Tag: new york times

22-July-09 / James Callan

Boo Berry carries a box of cereal and marshmallows he forged in life, piece by piece, box by box, of his own free will.

TODAY’S QUESTION

Count Chocula’s voice sounds like Bela Lugosi. Franken Berry’s voice sounds like Boris Karloff. But whose voice is imitated for Boo Berry’s voice in cereal commercials?

Answer (or guess) in the comments. Your prize? Public glory.

Tune in tomorrow for the answer.

PREVIOUSLY

That question, again: When One Times Square opened in 1905, the building was the headquarters of what company?

Trivia quiz: American History May

19-May-09 / James Callan

Round 1 at the Old Pequliar on May 2, 2009

Stuff that happened in May in American history.

1) On May 1, 1992, who appeared on TV and asked “Can we stop … making it horrible for the older people and the kids”?

2) What annual sporting event was nationally televised for the first time on May 3, 1952?

3) The 1886 rally at Chicago’s Haymarket Square that turned into a riot was one incident in labor unions’ long struggle to achieve what goal?

4) The headline on the May 8, 1915, New York Times said what vessel was “twice torpedoed off Irish coast”?

5) What building was the tallest in the world from late May 1930 to early May 1931?

6) In May 1932, who entered the US Penitentiary in Atlanta to serve an 11-year sentence for tax evasion?

7) In May 1953, Ernest Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for what novel, the last published in his lifetime?

8) On May 11, 1996, everyone aboard flight 592 of what low-cost airline was killed when it crashed into the Everglades?

9) The White Night riots broke out in 1979 when what killer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter?

10) What popular combination of ditali, ditalini, tubetti, and tubetini made its debut on May 16, 1965?

ANSWERS:

The Year in Questions

31-December-08 / James Callan

A whole bunch of very good questions I’ll try not to repeat on my 2008-in-review quiz next Tuesday*.

Ben Schott, you’ve done it again.

*January 6 at the Old Pequliar in Seattle. If you’re in town, come!

Quiz: Triangulation

8-July-08 / James Callan

Round 3 at the Old Pequliar on July 1, 2008.
Average score: 6.41/10 (17 teams)

Triangulation is my tip of the hat to Wikipedia’s disambiguation pages and those seldom-used tertiary and sub-tertiary definitions in the dictionary. I’ll give you three definitions, you tell me the word or phrase that fits them all.

Example: A Canadian music award, a Roman goddess, and Roger Ebert’s favorite film of 2007: Juno

1) a kind of wrench, something you can make from socks, and something you spank
2) a novel by Irvine Welsh, a byproduct of horses, and the opposite of rubber
3) a documentary by Diane Keaton, a place where nothing ever happens, and a place on earth
4) the author of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, a key on a calculator, and a George Hamilton accessory
5) the shipboard computer in a science fiction classic, a John Lennon song, and something that turns wine to vinegar
6) one third of a popular hip-hop trio, a product formed by the neutralization of an acid by a base, and what we talked about when we talked about nukes
7) something you’d see on a slot machine, a U2 song, and a name you’ll hear on Must-See Thursday
8) an Edith Wharton novel, a lake in Oregon, and a lifeguard on Baywatch
9) Christopher Martin’s hip-hop alias, the NY Times’ online sports magazine, and “the work of children”
10) a celebritot, a unit of Smurf measurement, and a Newtown Pippin

Continue reading

Quiz: All or Nothing

26-September-07 / James Callan

1) The New York Times‘ motto is “all the news that’s” what?
2) What 1984 film is about a young boy’s efforts to save Fantasia from The Nothing?
3) Name two of the three artists who sang “All for Love” on the soundtrack of 1993’s The Three Musketeers.
4) The anti-consumerist protest Buy Nothing Day takes place the day after what holiday?
5) What All My Children actress was nominated for a Daytime Emmy 18 years in a row before winning in 1999?
6) Being and Nothingness, the treatise that kick-started existentialism, was written by what French philosopher?
7) The All Blacks are the rugby union team for what country?
8) Cordelia is told that “nothing will come of nothing” in which Shakespeare play?
9) Dennis Haysbert, who tells you that “you’re in good hands with Allstate,” used to play the president on what TV show?
10) What word completes these Talking Heads lyrics? “From the age of the dinosaurs / Cars have run on gasoline / Where, where have they gone? / Now, it’s nothing but” what?

Average score: 7.3