Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac by Ken Jennings Page A
Authors: Ken Jennings
walk.
----
CUT LOOSE
----
1. What CEO bounced back after being fired by Henry Ford II in 1978?
2. Lou Barlow formed Sebadoh after J Mascis booted him from what other band?
3. Why did Aaron Spelling fire actress Hunter Tylo from
Melrose Place,
leading to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit?
4. What fired general later ran against Lincoln in the 1864 election?
5. Who did the Chicago Bears fire in 1992, just four years after he was the NFL Coach of the Year?
----
FEBRUARY 8
----
1855 I N D EVON, E NGLAND, a hundred-mile path of hoofprints mysteriously appears overnight in lightly fallen snow. Since the marks appear to cross obstacles like houses, rivers, and walls with no difficulty, the phenomenon becomes known as “the Devil’s Footprints.”
----
THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS
----
1. What musical talent does the Devil display in the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”?
2. Before they moved to Newark, the New Jersey Devils had the same name as what current baseball team?
3. What author’s version of the Devil calls himself “Memnoch”?
4. What occupation traditionally referred to its apprentices as “devils”?
5. What kind of fur coat does Cruella De Vil covet?
6. What miraculous transformation does the Devil first tempt Jesus to try in the wilderness?
7. Al Pacino’s satanic character in
The Devil’s Advocate
is named for what author?
8. The former penal colony of Devil’s Island is located off the coast of what country?
9. What bread’s name may come from German words meaning “devil’s fart”?
10. What Australian city’s pro basketball team was called the Devils?
----
1958 J OSEPH M ANKIEWICZ’S WHITEWASHED FILM version of Graham Greene’s
The Quiet American
hits screens. Greene is incensed that the novel’s whole point has been turned upside-down, by making Communists the villains and dedicating the film to Ngo Dinh Diem, and he angrily repudiates the movie.
----
ADAPTIVE PARENTS
What original literary work were these retitled movies based on?
----
Easy
1.
Nosferatu
2.
Manhunter
3.
Charly
4.
Jackie Brown
5.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Harder
1.
The Heiress
2.
A Place in the Sun
3.
The Innocents
4.
Gettysburg
5.
Christmas with the Kranks
Yeah, Good Luck
1.
The Door in the Floor
2.
Eyes Wide Shut
3.
Sabotage
4.
Ossessione
5.
Die Hard 2
----
1968 W HATCHU CRYIN’ ABOUT, A RNOLD? Gary Coleman is born in Zion, Illinois.
----
DIFF’RENT STROKES
Swimming strokes, that is.
----
1. Which stroke is swum first in a “medley” swimming event?
2. What hero of 1926 played herself in the 1927 film
Swim, Girl, Swim
?
3. Who’s the only founding member of both the International Surfing and Swimming Halls of Fame?
4. Who outgrew a childhood chlorine allergy to become the biggest Olympic medal winner in Australian history?
5. What fictional polo player was first played on screen by swimmer Buster Crabbe?
----
FEBRUARY 9
----
1867 T HE “WALTZ KING,” Johann Strauss, debuts his best-loved work,
The Blue Danube,
at a Vienna concert. It doesn’t go over well. “The Devil take the waltz,” Strauss tells his brother Josef.
----
WALTZ TIME
----
1. What Jazz Age celebrity published a single novel,
Save Me the Waltz,
before dying in a 1948 fire at a mental hospital?
2. What is the “waltzing Matilda” in the title of that traditional Australian song?
3. What brief tune was Chopin’s attempt to describe a puppy chasing its tail?
4. Which Beatle and which Rolling Stone joined the Band for the jam session at the end of
The Last Waltz
?
5. Why have three bars of Francisco Tárrega’s “Gran Vals” been called “the world’s most heard tune”?
----
1895 YMCA COACH W ILLIAM M ORGAN coins the name “Mintonette” for the new indoor sport he’s created. Today we know it as “volleyball.”
----
ATHLEXICON
What sport’s vocabulary uses each of these words?
----
Easy
1. Mulligan
2. Buttonhook
3. Scrum
4. Peloton
5.
----
CUT LOOSE
----
1. What CEO bounced back after being fired by Henry Ford II in 1978?
2. Lou Barlow formed Sebadoh after J Mascis booted him from what other band?
3. Why did Aaron Spelling fire actress Hunter Tylo from
Melrose Place,
leading to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit?
4. What fired general later ran against Lincoln in the 1864 election?
5. Who did the Chicago Bears fire in 1992, just four years after he was the NFL Coach of the Year?
----
FEBRUARY 8
----
1855 I N D EVON, E NGLAND, a hundred-mile path of hoofprints mysteriously appears overnight in lightly fallen snow. Since the marks appear to cross obstacles like houses, rivers, and walls with no difficulty, the phenomenon becomes known as “the Devil’s Footprints.”
----
THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS
----
1. What musical talent does the Devil display in the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”?
2. Before they moved to Newark, the New Jersey Devils had the same name as what current baseball team?
3. What author’s version of the Devil calls himself “Memnoch”?
4. What occupation traditionally referred to its apprentices as “devils”?
5. What kind of fur coat does Cruella De Vil covet?
6. What miraculous transformation does the Devil first tempt Jesus to try in the wilderness?
7. Al Pacino’s satanic character in
The Devil’s Advocate
is named for what author?
8. The former penal colony of Devil’s Island is located off the coast of what country?
9. What bread’s name may come from German words meaning “devil’s fart”?
10. What Australian city’s pro basketball team was called the Devils?
----
1958 J OSEPH M ANKIEWICZ’S WHITEWASHED FILM version of Graham Greene’s
The Quiet American
hits screens. Greene is incensed that the novel’s whole point has been turned upside-down, by making Communists the villains and dedicating the film to Ngo Dinh Diem, and he angrily repudiates the movie.
----
ADAPTIVE PARENTS
What original literary work were these retitled movies based on?
----
Easy
1.
Nosferatu
2.
Manhunter
3.
Charly
4.
Jackie Brown
5.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Harder
1.
The Heiress
2.
A Place in the Sun
3.
The Innocents
4.
Gettysburg
5.
Christmas with the Kranks
Yeah, Good Luck
1.
The Door in the Floor
2.
Eyes Wide Shut
3.
Sabotage
4.
Ossessione
5.
Die Hard 2
----
1968 W HATCHU CRYIN’ ABOUT, A RNOLD? Gary Coleman is born in Zion, Illinois.
----
DIFF’RENT STROKES
Swimming strokes, that is.
----
1. Which stroke is swum first in a “medley” swimming event?
2. What hero of 1926 played herself in the 1927 film
Swim, Girl, Swim
?
3. Who’s the only founding member of both the International Surfing and Swimming Halls of Fame?
4. Who outgrew a childhood chlorine allergy to become the biggest Olympic medal winner in Australian history?
5. What fictional polo player was first played on screen by swimmer Buster Crabbe?
----
FEBRUARY 9
----
1867 T HE “WALTZ KING,” Johann Strauss, debuts his best-loved work,
The Blue Danube,
at a Vienna concert. It doesn’t go over well. “The Devil take the waltz,” Strauss tells his brother Josef.
----
WALTZ TIME
----
1. What Jazz Age celebrity published a single novel,
Save Me the Waltz,
before dying in a 1948 fire at a mental hospital?
2. What is the “waltzing Matilda” in the title of that traditional Australian song?
3. What brief tune was Chopin’s attempt to describe a puppy chasing its tail?
4. Which Beatle and which Rolling Stone joined the Band for the jam session at the end of
The Last Waltz
?
5. Why have three bars of Francisco Tárrega’s “Gran Vals” been called “the world’s most heard tune”?
----
1895 YMCA COACH W ILLIAM M ORGAN coins the name “Mintonette” for the new indoor sport he’s created. Today we know it as “volleyball.”
----
ATHLEXICON
What sport’s vocabulary uses each of these words?
----
Easy
1. Mulligan
2. Buttonhook
3. Scrum
4. Peloton
5.
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