Saturday, November 3, 2007

Tickle Your Trivia

I've mentioned before that Bee is a fount of amazing facts and trivia, so last night I quizzed her randomly. Here are the results. See how many of these you know the answers to.

1. Of the seven continents, which has the greatest number of independent countries?

2. Name the only two field goal kickers in NFL history to kick the longest field goals. Bonus question: How far did they kick the ball? Bonus question, too: What makes the field goal of one of these kickers especially extraordinary?

3. In reference to software, where did the term "bug" originate?

4. Name the only U.S. president to be a bachelor and the only U.S. president to be both president and a Supreme Court justice.

5. What star of the Carol Burnett Show had a hit pop song in the 1970s? Bonus question: Name the song.

6. Name at least three cities in California that were once the capital of the state.

7. What popular author of children's books also wrote a mystery for adults?

8. Name the only NFL team that is owned by shareholders and not a corporation or bajillionaire.

9. During the casting of Gone with the Wind, author Margaret Mitchell wanted to cast who as Rhett Butler? Bonus question: What was the original working title of Gone with the Wind?

10. What Ohio native entered the army in the Civil War as a lieutenant colonel, was later elected president, and died as commander-in-chief?

BONUS

Name three famous people who died on November 22, 1963.


To see the answers, click on the comments link.

7 comments:

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

Answers to Tickle Your Trivia:

(1) Africa
(2) Jim Elam, Denver Broncos, 63 yards and Tom Dempsey, New Orleans Saints, also 63 yards. For the second bonus round, Tom Dempsey kicked his record field goal with half a foot and a special prosthetic
(3) An actual bug crawled onto a circuit board in production and screwed up the circuity, hence the term "bug"
(4) James Buchanan and William Howard Taft
(5) Vickie Lawrence. The song was The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
(6) San Jose, Monterey, Vallejo, Benicia, and Sacramento
(7) A.A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh, also wrote several mysteries for adults, including The Red House Mystery
(8) The Green Bay Packers are owned by the people of Green Bay
(9) Groucho Marx was Mitchell's choice and for the bonus question: Baa! Baa! Black Sheep
(10) James A. Garfield.
Bonus Round: John F. Kennedy, 36th President of the United States; C.S. Lewis, author and theologian; and Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World.

Cele said...

Incredible, I didnt' know I was so dumb. I mean I'm not, I love trivia, but Bee Rocks.

That was fun, thank you.

Mary Ellen said...

I got #1 and guessed that the special field goal kicker in #2 was missing a limb or something.

Seriously, Benicia as a CA capital?!

I want to be on Bee's team for Trivial Pursuit. I'll get the 80s music and pop culture questions and she can cover sports, politics and everything else. :)

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

Cele: Just think of all the great stuff you'll have under your hat the next time you get together with friends or drinks or dinner! That's what I find so fun about Bee's trivia trove: good conversation starters!

ME: Personally, I thought "Vallejo as the capital?!" and I was born there. Benicia's actually very pretty compared to Vallejo. I wouldn't mind living there (if my cousin and his TBM wife and kids didn't already.)

Anonymous said...

I got #1, #3 (but it was totally a guess), #5, 2/3 of #6, #8 - and of course, 1/3 of #10...

Bee is way too smart.

Anonymous said...

Know what's weird? The same day I took this Bee-Trivia-Challenge, I was reading a book. Normal, I always read a book. Anyhow, THREE PAGES AFTER I started reading the book again (a contemporary chick-lit, called Literacy and Longing in LA), the author referred to Aldous Huxley and the fact that he died the day Kennedy was shot.

BIZARRE. And bitter. I woulda got 2/3 on #10 if I woulda just kept reading for another 10 minutes. Curses.

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

Di: Bee is pretty smart. More than that, though, she has the most amazing memory. If I had half her memory and recall, I'd be in a completely different place in life right now.

And don't feel bad about only scoring 1/3 on the Bonus Round. My guess, most people only knew John F. Kennedy. No doubt, the deaths of Huxley and Lewis were vastly overshadowed in the news that day, let alone in subsequent history books.