Things you might know

Trivia, for naught but glory everlasting (or until my domain expires, whichever comes first).

Miscellany

  1. Who was the third regular host of NBC’s The Tonight Show?
  2. What musician invented the Twinkie-Wiener Sandwich?
  3. Which Group of Seven artist stopped signing and dating his works so they would be judged on their own merit?
  4. Who was Grover Cleveland’s vice president?
  5. What is Gertrude Ederle’s most famous accomplishment?

Sports

  1. Chi Chi Rodriguez is best known for his excellence in what sport?
  2. What footballer is variously known as O Rei and Pérola Negra?
  3. What quarterback out of Boston College is considered to have been one of the greatest players in the Canadian Football League?
  4. What pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays was given the derogatory nickname Mr. Blister?
  5. What multi-series driver had both legs amputated near the knee after a 2001 crash, yet has recently returned to racing?

History

  1. In what year was the iPod released?
  2. In what year did Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduce The Smurfs?
  3. What organization held its first meeting in Flushing Meadows, New York, in 1946?
  4. 2007 marks the 300th anniversary of what British body?
  5. What is the common link between all of the previous 14 questions? (This is an open-book… er, open-web question. Search away, and good luck: you’re gonna need it.)

Comments will be moderated for the next 24 hours or until I remember to turn them back on. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to localize the moderation settings to this post, so the whole blog will be affected. The things I do for you people….

Published by

Peter

8 thoughts on “Things you might know”

  1. Miscellany:
    1 Johnny Carson
    3 AJ Casson?

    Sports:
    1 Golf
    3 Doug Flutie

    History:
    1 2003
    2 1963
    3 US Tennis Association
    4 House of Lords
    5 Answers all found on cbc.ca?

  2. Misc
    1. Johnny Carson
    2. Elvis
    3. Tom Thompson (only one I know)
    4. der
    5. uh.

    Sports
    1. Golf (Thanks, WKRP)
    2. duh
    3. Canada has a football league?
    4. err
    5. uh

    History
    1. 2001
    2. 1973 (Total guess. Does anyone really care about the Smurfs?)
    3. The UN?
    4. The Queen Mum? Or the House of Commons?
    5. You (Peter J) asked all of the questions. You didn’t think of that one, did you?

  3. I’ll try my hand…

    Miscellany

    1) Let’s see.. Jack Parr, then Johnny Carson, then Jay Leno… why do I feel like this is a trick question? Obviously someone else fell in there somewhere, but you’ve got me.

    2) Never heard of the invention

    3) Don’t know any Group of 7 artists!

    4) Grover Cleveland was a President?? 😉

    5) Never heard of her!

    Sports

    1) That would be golf

    2) I’m sure Hinckley will know

    3) Mr Doug Flutie, perhaps?

    4) Mr Blister… was that David Wells? I should know this…

    5) Driver.. that’s like racing or something, eh? Never watched it (not even once)

    History

    1) no idea, but I’ll guess 2000

    2) I can’t believe someone just asked me a Smurfs question. I feel like I need a shower now…

    3) United Nations?

    No other guesses, and thanks for the invite to search, but that’s hardly trivia in my book!

  4. Answers

    Miscellany

    1. Johnny Carson (after Jack Paar, who followed Steve Allen)
    2. Weird Al Yankovic (in UHF)
    3. Lawren Harris
    4. Adlai E. Stevenson
    5. First woman to swim the English Channel

    Sports

    1. Golf
    2. Pelé
    3. Doug Flutie
    4. Al Leiter
    5. Alex Zanardi

    History

    1. 2001
    2. 1958 (!)
    3. The United Nations
    4. The Parliament of Great Britain, which united the English and Scottish parliaments. (In 1801 it was expanded to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, when the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged.)
    5. The birthdays of the people, and all of the events, occurred on October 23.

  5. OK – let’s see, Chi Chi Rodriguez was a golfer… the Smurfs were introduced on October 23, 1958 which leads me to conclude that the common thread is your birthday October 23 which also convinces me that the twinkie-wiener sandwich was introduced by Weird Al Yankovic, and leads me to know that Pele was the footballer, and obscurely was it Wayne Rainey that was the racer? The host was Johnny Carson, Lawren Harris was the painter, Adlai Stevenson was the VP, Gertrude was an American Swimmer who was the first woman to swim the English channel, Doug Flutie went to Boston College, Al Leiter is the baseball player, the UN met in Flushing Meadows, the Parliament of Great Britain is the British body and there you have it! 🙂

  6. Oops – forgot the year of the iPod – 2001. BTW, you obviously really like Wikipedia 🙂

  7. Just a couple of quick notes:

    The questions I thought would throw people off (Johnny Carson, Flushing Meadows) did, in the way I thought they might. Ditto for the one gimme on Chai Chai Rodrigweez.

    Usually I’d come up with all the questions completely from my own little brain, but I’ll admit to pulling certain information out of Wikipedia to flesh out the categories a bit.

    Croptop is correct on the last question, in a Clavinesque sort of way. The rest of you can now see why I offered up the resources of the web. 🙂

    As for my sister… well, I didn’t actually say that Google, Wikipedia et al were off limits (although I think it was strongly implied) and as an ex-Reacher herself she should’ve realized that anyway… but hey, family’s family, and web glory is worth only slightly more than the pixels used to display it. 🙂

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