Question > Television

Prior to his election as President, what state did David Palmer serve and in what capacity?

UPDATE: Answer: Senator from Maryland

Question > Movies

Martin Scorsese just won the Best Director Oscar for directing The Departed, a remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Name the other films in his repartee that are also remakes.

UPDATE: Answer: Cape Fear and The Age of Innocence

Question > TV

Who does the vocals on the Sesame Street classic "Pinball Number Count" (one-two-three-FOUR-five....)?

UPDATE: Answer: The Pointer Sisters

Question > TV

What was the name of the ghostly companion of TV's The Real Ghostbusters?

UPDATE: Answer: Slimer

Question > Music

What composer wrote music used for beef commercials, an academy awards show, and Democratic National Conventions?

UPDATE: Answer: Aaron Copland

The "Hoe-Down" from his Rodeo ballet was used for the 78th Academy Awards and in the the "Beef... it's what's for dinner" campaign. "Fanfare for the Common Man" has opened Democratic National Conventions.

Question > TV

According to Lisa's recollection of Mr Burns' recollection of a letter written by Moe, what was Snake's profession prior to turning to a life of crime?

UPDATE: Answer: Archaeologist

Question > History

Who attempted to change the Latin alphabet with the introduction of new letters, two of which were the equivalent to the modern W and Y?

UPDATE: Answer: The Emperor Claudius

Question > TV

As of the end of 2006, what three original cast members are still playing their original roles on Sesame Street?

UPDATE: Answer: Bob McGrath (Bob), Loretta Long (Susan), and Caroll Spinney (Oscar the Grouch)

Caroll Spinney still plays Big Bird, which he has since the first season. However, during the first few episodes, Big Bird was performed by Daniel Seagren as Spinney was ill.

Question > Literature

In what book would you find the characters John Nike, Billy NRA, and Buy Mitsui?

UPDATE: Answer: Jennifer Government by Max Barry

The dystopian near future satire features a capitalistic culture pervaded so totally by corporations that people adopt the last name of their employer.

You Don't Know Jack - Back?

Funny. I was recently as a month ago at jellyvision.com checking things out, reminiscing about the the old days playing You Don't Know Jack (produced by Jellyvision). You see, I was You Don't Know Jack fan. I had all the games available for the Mac. I played online in exciting semi-anonymous head-to-head games against others on the 'net. I even checked out the TV Show hosted by a character played by Paul Rubens.

Then, the net version went away. The TV show didn't quite make it (I think it lasted one episode). And I pretty much stopped playing computer games.

But, through some random searching on line last week, I found that there's a You Don't Know Jack DOT Com complete with a daily "Dis or Dat" flash-based game! They even have Cookie, one of the old computer game hosts! Wow! Brings back the memories.

Dis or Dat is a trivia game where they ask if an item is one of two categories. For example: Is it a character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, or one of his cabinet members? Is it a PETA stunt, or a Jackass stunt? (examples taken from Feb 5 and Feb 2 games).

Pretty funny, and very fun to play. Jack is even more fun as a multi-player game, so I'm looking forward to hinted-at projects to bring back multi-player play online. Dis or Dat was an occasional feature of the YDKJ games, which featured more multiple choice style questions and other mini-game-like features. They are really fun games. While we wait for the next incarnation, you can get the games for your computer (no Mac version available anymore!), or just play Dis or Dat online.

High School Trivia Hunt

I'm experienced in a couple of different weekend-long trivia challenges, but the Millard Fillmore Trivia Hunt sounds pretty cool. Here's an article about it:

The event, hosted by Carlmont [high school], starts on a Friday, when Hunter presents the teams from each school with a long list of questions, many of which would stump the best of trivia buffs. The students must find the answers as well as proof to back up their answer. They also are given a list of "bring-in" items. For example, one item they were asked to find
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this year was a ticket stub from a showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
Everything must be turned in by Sunday afternoon, and on Monday night, teams assign some of their members to be "lawyers," so they can defend their answers before the "judge."

So not only do you have to answer a bunch of questions, but you have to defend your answers with proof. Pretty intense, and a bit different than just calling in your answer. Of course, that's usually calling in answers 8 times or so an hour for 54 hours. That's pretty intense, too.

Question > Literature

What short story writer and novelist passed his time in 1996 writing speeches for presidential candidate Bob Dole?

UPDATE: Answer: Mike Helprin

St Cloud Trivia in the news

St. Cloud Times published an article about KVSC Trivia today. My trivia team, Freshly Squeezed, is mentioned in the article, which is mostly about the influence of the internet on the contest. Freshly Squeezed plays KVSC Trivia remotely - we have no players in St. Cloud. This means we'll probably never get the local questions. The local questions are a pretty small number, but enough that it'll keep us out of the very top teams.

But it's a good contest. We have lots of fun playing, and it gets us primed for the World's Largest Trivia Contest in April.

Question > Literature

What author's short story collection includes several about Michigan man, Nicholas Adams?

UPDATE: Answer: Ernest Hemingway