mighty fine trivia by James Callan

Tag: washington

Trivia quiz: Magic Words

Featured as round 1 at the Old Pequliar on June 2, 2009

(While researching this round, I came across Craig Conley’s Magic Words: A Dictionary, which I didn’t read ahead of time but have found very enjoyable since. Recommended for the incantophile!)

1) What Washington city is mentioned in the witch doctor’s spell in the 1958 song “Witch Doctor”?

2) Sesame Street’s resident magician, the Amazing Mumford, refers to what popular lunch item as he casts his spells?

3) What Disney movie combining live action and animation features the spell “Filigree, apogee, pedigree, perigee”?

4) Jambi the Genie said “Mekka-lekka-hi, mekka-hiney-ho” when granting wishes on what kids’ show?

5) If you’re dueling with Dumbledore and he casts “expelliarmus” on you, what will you do?

6) What magical acronym from comics became a catchphrase for Gomer Pyle?

7) What two-word incantation is the title of a Kurt Vonnegut novel and the name of the magician’s rabbit on Frosty the Snowman?

8) “Sarsaparilla,” “Saskatchewan,” “septuagenarian,” “saddle soap” … what magic word is on the tip of Hassan’s tongue in a popular Bugs Bunny short?

9) How does DC comics magician Zatanna usually transform ordinary English words into magic words?

10) What popular magic word begins phrases including “send me someone to love,” “Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em,” and “don’t squeeze the Charmin”?

ANSWERS (no peeking)

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Quiz: Geography

Round 1at the Old Pequliar on August 12, 2008
Average score: 7.18/10 (11 teams)

1) Three lakes within Seattle city limits lie north of the Montlake Cut. Name two of them for one point.
2) What two European countries recently engaged in armed conflict over the territory of South Ossetia?
3) What country contains the westernmost point in continental Europe?
4) Bharat and Aryadesa are alternate names for what country?
5) What Canadian city lies across the Detroit River from Detroit?
6) The Cook Strait, also known as Raukawa, separates the two largest islands in what country?
7) The vast majority of Yellowstone National Park lies within what state?
8) Electric City, the Weather Capital of the World, and the Sweetest Place on Earth are nicknames for three cities in what state?
9) Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste all share land borders with what island nation?
10) What’s the second-highest mountain in Washington?

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Geography

Round 1 at the Old Pequliar on April 1, 2008.
Average score: 6.76/11 (21 teams)

1) What country is described in the Onion’s Our Dumb World atlas as “a shortcut with its own national anthem”?
2) What Pacific Northwest region centered around Spokane shares its name with a region in California, as well as a David Lynch film?
3) If someone asks “Will it play in Peoria?” what state are they concerned about?
4) Washington, Utah, California, Vermont, Kentucky, Cyprus, and Mars are each home to a mountain with what name?
5) The only Celtic Nation on the European mainland is what former kingdom and current French province?
6) The Dead Sea borders Israel and what other country?
7) Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, and Schiermonnikoog are four of the Frisian Islands that are part of what country?
8) For the first half of the civil war, Mesilla, New Mexico, was the capital of what Confederate territory?
9) Two US state mottoes are in French: Union, justice, et confiance and L’étoile du Nord. For one point each, which states have those mottoes?
10) What Asian country is described by Our Dumb World as “where a kid can be a kid prostitute”?

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Geography

1) Which US state has the longest freshwater coastline?
2) What’s the only country that presently includes Afrikaans as one of its official languages?
3) Washington State’s borders include two rivers — the Columbia, to the south, and what other river to the east?
4) What heavily Baptist Gulf Coast state has the lowest rate of cremation in the US?
5) Isla De La Juventud is the second-largest island in what Caribbean nation?
6) What country is divided into thirteen peripheries, including Thessaly, Attica, and Epirus?
7) On February 17, the Republic of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. The new nation borders three other countries. Name one of them.
8) What lake, the largest in Africa, is the source of the White Nile rivier?
9) The Moscow Canal connects the Moskva River to what other river?
10) Which Puget Sound city took its name from an earlier name of Mount Rainier?

Average score (20 teams): 7.35 Continue reading

Movies

1) What 1994 film launched the career of Lisa Loeb, when her song “Stay (I Missed You)” became a #1 hit single?
2) What 1992 drama starring Willem DaFoe as a drug dealer does writer/director Paul Schrader consider the third film in a trilogy, after Taxi Driver and American Gigolo?
3) What 2007 comedy inspired a spokesman for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination to say”The movie has some of the expected stereotypes, but in its own disarming way, it’s a call for equality and respect”?
4) What 1996 comedy sequel inspired by a TV show starred both actors who played Jed Bartlet’s vice president on The West Wing?
5) What 1998 animated film, which introduced the character Dil, was the first Nickelodeon Movies production to reach #1 at the box office on its opening weekend?
6) What 1993 film based on a 1970s Saturday Night Live sketch featured mass quantities of SNL performers — 16, the current record for a single film?
7) What 1994 comedy set at the fictional Port Chester University introduced the Caine-Hackman theory, the idea that at any there’s a 100% statistical probability that a movie starring Michael Caine or Gene Hackman will be playing on TV?
8) 30 years after playing Catwoman, Eartha Kitt plays a woman who actually gets turned into a cat at the climax of what 2000 animated film?
9) What 1996 comedy about a Washington State governor’s race was the first film Gene Siskel walked out on in his career reviewing movies?
10) What actor or actress appeared in all nine of these movies?

Average score, 17 teams: 6.35

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