January 14, 2009 question

The Wall-Street all-stars after the Enron meltdown in 2001 were none other than the bad boys of Enron. The blessings they bestowed upon the California energy landscape have since been passed on to the entire gas-guzzling community. If you want to get irritated, as Heather M (the M stands for Make Mine A Double), Steve T (the T stands for Tap's Open), Trevor, Karen H (the H stands for Hold The Barbecue And The Chicken On That Jack Daniel's Barbecue Chicken), and Karen M (the M stands for Maybe I Should Drive) probably were when they recalled the answer on Monday, check out this quote from former Enron exec Kenneth Lay, before he was convicted of being Lex Luthor:

"The broader goal of [Krugman's] latest attack on Enron appears to be to discredit the free-market system, a system that entrusts people to make choices and enjoy the fruits of their labor, skill, intellect and heart. He would apparently rely on a system of monopolies controlled or sponsored by government to make choices for people. We disagree, finding ourselves less trusting of the integrity and good faith of such institutions and their leaders.

"The example Mr. Krugman cites of 'financialization' run amok (the electricity market in California) is the product of exactly his kind of system, with active government intervention at every step. Indeed, the only winners in the California fiasco were the government-owned utilities of Los Angeles, the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. The disaster that squandered the wealth of California was born of regulation by the few, not by markets of the many."

The tactics in question boiled down to a bit of legislation that allowed Enron to inflate prices of everything under the shroud of what became known as Investor-Satan privilege, a law that expressly forbids the government from investigating the terms of any agreements between futures & commodity traders and the Lord of Darkness.

Can you tell the frigid snow storm is making me irritable? Here's today's question:

True or False (see, I'm feeling irritable, but generous): Pepto-Bismal contains a radioactive ingredient.

January 9, 2009 answer

Mega kudos to Steve T (the T stands for Three) who knew that 3 of the 11 BCS National Champions (including this year's Gators and last year's Tigers) got to play the championship game in their home state. Two teams have actually lost the title game in a home atmosphere. The BCS is just fair all around. Way to go, Steve!

January 12, 2009 question

Yes, it did take me nine days to realize this was 2009. So sue me.

I caught the opening story on 60 Minutes last night about the true reason behind the sudden jump (and subsequent crash) in the price of gasoline at the pump. It was a real good story, but allow me to oversimplify it for us all.

Think of oil as Miley Cyrus concert tickets. Think of the oil companies as TicketMaster. The report alleged that concert venues are getting bigger, there are more dates on the tour schedule, and interest in Miley Cyrus is waning slightly. But there are these people called commodity traders (aka ticket scalpers) who don't even like Hannah Montana, but they still buy up all the tickets they can for the entire tour. They have a real good feeling that Miley's minions will pay a lot more than what TicketMaster is charging, and they're right. But fans can't buy Hannah Montana tickets from the scalpers . . . no, the scalpers have no intention of selling to actual consumers. They don't even want the smell of Hannah Montana tickets on their hands. Instead, they sell the tickets to actual ticketing agents, who then dispense the tickets to the real fans at about 4 times the face value. TicketMaster does pretty well (especially since they realize they can increase their prices now that the scalpers have driven up the market price. Miley Cyrus ain't hurting. The smaller ticketing agents barely make a living. The people who make the most money are the scalpers . . . yeah, the one's who add exactly zero point zero, zero to the well being of the world. And it's all perfectly legal. Yummy.

It's ridiculous, whether you're talking about oil, gas, or actual concert tickets. The answer to today's question is the real kicker, though. Here it is:

According to the story on 60 Minutes, investors from what company became the most sought-after recruits on Wall Street as 2001 came to a close?

January 9, 2009 question

Mah-Jongg is a trademarked name that has no direct Chinese translation. I would have accepted "trick question," or "I hate you, Adam," as well. It was a transliteration of the Cantonese name for the game, Mahjek, which means "sparrow," as several people guessed. Since the game was patented in 1923, the popularity of the new made-up name became so popular that it infiltrated Chinese folklore to the point that many people believe Confucius invented it. Saying the game was created by Joseph P. Babcock just doesn't sell tiles.

Nobody knew, but now we all do. Except for the people who are so convinced by the generational lies that they will email me back and argue about it. Fun! :) Here's today's question:

Of the 11 BCS national championship games*, how many have been played in the home state of the winning team?

*That's college football, if you were wondering. You know who you are**.

**I will not accept an answer of "I hate you, Adam," for today's question.

January 8, 2008 question

Only Kyle knew that the frog with the really long name is the only known species of frogs to not have any lungs. Some salamanders are lungless, along with another legless amphibian. Just to keep things straight. Kyle does have lungs. And he did know the answer. No idea whether the frog knows he doesn't have lungs.

Okay, time for an even harder one . . . or is it? Here's today's question:

What is the literal Chinese translation of "Mah-Jongg," the popular tile game of luck and strategy?

January 6, 2008 question

It's a new year, and I'd like to tell you I've resolved to being more consistent with trivia than I was last year . . . but seeing as we're six days in and you're only just now receiving your first question of 09, maybe we'll hold off on any predictions. Then again, waiting this long for trivia isn't that much worse than waiting until January 8 to play the last college bowl game.

When I left you last year, we were collectively wondering what the other half of fat free half & half is. Karen M (the M stands for Moo Point) knew that the mystery ingredient is almost always corn syrup. Corn syrup, cream, what's the difference? Way to know what you aren't putting in your body, Karen! On to today's question. Here it is:

The Barbourula kalimantanensis is the only known species of frog that has no . . . what?

December 23, 2008 question

Most of your guesses reflect Al Gore's global warming projections (except for one guess that was somewhere around absolute zero). But Trevor definitely was very warm with his uber-frigid guess of -121 degrees, which is not a lot toastier than the correct answer of -128.6.

I will make no attempt at a segue between that and the next topic: fat free half & half. I have no idea what possessed me to do so, but I accidentally grabbed a quart of fat free half & half out of the refrigerator of my local grocer. My wife took great pleasure in pointing out that I had made a fat-free selection, something I never consciously do. Seriously. I don't even like fat free vegetables. But the idea of freeing the fat from something that is half milk (the lower fat half) and half cream (the luscious, flavorful, tubby half) just made no sense. Then I looked at the label, which leads me to today's question:

Fat free half & half is half skim milk and half what*?

(Contains less than 2% of a bunch of negligible ingredients)