Hi all—today we’ve got another guest post for you. This one’s by Mister Skeleton, the proprietor of Mister Skeleton’s Trivia Zone, another great trivia Substack that we’ve plugged before. It’s a lot of fun, so check it out at the link below!
Thanks to Mister Skeleton for today’s questions, which, as you’ll see, have been written in his trademark style.
Below are six trivia questions. If you’d like to participate, you can either reply to this e-mail or submit your answers via Google Forms by using the button below. You can find our rules and guidelines by following this link.
1) Three main types a’ champagne glass are a coupe, a tulip, and a WHAT? A coupe is kinda shallow and broad, whereas the type I'm askin’ about is thin and tall, which I guess is better at helping keep the bubbles in your bubbly.
2) Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne are all fictional characters who’ve been better known to you ’n’ me by WHAT alias?
3) WHAT fruit, member of the genus Cydonia, usually isn't eaten raw, but instead gets processed into a paste or “cheese” that's kinda like a jelly or a marmalade? Well, not just like a marmalade—it is marmalade, that's literally the Portuguese name for this fruit! Anyway, what’s this fruit's English name? That's what I wanna know.
4) In 1801, Captain Robert Richard Randall established a marine hospital in Manhattan for “aged, decrepit and worn-out seamen.” A couple a’ decades later the complex was moved to the north shore of Staten Island, and nowadays it's a cultural center and botanical garden operated by the New York City Department of Parks ’n’ Recreation. WHAT’S it called?
5) It's not just a nose, ‘cause it's also a mouth and jaw. Ya might also call it a muzzle, or a proboscis if you're fancy. I mean, if you’re super-duper fancy ya might call it a rostrum, although I think that'd get ya some raised eyebrows (unless you're writin’ in a fancy science paper or something like that). Anyway, WHAT FIVE-LETTER WORD is in the title of a William Carlos Williams poem, along with the word “weasel”?
6) A quark is an elementary particle that comes in one a’ six possible “flavors.” WHICH of these flavors best fits the theme of this newsletter?
Trivia Newsletter CLVIII Recap
1) WHAT song is the first song on the first album by the Beatles, Please Please Me? Believed to be the only song by the Beatles that all four members performed on stage during their respective solo careers to any extent, the first verse contains the line “you know what I mean” and not Paul McCartney’s original suggestion of “never been a beauty queen.”
This is “I SAW HER STANDING THERE.” To quote McCartney:
We were learning our skill. John would like some of my lines and not others. He liked most of what I did, but there would sometimes be a cringe line, such as, “She was just seventeen, she’d never been a beauty queen.” John thought, “Beauty queen? Ugh.” We were thinking of Butlin’s so we asked ourselves, what should it be? We came up with, “You know what I mean.” Which was good, because you don’t know what I mean.
2) The deadliest airliner shootdown incident in history occurred on July 17, 2014, when a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down while in the airspace of WHAT country?
This is UKRAINE. Earlier this year, an international team of investigators found “strong indications” that the supply of weapons to separatists who shot down the airliner was approved by Russian president Vladimir Putin, but that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Putin (even if such a prosecution were plausible).
3) WHAT highly reactive chemical element can appear as a yellow-green gas, and indeed was named by English chemist Humphry Davy after a Greek word meaning “greenish-yellow”?
This is CHLORINE.
Davy pioneered a lot of important discoveries; here are some:
Davy early concluded that the production of electricity in simple electrolytic cells resulted from chemical action and that chemical combination occurred between substances of opposite charge. He therefore reasoned that electrolysis, the interactions of electric currents with chemical compounds, offered the most likely means of decomposing all substances to their elements. These views were explained in 1806 in his lecture “On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity,” for which, despite the fact that England and France were at war, he received the Napoleon Prize from the Institut de France (1807). This work led directly to the isolation of sodium and potassium from their compounds (1807) and of the alkaline-earth metals magnesium, calcium, strontium, and barium from their compounds (1808). He also discovered boron (by heating borax with potassium), hydrogen telluride, and hydrogen phosphide (phosphine). He showed the correct relation of chlorine to hydrochloric acid and the untenability of the earlier name (oxymuriatic acid) for chlorine; this negated Lavoisier’s theory that all acids contained oxygen. He also showed that chlorine is a chemical element, and experiments designed to reveal oxygen in chlorine failed. He explained the bleaching action of chlorine (through its liberation of oxygen from water) and discovered two of its oxides (1811 and 1815), but his views on the nature of chlorine were disputed.
4) NAME the individual who, following a trial taking place from March 5 to May 26, 1868 regarding violations of the Tenure of Office Act, was acquitted.
This is ANDREW JOHNSON. Johnson is regularly cited as one of the worst presidents in American history, and this question described his impeachment. But what exactly did Johnson do to get impeached?
The final blow came after the passage of the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. This law made it impossible for the president to dismiss important government officials without the permission of the Senate. In a move that infuriated Congressmen, Johnson defied the act.
The president had long wanted to dismiss the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton was the only member of Johnson's cabinet who supported the Radical Republicans' program for reconstruction. On August 12, Johnson suspended Stanton. In his place, Johnson appointed the popular General Ulysses S. Grant Secretary of War. By doing so, Johnson hoped to challenge the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act.
When Congress reconvened, they overruled Stanton's suspension, and Grant resigned his position. The event heightened Grant's popularity and depressed Johnson's -- at least as far as Republicans were concerned. Ignoring Congress, Johnson formally dismissed Stanton on February 21, 1868. With the support of the Republicans, Stanton responded by locking himself in his office and refusing to leave.
Angered by Johnson's open defiance, the House of Representatives formally impeached him on February 24 by a vote of 126 to 47. They charged him with violation of the Tenure of Office Act and bringing into “disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States.” It was then up to the Senate to try Johnson.
Johnson's trial began on March 4th1 and continued for 11 grueling weeks. During that long period, the president's enemies had time to reconsider the Stanton dismissal. Many of them were impressed with Johnson's good behavior during the trial. Johnson also took action to save himself. He promised to enforce the Reconstruction Acts and to give no more speeches attacking Congress. He also appointed a man well liked by most Republicans, General John M. Schofield, as the new Secretary of War.
On May 16, 1868, President Johnson escaped removal from office by just one vote. For the remainder of his time in office, he continued to veto reconstruction bills, but Congress overrode his vetoes. The Radical Republicans' program for reconstruction continued. In 1868, the Republican candidate, General Ulysses S. Grant, won the presidency.
5) A lone kireji with a kigo and some on can be found in WHAT?
This is a HAIKU. Read more about those elements here. You may have noticed that this question had the same 5-7-5 syllable structure as a haiku, which was meant to be a small clue.
By the way, WHAT is the name of the Japanese poet who lived from 1644 to 1694 and is generally regarded as the greatest master of haiku? He wrote haiku such as this one:
furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto
(an ancient pond / a frog jumps in / the splash of water)
The answer’s at the end of this newsletter.2
6) The title of WHAT U.S. magazine best relates to the theme of this newsletter?
The magazine we wanted is SEVENTEEN, because each of the answers related to the number 17 in some fashion:
Question #1: The working title of “I Saw Her Standing There” was “Seventeen” and its first line is “Well, she was just seventeen.”
Question #2: The flight we asked about was Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, or MH17.
Question #3: Chlorine is the seventeenth element on the periodic table.
Question #4: Andrew Johnson was the seventeenth president of the United States.
Question #5: A haiku has seventeen syllables.
Newsletter Title: We called this one “It’s the Least You Can Sudoku” because a proper sudoku puzzle (i.e., a puzzle with only one solution) requires, at a minimum, seventeen digits to already be inserted into the grid (as a necessary but not necessarily sufficient condition). Read more about that here.
Question #6 Leaderboard
The Question #6 leaderboard can be viewed at this link.
“Didn’t your question say the impeachment trial began March 5th? Why does this article say March 4th?” PBS is pointing to March 4th as the date on which the articles of impeachment were delivered to the Senate, and I’m pointing to March 5th because that’s when the “court” convened.
The Japanese poet we asked about is Matsuo Bashō.