Ken Jennings trivia challenge

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

Wait. What? You said, "Which, while insipid is maddeningly catchy and has been stuck in my head for about two weeks now. Arrgh!" So don't blame your ear critters on me! :P

[musicgeek]

Nope, that was me!

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

See, Spam, my earworm is your fault! It's not even the same song.

Luckily, it's YouTube to the rescue. Play lots of different songs and the earworm shrivels and dies.

Seaboe

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

I guess I got confused. Easy mistake. You both use the same font for your username, and have black in the lower right edges of your avatars.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Good save.

Seaboe

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

I can't tell my own kids apart. You think strangers on the internet are any easier?

[MacLloyd]

LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS

1. What animal is popularly known in North America as a polecat? In Europe, the polecat was a type of weasel, but in North America, as far back as the 17th century, the term's been borrowed to refer to the skunk.

2. The chorus of what 2012 hit song begins, "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number"? ...So call me maybe. I'm sorry I got this stuck in your head again.

3. From his 1306 coronation until his 1329 death, who led the Wars of Scottish Independence against England? Robert the Bruce. If you got this because of Braveheart, that's okay.

4. What device, invented at Bell Labs in 1947 by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley, made possible the next half-century of miniaturized radios and other electronics? Those three shared a Nobel Prize for inventing the transistor.

5. Mohammed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq are recent political rivals in what nation? They recently vied for the presidency of Egypt. This was a little more current a month ago when I wrote it before leaving on vacation.

6. Brick, lumber, wool, grain, and ore are the five original resources found on what imaginary island? Catan, as in "Settlers of" and its Euro-board game sequels.

7. What unusual distinction is shared by these countries, listed in this order? Sudan, Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro, Indonesia, the United States, Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the USSR. These are the countries from which the world's newest independent nations were carved: respectively, South Sudan, Kosovo, both Serbia and Montenegro, East Timor, Palau, Eritrea, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kazakhstan. (Admittedly, I left off Germany, a merger that didn't really fit the list.)

[MacLloyd]

Per Ken Jennings' request, the trivia challenge discussed on this message board has the number seven question delayed by one week. This is to avoid easy googling of the question which is designed to foil those who would "cheat". If you know the current number seven question, please do not discuss it here.

The Rules of the Thread
1. If you use the thread to help you get answers, do not submit those answers to the official game.
2. No googling until Sunday. No looking anything up anywhere (and posting it) before Sunday. No checking an article in a magazine you read last week. No checking some old notebook from college. No wikipedia. Not even snopes.com. No checking anything, anywhere - until Sunday. Only information that is stored in your brain, or in the brains of your non-snopester friends and family. But you can't use your family members as a work-around to looking up the information yourself.
3. If you google, don't post that information to the thread until Sunday. Not even as confirmation of the guesses of other posters. Someone else might still know the information on their own.
4. No guess is stupid, throw it out there.
5. No Hinting. If you have a guess or a reasonable belief that you have the right answer, post it. If you are attempting to use hinting as a work-around to the no posting googled answers rule, don't.

And remember, this is an exhibition, not a competition, so please... no wagering.

Hey, Tuesday Trivia-ers, I am back at home and catching up on the Tuesday Trivia backlog. We now have a scoreboard posted at http://ken-jennings.com/messageboard...pic.php?t=7148 as well as final results from our last ten-week challenge. Five players were tied with perfect Question Seven scores: Bud & the Buzztimers, the Maryland Red Foxes, TG Gibbon, Erik Wennstrom, and Diane Krszjzaniek. The Buzztimers and Foxes have won in constests past, so I hope they won't be heartbroken that I broke the five-way tie by sending signed books to the other three top scorers. Congrats to all!

One other housekeeping detail: a former Tuesday Trivia winner e-mailed the other day to complain about a Question Seven ruling, and mentioned in passing that he used Internet research to solve the final question. I was shocked at his lack of self-awareness--why confess to a guy running a quiz that you've been cheating at it for months? He replied that (a) surely everybody else cheated too, because otherwise how would they know all that stuff, and (b) the original bottom-of-quiz boilerplate referred to the seventh question as "harder to Google," which he took as a winking invitation to Google away.

I don't think his interpretation is widespread, but let me re-emphasize our long-established policy, in case others have made the same mistake: if you're not submitting answers to Tuesday Trivia, play the questions any way you like. But if you're submitting answers, please respect our honor system and your fellow players and solve the quiz off the top of your head, without referring to any outside materials. Thanks!

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS

1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete?

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what?

4. What title character of a 2007 movie gets called "the cautionary whale" by her classmates at Dancing Elk High School?

5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere?

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? Avatar, The Freshman, Hud, In the Cut, Mildred Pierce, Monkeybone, No Country for Old Men, The Specialist, That's My Boy.

[MacLloyd]

1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete?

It could only be Lou Gehrig

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

WAG - (although it's probably not correct, too obvious) Africa???

3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what?

Lead

4. What title character of a 2007 movie gets called "the cautionary whale" by her classmates at Dancing Elk High School?

I do not know, though I probably should.

5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere?

IIRC - the troposphere

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

No idea

7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? Avatar, The Freshman, Hud, In the Cut, Mildred Pierce, Monkeybone, No Country for Old Men, The Specialist, That's My Boy.

Wow, I have seen them all (except for That's My Boy) and I can't think of anything at all.

MacLloyd

[kitap]

Airports- is it Europe?

Hagiography is about saints..

[Don Enrico]

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

My guess would be Africa.

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

Saints, specifically Roman Catholic Saints.

I'm a little proud that I sort of got the number 7 question last week. I don't this week, though.

[Floater]

1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete?

Lance Armstrong?

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

Europe

3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what?

Lead

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

Saints

[effo5231]

Oh! My constant lurking has paid off with a series I know all the answers to!

1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete?

Lou Gerhig

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

Unless the Vatican has installed a landing strip, the answer has to be Europe.

3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what?

Lead

4. What title character of a 2007 movie gets called "the cautionary whale" by her classmates at Dancing Elk High School?

Ellen Page as Juno

5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere?

Troposphere

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

Saints

7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? Avatar, The Freshman, Hud, In the Cut, Mildred Pierce, Monkeybone, No Country for Old Men, The Specialist, That's My Boy.

Hmmm. Avatar, In the Cut, The Freshman, and No Country all have directors who also wrote the script. Don't know about the others but that's probably not an unusual enough distinction.

Guess I didn't know all of them. I'm going to keep puzzling this one though.

[Don Enrico]

I've been thinking about it, and now I'm sure that for No. 2, Europe is the more likely answer - because of the Vatican, as effo 5231 wrote. Liechtenstein , Andorra and Monaco probably are the other three countries.

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS
All WAGs except 6.
1. Lou Gehrig
2. Africa
3. Jelly
4. Juno
5. Lithosphere
6. Saints!!!

ETA: I knew I should have said Europe.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Originally Posted by MacLloyd

THIS WEEK'S QUESTIONS

1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete?

Jim Thorpe

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

Africa

3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what?

Lead (I almost put jelly, because it's funnier)

4. What title character of a 2007 movie gets called "the cautionary whale" by her classmates at Dancing Elk High School?

Juno

5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere?

troposphere

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

Saints, if you believe in such things

7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? Avatar, The Freshman, Hud, In the Cut, Mildred Pierce, Monkeybone, No Country for Old Men, The Specialist, That's My Boy.

They're about people who give up their children so the children can move up in society. No, I haven't seen them all. How could you tell?

Seaboe

[Andrew of Ware]

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

Europe - I'm guessing at The Vatican City, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, but don't quote me.

5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere?

Troposphere popped into my brain.

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

You get hagioscopes in mediaeval churches so that people in side aisles and chapels can see the priest bless the bread and wine during communion, so I'm guessing at clergy.

7. What unusual distinction is shared by all these movies? Avatar, The Freshman, Hud, In the Cut, Mildred Pierce, Monkeybone, No Country for Old Men, The Specialist, That's My Boy.

I haven't seen any of them, but as that would not be unusual I don't know.

[chillas]

1. Luckiest Man and Iron Horse are the title of two biographies of what athlete?

Lou Gehrig.

2. The world's only four countries without an airport are all located on which continent?

I would assume that neither Vatican City nor Lichtenstein have one, and I'm pretty sure that Monaco does not either, so that would be Europe. (Can't think what the fourth country would be).

3. If you believe his nickname, the blues musician who made the song "Midnight Special" famous had a belly made of what?

Huddie Ledbetter was known as Lead Belly.

4. What title character of a 2007 movie gets called "the cautionary whale" by her classmates at Dancing Elk High School?

Going to guess that was Juno.

5. What layer, lying below the stratosphere, is the lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere?

Troposhphere.

6. Hagiography is the study of what kind of people?

Saints.

[Simply Madeline]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...ews_quiz_.html

Welcome to Slate’s new weekly news quiz. I’m your host, 74-time Jeopardy! winner Ken Jennings.

Every Friday I’ll be testing your knowledge with 12 challenging questions on the week’s news events, big and small, including happenings in science, sports, politics, and culture both high and low.

[Don Enrico]

You got 9 out of 12 answers correct in 1 minutes 44 seconds.

I got 332 points for that - above average, but below David Plotz.

There was a sports question, though, so I will be fighting my result.