June 3, 2008 question

The first cereal to use NutraSweet was called Halfsies, and it featured the wise old King of the Land of Half, drawn by Jay Ward, the Rocky & Bullwinkle creator. Nobody knew, yet again. I guess we're gonna have to go multiple choice or 50/50 to see if we can get back on track.

Alright, people, psych yourselves up, get your thinking caps on, and answer this bad boy of a question:

Of Rocky & Bullwinkle, who was given the middle initial "J" in reference to the show's creator, Jay Ward?

June 2, 2008 question

There are too many things to make fun of. Me, for not knowing what day it was last week. Pope Gregory XV for founding Congregatio de propaganda fide. Y'all, for not knowing your seventeenth century popes. Obama, for leaving his church. Everyone who preaches at his church, for acting like they're on Saturday Night Live. Everybody, for not being able to handle a white catholic priest speaking in a predominantly black protestant church making fun of a white female presidential candidate for being afraid of a male presidential candidate of mixed racial heritage (if that ain't America, I don't know what is). The NBA, for scheduling a week between the end of the conference finals and the beginning of the finals (and spreading the seven-game series over the course of two full weeks). Mixed martial arts fans, for being mixed martial arts fans. The New Kids on the Block and 90210, for coming back. The list really does go on and on. To celebrate, here's some trivia from the '80s, the decade most worthy of a good mocking:

What kids cereal was the first to use the ingredient, NutraSweet?

May 28, 2008 question

A lot of good guesses yesterday, but only Steve T (the T stands for Three Syllables) knew that Charades had its roots in 16th Century France. Outstanding!

Now on to today's news. Or yesterday's news. Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan dropped a bombshell yesterday with the revelation that President Bush used propaganda to promote the Iraq war. This strongly contradicts the previously held belief that the White House had launched the war on a platform of "limericks and warm fuzzies." I still don't know what to do with this information.

What Pope established the Congregation for propagating the faith, from which the word propaganda is derived?

May 28, 2008 question

Awesome is pink, y'all. Helloooo. It's totally dusty pink. Get with it. Nobody knew that, and it totally bums me out. To sum up: sarcasm.

Now it's time for great moments in social translation. Today's great moment comes from 1982 when a man named Scott Brubaker did a favor for his neighbor. He told her he'd be willing to babysit her seven children, all of them under the age of 5, while she left to run some errands. She then asked the immortal question, "Are you sure?" to which the answer returned, as it invariably does throughout the course of human events, "Yes." But only a few moments later, as the last trace of the station wagon exhaust cloud dissipated from his front yard, Scott made two crucial breakthroughs in social translation. First, he realized that "run some errands" most likely meant "do everything I possibly can to avoid returning home." He then discovered that "are you sure" is just a polite way of saying, "I realize you're lying, but here's one more superficial opportunity to tell the truth."

In the world of asking favors, "Are you sure?" has come to be the perfect way to feign inner conflict over the decision to let someone else help you, lend you money, or allow you to eat the last cookie without splitting it. Only a handful of people in the last millennium have responded to "Are you sure?" with anything other than "Yes," "I'm sure," "Of course," or the like. You just don't hear, "On second thought, I would like that donut," or "Well, not 100% sure. Can I sleep on it, and if I still feel good about it, then you can borrow my lawn mower." So why ask? Because despite the universal desire to take advantage of people, no one wants to appear like they're taking advantage of people. "Are you sure" somehow functions as proof positive that the recipient of a favor regrets the act of kindness but reluctantly accepts it.

Don't worry, citizens of trivia land, I won't ask you to stop taking advantage of each other. Nor will I ask that you stop pretending not to or that you finally respond to being AYSed by blurting out, "No, I'm not sure, and don't pretend to care!" Keep up the charade. Charades are fun. Here's today's question:

According to the rules of th 1985 board game, "Charades," the history of Charades dates back to what country in what century? (e.g. 6th century Egypt) (hint: neither the 6th century nor Egypt is a correct answer)

May 27, 2008 question

You know how Seal sang that we're never gonna survive unless we are a little crazy? Well I resent that liturgical rhetoric. I'm going to find him and disable his spam settings until he calls off his smurf attacks and admits that I am not the crazy one! Not yet, flibber comma!

So Elena is on a serious trivia hot streak. On Friday she raked in yet another solo victory, knowing all of this about the first manned spacecraft to actually live up to its name:

The name of the spacecraft that carried Yuri Gagarin, first cosmonaut to go into space in April 1961, was Vostok (which means East).

That was in those days when Russian rocket science, or other kinds of science, existed, before Russian scientists, all of them, emigrated to the Zapad (West).

Now that is what I call knowledge, ladies and gentlemen. For those of you not schooled in cosmonautics, I offer you this kinder, gentler trivia question:

When Crayola commemorated the 50th birthday of its 64-crayon box this year by introducing 8 new crayon colors, what color was Awesome?

May 23, 2008 question

Well it looks like I sufficiently confused almost everybody with that question. Not sure how I should have worded it, but the bottom line was this: David Cook received more votes (54 million) on the AI finale than either Al Gore (51 million) or George Bush (50 million) did in the 2000 presidential election. But David Archuleta may have had more delegates, I don't know. I'll tell you who did know: Elena. Congratulations, Elena, you're today's trivia idol . . . hey . . . that gives me an idea . . . I'll worry about that later. Here's today's less-confusing-than-pop-culture trivia question about rocket science, sort of:

What was the name of the first spacecraft to complete a manned space flight?

May 22, 2008 question

The first Behind the Music was about music that came from behind the curtain: Milli Vanilli. Here's who knew the second time around (or at least mouthed the answer):

Kristin
Mike K (the K stands for Keep Singing Even If The CD Skips)
Steve J (the J stands for Just Blame It On The Rain)

So . . . American Idol is over now, and all the votes have been counted. But we won't know who the real winner is until all the superdelegates have made up their minds. Actually, the season finale drew more votes (97 million+) than any other contest in AI history, which leads me to today's question:

If votes for this year's American Idol finale had counted in the general presidential election in 2000, who would have won the popular vote?