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. Like most trivia, the answers can be readily found via Google, so you’re on the honor system (i.e., do not use external resources to help you answer any of the questions). The SIXTH question of each set is generally designed to be a question that cannot be easily Googled; correct answers to those will be tracked and recognized in the next newsletter. The answers, and the next set of questions, will be published on Mondays and Thursdays.
1) In geometry, WHAT word, derived from a Greek word meaning “not falling together,” describes a line that, in a sense, continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it at any finite distance? For example, in the below depiction of f(x) = 1/x, the answer to this question describes the x-axis and y-axis.
2) NAME the band, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, that was credited by VH1 as “the first all-female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to reach Number One in the Billboard chart.” The group broke up in 1985 with each member pursuing a solo career, but has reconvened several times and has toured as recently as this year.
3) Excluding Washington, D.C., WHAT is the most populous city in the United States that shares its name with the last name of a U.S. president? (Note: The president's surname and the city's name must match entirely--so, if a president had been named John Denverton, for example, that would not match with “Denver.”)
4) WHAT television show, which debuted on NBC in 1995 and was canceled after one season, was called by The New York Times “[a] hybrid of Top Gun-style technology and A Few Good Men whodunitry”? The show was picked up by CBS, where it ran until 2005 and spawned another hit series that continues to air today (and that itself is responsible for several spinoffs).
5) NAME the sandwich periodically sold at McDonald’s that first debuted in McDonald’s restaurants around Kansas City in 1981. After being removed from the menu in 1985, it was brought back in 1994 as a tie-in with the film The Flintstones, due to the item’s ostensible connection with the opening credits of the same-named television show.
6) WHAT distinction, related to the theme of this newsletter, is shared by each of the following athletes (and many others)? Lance Armstrong, Joe Blanton, Kim Clijsters, Randall Cunningham, George Foreman, Rob Gronkowski, Gordie Howe, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Gabe Kapler, Mario Lemieux, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marshawn Lynch, Andy Pettitte, Dave Stieb, Georges St-Pierre, Rasheed Wallace, Reggie White.
Trivia Newsletter CIV Recap
1) The song “No Pigeons,” which was released in 1999 by the hip-hop group Sporty Thievz and which peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, contains lines such as “Them be them girls who gets no dubs from me” and thus was written as a rebuttal to a more popular song by WHAT girl group?
The song is a parody of, and rebuttal to, the song “No Scrubs” by TLC.
“But for the record,” The Ringer wrote in an article worth your time, “the battle was never about TLC facing off with Sporty Thievz. This was something far more grand: a never-ending war between men and women amplified by two trios, two songs, one beat, and zero apologies.” As that article details, Sporty Theivz tried to capture the same magic with rebuttals such as “No Bills” (in response to Destiny Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills”) and “Independent Menz” (“Independent Women”), with little success.
2) According to the International Bartenders Association, a “Dark ‘n Stormy” cocktail should be made using 60 milliliters of Goslings Rum and 100 milliliters of WHAT beverage?
The missing ingredient here is GINGER BEER.
A single bottle of ginger beer, in addition to sometimes being an excellent ingredient for cocktails and mocktails, is responsible for the foundation of the modern law of negligence in common-law jurisdictions.
3) The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company is often associated with (and itself explicitly advertised) a story that falsely explains the etymology of WHAT word? In the apocryphal story, the most desirable passenger cabins on the company’s ships were marked with the phrase “port out, starboard home,” as those cabins were located in parts of the ship that would stay at comfortable temperatures at night.
The word here is “POSH” (as the first letters of the phrase “port out, starboard home” make up the letters in “posh”). One of the examples that Google gives for how to use the word “posh” is the following: “[H]e may talk posh, but there is nothing fancy about Basil.” Ouch!
Basil the Bear is a main character in Sesame Park, Canada’s version of Sesame Street:
As you can imagine, there are many international versions of Sesame Street, such as Spain’s Barrio Sésamo, Mexico’s Plaza Sésamo, and the Dutch Sesamstraat. Plaza Sésamo in particular was apparently highly popular; when it first aired in 1972, it was the highest-rated television program in Mexican history, and in the 1990s, with an airing in the U.S., it became the first foreign-language co-production shown here.
4) Frances Houseman, played by Jennifer Grey and known by a nickname, is a main character of WHAT 1987 romantic drama film? The character would, according to the film’s most notable quote, probably fit in well in the Oval Office of the White House.
Houseman’s nickname is “Baby,” and so the answer is DIRTY DANCING, because nobody puts Baby in a corner.
The song “(I've Had) The Time of My Life” from the film won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Since then, exactly one FILM with an alliterative name has had a song that has won the same award. NAME THAT FILM, which also made its director the youngest director to win the Academy Award for Best Director. The answer’s at the end of this newsletter.1
5) Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, Sergeant Murphy, Mr. Fixit, Bananas Gorilla and Hilda Hippo are some of the anthropomorphic animals who occupy the “busy world” of WHAT author and illustrator, responsible for more than 100 million book sales worldwide?
This author is RICHARD SCARRY, and here’s Lowly Worm:
Scarry was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. He quickly exhibited his artistic talents and served as the “Editor and Writer of Publications for the Information and Morale Services Section of the Allied Force Headquarters.”
6) WHAT group is the theme of this newsletter?
Each of the questions or answers alluded to one of the five SPICE GIRLS:
Question #1: The question was about Sporty Thievz, meant to point towards SPORTY SPICE.
Question #2: Ginger beer, our answer, points towards GINGER SPICE.
Question #3: “Posh” points towards POSH SPICE.
Question #4: The nickname “Baby” (alluded to in the question) from Dirty Dancing points towards BABY SPICE.
Question #5: Richard Scarry points towards SCARY SPICE.
Newsletter Title: “Melange” is the fictional drug in the Dune novels and films; it is generally referred to in-universe as “the spice.”
Question #6 Leaderboard
The Question #6 leaderboard can be viewed at this link.
LA LA LAND (the director is Damien Chazelle; the song is “City of Stars”).