The grass is not green. The sun is not shining. It's cold. It's wet. The birds aren't singing. The bells aren't ringing. But hope . . . is springing.
Must be Opening Day at Wrigley Field. Here's today's trick question (and the last one to be sent from this email address):
What is the earliest date for a Major League Baseball Opening Day game?
Canadian national anthem fans will be happy to know that O is the most common human blood type. So will these people who knew the answer:
Karen H (the H stands for Hemoglobin)
Norris (with bonus points for sibling taunts)
Konrad
Charles
Jessie
Paul C (the C stands for Coagulating)
H. E. (the H E stands for Heart Emissions)
Heather M (the M stands for Morbid Fascination With Crimson)
So, in the news . . . Wal-Mart claimed they owned the trademark on the smiley face. A judge disagreed, ruling they had no case against a guy who made smiley fun of them. Kudos to you, judge Smiley. You saved the fortunes of millions of electronically distributed colonic-parenthetical smiles, both genuine and ironic, from certain Wal-Martian attack. Thank you, your honor. Thank you. :) Take that, Wal-Mart. Here's today's question:
What graphic artist created the smiley face image in 1963? (Blatant, philanthropic hint: imagine a sport played by invisible rabbits).
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation is so much less cool than laser. These folks, though, are the epitome of laseresque coolness:
Frank
Karen H (the H stands for Heads Of Sharks Mounted With Lasers)
Charles
Konrad
Jenn
Kelly
Now . . . on to today's trivia otherwise known as news. Obama and Clinton are in-laws. Researchers interested in that kind of thing discovered that Obama is related to Brad Pitt and Hillary is related to Angelina Jolie. I'm not at all surprised. All four have smoldering gazes of desire seared into their expressions. Any one of them could win my vote . . . in the Smoldering Gaze of Desire of the Year election. Yeah, it's true. I'm not kidding. Hillary especially has me entranced. I just now realized it. I also just now realized that enTRANCE and ENtrance are homographs. Obviously, I'm not that entranced, or I wouldn't be distracted by homographs. Here's today's question:
What is the most common blood type? (ignoring positive or negative)
Believe it or not (no, seriously, believe it) Canada had been the leading exporter to the U.S. before China claimed the title. I know what you're thinking, "Oh, Canada." It's okay, go ahead. Sing the rest of the song in your head. I'll give you a minute.
. . .
. . .
Okay, sell the ending. Come on . . . and . . . yes! Great job. Also mucho kudos to Charles and Trevor who knew the answer and also stand on guard for thee. Okay, here's today's question:
What does the acronym LASER stand for? (And, yes, laser is an acronym.)
April 25 is the latest possible date for Easter. The Easter Bunny can file for an extension of up to three months, but he must submit Form 1085EGG with a postmark of April 25 or earlier. Trevor found that hidden fact deep within the recesses of his ginormous brain. Congratulations!
Okay, I have to hurry now. I'm being shot at by Bosnian sniper fire. Oh, no. Wait. I misspoke. I guess I just got distracted by the deafening screech coming from the brakes of the Democratic National Party tour bus. It's amazing how much momentum these candidates have lost so quickly. They're both doing a phenomenal job of making each other look bad . . . and making themselves look bad. Winning an election is kind of like winning a divorce settlement. You don't have to show what a great parent/partner you are; you just have to make the other person look incompetent and evil. And right now, it looks like John McCain is gonna get the kids and the house. Okay, so the metaphor only works in a two-party polygamist marriage, but I think you get the idea. Here's today's question:
In 2005, China surpassed what country as the leading exporter to the United States?
First off, let me apologize to anyone who has had "Trust me, I know what I'm doing" ringing in their ears all weekend, going mad wondering who said that when. Well, if you had asked Meg, she could have told you that Sledge Hammer was the detective who fired off that friendly phrase week after week on his eponymous non-hit TV show.
Now, if you were wondering if Easter could possibly have been any earlier this year, the answer is . . . not much. The earliest possible Easter date is March 22. Now let's see who knows the other bookend on that shelf. Here's the question:
What is the latest possible date for Easter (in the Western world . . . paradoxical, I know, but I like it like that)?
It's hiatuses. Actually, the folks at m-w make it really hard on you. They only list the plural (or inflected forms) when they think adding -s or -es isn't obvious. They list it if the plural takes any other form or if it's the same word (hiatus is also accepted). Here's who knew:
Neil
Heidi
Now, on to today's trivia, which comes from the last thought I had at night. I have no idea why this catch phrase popped into my head, but it did, and I couldn't remember who spawned it. So now I pass the byproducts of my misfiring brain on to you to put together. Here's the question:
What 1980s TV character regularly uttered the catch phrase, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing"?
The trivia hiatus is over. And so, hopefully, is the recent butchering of Beatles songs on American Idol. For the past two weeks the show has taken advantage of their recent coup with the owners (noseless and otherwise) of the rights to Beatles' songs by featuring Lennon/McCartney tunes one week and all Fab Four ditties the next. To borrow Simon's attitude for a moment, it was literally atrocious. Sorry.
I don't know how something can be figuratively atrocious. I know that neither I nor Simon is actually sorry to point out how bad the performances have become. I'm unsure as to why I feel the need to go on about it. So I won't. Here's today's question:
According to Merriam-Webster, what is the plural of hiatus?
Also, here's who knew that box set is the so-called correct term for a box of CDs:
Meg
Steve J (the J stands for Jethro Tull Compilation)
Rhonda
Stephen K (the K stands for KISS Collection)
Heather M (the M stands for Megadeth Through The Years)
Karen H (the H stands for Heart Hits)
Steve T (the T stands for T.E.S.L.A. Never Before Released Volumes)
Jessie
Robbie
Diannalee
You can't put that kind of genius in a box. Unless you consider your skull a box . . . then you can. But that's not the kind of box you want to let your kids play with.
Um . . . it's never too late for trivia?
Reg and Larry know their Chinooks, the rarest of dog breeds and the coolest of helicopters*. Here's today's hurry-up question:
Which exact-phrase search yields more results on Google, the search for "box set" or "boxed set"?
*Helicopter coolness ratings not confirmed by independent research.
One day the answer was 47 hours, then the next it's 48 Hours, Eddie Murphy's first movie. Here's who knew:
Reg
Heather M (the M stands for Murphy)
Neil
Paul C (the C stands for Cop From Beverly)
Karen M (the M stands for Maybe Norbert Wasn't The Best Idea)
Charles
So, here we go, on to today's question:
What helicopter name is also the name of the rarest breed of dog in the United States?
My math whiz sister . . . no, not that one . . . or that one. The other one. Yeah, Cindy was the only one who knew that after 2AM on the eve of Daylight Saving Time, there isn't another 2AM until 47 hours later. The reason is, after 1:59:59 on March 9, the next second officially become 3AM. Twenty-three hours after that, 2AM rolls around again.
Crazy. 2 AM gets such a raw deal. Anyway, here's today's question:
What film marked Eddie Murphy's cinematic debut?
Kermit the Frog spoke at renowned ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's funeral. Jenn knew that one so I give her full kudos whilst throwing my voice just like Candice's (a.k.a. Murphy Brown's, a.k.a. Shirley Schmidt's) dad used to do. I know email obscures the splendor of it, but trust me, I'm really good. Now, here's today's "I hate Daylight Saving Time" old school math word problem question:
Thanks to DST, how many hours transpired between 2:00 AM on March 8 and the next 2:00 AM to correctly display on a digital clock? (in time zones where DST is observed, of course)
MLU is in Monroe, Louisiana, as Kelly knew all too well. Okay, I don't know that you can know that all too well, she just knew it from experience, and for that I congratulate and/or console her as necessary.
On to the category of awesomest news ever: the founder of the Weather Channel wants to sue Al Gore for maliciously and negligently scaring the world about global warming. I don't know about you, but that just warms my heart. Uh oh . . . my heart's polar ice caps are melting . . . AH! AAAAAH! NOOOOO! I'm DROWNING! Oh. Wait. Nevermind. False alarm. Anyway, I think we need to come up with a new term for people who are ignorant about climate sensitivity. My warm climatic trend is just as valid as your cold climatic trend. Don't listen to Al Gore. He's a climatist! He only likes green people.
Alright, time to get off my nonrecyclable soap box. Here's today's question:
At whose 1979 funeral did Kermit the Frog speak?
Ugh. Barack. Hillary. Hillary. Barack. Why can't you people just decide already? I'm sick of it. Literally, sick of it. Technically, I don't think that is what made me sick, but there is sickness, and there is those two . . . coincidence?
I'll tell you what is not a coincidence . . . the collective genius of the people who knew Lusaka is the capital of Zambia. Here they are, in all their geographical glory:
Reg
Dana
Steve T (the T stands for Took Advanced Applied Post-Modern Geography At MLU)
Now, here's today's question based entirely on the fictional university that randomly popped into my head when trying to decide what T stands for:
What state does the airport coded MLU call home?
So this is it, the March 4 must win for Hilary Clinton. I'm pretty sure Barack Obama also would like to win a primary or two today, but more than anything, I just want it to be over. Right now it's really just a question of which 5th grade teacher you're gonna get. Is it the cool young guy who throws all the rules of teaching out the window and makes learning fun? Or is it the strict, scary old hag who thinks even recess should be conducted professionally? One way, you learn things you'd never thought you would learn and you grow as a person. With the other, you detest life, but you're practically ready for college by Christmas.
Of course, in the end you could wind up with hardened military veteran who is funny and tells great stories, but if your homework is late, he'll shove bamboo shoots under your fingernails. Ooh, the excitement. Here's today's question:
What is the capital of Zambia?
Also, mucho kudos to those who knew yesterday's question was a trick. The funny thing was, everyone (no matter what their answer was) based their answers on the suspicion I was trying to trick them. Which I was. But the trick was that it really was too easy. Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Strait of Magellan. Good thing, too, because if you can't find your own Strait, what hope is there for you. Here's who knew:
Heidi
Meg
Karen H (the H stands for How Did That Get There?)
Steve T (the T stands for Tough To Circumnavigate The Globe Without A Strait)
Dana
Andy
You're all fantastic.
Oh my goodness, look at the time! Most of you have probably run out of time to answer trivia questions for today, but I'll go ahead and . . .
A) Award credit to those who knew that 2100 is the next multiple of four year that won't be a leap year. The rule is that if it's a multiple of 4 and a multiple of 100, then it's not a leap year unless it's also a multiple of 400. Don't forget, or you'll look like a fool in 2100. A wrinkled old fool.
B) Let you know that March 31 will be my last day at Moody Bible Institute. I'm resigning to pursue freelance writing back home in Indiana. No worries, though . . . trivia is going nowhere.
C) Ask you a question. Here it is:
Who discovered the Strait of Magellan?
