a dog named Bimbo?

Betty Boop

3. Hydrated magnesium silicate is the softest known mineral in the world. What is its common four-letter name?

Talc

4. Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes are one of the preeminent bands in the genre of jizz-wail, using instruments such as the kloo horn and fanfar, in what 1970s film?

“Star Wars: A New Hope”

5. Finish this psychoanalytical analogy: Freud is to Oedipus as BLANK is to Elektra.

Jung

Answers to Thursday, July 7, 2022

1. What pigment allows plants to capture light and turn it into energy?

Chlorophyll

2. Butterfly gardens support butterflies and other pollinators by providing the types of plants they need throughout their life cycles. Monarch butterflies will only lay their eggs on what type of perennial flowers?

Milkweed

3. What garden staple comes in such varieties as “Green Zebra,” “Yellow Pear,” “Brandywine” and “Black Krim”?

Tomato

4. About half of the world’s caloric intake comes from just three grains. Name two of them!

Maize/corn, rice, wheat

5. True or false: Mushrooms are plants.

False
(mushrooms, like plants and animals, are their own kingdom)

2.  Quinine

4. Captain Kangaroo

Questions for Monday, July 11, 2022

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

1. What Roman goddess was the subject of Botticelli’s most famous painting, which you might call “That One With the Naked Lady in the Clam Shell”?

2. What sea separates Ireland from Great Britain?

3. On March 22, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act. This act was the first loosening of rules surrounding prohibition and it permitted beer limited to what alcohol content?

4. What genus of conifer was named in 1847, most likely after the Cherokee leader who invented a writing system for the Cherokee language?

5. The Western Hemisphere’s tallest man-made monument is located in the United States. In 2018, it became the U.S.’s smallest National Park. What is it?