I’ve decided to come up with a trivia question game for New Year’s Eve. I need some help with the Q and A’s.
Nothing too cerebral, although I do have the Five Words that end in GRY as one.
I have a bunch of/for movies, but I need general trivia and thought it might be faster to post it here than me to re-read Cecil’s fabulous books to be inspired.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Two old classics:
Atlantic end of Panama Canal is west of Pacific end of canal.
Detroit is only major city in U.S. from which you drive south to Canada. (Since everyone at your party should know this, you can spice it up as “Two crooks rob a bank in the U.S. and escape south across the border. Although they only spoke English, they were able to blend in with the local citizens for several weeks to avoid capture. How?”)
Who built the first automotive assembly line?
R(ansom) E(li) Olds did it before Henry Ford.
What ship started out with the Mayflower, but turned back because of leaks?
Speedwell.
Where was the battle of Bunker Hill fought?
Breeds Hill.
Locally (for you):
How was Lake Orion Settled and what was its original name?
It was a land scam/fraud named New Canandaigua.
And then try here:
http://www.absolutetrivia.com/
Tom~
Geography Trivia
[list=1][li]What states have only straight lines for borders?[/li]
Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming
[li]no straight line borders?[/li]
Hawaii
[li]arc of a circle in its borders?[/li]
Delaware
[li]Which state is furthest south? North? West? East?[/li]
Hawaii, Alaska, Alaska, and Alaska (some islands are in the Eastern Hemisphere)
[li]Furthest north of 48 contiguous?[/li]
Minnesota
[li]Riddle:[/li]A friend in an east coast state calls a friend in a west coast state. During the phone call, the west coast friend asks what time it is where the east coaster is. Amazingly, it is the same time for the west coaster. How is this possible?
East coaster lives in the western-most part of Florida, which is in the Central Time Zone. The West coaster lives in eastern Oregon which is in the Mountain Time Zone. It is the last Sunday in October, and the Floridian has set his clock back after it hit 3 AM EDT to 2AM EST. Then he called his friend, who is still on MDT.[/list=1]
You’re posting on the STRAIGHT DOPE website and you’re asking for QUESTIONS and ANSWERS???
Sheeeeeeeeeesh. Check the Archives.
Who was the actor selected to play “Darren” on “Bewitched?”
What was George Washington’s birthday? (Hope that someone goes looking thru the calendar.)
When Neil Armstrong was standing on the moon, what was the largest man-made object that he could see with his naked eye?
(And some guy/sports stuff–they think they know everything.)
Who was the first Olympic Gold Medalist to win the Heavyweight championship?
Who was the first Heavyweight Gold Medalist to win the Heavyweight championship?
One of the most recognized sporting events in history was accomplished by Vienko Bogataj. What was it?
The answers:
Dick Sargent. However, when the time came to start shooting, he was no longer available, so they picked runner-up Dick York, the “first” Darren.
Feb 11. There was a “calendar adjustment” in the mid-18th century, which upped everything by 11 days. Washington then accordingly upped his birthday to the familiar Feb 22.
The lunar lander. (A lot of people would say “the Great Wall.”)
Floyd Patterson (1952 middleweight Gold Medalist)
Joe Frazier (1964 heavyweight Gold medalist). Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay won in 1960 as a light-heavyweight.
Vienko Bogataj is the skier who for many years symbolized “The agony of defeat” on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.”
Where is the world’s only museum dedicated to leprosy?
Bergen, Norway
When was the last witchcraft trial in England?
1945
Name three famous people who were born in Belgium
I once lost my corkscrew and had to live on food and water for several days
(W.C. Fields)
I’m surprised no one wrote that Reno is further west than LA.
-Frankie
I’m not a shrimp, I’m a King Prawn.
-Pepe the Prawn
Fr. Damien of the lepers of Molokai (interesting in light of your first question)
César Franck (composer)
Maurice Maeterlinck (dramatist)
(Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Jan van Eyck were Flemings before there ever was a Belgium.)
Tom~
How many full 4-year terms did FDR serve as president? It’s not 4, since he died. Actually, the correct answer is 2. Anyone know why? (Answer below)
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The US Constitution was amended during his tenure to move up the date presidents are sworn in. Therefore, one of his terms (I believe his second) was a couple months shorter than 4 years.
Who is the most famous Albanian of all time?
(OK, it’s a very subjective question, but I don’t know of anyone more famous than. . .)
Mother Teresa
Q#1 Who invented the modern day colored belt system in the martial arts?
A#1 Professor Jigoro Kano
Q#2 What does the term karate translate into in English?
A#2 empty-hand or chinese-hand
Q#3 Who holds the world record for breaking 25 baseball bats with his shins in 1 minute 3 seconds?
A#3 Shihan Guy Salter
Ohhh, the one about the Agony of Defeat guy is excellent. That’ll be a crowd pleaser.
Tomndeb, you are always a font of information. I like the trivia sight you gave.
I’ve thought of one:
Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?
General and Mrs. Grant.
What does the term “57 varieties” on a Heinz ketsup bottle stand for?
57 (plus) varieties of Heinz Products.
(Scammed from Cecil’s works.
I have to pick rather easy ones considering I just may be the only sober one there and these folks don’t live for totally useless information like I do. Apparently they have something called a Life. (Although the final round questions are gonna be really tough.)
Some of these are easy, some are tough. Pick and choose.
Q: Which U.S. President received the Nobel Peace Prize during his term of office?
A: Woodrow Wilson
Q: Which U.S. President received the Nobel Peace Prize after his term of office was over?
A: Theodore Roosevelt
Q: Who was the first person to serve consecutive terms as Vice-President?
A: John Calhoun
Q: Who was the first person to serve consecutive terms as Vice-president under the same President?
A: Thomas Marshall
Q: Which two U.S. presidents were father and son?
A: John Adams and John Quincy Adams
Q: Which two U.S. presidents were grand-father and grand-son?
A: William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison
Q: Which U.S. president served two non-consecutive terms?
A: Grover Cleveland
Q: How many U.S. presidents had the first name “James”?
A: Six. (Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, Carter)
JMCJ
Die, Prentiss, Die! You will never have a more glorious opportunity!
A football field is 53 1/3 yards wide (160 feet).
Re: presidential first names:
How many presidents had the first name Thomas?
Two. Thomas Woodrow Wilson dropped his first name in favor of Woodrow. (Most folksshould remember Thomas Jefferson.)
Tom~
Tomndebb: nice one, and reminded me of this one:
Q: Which President was also a King?
A: Gerald Ford. His birth name was Leslie King, Jr., but after his father abandoned the family and his mother remarried, he changed his name to Gerald Ford Jr. in honor of his step-father.
JMCJ
Die, Prentiss, Die! You will never have a more glorious opportunity!
Hmm – I always thought the grant’s Tomb answer was: nobody is buried in grant’s tomb. They are entombed.
As long as we’re on presidential trivia – name the 4 pairs of presidents who shared a last name.
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Roosevelt
Johnson
Harrison
Adams
This might have been already covered, but the only President not buried in the 50 states is Woodrow Wilson.
He’s buried in DC.
And if you like the skier question, his name is pronounced “bo-ga-tye.”
He is from Croatia, although at the time, it was still part of Yugoslavia.
His day job was a worker in an anchor factory.
And I’m not sure what you meant about the five words that end in “-gry,” since OED lists about a hundred, and none of the others are common or still-used words like “angry” or “hungry.”
But, in a similar vein, what three words (excluding plurals) begin with “manho-?”
Manhole, manhood, and manhour. (Man-hour is sometimes written without the hyphen.)