Below are six trivia questions I’ve written. You can reply to this e-mail if you’d like to participate. Like most trivia, the answers can be readily found via Google, so you’re on the honor system. The SIXTH question of each set is designed to be a question that cannot be easily Googled, so correct answers to those will be tracked and recognized in the next newsletter. The answers, and the next set of questions, will be published every Monday and Thursday.
1) Some old trivia chestnuts include the fact that “Panama hats” are actually from Ecuador and not Panama, and the fact that the Hundred Years War was actually 116 years long. Another one of these: The Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa, are not actually named after the bird we know as the canary; in fact, the bird is named after the islands. Instead, the Canary Islands are named after WHAT animal? Pliny the Elder wrote that the island Canaria in particular contained vast multitudes of large varieties of the animal.
2) A malapropism is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical and sometimes humorous utterance. For example, Yogi Berra (perhaps intentionally) once said that the State of Texas has a lot of “electrical votes” instead of electoral votes. WHAT three-word malapropism, comprised of common food-adjacent English words, did the person in the below image come up with when trying to write a common French phrase?
3) Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, a species of fish in the family Gempylidae, is also known as snake mackerel, walu walu, or, most commonly, WHAT seven-letter term? The fish is likely most notable for (whether through ignorance or deceit) being mislabeled and sold as tuna at sushi restaurants and fish markets—in fact, the nations of Italy and Japan have banned sales of it due to its toxicity, whereas the Food and Drug Administration recommends that it “should not be marketed in interstate commerce.”
4) In 1773, the philosopher Voltaire sardonically quipped the following:
This body which was called and which still calls itself the [BLANK] was in no way [BLANK], nor [BLANK], nor an [BLANK].
WHAT is the multi-ethnic complex of territories, dissolved in 1806, described by Voltaire?
5) There are, by my count, ten NFL teams that do not actually play their games in the city or state indicated by their team name—for example, the Dallas Cowboys actually play their home games in Arlington, Texas. Ignoring teams whose name does not clearly map to a specific state or city, of the ten teams with a mismatched city/state name, name EITHER of the two who have never won a Super Bowl.
6) What unusual distinction is shared by each of these songs? “Bodak Yellow” by Cardi B, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “Dirt Road Anthem” by Jason Aldean, “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths, “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, “Jumper” by Third Eye Blind, “Lovesong” by The Cure, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba, and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.
Here are the answers from last time:
1) You might know a DMV as an occasional annoyance in your life and a DMX (may he rest in peace) as an occasional joy in life. If you’re thinking of a DMZ, though, and specifically the one located at latitude 37°54'32.274" and longitude 126°42'17.5356", you are thinking of something separating WHAT two countries?
This question was looking for North and South Korea—”DMZ” refers to “demilitarized zone,” and the coordinates were meant to help you clue into the somewhat famous “38th parallel” separating the two nations. Ironically, the Korean demilitarized zone is one of the most heavily militarized areas in the world, despite the name. Other demilitarized zones include areas on the Sinai Peninsula, around Kuwait, and the entirety of Antarctica.
2) The overhead system, the floor pick-up system, and electric batteries are the three methods that can be used to power WHAT frivolity, the current largest operating example of which is in Gurnee, Illinois?
These are bumper cars—hopefully the notion that they can be powered via the ceiling, the floor, or by battery was enough to get your wheels spinning. As the clue states, the largest bumper-car floor in the world is “Rue Le Dodge,” the bumper car arena in Six Flags Great America.
3) Name the American playwright known as the “theater’s poet of Black America.” Among his many accomplishments, he is the only person to be nominated for six or more Pulitzer Prizes for Drama (and the only person from Minnesota to ever win one) and the only person not named Neil Simon to be nominated for nine or more Tony Awards for Best Play—less importantly, he won the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1988.
The answer here is August Wilson, who is best known for a series of ten plays called The Pittsburgh Cycle, which set out to chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. A quick fact about The Pittsburgh Cycle—nine of the ten plays are set in (obviously) Pittsburgh, while one (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) is set in Chicago.
4) A “before, during and after” question is a question that requires you to link three concepts—for example, a recent Jeopardy! clue asked for an “AMC zombie spin-off about the last thing Wild Bill was dealt, an antiseptic cleansing agent,” and the question was “[What is] Fear the Walking Dead Man’s Hand Sanitizer?” What is the solution to the following before, during and after?
The last James Bond film to star Timothy Dalton with the debut studio album by the band Metallica, featured on the television show that was nominated for Favorite TV Show in the Kids’ Choice Awards in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2020.
The answer here was “Licence to Kill ‘Em All That.” License to Kill has a few distinctions—it’s the first Bond film to be filmed entirely outside of the UK, and it’s the first film that does not use the name of one of Ian Fleming’s works. The film was originally to be called Licence Revoked (Bond has his “license to kill” revoked in the film), but the name was changed when it was realized that American audiences would immediately think of a driver’s license.
5) Imagine for this question you are the worst Wheel of Fortune player ever. Improbably, you have reached the final round of the game, where you must solve one last puzzle. The category is “U.S. States” and the game, as always, spots you R, S, T, L, N, and E. No letters are illuminated on the board. Immediately, with no thought, you blurt out your lucky extra letters: “Z, W, D, and U!”. Again, no letters are illuminated. (You also can’t count how many letters there are because you’re bad at that too.) Despite your plight, you still have enough information to solve the puzzle with a single guess. WHAT U.S. state is the game looking for?
It’s Ohio! A common trivia fact you see about Ohio is that, of the fifty states, it has the only non-rectangular state flag. I don’t know what else to say about Ohio, but flights to Cleveland are very cheap, no matter where you are or what time of year it is, so you can go learn about Ohio whenever you want.
6) What unusual distinction is shared by each of these films? The Natural (1984), Crossroads (2002), Garden State (2004), Lincoln (2012), Home (2015), Ad Astra (2019).
These are each movies for which the entirety of their name appears on a common state license plate that has been issued in the past 20 years or so—for example, Arkansas license plates commonly have the motto “The Natural State” on them, and Illinois license plates commonly state “Land of Lincoln” on them. The name of the newsletter (“Vanity”), the references to cars throughout the quiz (DMV, bumper, plate, license), and Question #5 being a broad survey of U.S. states were my attempts to get you thinking along these lines.
The current Question #6 leaderboard can be viewed at this link.