Trivia File



Q: What is the average human body temperature?
A: 98.6F == 37C but JAMA reported that it might be 98.2:
http://www.depaul.edu/~nwhitmal/csc323/normtemp_doc.txt

Q:  What language(s) are "Þ" and "Ð" from?
A:  Icelandic (didn't know there was such a thing).

Q: What's the first number to have an "a" in its English spelling?
A: One thousand  (or, some claim, "one-hundred-and-one")

Q:  Where did the symbol (and the name for) "&" come from?
A1: The symbol itself [&] is an abbreviated combination of the letters ET, 
the Roman word for "and". Its name is derived from a spoken form of the 
phrase "and per se and".  But I prefer this cute story:
A2:  A printer named "Ampers" invented it to save space.  
It's "Amper's 'and'" symbol.

Q:  What common English word contains "mt" (together like that)?
A:  dreamt

Q: What recent movie had its sequel released the same year?
A: "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face" (Harvey Keitel, et al)

Q:  Is "the Immaculate Conception" in the Bible?
A:  No. You're thinking of The Virgin Birth.

Q:  Who was born as a result of the Immaculate Conception?
A:  Mary. The Immaculate Conception, as defined by the Catholic Church, 
who invented it, was what happened to Mary's Mother, when she conceived 
_Mary _ to be "without sin".  For some reason, everyone confuses it 
with the "Virgin Birth".  For more info, see a priest.
Or: http://home.computer.net/~cya/cy00024.html or 
http://www.binary.net/polycarp/immac.html or http://www.cin.org/ineffab.html

Q:  Lake Superior is the largest Great Lake.  Which is second largest?
A:  Lake Michigan has 2nd largest volume and Lake Huron has 2nd largest surface. (Regis Philbin's new game show got it wrong and had to apologize http://cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/TV/9908/20/quiz.show.goof.ap/ )

Q: What does "ISO" stand for, e.g., in ISO-9000?
A: International Standards Organization, but according to ISO 
(http://www.iso.ch/infoe/intro.htm) it doesn't stand for anything; 
it's the Greek word "iso" for "equal".  The name of the organization 
is International Organization for  Standardization.  They now claim 
they just call themselves the word "ISO" so it will be the same in 
all languages.

Q: What did a Conference of American sociologists in 1977 describe as 
"the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive and obsessive 
fantasizing concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of 
the amorant?"
A: I don't know.  Maybe it was "infatuation".

Q: What is the capital of Scotland?
H: Starts with "E".
A: Edinburgh

Q: Who formed the 'E Street Band' as his backing group?
A: Bruce Springsteen

Q: Who said, 'Veni, vidi, vici' ('I came, I saw, I conquered')?
A: Julius Caesar

Q: In which movie, adapted from a George Bernard Shaw play, 
does the character Professor Henrry Higgins appear?
A: My Fair Lady (based on Pygmalion)

Q: In which continent did 19 nations gain independence in 1960?
A: Africa

Q: Which color is NOT featured as one of the Olympic rings: White, Red or Black?
A: White

Q: Which category of Nobel Prize did Marie Curie win in 1911?
A: Chemistry

Q: Who first had a hit with the song 'You can't hurry love' in the 1960's?
A: Diana Ross and the Supremes

Q: Which boxer did Muhammad Ali defeat in the 'Rumble in the Jungle' in 1974?
A: George Foreman

Q: Fleetwood Mac had four top ten songs from one album. Name it.
A: Rumors

Q: Which of the following people was not born in Canada: William Shatner, 
Bob Hope or Shania Twain?
A: Bob Hope

Q: The leek is the national emblem of which country?
A: Wales

Q: What word is a city in Montana and a South American snake that can grow 
to 25 feet in length?
A: Anaconda

Q: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? :)
A: Isaac Asimov explained that if you say there IS an "unstoppable" force 
in the universe, then you are saying there are no immovable objects in 
the universe.  So, it's a nonsensical question.

Q: Which U.S. President first sent ground troops to Vietnam in the Vietnam War?
A: Johnson sent first troops 1965 http://www.jg.net/jg/vietnam/glance.htm

Q: Which U.S. President withdrew all ground troops from Vietnam?
A: Nixon withdrew 1973 http://www.jg.net/jg/vietnam/glance.htm

Q: Who was President of the U.S. when S. Vietnam surrendered in the Vietnam War?
A: Ford was President when S. Vietnam surrendered 1975 http://www.jg.net/jg/vietnam/glance.htm

Q: What are the countries in "Scandinavia"?
A: Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (and sometimes Iceland, less often Finland)
"Scandinavia" (ancient Scandia), name applied collectively to three countries of northern Europe:  Norway and Sweden (which together form the Scandinavian Peninsula), and Denmark. The three countries are so grouped because of their historical, cultural, and linguistic affinities. The term Scandinavia is sometimes extended to include Iceland, which is linguistically related to the others, and less often to Finland, which is not linguistically related.  - MS Encarta

Q: Two countries occupy the Scandinavian Peninsula. Name them.
A: Norway and Sweden

Q: Of what country is Greenland "a part"?
A: Greenland (Greenlandic Kalaallit Nunaat; Danish Grønland) island is 
an internally self-governing part of Denmark.

Q: Puerto Rico is not a "state".  What is it?
A: Puerto Rico is a "freely associated commonwealth" of the United States.
Puerto Ricans share most rights and obligations of other U.S. citizens; 
residents of the commonwealth may not vote in U.S. presidential elections, 
however, and, except for federal employees and members of the U.S. armed 
forces, are not required to pay federal income taxes.  - MS Encarta
The chief executive of Puerto Rico is a governor, who is popularly elected 
to a four-year term and who may be reelected any number of times.

Q: What river passes through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, 
Yugoslavia, Romania, Blugaria and Ukraine before arriving at the Black Sea?
H: It is not really blue.
A: Danube

Q: What was the occupation of the "Seven Dwarves"?
A: Diamond Miners

Q: In 'A Christmas Carol', how many ghosts visited Scrooge?
A: Four (Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future and Jacob Marley)

Q: Which organization did Austria, Finland, and Sweden join in February, 1995?
A: European Union

Q: What volcano showers ash on Sicily?
A: Etna

Q: What color does litmus paper turn when placed in an alkaline solution?
A: Blue in alkaline, red in acid.

Q: Stretching 2,000 km, it is the biggest structure on earth made by living 
creatures. What is it ?
A: The Great Barrier Reef (near Australia?)

Q: The United States has the Dow Jones Index. What is the Japanese equivalent?
A: Nikkei

Q: What is the collective name for Tinky Winky, Dipsy, La La and Po?
A: Teletubbies

Q: Which country was split into two zones by the 'Yalta Agreement' ?
A: Germany
Yalta is an important health and vacation resort city in southern Ukraine, 
on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula, on the Black Sea.

Q: What are the four throwing events at the Olympics?
A: Shot Put, Discus, Javelin, and Hammer Throw

Q: How many U.S. states have only four letters in their name?
A: Three (Ohio, Iowa, Utah)

Q: How many U.S. states start with the letter "B"?
A: Zero

Q: What is the northernmost point in the United States?
A: Point Barrow, Alaska

Q: What is the southernmost point in the United States?
A: Ka Lae (South Point or South Cape), Hawaii

Q: What is the easternmost point in the United States?
A: Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska 
(across the 180th degree line, in the Eastern hemisphere)

Q: What is the westernmost point in the United States?
A: Little Diomede Island, Alaska or Cape Wrangell, Alaska

Q: What is the northernmost point in the contiguous United States?
A: Northwest Angle, Minnesota
(across Lake of the Woods, completely surrounded by Canadian territory)
Coordinates (NAD27): N00º00'00.0" W00º00'00.0" 
UTM Coordinates (NAD27): 15T 343753 5472054
UTM Coordinates (WGS84):
Elevation: 0 feet (0.0 meters) 
http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=336

Q: What is the southernmost point in the contiguous United States?
A: Ballast Key, Florida Keys (islands)
There's also a monument at "Southernmost Point" in Key West, Florida.
http://cayo.net/keywest/sopoint.html though Ballast Key is further south.

Q: What is the easternmost point in the contiguous United States?
A: West Quoddy Head, Maine (near Eastport, MA)
Actually, the barber-pole painted Quoddy Head Light (lighthouse). 
200 hundred yards out to sea is Sail Rock, the most eastern point in the U.S.  
Coordinates (NAD27): N44º48'54.6" W66º57'02.0" 
UTM Coordinates (NAD27): 19T 662052 4964246
UTM Coordinates (WGS84):
Elevation: 0 feet (0.0 meters) 
http://www.bjbsoftware.com/corners/pointdetail.php3?point=251

Q: What is the westernmost point in the contiguous United States?
A: Cape Alava, Washington

United States:
Area (1990): total: 3,717,796 sq mi (9,629,091 sq km), land only: 3,536,278
sq mi (9,158,960 sq km), water: 181,518 sq mi (470,131 sq km). Share of
world land area (1990): 6.2%
Population density (2000): 79.6 people per sq mi
Northernmost point: Point Barrow, Alaska
Easternmost point: West Quoddy Head, Maine
Southernmost point: Ka Lae (South Cape), Hawaii
Westernmost point: Cape Wrangell, Alaska
Geographic center (50 states): in Butte County, S.D.
(44' 58' N. lat., 103' 46' W. long.)
Highest point: Mt. McKinley, Alaska (20,320 ft)
Lowest point: Death Valley, Calif. (282 ft below sea level)
The extreme points are measured from the geographic center of the US 
(incl. Alaska and Hawaii), west of Castle Rock, S.D., 
44° 58' N. lat., 103° 46' W. long. 
If measured from the prime meridian in Greenwich, England, 
Cape Wrangell, Alaska, would be the easternmost point.

Q: What language is this:  Hyvää päivää! Kiitos!
H: Scandinavian
A: Finnish (Finland)

Q: Who were the first couple shown in bed together on prime-time television?
A: Fred and Wilma Flintstone

Q: Who was the only U.S. President to win a Pulitzer Prize and for what?
A: John F. Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage"

Q: What was the first novel ever written on a typewriter?
A: Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

Q: Which country was ruled by Idi Amin from 1971 to 1979?
A: Uganda

Q: What country is "Tabasco" in?
A: Mexico

In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services 
(two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other 
channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no 1. 

Q: What are the only mobile National Monuments in the United States?
A: cable cars in San Francisco

Q: What's the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter?
A: uncopyrightable

Old firehalls had holes-n-poles because horses learned to climb stairs.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. 
Spades:  King David. Clubs:  Alexander the Great.  Hearts:  Charlemagne.  
Diamonds:  Julius Caesar. 
Oops, Urban Legend Alert.  Apparently not true.  See www.snopes.com.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 

Q: What does it mean if a statue is of a person on a horse with both front legs in the air?
A: The person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. 

Q: How many people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776?
A: 2. John Hancock and Charles Thomson.  Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

Q: What is the shortest complete sentence in the English language?
A: I am.

The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage.  If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." 

Q: What is the longest recorded flight of a chicken?
A: 13 seconds 

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. 

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. 

The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. 

The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. 

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. 

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. 

If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar. 

No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl. 

The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver". 

The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports events (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League all-stars Game. 

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan." 

The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosey is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosey...").  These sores would smell very badly so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores ("...a pocket full of posies..."). People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!").

http://www.peg.apc.org/~toconnor/trivia.htm
Terry O'Connor says:  "Trivia" began its life as the Latin trivium meaning three-way intersection, from the root tri- meaning three and via, road. But it started to gain the "small" or "insignificant" meanings when mediaeval scholars used trivium to mean the three disciplines grammar, logic and rhetoric. These were considered less important than the four disciplines of arithmetic, music, geometry and music (the quadrivium)and eventually trivium took on the modern connotation.

tri via = 3 roads: grammar, logic, and rhetoric, 
vs. the "important" disciplines of arithmetic, music, geometry, and something.

Q: What is the tallest building in the world (at least in 1999)?
A: Petronus Towers in Kuala Lampur http://www.megatech.edu.my/MAIN/TWNTOWER.HTM (unless you measure active office space, then it's Sears Tower, or antennas-on-top, then it's World Trade Center)

Q: What are the highest waterfalls? What country are they in?
A: Angel Falls, Venezuala

Q: What is the moon of Pluto?
A: Charon http://library.advanced.org/12713/noframes/plutmoon.html
Q: What planet was farthest from the sun from 1979-1999?
A: It used to be Pluto, but it has crossed inside Neptune's orbit, making Neptune the most distant planet.

"Pluto is usually farthest from the Sun. However, its orbit "crosses" inside of Neptune's orbit for 20 years out of every 248 years. Pluto last crossed inside Neptune's orbit on February 7, 1979, and temporarily became the 8th planet from the Sun. Pluto crossed back over Neptune's orbit again on February 11, 1999 to resume its place as the 9th planet from the Sun for the next 228 years.  - http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question5.html

Q: Who was youngest man to become US President?
A: Teddy Roosevelt (42).  JFK was youngest elected man (43).

Q: True/False: President Lincoln had a secretary named "Kennedy".
A: Apparently Lincoln did NOT have a secretary named Kennedy http://www.autotechweb.com/triviaone/linken01.htm

Q: In nuclear reactors, which metal acts as a shield?
A: Lead

Q: Name the Beatles only animated feature film.
A: Yellow Submarine

Q: What was the first country to allow women to vote?
A: New Zealand
Q: What was the last industrialized country to allow women to vote?
A: Switzerland... or Vatican City?

Q: What dead science fiction author founded a world-wide religion which still keeps "offices" for him in most major cities?
A: L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology)

Q: What do Greeks say instead of "It's all Greek to me."?
A: "It sounds like Chinese." only they say it in Greek :)

Q: What's inscribed on the four facades of the eiffel tower?
A: Names of 72 French scientists

Q: What sea does Albania border?
A: (As sung by Coach on Cheers)  "Albania!  Albania!  You border on the Adriatic" (and its capital is Tirane).

10 Commandments
1 - have no other gods above the Judeo-Christian-Islam (JCI) one.
2 - don't make any realistic sculptures, and you're guilty if your great-great-great grandparent rejected God.
3 - if you're gonna lie, don't do it in the JCI god's name.
4 - never work on Sunday, and it's ok to have slaves
5 - the remote chance of inheriting land is why you should be nice to Mom and Dad
6 - it's ok to kill animals and people, just don't murder them.
7 - if you're single, don't have sex with married people and if you're 
    married, only have sex with your spouse
8 - don't steal
9 - you can lie, just don't do it about your neighbor
10 - you can covet stuff (whatever that means) as long as it's not your neighbor's, and, again, it's ok to have slaves

The Enigma machine started every message with a clue to help the receiver set their machine to decipher it:  a 3-letter code, like "ZPW", repeated twice.  Also, the typewriter-like machine would change each letter into a different letter every time it was typed, but never into the same letter.  These 2 weaknesses helped Alan Turing and the British codebreakers at Bletchley(?) Park decode the code, helping the Allies win the war.

A: What was the first platinum record album?
B: Eagles Greatest Hits 71-75

Q: Is the metal or the coin spelled "nickel" or "nickle"?
A: According to my dictionary, they're both spelled either way. http://www.anochrome-group.co.uk/p5.html and http://www.novachembv.com/ions.htm both spell it one way in their title bar and the other way on their page.
http://www.lincolnplating.com/platesrch.html and http://www.happcontrols.com/vending/paint-chem/29101900.htm spell it both ways in the same page.

Silly names for US coins: penny, nickel (or nickle), dime, etc.
Many of them do not even have the NUMBER (1, 5, 10) on them!

Dia de los muertos - day of the dead

The primary pronunciation of "forte" has 2 syllables and "naivete" has 3.

Q: What does "Mac" mean in Gaelic?
A: son of

Q: What words have the most consecutive pairs of like-letters ("bookkeeper" having 3 pairs)
Raccoonnook
Raccoonnookkeeper

Q: What word in English contains 5 consecutive consonants?
A: witchcraft
Q: What word contains 5 consecutive vowels?
A: queueing
Q: What 9 letter word only has 1 vowel?
A: strengths
Q: What word contains all the vowels?
A: sequoia
Q: What word contains all the vowels in order?
A: facetious

Q: What does `The Cherry Orchard' have in common with the original Star Trek?
A: Mr. Chekov

Q: Which President of the USSR encouraged the policy of Glassnost?
A: Gorbachev

Q: What is the last letter of the Greek alphabet?
A: Omega

Q: Who wrote `The Entertainer', music made famous by the film,`The Sting'?
A: Scott Joplin

Q: Which Knight caused the death of the Lady of Shallott?
A: Sir Lancelot

Q: Name the commoner who ruled England in 1658-59.
A: Oliver Cromwell

Q: Which popular hymn was composed by Sir Arthur Sullivan of opera fame?
A: Onward Christian Soldiers

Q: Beneath which Paris monument is the tomb of France's unknown soldier?
A: Arc De Triomphe

Q: Which drug is best known for its use in treating malaria?
A: Quinine

Q: Which sea is so named because it is too salty to maintain life
A: Dead Sea

Q: Which independent island is Australia's nearest neighbor to the west?
A: Mauritius

Q: What is the first name of Webster, who published a dictionary still used today?
A: Noah

Q: What boxer knocked out Mohammed Ali?
A: Larry Holmes (in 1980)

Q: Who piloted the US aircraft shot down by the USSR in 1960?
A: Francis Gary Powers

Q: What term is used to describe fertile land being "rested" for a season?
A: fallow

Q: Who is the patron saint of children?
A: Saint Nicholas

Q: What are the only two countries to have declared independence from Britain?
A: United States and Rhodesia

Q: What is the official language of Egypt?
A: Arabic

Q: On which continent is Vinson Massif the highest peak?
A: Antarctica

Q: What is the more common name for the tympanic membrane?
A: The eardrum

Q: Name the street that is home to British journalism.
A: Fleet Street

Q: Where did John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvery Oswald and Jack Ruby all die?
A: Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Texas, US

Q: Which movie's last line is " After all, tomorrow is another day"?
A: Gone With the Wind (and UHF)

Q: In Disney comics, who are Daisy Duck's three nieces?
A: April, May, and June

Q: Which Norse god had, as handmaidens, the Valkyrie?
A: Odin

Q: What is the alternative name for a beekeeper?
A: Apiarist

Q: How many books comprise the Old and the New Testaments?
A: 66 (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New)

Q: How many degrees above the horizon must the sun be to create a rainbow?
A: 40

Q: Which island is 50 times larger that its mother country, Denmark?
A: Greenland

Q: What name is given, collectively, to the first five books of the Old Testament?"
A: The Pentateuch

Q: In what year did Japan bomb Pearl Harbor?
A: 1941, right after we ousted them from Viet Nam!

Q: What unit of heat is required to raise 1 gm of water by one degree Celsius?
A: One calorie

Q: How many sides does a RHOMBUS have?
A: 4

Q: Which Top-20 magazines are spelled with every vowel occurring once?
H: The top 20 magazines are: 
Modern Maturity, NRTA/AARP Bulletin, Reader's Digest, TV Guide, 
National Geographic Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, 
Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, Woman's Day, Time,
People, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Newsweek, Prevention, 
Home & Away, Redbook, The American Legion Magazine
A: Modern Maturity and Sports Illustrated

Country that claims the most islands:  Finland, with 179,584.

Augusta Ada King was Countess of Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron, a
   financier, and programmer of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.

World's tallest monolith: Ayers Rock in the Australian Outback, 1143 ft.

Two states that Sam Houston was Gov of?  Tennessee (1827-29) and Texas
   (1859-61).

Only 2 major league baseball teams whose names do not end in "s":
   Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox.

Writer who omitted apostrophes in contractions, writing "didn't" as 
   "didnt" and "I've" as "Ive":  George Bernard Shaw, who crusaded for 
   the simplification of spelling and punctuation.

The most frequently used letters in the alphabet:   
   ETAON or ETAOIN SHRDLU

Ounces in a troy pound: 12.

Bible names and wine bottles:  Champagne comes in jeroboam size, equal to
   4 times the size of a normal bottle, methuselah = 8 bottles, 
   salmanazar = 12, balthazar = 16, and nebuchadnezzar = 20.

Time it takes moonlight to reach earth:  1.25 seconds.

Thor Heyerdahl sailed balsa raft "Kon Tiki" 4300 mi from Peru to South 
   Pacific in 1947 with 5 Norwegian friends to prove that pre-Incan 
   Peruvians sailed west to settle Tahiti and other South Pacific Islands.

First product of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company (3M):  Sandpaper.

First 5 words of the US Bill of Rights:  Congress shall make no law.

Intel came from "Integrated Electronics", the name they wanted, but which
   was already in use in 1968.

In Hawaiian lore, Papa is the earth mother (Mama Papa?) who mated with 
   the sky father Wakea to give birth to the Hawaiian Islands.

First records of lunar eclipses:  The Mesopotamians, 2200 BC.

US state that's the furthest east:   Alaska (Aleutian Islands cross the 
   180th meridian), Alaska is also the furthest north and west.

111,111,111 * 111,111,111 = 12345678987654321.

Normal body temp of average healthy person:  98.2 degrees fahrenheit,
   according to researchers using modern digital thermometers.

Alouette is French for "skylark"; the song is about a lark.

Ducks and drakes in UK = smutting in Denmark = skipping stones in the US

Synastry - astrology term for comparison of natal charts to forecast how 
   people with interact.

13 languages spoken by more than 100M people each (in descending order):
   Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, 
   Portuguese, Malay-Indonesian, French, Japanese, German, and Urdu.

-----

The World's Easiest Quiz ??
 
1)  How long did the Hundred Years War last? 
 
2)  Which country makes Panama hats? 
 
3)  From which animal do we get catgut? 
 
4)  In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? 

5)  What is a camel's hair brush made of? 
 
6)  The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? 
 
7)  What was King George VI's first name? 
 
8)  What color is a purple finch? 
 
9)  Where are Chinese gooseberries from? 
 
10) How long did the Thirty Years War last? 
 

Answers to the World's Easiest Quiz:
 
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? 
          116 years 
 
2) Which country makes Panama hats? 
          Ecuador 
 
3) From which animal do we get catgut? 
          Sheep and Horses 
 
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? 
          November (Calender change) 
 
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of? 
          Squirrel fur 
 
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? 
          Dogs (Canares, from the Latin, meaning dogs) 
          P.S.: The Canary Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
7) What was King George VI's first name? 
          Albert 
 
8) What color is a purple finch? 
          Crimson 
 
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? 
          New Zealand 
 
10) How long did the Thirty Years War last? 
          Thirty years 

-----

Q: Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?
A: An avoirdupois pound of feathers weighs 453.59237 grams and a troy ounce of gold weighs 373.24172 grams.

An ox is a castrated bull.

A mule is the offspring of a male ass and a female horse.

A jennet is a small spanish saddle horse, or a female donkey.

An ass is a donkey, onager, or other hooved member of the genus Equus,
   resembling and closely related to the horse but having a smaller build 
   and longer ears.

"The Thinker" by Rodin is a statue of Dante.

The only painting by an American in the Louvre is "Whistler's Mother",
   whose real name is "Arrangement in Black and Gray: The Artist's Mother".

Charles Lindbergh was the 67th person to fly across the Atlantic.

The Sermon on the Mount is the Essene Prayer, 100s of years before Christ.

The Lord's Prayer is in Mt 6 and Lk 11.

Compare 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37.

The sea sound in a seashell is really the echo of the blood flow in your ear.

Tableware consists of flatware and hollowware (aka holloware).

The Boxer Rebellion in China around 1900 consisted of Kung Fu fighters 
   destroying everything foreign.

Chang Hsien-chung, a "bandit", killed 40 million people from 1643-48, 
   including all the people in the Szechwan province of China.

The abacus is from Egypt, circa 2000 BC.

Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned - the fiddle had not been invented
   and he was in Antium, 50 miles away.

Until the time of the Caesars, all Romans were vegetarians.

Rhubarb is a vegetable.

Banana plants are herbs (not trees) - the largest of all plants without a 
   woody stem or solid trunk.

The following are fruits:  cucumber, eggplant, pumpkin, squash, tomato, 
   gherkin, and okra.

Poison oak is not an oak; poison ivy is not ivy.  Both are members of the 
   cashew family.

The onion is a lily, botanically.

The trunk/branch angle in trees is constant within a species and is the
   same in the veins of the leaves.

4,000 crocuses yield 1 oz of saffron.

The strongest liquor is 190 proof (95% alcohol).

King Ranch in Texas is larger than Rhode Island.

The male spider's penis is at the end of one of its legs.

Bees can see ultraviolet light.

Joseph Priestly (who lived in Sunbury, PA?) was an english chemist 
   who discovered oxygen and invented carbonated water.

Leonardo daVinci invented many things, including scissors.

In France, a tongue-kiss is called an "English Kiss".

The ampersand was once a letter of the English alphabet.  (?)

Arabic numerals were invented in India.

A short sentence that contains all the letters:
   Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.
(James Zimmerman reports that the Guinness Book of World Records and 
"Crazy English" by Richard Lederer have shorter ones.)

Fagin was a villian in Dicken's Oliver Twist.

If you put one grain of wheat on the first square, 2 on the second, 4 on the
   third, doubling each time, you'll end up with 18,446,744,973,709,551,615.

In 1976, there was $77B in US paper currency in use.

On a penny, Lincoln looks right - all other coins have a face looking left.

A dime has 118 grooves around the edge.  Quarters have 119.

The "Happy Birthday" song was written by Mildred and Patty Hill in 1936.

The official name of India is Bharat.

Nazi is short for Nazionalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei.

The speed of sound is 760 mph.

The best-selling non-fiction book of all time is
   Dr. Benjamin Spock's Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.

More Americans have died in automobile accidents than in wars.

The first railroad in the US had wooden tracks and was built by Thomas Leiper
   in 1809 in Crown Creek, PA.

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers 
   from their appointed rounds."  - On the front of the General Post Office
   in NYC, first said by Herodotus, Greek historian, 4th century BCE,
   about the Persian pony express.

Big Ben is not a tower or a clock - it's a bell.

Beelzebub means "Lord of the Flies".

A nautical mile (nmi) is 6080 feet.  A mile (mi) is 5,280 feet.

1/13 of Americans over 21 are alcoholics.

There is no single cat called a panther.  The name is commonly applied to the
   leopard, but it is also used to refer to the puma and jaguar.
   A black panther is really a black leopard.

Belgian Hares are actually rabbits and Jackrabbits are actually hares.

Sushi is not raw fish - it refers to the vinegared rice that can,
but need not, be paired with raw seafood.  
The pressed seaweed paper used to hold sushi together is nori. 
The raw fish is called sashimi. 
Sashimi can be combined with vinegared rice (and sometimes a bit of nori) 
to form a type of sushi, or can be ordered on its own.  
So, vegetarian sushi is not an oxymoron.




shirey@acm.org 2002-23-17
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