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) Put aside Puerto Rico and any islands that make up the states of Alaska or Hawaii—other than those, WHAT island is the largest island by area in the United States?
2) An animated sitcom that aired from 1962 to 1963 (and again from 1985 to 1987) and a live-action sitcom that aired from 1989 to 1998 both feature major characters that share an unusual first name; the former character has a very well defined career, while the latter character has nearly no visible means of financial support. WHAT’s the shared first name?
3) The heavy-metal band Bad Wolves first found success in 2018 when their cover of a certain 1994 hit song went platinum. As part of the cover, Bad Wolves went ahead and added 102 to a line in the original song to make the new line: “It's the same old theme / In two thousand eighteen…” WHAT is the name of the original 1994 song?
4) NAME the English queen from 1553 to 1558 whose name has been omitted in the below family tree. She was most notable, perhaps, for her sanguine efforts to reverse the English Reformation.
5) In 2021, Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries were, respectively, the winning rider and passenger in the world championship of WHAT specific seven-letter subset of motorcycle racing? In this type of racing, trikes and cyclecars are banned, and the passenger’s primary role (in addition to monitoring the engine for problems) is to transfer his or her weight around during the race.
6) Exactly one film is missing from this set of seven films, each of which shares an unusual distinction. Based upon this newsletter’s theme, name the missing film. Bolero (1984), Cats (2019), Gigli (2003), Inchon (1982), Showgirls (1995), Striptease (1996).
Here are the answers from last time:
1) The Battle of Leipzig, fought in 1813, was by many measures the largest battle in Europe prior to the First World War. In that battle, Napoleon and his allies were defeated by the combined forces of Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Saxony, and Württemberg—meaning, in one sense, the battle was literally fought by WHAT, the title of a 2003 song that topped out at #76 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and that became a sports anthem of sorts?
This was a convoluted way to ask you to come up with “Seven Nation Army,” the White Stripes song. Apparently, Jack White says that “Seven Nation Army” was how he would mispronounce “Salvation Army” as a child, which is where the song’s name comes from.
2) The following passage, describing a custom of the sea, appears in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838), Edgar Allen Poe’s only complete novel:
I held out the two remaining splinters toward [Richard Parker]. It was fully five minutes before he could summon resolution to draw, during which period of heartrending suspense I never once opened my eyes. Presently one of the two lots was quickly drawn from my hand. The decision was then over, yet I knew not whether it was for me or against me. No one spoke, and still I dared not satisfy myself by looking at the splinter I held. …I immediately saw by the countenance of Parker that I was safe.
WHAT specific fate is about to befall Richard Parker? Bizarrely, decades after the novel’s publication, a cabin boy named Richard Parker faced a similar situation, leading to the seminal English criminal case known as R v Dudley and Stephens.
Richard Parker is about to get eaten by his crewmates in a desperate bid to stay alive. Today, a memorial stone to Parker (the real one) lies in Southampton in southern England—the stone reads as follows:
Though he slay me yet will I trust in him. (Job 13:15)
Lord lay not this sin to their charge. (Acts 7:60)
3) The four most prestigious events in men’s professional golf are known colloquially as the “majors.” Among players who have won at least one major in the 21st century, five players have won at least four majors in their careers: Tiger Woods (15), Phil Mickelson (6), and three others—one is from South Africa, one is from Northern Ireland, and one is from the United States. Name two of those three other players, in three guesses.
Brooks Koepka (the United States), Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), and Ernie Els (South Africa) are the three answers here. Almost 63% of the men to win a golf major have never won a second major, so it’s pretty impressive to win two (or fifteen!).
4) The Godavari River is the second-longest river in India behind the Ganges. Clocking in around 910 miles long and long considered sacred in Hindu scriptures, the Godavari flows west to east across India. In WHAT body of water can the mouth of the Godavari River be found?
The Godavari flows into the Bay of Bengal, our answer here. The Bay of Bengal is the largest body of water in the world that is generally identified as a “bay.”
5) Name the English philosopher, born in 1588, who wrote the following words, warning what life would be like if not for government:
In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
The quote is from Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan. The “money quote” that people tend to remember is the last bit—”nasty, brutish, and short” would make a pretty good name of a law firm of miserable attorneys.
6) WHAT unusual distinction do each of these films share? Forbidden Planet (1956), Help! (1965), Apocalypse Now (1979), Octopussy (1983), Scarface (1983), Aladdin (1992), Double Team (1997), Vegas Vacation (1997), Gladiator (2000), Red Dragon (2002), The Hangover (2009), Zootopia (2016), Army of the Dead (2021).
Each of these films features a tiger on-screen. Question #1 was meant to make you think of “stripes,” Question #2 included an allusion to Richard Parker (which is also the name of the shipwrecked tiger in Life of Pi), Question #3 explicitly spotted you Tiger, Question #4 had “Bengal” in the answer, Question #5 was Hobbes (i.e., the tiger from Calvin & Hobbes), and finally the newsletter’s title included an allusion to William Blake’s seminal 1794 poem “The Tyger.”
The current Question #6 leaderboard can be viewed at this link.