My Spoon Was Too Big

 

I've had this trivia question floating in my brain for a few years now:

What website did Spin Magazine name as its Album of the Year for the year 2000?

The answer being "Napster". That's a fun fact. Anyway, I thought I'd post it on my Facebook wall, so I looked up the magazine to make sure I had the details right. And boy, there's no way to spoil a good trivia question than by getting the details right.

First and most importantly, it wasn't Napster that topped their list. It was "Your Hard Drive", acknowledging how peer-to-peer file sharing had changed the music acquisition game for the public. Yes Napster was cited in the blurb and in the picture. But they weren't the named Number One.

In fact, secondly, I'm not even sure they were the Album of the Year. The cover references Artist of the Year and Band of the Year, but Your Hard Drive is just the entry number one on the top twenty list. It's never called the Album of the Year. Maybe it's called that somewhere else in the issue, but it's not on this particular page. The list might not be in ranked order. Nitpicky but true.

Also, is Napster in this instance best descried as a website? Shouldn't I have called it a program (or maybe an app)? The problem is, What computer program was named Album of the Year, etc? doesn't provide a clear enough pointer to the intended answer. Program could mean Pro-tools, could be Auto-Tune, could be a lot of things. And honestly, "website" isn't really much clearer.

So yeah, I had hoped for a nice lateral-thinking question, and I ended up with just a plain old fun fact. That's okay though.

Trivia Hall of Fame, concluded

I was finally able to locate the issues of Trivia Unlimited with the first 2 inductions to the National Trivia Hall of Fame. Please enjoy.

May 1980: Robert L Ripley, "Believe It or Not!"

May 1981: Art Fleming, "Jeopardy!"

Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! articles from Games Magazine

More scanner fun. Here are a pair of game show-related articles from my stack of back issues of Games Magazine. You'll have to open each picture in a new tab or window in order to get them big enough to read. Answers to puzzles in the articles are at the bottom of the page.

"Nailed to the Wheel of Fortune, The Anatomy of a TV Game Show" by Roger Dionne (March/April 1980 issue)

I though one of Roger's episodes happened to be on YouTube, but it was years ago I saw it, and I couldn't find it now, so maybe not.

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"My Life in Jeopardy!" by legendary Jeopardy! writer Steven Dorfman (January 1987)

I have a Dell Champion magazine with one of Steven Dorfman's cryptic crosswords in it. If I can manage to locate it, I'll post it here.

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Here are the answers. Interesting how Steven Dorfman credits each of the individual writers with their questions here.

Trivia Hall of Fame, continued

In anticipation of this weekend's induction at TCONA of Brad Rutter & David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace to the Trivia Hall of Fame, I dug up my old copies of Trivia Unlimited magazine to find the write-ups for the earlier inductees to the original Trivia Hall of Fame. (I did Casey Kasem last year, and I wanted to finish the set.)

It looks like I don't have a copy (either print or Xerox) of the May 1980 issue, introducing the Hall of Fame and featuring the induction of Robert Ripley. But I was able to find the May 1981 and 1982 issues, and so I present the inductions of Art Fleming and James Parish.

Art Fleming (from Trivia Unlimited, May 1981)

(I wish I could get a bigger version of that picture.)

This is the second bio of Fleming I've featured on this blog. At some point between 1974 and 1981 he married and had a couple of kids. Good for him!

James Parish (from Trivia Unlimited, May 1982)

Bonus write-up of the California State University Trivia Bowl (also from Trivia Unlimited, May 1982)

If you haven't already, you can still vote for next years honorees here.

Casey Kasem (1932-2014)

In remembrance of the life of Casey Kasem, I've scanned the article about his induction in the Trivia Hall of Fame, from the May 1983 issue of Trivia Unlimited magazine. Enjoy.

Come On Down! (Answers)

Here are the actual retail prices from the Price is Right game posted earlier today.

Click to early seasons of Drew Carey-size.

Come On Down!

Today's featured article is from issue 14 of Games magazine, dated November/December 1979. It's one of those "how much did it cost" nostalgia pricing games, which usually wouldn't be of any interest to me at all. But not only does this one feature Bob Barker and The Price is Right, it features the byline "Credit permission by Bob Barker and Price Productions, Inc." which to mind mind makes it at least somewhat "official."

(Click Pictures to Enlarge.)

Jot down what you think your answers might be. I'm going to set this up so that Blogger should automatically post the answers and the other players' scores this afternoon some time. We'll see if that work.

Wheel of Sassy

The cover of the September 1994 issue of Sassy featured the intriguing come-on

"Our Harrowing GAME SHOW Audition".

You have my attention.

I had a few guesses what the show might be. It turned out to be Wheel of Fortune.

Here are scans of the 3 pages of the article. Notice the fascinating picture of the circa 1994 audition setup on page 2.

I've heard that modern-day auditions are absolutely crazy. It's interesting how low-key they were 20 years ago. You could say the same thing about the show, I suppose.

"J.J." Must be John Jacobson, Jr.

I got a new scanner for Christmas, and I'd like to share some of the things in my collection. I'll start with this article from the July/August 1978 issue of Games Magazine, about the very first Marriott Crossword Tournament.

Click to Sunday-size.

Roger, Over and Outtasite

I haven't seen yesterday's Jeopardy yet. But I've read about it, and I've glanced at the J-Archive page for it. And I must say one thing:

Wow.

In 2002, I set the single day record on Jeopardy, in the process becoming the first player to score $50,000. Since then, if I'm not mistaken, 3 other regular season players have broken the 50G mark, in each case setting a new one day record:

Brian Weikle (2003): $52,000
Ken Jennings (2004): $75,000
and now
Roger Craig (2010): $77,000

(Last season also saw 2 celebrities break the 50G barrier: Andy Richter and Pat Sajak. I think there have also been teen or college players to do it. I'd like to know for sure.)

My record-setting performance relied heavily on gutsy wagering. About half of my score was obtained through Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy. Going into FJ, I led a single opponent 39,000 to 2,000. I wagered for a nice, round number. I don't think I ever seriously considered a much higher wager, although it did cross my mind. Setting the single-day record had been my goal since I started seriously considering getting on the show, and had I known that visualization was so powerful, I'd have focused on being a 5-time champ too!

The key to getting the single-day record is a willingness to bet big. The other three guys to have done it had Coryat scores of around 35,000, which for Ken and Roger was less than half of their ultimate winnings. A good FJ wager will put you over the top, but to get within striking range you'll have to master a Daily Double or 2 also. Roger demonstrated that he knew how to get it done on his first episode. He was running away with the game in the middle of Double Jeopardy when he hit the chemical elements Daily Double. I have to imagine he figured out that the clue would be a symbol and a hint to the name of the element. If you know all the element/symbol pairs, or even most of them, a large wager is the right thing to do. You can put the game away, and guarantee yourself a big payday. Which he did.

He also made it a True Daily Double in the Jeopardy round. Here's another point. If you hit the DD in the first round, you should always bet everything, unless it's a category you feel very weak in. The material is easier, and if you have the knowledge base to get on the show, you will probably know the correct response. And even if you do miss, there's plenty of money in Double Jeopardy to catch up.

Roger, I hope you go far. You're already playing like a champion.

----

In honor of the occasion, I have put my first game of Jeopardy up on YouTube. It's in four parts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I'd put up the second game, but the disk it's on won't read. (Spoiler: I lose.)

You Gotta Know Your Australian Capitals

So, you're playing in the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. It's the 4th quarterfinal game, Double Jeopardy round. The categories come up and "Australian Capitals" is one of them. Is the year 2003 or 2010? The correct answer is: both.

I remember watching the 2003 ToC, keeping score as I always do. I believe I got 3 of the 5 correct, all of them from the extra hints in the clue, and not because I actually know what city is the capital of any of the Australian states. I had a mental list of Australian cities in my head from a quiz bowl question I heard a loooooong time ago. That question asked the players to put them in order from north to south. I couldn't do it then, and I can't do it now. But there they are: Darwin, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbaine, Adelaide, Hobart (Perth did not appear in that question, nor would I have remembered it, probably.)

Let's run them down. From the 2003 ToC (all clues today courtesy j-archive.com):

For $400:
Its opera house lies on Bennelong Point in Port Jackson Harbour

Easy. Opera house = Sydney. Fun fact, the Sydney opera house opened to the public on October 20, 1973, the day I was born.

For $800:
Named for a British naturalist, it's Australia's northernmost capital

Also easy. The British naturalist in this case = Darwin. Not quite as obvious if you don't know Darwin is an Australian city, but still probably guessable.

For $1200:
This capital of Victoria served as Australia's capital from 1901 to 1927 when the seat of govt. was moved to Canberra

You've got the "former capital" clue here, as well as the very specific "capital of Victoria". I didn't know it was Melbourne.

For $1600:
This capital of Queensland was founded as a convict colony in 1824 & named for a governor of New South Wales

Again, the very specific "capital of Queensland", as well as "named for a person", "convict colony", and "name for a governor of NSW". None of the contestants that day knew it was Brisbane. Neither did I. Mark guessed Cairns, a different city in Queensland, named for a former governor of the state.

For $2000 (Daily Double):
This capital of South Australia is the only Australian capital named for a woman

"Capital of South Australia" (specific clue) + "named for a woman" (lateral clue) = Adelaide. Yep, I got this one, and so did Mark Brown, who had also answered 2 of the other clues. I got it from the "woman" part.

So, that's a hint-filled way to play the category.

Now, I've just finished watching last night's episode of Jeopardy, again scoring along at home. Let's see how I did:

For $400:
In this capital of New South Wales, try the Bridge Climb, an exhilarating trek to the top of its Harbour Bridge

So, in the five clues we've already seen "capital of New South Wales" has not appeared. But the word "harbour" has. In this case, the city is the same, but the harbour is different. It's the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and so the answer again at the top row of the board is Sydney. I missed this; there weren't any clues I could suss out.

For $800:
It lies within the Australian Capital Territory

Canberra isn't really an Australian capital, in the same way that Washington isn't really the capital of the District of Columbia. A lot of countries have their capitals in special administrative areas, as opposed to in one of their states. So, yeah, I didn't get this one right, even though it's just asking "What is the capital of Australia?" If you can't handle that question, you probably won't be playing the ToC any time soon. Jeoaprdy phrased their clue a little harder, as they are wont to do in their championship. Nothing wrong with that.

For $1200
The metro area of this Victorian capital contains more than 70% of the state's population

Here we have "capital of Victoria", with "heavily populated" as a bonus clue. It hasn't changed in the 3 minutes you've been reading. It's still Melbourne, and I still don't know it.
Note that Melbourne is the $1200 clue both times it shows up.

For $1600:
It was named for William IV's wife, who was queen when it was founded in 1836

"Named for a woman" still equals Adelaide. This will be the only clue I get right in the category today as I play along; for the contestants it's a triple stumper, which helps my ego a little bit. $1600 this year is "easier" than $2000 before, but Adelaide still ranks lower on the board with the harder material.

For $2000
Anzac Square War Memorial in this Queensland capital honors Aussie war vets

Maybe you know where the war memorial is, but that part of the clue is basically "frill". The crux is "capital of Queensland", which is Brisbane, which, at $2000, is valued slightly harder than last time, apparently. Not for me, of course. Not knowing it is not knowing it.

So, here are the correct responses, the two times the category has been used in the Tournament of Champions:

	2003		2010
$400	Sydney		Sydney
$800	Darwin		Canberra
$1200	Melbourne	Melbourne
$1600	Brisbaine	Adelaide
$2000	Adelaide	Brisbaine

Pretty similar, no?

But Jeopardy tends to repeat its material every 4 years or so. Shouldn't there have been an Aussie Capitals category in 2006 or 2007 or so?

Yup. There should have been all right:

AUSSIE CAPITALS, from the Double Jeopardy round of the episode airing January 30, 2006. You should do pretty well at this.

For $400
This capital of New South Wales is the home of Opera Australia

For $800
Of all the world's urban centers exceeding 1 million in population, this capital of Victoria is southernmost

For $1200
This city's harbor was discovered in 1839 by John Stokes, surveyor aboard the HMS Beagle

For $1600:
This capital of South Australia was named for a queen, the consort of King William IV

For $2000
This capital was once the government seat of a British colony called Van Diemen's Land

Wait a minute. That $2000 clue looks very unfamiliar. It's also pretty dang hard. It's a two-step question. First you have to know that Van Diemen's Land is the original name of Tasmania. Then you have to know that the capital of Tasmania is Hobart. Well, now you do. All of these clues were correctly responded to by players that day, although Sarah slipped up and said "Tasmania" for the last one.

	2003		2006		2010
$400	Sydney		Sydney		Sydney
$800	Darwin		Melbourne	Canberra
$1200	Melbourne	Darwin		Melbourne
$1600	Brisbaine	Adelaide	Adelaide
$2000	Adelaide	Hobart		Brisbaine

So, to take a page from mrbungle at the Jeopardy message boards (aka ToC player Ryan Chaffee):

jeopardy pavlov: australian capitals

$400 - $800 - $1200 clues

Sydney (New South Wales)
opera
opera house
harbor

Darwin (Northern Territory)
British naturalist
Beagle

Melbourne (Victoria)
former capital until 1927
heavy population

Canberra (Australian Capital Territory)
capital

$1600 - $2000 clues

Brisbaine (Queensland)
named for governor of NSW
penal colony
World's Fair Expo 1988 (It's shown up a couple of times)
"royal Australian state"

Adelaide (South Australia)
named for a woman/queen

Hobart (Tasmania)
Van Diemen's Land [for Tasmania]

Perth (Western Australia)
Kalgoorlie
gold mine

Perth hasn't shown up in the ToC yet, but it has thrice been a bottom-of-the-board clue using the hints I've listed. It's also pretty "remote", so put that on the list as well.

Your homework: Identify another category that tends to show up every 4 years or so, especially in the Tournament of Champions, and that only has about 8 possible answers. If you need help, turn to page 96 of "Prisoner of Trebekistan".

-M

Marty!

In the February 1963 issue of Bullwinkle Comics (from Gold Key), that machine that Peabody and Sherman use to travel back in time is spelled "WAY-BAC" (capitalized as in the original comic, although everything Peabody says in the original comic is capitalized). This is as close to a contemporary reference to the actual spelling of the thing I've been able to find:



Bullwinkle and Rocky Number 4 (May 1988, Marvel) spells it WABAC, in bold capitals:



"The Moose That Roared" by Keith Scott from 2001 also uses WABAC. (Thank you Amazon.com's "Search inside this book".)

"The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book" from 1996 also mentions it, but spells it "Wayback" (if my memory serves me correctly).

Until I have some sort of actual, in-show reference to the spelling, I'm going with WAY-BAC, simply because it's the older reference.

Edited to add: even older reference to WAY-BAC, from Bullwinkle 1 (Dell, July-Sept 1962):



-M

Blue People

Smurfs
The Na'vi
The Blue Man Group (and wannabe Tobias Funke)
The Fugates of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky
Hank "The Beast" McCoy
And Nightcrawler. And Mystique.

Who am I missing?

-M

The continuing adventures of "Good Trivia That's Good For You".

According to the April 2008 edition of the Harper's Index in Harpers magazine, Radiohead has won the exact same number of Grammys as Barack Obama—2.

Radiohead:
Best Alternative Music Album, 1998: OK Computer
Best Alternative Music Album, 2001: Kid A (shared with producer Nigel Godrich)

Barack Obama:
Best Spoken Word Album, 2006: Dreams of My Father
Best Spoken Word Album, 2008: The Audacity of Hope

These numbers don't take into account certain Radiohead-related Grammy awards, such as the one for Best Recording package won in 2002 by Thom Torke and Stanley Donwood for Amnesiac.

And yes, it looks like "Grammys" is the proper plural.

-M

Prior Art

I scanned this article 6 or 7 years ago to test some new OCR software, and I thought it might be of interest to this blog's readers. Enjoy!

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"YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS TO BE A CONTESTANT"

"We Want Average Americans Who Are Aware of What's Going On"

From Daytime TV magazine, July 1974

On March 30, Art Fleming celebrated the 10th anniversary of Jeopardy. "People are always asking me if I'm bored, after 10 years," says Art, "and I answer, No! The audience is always new and the questions are always different! "

He explains, "I'm constantly learning from each show. And I enjoy doing the show. Every show is opening night!"

He does three segments of Jeopardy in one day, and three the next. The sixth segment is the evening version now being syndicated, and for this show Art wears a tuxedo.

He tapes Jeopardy on the same floor as How to Survive a Marriage, at NBC in New York. And a few blocks away is the Jeopardy office.

"It takes about 65 persons to put Jeopardy on the air, and we work hard. And we have such a great staff that we've had to fire only three people in 10 years!"

How does somebody get on Jeopardy?

"You have to take a written and oral test. Would-be contestants should write to Jeopardy, 162 West 48th St., New York, N.Y." They can also write to NBC, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y., 10019, for free tickets and then, after the show, ask one of the production staff how to become a contestant.

Do you have to be genius to become a contestant?

"No," says Art. "We want average Americans. You don't even need a college degree; just be aware of what's going on in the world.

"Why, the biggest money winner was a woman who has only two years of high school. And the most money we ever gave was to a radar man who won $11,110 in one week...and he only had one year in college.

"The show has more than 350 categories.

"Contestants don't know who will play against them and what categories will be used when their turn comes."

If Art Fleming himself was a contestant, what categories would he prefer? "English, history and music!"

Born in New York (the son of Marie and Guido Fazzin, European dance team), Art attended Cornell and Colgate universities and is quite a scholar. He is a history buff, travels extensively, acquires British and American army and regimental memorabilia (medals, swords, uniforms), and has a great collection of fine books and first editions. "I bought a full set of 23 books on British men of action for $1,200 in England, and now I can sell it for $10,000.

"I bought a series of 90 books on American Indians for $1,000 and sold three or four of them for $1,000 right away. I bought for $485 an oversize book on pirates with 190 original Howard Pyle illustrations. I own a book of Tennyson with fouredge printing. Color illustrations are printed on the edges of the book."

But be doesn't buy rare books just to show them off. "I read them!"

And did you notice how trim he looks now? "That's because I lost 32 pounds in seven weeks. How? By suffering! I did it by the low carbohydrates diet, under medical supervision. I ate 40 grams of carbohydrates a day. No sweets. Meat and fish. And I was never hungry."

He's six-foot-three and was 245 pounds. Now he's down to 215, and he's satisfied. As a former athlete (he captained the football and water polo teams at Cornell and Colgate) he knows the value of physical fitness, and still lives a vigorous life. He pilots his own twin cabin cruiser in the New York waters, and flies often to Caribbean and Mexican waters for fishing and scuba diving.

He's proud of the 146-pound sailfish he landed off Acapulco recently when vacationing there with his friend, Norman Eaton, who runs the Polonaise Restaurant in Austin, Texas. But he won't go hunting. "I can't kill an animal. When I was 15, 1 shot a rabbit by mistake in North Carolina, and I wept after that."

Art's new figure looks good in the extensive wardrobe supplied by Barney's, New York. "I have 45 suits I wear on the show only. They are cleaned after two wearings. And when they get too used, Barney's takes them back. I also have 100 neckties for the show."

But away from the show, he'd rather relax in sweater and slacks. He lives in a big three-and-a-half room New York apartment.

Divorced the past few years, he's enjoying the bachelor life. "It takes me only two and a half hours to clean the apartment." He cooks for himself and has fun. "My mother taught me to cook; and I cook and shop for my food. When I eat out, then I usually select dishes I don't ordinarily make for myself."

Would he marry again? "Never! ... Not in this life or the next!"

Does he have a concept of the Ideal Woman? "Yes, it's a woman who enjoys life and who's not thrown by life's problems.

"I don't really care what she looks like. What's important is that she's in individual who's considerate of me and people around me. It's her attitude about life and people that counts, not her looks. I don't want a selfish woman; selfish people turn me off!"

He's never had children, but his sister is married, has three kids and lives in suburban Larchmont.

He admits he wanted children when he was married; but, now looking back, he feels, "It's tough bringing children into this world and I'm not sorry I didn't have children."

He's a dashing gent-tall, muscular, tidy, with dark brown hair and blue eyes, plus a marvelous quick wit that occasionally flashes during Jeopardy. But, to make Jeopardy move swiftly, he holds back and submerges his personality. "It's the show that counts."

He got into show business when he was four, and was an actor (Western movies, the old Loretta Young show, etc.) for 30 years before becoming host of Jeopardy. "When you're a TV host, you're yourself, and not many actors can do that well," he explains.

He manages to tape a year's supply of Jeopardy and still have 20 weeks off, during which he does guesting on other shows, runs his own industrial film company... travels and has fun.

L L Cool Langstroth

Last Saturday (November 10) the Fourth European Quizzing Championships were held, in Blackpool, England. Three of my favorite trivial-minded bloggers have weighed in on the festivities, and an interesting common theme has emerged.

Those bloggers -Ken Jennings, Bob Harris, and "The Quiz Blogger"- all make mention of how difficult or obscure the questions were by mentioning similarly formated lists of question subjects. Those lists are comprised of items consisting of a cultural or national adjective and a subject. If I were making the list, I'd be tempted to just make something up (Welsh badminton champions, Portuguese poodle pamperers, Marshall Island marshals, etc.). However, my curiosity got the best of me, and a bit of internet research led me to what I believe were the subjects of many of those questions. (Basically I just plopped the term into Google and Wikipedia, then picked the "most famous" web hit that came up. "Research", I call it.)

Here are my best guesses, along with some commentary. The initials following each entry represent the blog where it was mentioned.:

Albanian dictator (BH): most likely Enver Hoxha, who ruled from 1944 until his death in 1985. Jeopardy über-champ Jerome Vered correctly identified him in a Round 4 Ultimate Tournament of Champions game in 2005.

Belarussian table tennis player (KJ)/East German ping-pong player (BH): Could they possibly have had 2 questions about obscure paddle-wielders? Or is one of our fair bloggers remembering it wrong? Regardless of which nationality/ies is/are correct, the Googles, they do nothing. The Belarus Table Tennis Federation English language webpage hasn't been updated since 2003, so that's no help. And searches for "East German Ping Pong" just bring up a bunch of references to the movie "Balls of Fury". Too obscure for even me to spend more than 5 minutes on, at the moment. Color me stumped.

Hungarian fencers (KJ): Boy there are a lot of Hungarian Olympic Fencing Champions, according to this list at Wikipedia.

Islamic hardcore punk (QB): Looks like Taqwacore. This is the kind of thing Wikipedia was made for. The genre was inspired by the book The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight.

Korean folk songs (KJ): The are many Korean folk songs (obviously), but Arirang is the undisputed king. Here's a link that plays the song in the background. It's a nice little tune, actually. I dig Korea.

Mauritanian film director (KJ): I suppose we're talking about Abderrahmane Sissako here. Remarkably, he has no English-language Wikipedia page for me to link to (yet), so the click there takes you to IMDB. He moved to France in 1993 when his film Octobre was shown at Cannes. His 2002 film Heremakono (aka Waiting for Happiness) seems to be his most popular. Here's an interview from the African Film Festival webpage, and here's one from the UNESCO Courier.

Moroccan feminist essayist (KJ): Fatema Mernissi is the most likely suspect here. Best known for 1975's Beyond the Veil and 1987's The Veil and the Male Elite. Link goes to Wikipeida.

Nicaraguan authoresses (QB): Wikipedia lists 7. Could be any of them, really. However, it's worth noting that Rosario Murillo is also the current First Lady of Nicaragua, Claribel Alegria won the Neustadt Internation Prize for Literature in 2006, and Gioconda Belli was nice enough to put up an English-language biography on her web page.

Senegalese poet (BH): Gotta be Leopold Sedar Senghor, who was also the first president of independent Senegal, serving from 1960 to 1981. He died in 2001.

Swedish hurdling twins (QB): Without question Jenny and Susanna Kallur. The link is from their college days (in 2001).

Ukrainian sculptors (QB): Wikipedia gives us 2, Alexander Archipenko and Ivan Martos. Google gives plenty of others, but I'm not qualified to judge which is most famous. Your guess is as good as mine, better if you were actually at the quiz.

---

Of these people, Enver Hoxha is the only one I'd even heard of before researching this stuff, and I doubt I could have remembered his name, much less answered whatever question EQC might have set about his life. So yeah, my hat (nay, my whole head) is off those those who could hold their own on these questions. Nevertheless, they'd sure be fun to play on.

---

For completeness sake, The Quiz Blogger also mentioned tilapia, comic book hero Corto Maltese (caution: official link has loud audio and video), "Italian film directors that weren't Benigni or Bertolucci", zeta functions, and the "idiotically" named video game Serious Sam (It's Croatian!). Click on the links for real "learning is fun" action with kung fu grip.

And finally, this link about the territory-marking civet called the genet doesn't mention the Balearic Islands or handstands, but Wikipedia does. So now you know.

A good time was had by all.

Additional links:
Official European Quizzing Championships site
Wait -- what do you mean, there are civets that do handstands? (November 11, 2007) - by Bob Harris
Be Gentle, It's Our First Time (November 13, 2007) - by Ken Jennings
Get Yer Red Hot League and Cup Action! (November 18, 2007) - by Olav Bjortomt. (Jump to the section "Not Quite a Downward Spiral" for EQC news.)

A quiz

I've had this sitting on my hard drive for a while, and pop culture questions don't get any fresher as they sit. Questions have been pulled from various sources, mostly magazines I've purchased or acquired in the last 6 months.

1. The name of what 1980 album by The Police comes from the Sanskrit for "top of the world"?
2. For much of the summer of 1967, what group's "Headquarters" was the Number 2 album in the US, behind the Beatles' Number 1 "Sgt. Pepper"?
3. What is the performing name of Stephen Bier, the former keyboard player for Marilyn Manson?
4. Released in 2007, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" is the second album from what group?
5. "Let the Music Do the Talking" and "I've Got the Rock'n'Rolls Again" were the 2 albums from which group, created when a disagrement led to the departure of one of the members of Aerosmith?
6. Who is the only player to hit a grand slam in Major League Baseball's All-Star Game?
7. Who is the only player to hit an inside-the-park home run in Major League Baseball's All-Star Game?
8. Kenneth Branagh's 2007 adaptation of Shakespeare's "As You Like It" was set in what country?
9. "That Ain't Right" was a 2007 HBO comedy special from what comedian?
10. Played by David Duchovny in the Showtime series "Californication", who is the fictional author of "God Hates Us All"?
11. What film director cameos in the movie "Hot Fuzz" as a Santa Claus who stabs Mick Angel in the hand?
12. Who played Dr. Robert Caldwell on "St. Elsewhere" and orthopedic surgeon Jack McNeil on "Chicago Hope"?
13. Originally aired August 29, 1967, "The Judgment (Part 2)" was the record-setting final episode of what ABC drama?
14. Who was the model for the look of Clarence Boddicker, the villain played by Kurtwood Smith in the 1987 movie "RoboCop"?
15. What song serves as closing credits theme music in all three of Matt Damon's "Bourne" films?
16. Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe are the competing subjects of what 2007 gaming documentary?
17. What director's films include "What About Bob?", "Bowfinger", and the 2004 remake of "The Stepford Wives"?
18. Who is the author of the graphic novel "Persepolis", about growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution?
19. What two actors play the title roles in the 2007 film "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"?
20. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, what typeface -celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2007- is currently known by the Latin name for Switzerland?
21. What groundbreaking 1957 book started out as a much-rejected magazine article entitled "Are Women Wasting Their Time in College?"
22. Residents of what US state may be known as "Yoopers" or "Trolls", depending on where in the state they live?
23. Manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, the diabetes drug rosiglitazone maleate -being investigated for its link to increased risk of heart attacks- is better known by what brand name?
24. Which Presidential hopeful for 2008 is the author of "Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games"?
25. Which Presidential hopeful for 2008 is the author of "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope"?
26. Which Presidential hopeful for 2008 recounts his experiences as a trial lawyer in the 2003 book "Four Trials"?
27. To a numismatist, what is the significance of "Peace Medal", "Keelboat", "Buffalo" and "Ocean in View"?
28. What is the name of Johnny Cash's first wife, author of the 2007 memoir "I Walked the Line"?
29. 2007's "The Wheel of Darkness" is the 8th novel featuring what FBI special agent created by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and known only by his last name?
30. What Showtime original series was inspired by a series of books by Jeff Lindsay?
31. Who are the hosts of the singing game shows "Don't Forget the Lyrics" (on Fox) and "The Singing Bee" (on NBC)?
32. What best-selling album, first released in 1984, was dedicated "to the virgins of the world"?
33. "Faked My Own Death", "Broke Joy's Fancy Figurine", and "Stole Beer from a Golfer" are episodes from the first season of what sitcom?
34. Kitty Wells's 1952 country music hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" was written in response to a line from what Hank Thompson song?
35. What Siouxsie and the Banshees song was the first-ever number one on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, when it debuted in 1988?

To

Heck

with

the

comments.

Here's

spoiler

space

then

the

answers:

1. Zenyatta Mondatta 2. The Monkees 3. Madonna Wayne Gacy 4. Maroon 5 5. The Joe Perry Project 6. Fred Lynn, then with the California Angels 7. Ichiro Suzuki 8. Japan 9. Bob Saget 10. Hank Moody 11. Peter Jackson 12. Mark Harmon 13. The Fugitive 14. Heinrich Himmler 15. "Extreme Ways" by Moby 16. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters 17. Frank Oz 18. Marjane Satrapi 19. Brad Pitt (James) and Casey Affleck (Ford) 20. Helvetica 21. The Feminine Mystique 22. Michigan 23. Avandia 24. Mitt Romney 25. Barack Obama 26. John Edwards 27. They were the new reverse designs for nickels minted in 2004 and 2005 in honor of the Lewis and Clark expedition 28. Vivian Cash 29. Special Agent Pendergast 30. Dexter 31. Wayne Brady (Lyrics) and Joey Fatone (Bee) 32. Madonna's "Like a Virgin" 33. My Name is Earl 34. The Wild Side of Life 35. Peek-a-Boo

The Owl without a Vowel

A discussion over at the Ken Jennings Message board has led me to dig up an old piece I composed about 10 years ago for the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.trivia, regarding the letter Y and its use as a vowel and a consonant. It's one of my favorite things I've ever written, and I present it here for your enjoyment. Quoted email addresses have been truncated by Google Groups.

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From: "Myron M. Meyer (The Man Who)"
Subject: Re: word with the most consonants in a row
Date: 1997/10/09
Message-ID: <343c4bf7.524@sd.cybernex.net>
X-Deja-AN: 278897069
References: <343a6b9a.2533@sd.cybernex.net>
Organization: Cybernex Inc.
Newsgroups: rec.games.trivia

Subject: word with the most consonants in a row
Quoting: mmsch...@cats.ucsc.edu (Max Schmeder)
Date: 1997/10/02
Newsgroups: rec.games.trivia

Does anyone know which English word has the most consonants in a row?

thanks a lot,
Max

Myron Replies> Problem with a question like this is that there is no concrete definition of what is and is not a vowel. In "Language on Vacation," Dmitri Borgman defines a vowel as "A, E, I, O, U, and Y," realizing, of course Y's function as a vowel in such words as "rhythm" and "bay." He then procedes to cite words in which W functions as a vowel, including the Welsh "cwm," a mountain basin, and "crwth," a Keltic stringed instrument. No fair, cry I, the exception should be made for W too. It functions as a vowel (consider it a double-U-as-in-vacuum for pronunciation purposes). Look also to the common English word "cow" for a much more readily accepted occurance.

For the rest of this message A, E, I, O, U, W, and Y, will be considered vowels. B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, and Z, will be considered consonants. Look at words such as "walrus" and "youth" when considering our problem children.

---
Quoting: Philip Carter
Date: 1997/10/02

How about latchspring or catchphrase ?
Philip Carter

Myron replies> Thank you for playing Philip, for these are indeed the most common 6-letter consonant strings in English, and as long as you can get without being obscure. Borgman also cites "welschmertz" and "Houyhnhnms."

The uncommon record is shared by three words:

wppwrmwste - an old spelling of "uppermost",
Nosmnbdsgrsutt - the land of flying people in "The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins..." (1751) by Robert Paltock, &
Pyrzztchwll - a fictional surname in Rodale and Fluck's "The Phrase Finder" (1953)

all with 9 consecutive consonants.

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Quoting: Trick...@world.std.com (Laura M Parkinson)
Date: 1997/10/04

I think the longest word with only consonants is "rhythms" but I'm not sure if it's also the word with the most consonants in a row, or not...
-Trickster

Myron Replies> Now we get into the tricky (heh-heh) world of alphabetical transgenderism. Are W and Y vowels or consonants or both? The answers are "yes," "no," and "so's yer old man!" First I will say that whatever status is applied to one of these letters must be applied to the other. Second, as demonstrated above, these leters can function as both vowels and consonants, even within the same word (see "wow" and "yesterday.")

A similar problem was posed to this newsgroup earlier this year. On 4/5/97, Todd Gregory posted

"Can anyone think of a word in the English language which is composed solely of 5 consonants?"

with the word "crwth" in mind. (There is much debate on Usenet as to whether "w" is a vowel. To find it, use the word "crwth" as a search variable on Dejanews.) Many folks (myself included) posted such words as pygmy, gypsy, and nymph, making the assumption that Y is a consonant, which it is. In these words, however, Y acts as a vowel. Or, should I say, "is a vowel." Later discussion emerged as to crwth's Welsh origins, and how it ends up in the same category as pygmy, et al. Or as Philip Carter responded to this thread:

"It depends whether or not `y` is considered to be a vowel in such a word."

That's right Phil, and you are now two correct out of two in this thread. All the hard questions get routed directly to you.

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Quoting: max_critten...@qm.irs.com (Max Crittenden)
Date: 1997/10/06

Please. I hate to be snippish, but the Y in "rhythms" is a vowel, no question about it.

Myron replies> Exactly right.

---
Quoting: "Myron M. Meyer (The Man Who)"
Date: 1997/10/07

But the question is, longest word with only consonants, not the only word without vowels.

Big difference.

Y is also a consonant.

Myron replies> Also exactly right. But unlike Crittenden's point, this one has many questions about it.

First of all, Meyer is correct that there is a difference between all consonants and no vowels. The lists of consonants and vowels are not mutually exclusive. They overlap.

Second, yes, Y is a consonant. And Y is a vowel. And "rhythms" is a peculiar word in that it is a seven letter word, composed entirely of consonants, and containing one vowel. This is the important part, the leap of faith you must buy in order for the entire argument to work. Y can be both a consonant and a vowel IN THE SAME WORD. I would consider Y to always be a consonant (as per Wheel of Fortune), and sometimes a vowel, in words such as "rhythm." If you disagree, then the argument falls apart right there. If Y or W, in a specific word, must be either a consonant or a vowel, Y or W cannot be both. My argument falls apart, given this assumption.

There was an episode of the instructional program "The Letter People" regarding just this point. Mr. Y was debating whether to hang with the consonants, or go with the vowels. I last saw this program 15 years ago, and I have no idea what he decided. John Thornton might know.

---
Quoting: sde...@sdeco.com (Steve Derby)
Date: 1997/10/08

[regarding Critenden's Y point]
True, but if you count Y are there any words in the english language that don't have vowels? 'Syzygy' would fall into that category as well.

Myron Replies> Just those pesky W's, as near as I can tell. Note that if you consider Y and W consonants only, Pyrzztchwll has no vowels! None!

---
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 13:31:21 -0800
Quoting: max_critten...@qm.irs.com (Max Crittenden)

Ah, I see. We're talking semantic chicanery. OK, two can play that game. Y is also a fork in the road, and a place where you can get a cheap room for the night. Are you saying that "rhythm" _also_ contains a fork in the road and a place where you can get a cheap room for the night? I sure hope not.

Let me rephrase my earlier statement. Y _can_ be a consonant _or_ a vowel. In "rhythm" it is a vowel, not a consonant.

Or, even if you insist that Y is a vowel _and_ a consonant, I think you're still hoist on your own petard: "rhythm" is _not_ a "word with only consonants", because it contains Y, and you just admitted that Y is a vowel.

OK, I'm enjoying this. Myron, your shot.

Myron Replies> Logical flim-flam-ery it is! I am reminded of the section in one of Lewis Carrol's "Alice" books, in which someone hold a discussion on the difference between what your name is and what you are called and what your name is called. I remember it from Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice, which, of course, is locked at the Augustana College library safe from my little (HA!) essay. The point is, if you are a consonant but are called a vowel, you are still a consonant. That, of course, is my necessary presumption, as I stated above.

And if Y is a fork in the road, and RHYTHMS contains Y, then RHYTHMS contains a fork in the road. That's a basic syllogism.

As for the longest word with no consonants and no vowels, it's the sound of one hand. I'm going to bed.

Cordially,

Myron M. Meyer
The Man Who

The Man Without a Clue

Just entered into the j-archive is the first game of 5-day champion Rich Lerner. It has a really good Final Jeopardy! clue. Let's dissect it, to have a gander at how good FJ!'s work and what makes a good Jeopardy! champion. The category is LITERATURE.

It's where Philip Nolan asked to be buried.

That's all there is. 8 words. Final Jeopardy! clues are written to be able to be figured out if you don't know it right off the bat, but in this case you have to know a bit more than just who Philip Nolan is or was.

I do know who Philip Nolan was. He was the "Man Without A Country" in the Edward Everett Hale story of the same name. This was one of the facts that ended up on my earliest set of Jeopardy! study notecards, 'way back in 1998. I cannibalized the book "Quizzes For Whizzes" by Minnie and Norman Hickman for literature questions, and this one made it onto a card:

Name the man whose spirit is broken when he read these lines from Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel":

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!

(In its own way, that would actually make a good FJ! itself. The figure-out-ability is there, maybe even more so than the FJ! we're discussing. It's too long though.)

My flashcard simply reads "The Man Without A Country" on one side and "Philip Nolan" on the other. Edward Everett Hale may be on there somewhere too, I'm not sure. Maybe it's another card entirely. This was distilled from the much longer answer given in the book:

Philip Nolan, who, in Edward Everett Hale's The Man Whithout a Country, cries out, "Damn the United States. I wish I may never hear of the United States again." For this he is condemned to a life at sea where he is denied any news of his country. He shows gallantry in the War of 1812 and dies during the Civil War after being told on his deathbed of his country's growth to greatness.

Nice little plot summary there, and it takes us back to Final Jeopardy! OK, he'd dead. Where had he asked to be buried? Had this been me, I'd have gotten from Philip Nolan to Man Without a Country to (maybe) "spent life at sea," and from there...nothing. I couldn't have made the Final leap. Neither could Rich Lerner's opponents. But he either knew, or he made the leap, to what Alex Trebek explained after his response was revealed, "Philip Nolan was The Man Without a Country. Spent most of his life at sea, and did make that request, that he be buried at sea. You're right." And Rich gets to come back tomorrow.

No matter how many almanacks you memorize, quizbooks you read, or game shows you watch, 9 times out of 10 you'll be beaten by the guy who's seen the movie, heard the album, or read the book. Trivia shouldn't just increase your score, it should broaden your horizons. That is Trebekistan in a nutshell.

The Man Without a Country is a short story freely available at one of my longtime-favorite websites, Project Gutenberg. I'm going to read it now.

-Myron
I got that copy of "Quizzes for Whizzes," by the way, from future Ken Jennings opponent Matt Ottinger as part of a pile of quiz books and a CD he traded me for a copy of the "Price is Right" home game. And the circle of life is complete.

It all adds up

Calculatrivia is a contest created by Games Magazine in 1978. In it's most basic form (which, in that first issue, it was) you'd answer a bunch of trivia questions with numbers for answers. Then you'd plug those numbers into a formula, solve some math, and end up with a final value for X, which was your entry to the contest. The contest was so popular that Games would run sequels and spinoffs (Alphabetrivia, for instance) every couple of years.

In 1987, Games released the first and last issue of "Games: The Video Edition." It's a fun little bit of '80s nostalgia, with a feature on the Miami Herald Tropic Hunt, a trivia quiz using public domain clips from silent horror movies, and video versions of some of their most popular features: Eyeball Benders, Call Our Bluff, and, for the contest, Calculatrivia.

Somebody must have won the "state-of-the-art" CD player prize they were offering. But I don't know who. For me, the bigger question is, what are the answers to the darn questions?

Let's see if we can't work them out? First we'll need the equation and the rules:

Clicking on the thumbnail takes you to the flickr page for the larger image (I hope).

So we're playing the questions as if this were 1987. Answers round off to 2 decimal places. Let's pretend we're on "21" and take the second part first. (C times M times H) divided by (A + W). I did some still captures of the video, but I couldn't get the sound to work, so no video just yet. Here are the pics for each letter:

A: (This was a video clue, where the bus drives by.)

C: (This was a video too, where you could see the cards being dealt.)

H: (This one was a still shot.)

M: (I wonder if the Embassy has the same address now as it did in 1987?)

W: (The caption for this one makes the picture superfluous.)

So, I know this blog doesn't have any readers right now, but maybe I'll see if I can't drum some people up who might be good at/interested in this kind of thing.