Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Trivia Q&A: July 20

We had a huge crowd in for Trivia Night, and as my friend Jim put it, "Reminded me of the old days." We had 25 teams in, one short of the record we've done twice, and the largest turnout of 2010.

The scores were very good early on, especially for the Q Train round with "10-100 Trivia" and General Knowledge was also filled with strong numbers. But I rolled out some toughies for IQ Trivia, and the highest score for that round was 11 points out of a possible 20. The scores were very close and it looked a tie-breaker question might be in the offing for the second straight week.

But the team of I Was Just In Justin Bieber, who was leading most of the night and by two points going into the final round, got just one question right for only four points. The team was so convinced they hadn't won that they were heading for the exits as I was reading the final team scores. But I whispered over to them that they had actually pulled out a one-point victory.

My congratulations to them and I'm glad I caught them in time.

Thanks to all of you who turned out and made it one of the best nights of 2010 so far.

Current Events
1. A study in Advertising Age magazine looked at over 11,000 magazine covers of the last four years and concluded that putting this female celebrity on the cover saw a reduction in overall sales.
2. This country last week rejected a request from the US to extradite film director Roman Polanski to face sentencing on charges of unlawful sex with a minor in 1977.
3. This college football team announced that after a $260 million renovation this summer their home stadium will now seat just under 110,000 fans, the largest college stadium in the US.
4. US News and World Report annual survey of America's best hospitals ranked this East Coast one as the best for the 20th consecutive year.
5. Last Thursday, this South American country became the first in Latin America to legalize gay marriage.
6. A memorial bust of this man was put next to the Western Allied leaders of WWII in the National D-Day memorial in Virginia sparked outrage last week and calls for its removal.
7. A music video by this male singer passed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" as the most watched video ever on YouTube, with more than 246 million views.

Answers: 1. Paris Hilton; 2. Switzerland; 3. University of Michigan; 4. Johns Hopkins; 5. Argentina; 6. Josef Stalin; 7. Justin Bieber.

Space Trivia
1. On July 20, 1976, Viking I became the first spacecraft to land where?
2. Exactly how many Apollo missions landed on the Moon: 5, 6 or 7?
3. Titan is the largest satellite of what planet?
4. Within 5 million miles, how many miles are there between the Earth and the sun?
5. At its closest, which planet is closer to Earth, Venus or Mars?
6. Who was the first American to orbit the Earth?
7. What physicist gained worldwide fame with his best-selling book about space, "A Brief History of Time," in 1988?

Answers: 1. Mars; 2. six; 3. Saturn; 4. 93 million; 5. Venus; 6. John Glenn; 7. Stephen Hawking.

10-100 Trivia ("The Q Train")
1. Pearl is the traditional gift for this number anniversary.
2. A hit song by Paul Simon had this many "ways to leave your lover."
3. This is the number of the interstate highway that goes from New York to San Francisco.
4. Beatle Ringo Starr turned this age earlier this month.
5. The US Senate has this number senators.
6. This is the distance in feet between the bases in baseball.
7. This is the number worn by Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox.
8. Ronald Reagan was this number US president.
9. Three score is this number.
10. The British prime minister lives at this number on Downing Street.

Answers: 1. thirty; 2. fifty; 3. eighty; 4. seventy; 5. one hundred; 6. ninety; 7. twenty; 8. forty; 9. sixty; 10. ten.

General Knowledge
1. What number is the cubed root of 64? ( 1 pt)
2. What is the largest religion in Turkey? ( 1 pt)
3. What 1968 movie featured an intelligent computer called "HAL 9000?" ( 1 pt)
4. What country is made up of 3,000 islands, the largest being Honshu and Hokkaido? ( 2 pt)
5. What pop singer made her screen debut in the film "Crossroads" in 2002? ( 2 pt)
6. In 1821, the US took possession of Florida after purchasing it from what country? ( 2 pt)
7. What actor portrayed Magneto in the film "X-Men?" ( 3 pt)

Answers: 1. four; 2. Islam; 3. "2001: A Space Odyssey;" 4. Japan; 5. Britney Spears; 6. Spain; 7. Ian McKellan.

IQ Trivia
1. The tragus can be found where in the human body? ( 3 points)
2. What Sesame Street character once revealed in a skit on the show that his real name was Bernie Liederkrantz? ( 4 points)
3. In 1811, which country became the first Spanish American colony to declare independence? (4 points)
4. Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris were up close witnesses of what historic event in American history? ( 4 points)
5. Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to accomplish what unique feat in 1901? ( 5 points)

Answers: 1. ear; 2. Guy Smiley; 3. Venezuela; 4. Assassination of Abraham Lincoln; 5. Survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

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