Monday, June 4
Oskar Speck paddled a kayak away from Hamburg, Germany, in May 1932. He was bound for Cyprus, with plans to work there in a copper mine, until he decided to kayak around the world instead. He went to Syria, India, Singapore, Indonesia — paddling some 30,000 miles in the ensuing years, while Europe's political climate was in turmoil. When he reached Australia in 1939, the world was at war. Speck was met by Australian authorities, who congratulated him on his seafaring accomplishment and then put him in prison as an enemy.
The paddlewheel steamer, Clermont, which traveled between Albany, New York, and New York City, was the brainchild of what artist/inventor/entrepreneur?
A) Thomas Edison
B) Robert Fulton
C) Henry Hudson
D) Samuel Morse
Previous answer: Edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinum) is the national flower of Austria.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Tuesday, June 5
Little kids see broccoli and think it looks like trees. The great English painter Thomas Gainsborough thought the same, and the trees in some of his landscape paintings might actually be the artist's rendition of broccoli stalks. Because painting landscapes outdoors requires ideal views and weather conditions, Gainsborough sometimes built his own model landscapes in his studio using twigs, rocks and coal, with broccoli for trees, and painted those instead.
Known for their realistic depictions of city street life in the 1900s, Robert Henri and George Bellows were part of what artistic movement?
A) Ashcan School
B) CoBrA
C) Cubism
D) Hudson River School
Previous answer: The paddlewheel steamer, Clermont, was the brainchild of Robert Fulton.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Wednesday, June 6
Ordinary marathons through the streets of major world cities not challenging enough for you? Consider the Huangyaguan Great Wall Marathon or the Conquer the Wall Marathon, which include running up thousands of stone steps to follow a course atop the Great Wall of China. And you thought interval training on the treadmill at your gym was tough!
The Pink Floyd song "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" asks the question: "How can you have any pudding if you don't" do what?
A) Clean your room
B) Eat your meat
C) Pay the piper at the gates of dawn
D) Tear down this wall
Previous answer: Robert Henri and George Bellows were part of the Ashcan School known for its realistic depictions of city street life in the 1900s.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Thursday, June 7
French King Louis XIV loved to dance, not merely in the ballroom but also in the ballet. His most memorable role was in a production of "Le Ballet de la Nuit" when he was 15 years old — about 10 years into his 72-year reign as king of France. He performed the role of Apollo, god of the sun, wearing a golden costume. The performance was so dazzling, it earned Louis his nickname: "The Sun King."
The sun is the star closest to earth. Which star is the second closest?
A) Barnard's Star
B) Betelgeuse
C) Proxima Centauri
D) Sirius
Previous answer: The Pink Floyd song "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" asks the question: "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Friday, June 8
A couple of years before his death in 1973, martial arts master Bruce Lee wrote a proposal for a TV series about a Chinese martial arts master living in the old Wild West of the United States. Studios gave it a pass then (coincidentally?) produced "Kung Fu," starring David Carradine as a martial arts master from China living in the old west. (Bruce Lee was turned down for the lead!) Recently, Lee's original concept has been revived and is in production. Although it's set in 19th-century San Francisco, it's being shot in South Africa.
Which two Oscar winners were the original stars of the 1970s TV series "The Streets of San Francisco"?
A) Ernest Borgnine and Sally Field
B) Louis Gossett Jr. and Al Pacino
C) George Kennedy and Jon Voight
D) Karl Malden and Michael Douglas
Previous answer: Slightly more than four light-years away, Proxima Centauri is earth's second-closest stellar neighbor, after the sun.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Saturday, June 9
In 1901, New York became the first state to require automobile owners to register their cars and put license plates on them. By 1918, all states required license plates for cars, but not all required licenses for the drivers themselves.
How many U.S. states were there in 1918?
A) 32
B) 42
C) 48
D) 50
Previous answer: Karl Malden and Michael Douglas were the original stars of the 1970s TV series "The Streets of San Francisco."
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
WEEK OF JUNE 11
Monday, June 11
You can thank Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh for keeping you dry on a rainy day. In 1823, he patented the first water-resistant fabric, made by sandwiching a layer of rubber between two layers of fabric. A company that bears his name — with a k added after the c — still makes raincoats, and people in the U.K. affectionately refer to their rain gear as macs.
The Scottish island, Ailsa Craig, is renowned as a source for raw materials used to make what piece of sports equipment?
A) Curling stones
B) Fencing foils
C) Field hockey sticks
D) Snowboards
Previous answer: There were 48 U.S. states in 1918; Alaska and Hawaii, numbers 49 and 50, were admitted to the Union in 1959.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Tuesday, June 12
In July 1968, a thousand athletes from 26 states and Canada gathered at Soldier Field in Chicago for the first Special Olympics Games, brainchild of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver in cooperation with the Chicago Park District and Anne Burke (now a justice on the Illinois Supreme Court). Today, some 5.3 million athletes from more than 170 countries participate in Special Olympics programs. Happy 50th Birthday Special Olympics!
Chicago's Von Steuben Day Parade is famously featured in which film?
A) "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
B) "Meet the Parents"
C) "Risky Business"
D)"The Untouchables"
Previous answer: Granite from the Scottish island, Ailsa Craig, is used to make curling stones.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Wednesday, June 13
When they conceived the idea for the Oxford English Dictionary, editors figured it would take about 10 years to compile. They figured incorrectly. Starting work in earnest in 1879, they made it as far as the word "ant" by 1884 when the first volume of the dictionary was published. They reached Z in 1928. Then it was time to revise and to add the thousands more words that had arisen over the course of the previous 44 years. Even now, the OED remains a work in progress, adding hundreds of new words and definitions with each periodic update.
Which famed "man of letters" worked for a brief time as a postmaster in Oxford, Mississippi?
A) Truman Capote
B) William Faulkner
C) John Grisham
D) Tennessee Williams
Previous answer: Chicago's Von Steuben Day Parade is famously featured in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
Thursday, June 14
The first FIFA World Cup took place in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Thirteen nations participated, including just four from Europe: Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia. Other European nations declined the invitation saying that the travel would take too long and be too costly, and the timing interfered with their regular league schedules. They might also have figured that they had a slim chance of winning. Uruguay had won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in soccer in 1924 and 1928, and it won the 1930 FIFA World Cup as well.
This year marks the first time that which two nations qualified for the FIFA World Cup?
A) Azerbaijan and Japan
B) Cambodia and Laos
C) Iceland and Panama
D) Mauritania and Saudi Arabia
Previous answer: William Faulkner worked for a brief time as a postmaster in Oxford, Mississippi.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Friday, June 15
There's a little piece of the heavens in the stained glass "Space Window" at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The centerpiece of the design by St. Louis artist Rodney M. Winfield is a small moon rock brought to earth by the crew of Apollo 11 and presented to the cathedral in 1974. To prevent its deterioration, the rock is encased in a nitrogen-filled capsule.
The extinction of terrestrial dinosaurs might have been due to a meteor that impacted Earth at Chicxulub crater in what present-day country?
A) Canada
B) Iran
C) Mexico
D) Russia
Previous answer: This year marks the first time that Iceland and Panama have qualified for the FIFA World Cup.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Saturday, June 16
Fishery biologists can determine the age of certain fish species by examining the patterns on their scales. Each year of growth leaves a pattern known as an annulus. By counting the annuli (plural of annulus), biologists can determine the fish's age much the same way that foresters determine the age of a tree by counting its growth rings.
In "Finding Nemo," Nemo's father is a clownfish with what fishy first name?
A) Catfish
B) Marlin
C) Pike
D) Walleye
Previous answer: Chicxulub crater is in Mexico.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
WEEK OF JUNE 18
Monday, June 18
On July 17, 1918, Czar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children were murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries. A few years later, a woman came forward claiming she was Anastasia, the czar's daughter, and that she'd survived the shooting. Her story captured public imagination, and when the family grave was discovered in the 1970s, minus the body of one princess, fueled speculation again. But a DNA test in the 1990s proved the Anastasia wannabe wasn't a Russian royal and remains found in 2007 confirmed that Grand Duchess Anastasia had died with her family in 1918.
The "Kalevala" is an epic poem and national symbol of what country that gained independence from Russia in 1917?
A) Armenia
B) Bulgaria
C) Estonia
D) Finland
Previous answer: In "Finding Nemo," Nemo's father is a clownfish named Marlin.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Tuesday, June 19
There are more than 1,500 active volcanoes in the world. On average, 50 to 60 of them erupt in a given year. Of the 169 active volcanoes in the United States, 54 are located in populated areas. Geologists monitor movement and pressure changes in the magma beneath the earth's surface so they can anticipate eruptions and warn people to evacuate.
The first extraterrestrial volcanic eruption observed by NASA scientists occurred in 1979 on Io, a moon of which planet?
A) Jupiter
B) Neptune
C) Saturn
D) Venus
Previous answer: The "Kalevala" is an epic poem and national symbol of Finland, which gained independence from Russia in 1917.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Wednesday, June 20
Founded in 1977, the Green Belt Movement is an environmental conservation initiative that began with women in rural Kenya planting trees to reforest their communities and grew to become a worldwide program to preserve and maintain natural resources and fight destruction of forests. Its founder, Professor Wangari Maathai, received the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work.
In karate, taekwondo and most martial arts, beginners wear belts of what color?
A) Green
B) Red
C) White
D) Yellow
Previous answer: The first extraterrestrial volcanic eruption observed by NASA scientists occurred in 1979 on Io, a moon of Jupiter.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Thursday, June 21
Though it might look like "horse ballet," the equine discipline of dressage originated as a military discipline to train horses for the battlefield. When dressage became an Olympic event at the Stockholm games in 1912, only commissioned military officers were permitted to compete. Forty years later, that restriction was lifted, allowing both civilians and women to compete in dressage at the 1952 Helsinki games.
What does a farrier do for a horse?
A) Designs its saddle
B) Exercises it
C) Grooms it
D) Makes and fits its shoes
Previous answer: In karate, taekwondo and most martial arts, beginners wear white belts.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Friday, June 22
"One Life to Live" debuted on America's TV screens in 1968 and stayed there virtually every weekday afternoon for more than 40 years. During that time, Erika Slezak appeared as Victoria Lord in nearly 2,100 episodes (including a brief revival of the series in 2013) and earned six Daytime Emmy awards as outstanding lead actress in a drama series, a record for female performers.
Which nighttime soap takes place mainly in California wine country?
A) "Dynasty"
B) "Empire"
C) "Falcon Crest"
D) "Knots Landing"
Previous answer: A farrier makes and fits horseshoes.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Saturday, June 23
William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, was a masterful writer of short stories with a twist. Like "The Ransom of Red Chief," about kidnappers who abscond with a child so horrible and unruly they offer to pay the kid's parents to take him back. While living in Austin, Texas, in 1895, Porter bought a failing magazine called "The Iconoclast," revamped it and renamed it "The Rolling Stone." As publisher, editor and chief contributor, he filled the magazine with satirical articles and cartoons, but no album reviews.
Where did the name for the Snickers candy bar come from?
A) Frank Mars' nickname for his daughter
B) A thoroughbred racehorse
C) The sound of laughter
D) The Mars family cat
Previous answer: The 1980s nighttime soap "Falcon Crest" takes place mainly in California wine country.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
WEEK OF JUNE 25
Monday, June 25
NFL wide receivers Julio Jones and Marvin Jones are among the athletes who have suffered a Jones fracture, a repetitive stress injury that occurs at the base of the small toe, causes a lot of pain and takes a long time to heal. Julio and Marvin can't take credit for the name, though. That belongs to Welsh orthopedic surgeon Sir Robert Jones, who categorized such stress fractures after suffering one himself, during an enthusiastic evening of ballroom dancing.
In what part of the human body would you find the anterior cruciate ligament?
A) Ankle
B) Elbow
C) Knee
D) Shoulder
Previous answer: The Snickers candy bar was named for a thoroughbred racehorse from the 1930s.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Tuesday, June 26
Athens was the most important city in ancient Greece, and it's the capital of modern Greece today. But for a brief period in the 19th century, the capital of Greece was Nafplio, a coastal city on the Peloponnese peninsula. After Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1822, Nafplio was chosen to be the capital. In 1834, Otto, first king of modern Greece, reinstated Athens as the capital.
Calling itself the "Athens of the South," which U.S. city has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in its Centennial Park?
A) Atlanta
B) Birmingham
C) Nashville
D) Paducah
Previous answer: The anterior cruciate ligament or ACL is in the knee.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Wednesday, June 27
In the 1860s, the French wine industry nearly collapsed when an agricultural pest threatened to wipe out all the wine grapes in France. Help arrived unexpectedly from Missouri entomologist Charles V. Riley, who diagnosed the problem as phylloxera. He'd seen that pest before on U.S. grapes. Working with French scientists, he conceived a way to foil the bugs by grafting French vines onto pest-resistant American rootstocks. Crisis averted! And the chardonnay flowed freely once more.
In 1851, which U.S. state became the first to enact Prohibition, banning manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages?
A) Connecticut
B) Maine
C) Missouri
D) Utah
Previous answer: Nashville calls itself the "Athens of the South."
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Thursday, June 28
Honorificabilitudinitatibus, meaning "capable of being honorable," is the longest word in the works of William Shakespeare. It's spoken (not without difficulty) by Costard, a not-too-intelligent character in "Love's Labour's Lost," and was Shakespeare's way of mocking pompous people who use long, complicated words because they think it makes them sound more intelligent. Shakespeare didn't coin the word, however. It derives from Latin and was in use hundreds of years before he put it into Costard's mouth.
The 2013 movie about movies "Saving Mr. Banks" concerns the making of what 1964 film?
A) "Dr. Strangelove"
B) "A Hard Day's Night"
C) "Mary Poppins"
D) "Viva Las Vegas"
Previous answer: In 1851, Maine became the first state to enact Prohibition, banning the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Friday, June 29
Nintendo was founded in Kyoto in 1889 mainly as a maker of playing cards handprinted on mulberry bark. Like much of the world at the time, people in Japan had a taste for card games and gambling. When Japan prohibited the import of European and American playing cards, Nintendo filled consumer demand with myriad designs, including the first plastic-coated cards in Japan. Nearly 100 years later, Nintendo saw the future in electronic games, Donkey Kong became the king of the arcade, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In an early form, the video game character, Mario, had what name?
A) Alphonse
B) Jumpman
C) Pac-Man
D) Plumber man
Previous answer: The 2013 movie about movies "Saving Mr. Banks" concerns the making of "Mary Poppins."
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
Saturday, June 30
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was founded on July 1, 1942, as the Communicable Disease Center. Its initial mandate was to stop the spread of malaria in the United States. Thus, the CDC was based in Atlanta, because the climate in the southern U.S. made it particularly vulnerable to malaria. By 1946, the U.S. was deemed "malaria free" but CDC's mission continues: safeguarding public health and preventing the spread of disease.
Identified by the CDC in 1976, Legionnaires' disease is closely related to what life-threatening illness?
A) Ebola Virus
B) HIV/AIDS
C) Malaria
D) Pneumonia
Previous answer: In an early form, the video game character, Mario, was called Jumpman.
TRIVIA FANS: Leslie Elman is the author of "Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous and Totally Off the Wall Facts." Contact her at [email protected].
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