Trivia Quiz?

[phkrause]

20 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which U.S. Olympic figure skater was infamously clubbed in the knee in 1994?

Dorothy Hamill Tonya Harding Nancy Kerrigan Peggy Fleming

Nancy Kerrigan

Answer: In January 1994, Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed in the right knee with a police baton by a hitman hired by the ex-husband of skating rival Tonya Harding. Despite her knee injury, Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal at the 1994 Games. The attacker, Shane Stant, had been hired as part of a planned assault by rival skater Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly. A month after the attack, Kerrigan surprised critics and wowed fans with a silver medal win at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, finishing second to Oksana Baiul by 0.1 points.

[phkrause]

Which Midwestern state's capital is Bismarck?

A. Idaho
B. South Dakota
C. Wyoming
D. North Dakota

North Dakota

[phkrause]

On this day in 1980, who shot J.R. Ewing?

Sue Ellen Ewing Bobby Ewing Kristin Shepard Pamela Barnes Ewing

Kristin

 

[phkrause]

The Mysterious 18 1/2-Minute Gap

ou probably don't recognize the name J. Fred Buzhardt, but you certainly know the name of his employer - Richard Nixon. On November 21, 1973, in the midst of the Watergate Scandal, Buzhardt revealed that there was an 18 and a half minute gap in the recordings Nixon had made of White House conversations. This was a further blow to the already embattled President, as the suspicious gap convinced many that something was being hidden. But nothing was ever proven, and the gap remains a mystery. What do you know about it?

What Were the Recordings?

What Caused the Gap?

What Was on the Gap?

[phkrause]

According to Mattel, what is Barbie's last name?

Carter Miller Jones Roberts

Roberts?

 

[Outta Here]

2 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which Midwestern state's capital is Bismarck?

A. Idaho
B. South Dakota
C. Wyoming
D. North Dakota

North Dakota

 

North Dakota

1 hour ago, phkrause said:

On this day in 1980, who shot J.R. Ewing?

Sue Ellen Ewing Bobby Ewing Kristin Shepard Pamela Barnes Ewing

Kristin

 

 

Pamela?

 

31 minutes ago, phkrause said:

According to Mattel, what is Barbie's last name?

Carter Miller Jones Roberts

Roberts?

 

 

Roberts! Barbie Millicent Roberts

[phkrause]

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

Which Midwestern state's capital is Bismarck?

A. Idaho
B. South Dakota
C. Wyoming
D. North Dakota

North Dakota

 

12 hours ago, Aubrey said:

North Dakota

D. North Dakota

North Dakota's capital is Bismarck.

Source: various web sites.

[phkrause]

14 hours ago, phkrause said:

On this day in 1980, who shot J.R. Ewing?

Sue Ellen Ewing Bobby Ewing Kristin Shepard Pamela Barnes Ewing

Kristin

 

 

12 hours ago, Aubrey said:

Pamela?

Answer: On this day in 1980, 350 million people around the world tuned in to television’s primetime drama “Dallas” to find out who shot J.R. Ewing. J.R. had been shot on the previous season-ending episode which now stands as one of television’s most famous cliffhangers. The plot twist inspired widespread media coverage and left America wondering “Who shot J.R.?” for the next eight months. Ultimately, the person who pulled the trigger was revealed to be Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby) in the "Who Done It?" episode which aired on November 21, 1980. Kristin was J.R.'s scheming sister-in-law and mistress, who shot him in a fit of anger.

[phkrause]

13 hours ago, phkrause said:

What Were the Recordings?

Contrary to popular belief, Nixon was far from the only President to record White House conversations. Franklin Roosevelt started the tradition, and every President since him has continued it. What made Nixon's system unique, however, is that it was voice activated - others were triggered manually with a switch, essentially giving the president discretion over what to record. 

Of the 3,700 hours that Nixon recorded, only about 200 are considered relevant to Watergate. Only an estimated 5% (185 hours) have actually been transcribed, and about 700 are still unreleased in the name of privacy and national security. There's a wealth of presidential knowledge just waiting to be revealed to the world one day, whether it's insights on Nixon's foreign policy or yet more proof of how he had a penchant for salty language.

 

13 hours ago, phkrause said:

What Caused the Gap?

The gap was discovered by Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's secretary. She claimed to have caused five minutes of it by answering the phone during a transcription and accidentally hitting record on the tape machine instead of pause. However, she was at a loss to explain the other 13 minutes of dead air, and critics found her explanation for even five minutes to be dubious. 

Buzhardt announced the gap only after it became clear that no innocent explanation could be provided. A special panel of technical experts were assigned to investigate the gap, which they concluded was either deliberate or the cause of significant technical ineptitude. Both explanations could apply equally to Nixon, who certainly had reason to censor the tapes but also had a reputation for... struggling with technology, to put it delicately. 

The tapes are currently housed in a climate controlled vault in the National Archives. Several attempts to extract information from them have been unsuccessful, but they're kept in the hopes that future technology will be able to recover something. 

 

13 hours ago, phkrause said:

What Was on the Gap?

We don't know the details, obviously, but we do know that the gap covered a conversation between Nixon and H. R. Haldeman, his Chief of Staff. According to Haldeman's notes, the topics of conversation included the arrests made at the Watergate.

So the question becomes what was so uniquely damaging about this one particular conversation. Speculation varies - it's possible that Nixon said something incriminating, but it's also possible that he used some particularly foul language that he didn't want associated with him. Or maybe there's nothing remarkable about the tape at all, and it really was all due to technical incompetence. We simply don't know, so the tape remains in the Archive, waiting to one day give up its secrets. 

[phkrause]

13 hours ago, phkrause said:

According to Mattel, what is Barbie's last name?

Carter Miller Jones Roberts

Roberts?

 

 

12 hours ago, Aubrey said:

Roberts! Barbie Millicent Roberts

Answer: Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. In a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s, her parents' names are given as George and Margaret Roberts from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. Businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company’s largest and most profitable line.

[phkrause]

Announced in June 2015, who was Madame Tussaud's first transgender wax figure?

A. Caitlyn Jenner
B. Laverne Cox
C. Lana Wachowski
D. Renee Richards

B. Laverne Cox

[phkrause]

Who was wounded by gunfire while riding in the presidential limousine when John F. Kennedy was assassinated?

Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell Texas Governor John Connally, Jr. Vice President Lyndon Johnson First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy

John Connally

[phkrause]

America Shaken: 5 Trivia Questions about the Kennedy Assassination

On November 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. You might know who was responsible (Lee Harvey Oswald), but what else do you know about this American tragedy? Test your knowledge with these five trivia questions.

Who Died at Parkland Hospital?

What Happened to the Window From Which JFK Was Shot?

Who Did Lee Harvey Oswald Try to Assassinate Eight Months before JFK?

Why Did a Set of 24 People in Long Island and Blountville, Tennessee Not Hear about the JFK Assassination?

John F. Kennedy Was the 35th President. How Many Presidents Were Assassinated Before JFK?

[phkrause]

Where was Lee Harvey Oswald arrested following the assassination of John F. Kennedy?

The Texas Theater The Grassy Knoll Texas School Book Depository His rooming house in Oak Cliff

The Texas Theater

[phkrause]

19 hours ago, phkrause said:

Announced in June 2015, who was Madame Tussaud's first transgender wax figure?

A. Caitlyn Jenner
B. Laverne Cox
C. Lana Wachowski
D. Renee Richards

B. Laverne Cox

B. Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox of Orange Is the New Black fame is the first transgender wax figure, making her debut in Madame Tussaud's San Francisco exhibit on June 26, 2015.

Source: various web sites.

[phkrause]

19 hours ago, phkrause said:

Who was wounded by gunfire while riding in the presidential limousine when John F. Kennedy was assassinated?

Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell Texas Governor John Connally, Jr. Vice President Lyndon Johnson First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy

John Connally

Answer: On November 22, 1963, John Connally was seriously wounded while riding in President Kennedy's car at Dealey Plaza in Dallas when the president was assassinated. John Connally, the 38th governor of Texas, was sitting directly in front of President Kennedy in the limousine and his wife, Nellie Connally, was sitting directly in front of the first lady. A bullet that passed through his body left him with scars on his chest, back, thigh and wrist. Connally underwent surgery and ended up making a full recovery. Moments before the shooting, Nellie Connally said to President Kennedy, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you."

[phkrause]

19 hours ago, phkrause said:

Who Died at Parkland Hospital?

After being shot, Kennedy was rushed to nearby Parkland Hospital, where he was soon pronounced dead. Two days later, Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was being transferred to a more secure jail when he was shot in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters by Jack Ruby. Oswald was taken to Parkland Hospital where he eventually died. Several years later, Ruby himself became ill and died of a pulmonary embolism due to lung cancer at, that's right, Parkland Hospital.

 

19 hours ago, phkrause said:

What Happened to the Window From Which JFK Was Shot?

Col. D. Harold Byrd was a wealthy oilman who owned the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy. Seeing an opportunity to own a piece of history, albeit an incredibly morbid one, he had his handyman remove the window from which the shots were fired so Byrd could frame it and display it in his home. But there was only one problem: He might have taken the wrong window. Aubrey Mayhew bought the building in 1970 and soon thereafter had his handyman remove what he claimed was the correct window. Mayhew and Byrd's son, Caruth, have been arguing over who has the actual window ever since. In 2007, Caruth tried to sell his window, fetching over $3 million on eBay, before Mayhew got involved, again claiming to have the true window, and the sale was scrapped.

 

19 hours ago, phkrause said:

Who Did Lee Harvey Oswald Try to Assassinate Eight Months before JFK?

Shooting John F. Kennedy was not the first time Oswald tried to assassinate someone. Eight months earlier he tried to kill Edwin Walker, a former Army General. Oswald saw himself as an assassin working on behalf of Marxism, and Walker was a vocal anti-communist (and, ironically, vocally opposed to John F. Kennedy). However, when firing at Walker, Oswald missed his mark and dashed away before seeing if he had taken out his target or not. Oswald was never caught for the first attempt and would later use the same gun when he took aim at the nation's president.

 

19 hours ago, phkrause said:

Why Did a Set of 24 People in Long Island and Blountville, Tennessee Not Hear about the JFK Assassination?

Two separate judges presiding over murder trials both came to the same conclusion that hearing about the assassination of a president might influence jurors' verdicts in a murder trial. So one judge in Long Island and another in Blountville, Tennessee ordered their jurors sequestered. With no phone calls and everyone who interacted with the jurors instructed not to mention it, those 24 jurors all made it through the weekend never realizing their president had been shot. They may very well have been the only people in America who don't remember hearing that tragic news on November 22nd, 1963. 

 

19 hours ago, phkrause said:

John F. Kennedy Was the 35th President. How Many Presidents Were Assassinated Before JFK?

John F. Kennedy was the 4th president to be assassinated, in a country less than two hundred years old. The other presidents were Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley.

[phkrause]

18 hours ago, phkrause said:

Where was Lee Harvey Oswald arrested following the assassination of John F. Kennedy?

The Texas Theater The Grassy Knoll Texas School Book Depository His rooming house in Oak Cliff

The Texas Theater

Answer: The Texas Theatre is a movie theater and Dallas Landmark located in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. It gained historical significance on November 22, 1963 as the location of Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest for the Assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the killing of Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit. The films presented that day were Cry of Battle and War Is Hell, which Oswald briefly viewed. Oswald had initially been arrested not for the Kennedy assassination but for fatally shooting a Dallas police officer named J. D. Tippit.

[phkrause]

Mishearing or misinterpreting lyrics like "Excuse me while I kiss this guy" instead of "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" (from Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze") is called what?

A. A mondegreen
B. A malapropism
C. A palindrome
D. Alliteration

????? No idea

[phkrause]

Where was Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president following the assassination of JFK?

Parkland Hospital White House Dallas Courthouse Air Force One

Air Force One, if I'm not mistaken

[phkrause]

4 Trivia Questions about President Franklin Pierce

Not many people know much about President Franklin Pierce, but he was born on November 23rd, 1804, so you better believe we're gonna do a trivia quiz about him. Read on, and see how much you know about our nation's 14th president...

What Was Pierce's Relationship to the Man He Defeated in the 1852 Election?

When Taking His Presidential Oath, Pierce Did Not Swear on the Bible. Instead, He Did What?

Fill in the Blank: Pierce is the Only Elected Sitting President to Not be _________ by His Own Party in His Bid for Re-election?

What Did Pierce Reportedly Say After Learning He Would Not Be Nominated?

[phkrause]

21 hours ago, phkrause said:

Mishearing or misinterpreting lyrics like "Excuse me while I kiss this guy" instead of "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" (from Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze") is called what?

A. A mondegreen
B. A malapropism
C. A palindrome
D. Alliteration

????? No idea

A. A mondegreen

When you hear something else entirely, it's called a mondegreen.

Source: various web sites.

[phkrause]

21 hours ago, phkrause said:

Where was Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president following the assassination of JFK?

Parkland Hospital White House Dallas Courthouse Air Force One

Air Force One, if I'm not mistaken

Answer: The first inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson as the 36th President of the United States was held aboard Air Force One at Love Field in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, November 22, 1963. The inauguration marked the commencement of Johnson's first term as President, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The swearing-in ceremony administered by Judge Hughes in an Air Force One conference room represented the first time that a woman administered the presidential oath of office as well as the only time it was conducted on an airplane. Instead of the usual Bible, Johnson was sworn in upon a missal found on a side table in Kennedy's Air Force One bedroom.

[phkrause]

20 hours ago, phkrause said:

What Was Pierce's Relationship to the Man He Defeated in the 1852 Election?

With the 1852 election fast approaching, the Democratic Party had a problem: They couldn't nominate anyone. Every viable candidate received too much opposition. Eventually, they realized what they needed: Someone no one had heard of and thus someone nobody could object to. And they also realized they needed someone who disagreed with his region on the issue of slavery. i.e. an anti-slavery southerner could carry the south on account of his geographical origins and the north on account of his political views. So they took Pierce, a pro-slavery northerner no one had heard of. Throw in the fact that he was attractive and a war veteran, and Pierce became the perfect choice. The man he ran against was himself a war veteran: General Winfield Scott who received the Whig nomination. And he and Pierce even knew each other. Scott had been Pierce's commanding officer.

 

20 hours ago, phkrause said:

When Taking His Presidential Oath, Pierce Did Not Swear on the Bible. Instead, He Did What?

According to the Constitution, a president can either swear their oath or affirm it. While almost every president has sworn their oath on a bible, Pierce decided instead to affirm. There is debate over why he did this, but most believe his actions were tied to the death of his 11-year-old son a couple months prior, with some believing it was because Pierce felt his son's death was a punishment for his sins and others believing the tragedy left Pierce questioning his faith.

 

20 hours ago, phkrause said:

Fill in the Blank: Pierce is the Only Elected Sitting President to Not be _________ by His Own Party in His Bid for Re-election?

If you don't really remember Franklin Pierce's presidency, you can be forgiven. The guy was pretty much a failure and wildly unpopular. In fact, he was so unpopular that in 1856, he became the only elected sitting president to not be nominated by his party in the next election (four other presidents have also had this notorious distinction, but they all assumed the office when the president before them died, and as such, none were elected president in the first place). Said Jayme Simoes, a man from a PR firm that was trying to build interest in the 14th president on the 200th anniversary of his birth, "By the time he left office in 1857, Pierce couldn't have been elected dogcatcher."

 

20 hours ago, phkrause said:

What Did Pierce Reportedly Say After Learning He Would Not Be Nominated?

Pierce had a significant alcohol problem, drinking heavily throughout his presidency. So it's no surprise that when Pierce lost the nomination, he wanted to imbibe. In fact, many have quoted Pierce as subsequently saying, "There is nothing left to do but get drunk." It's the kind of line that you think would get him put on a poster that college kids put up in their dorm rooms across the country. At the very least, then people might actually remember the guy.

[phkrause]

Which President moved Thanksgiving up one week to help stimulate the economy?

Dwight D. Eisenhower Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman None of the above. It was never changed.

FDR