Dark Bilious Vapors

The Knights Who Say Ni have requested, nay demanded, that another trivia challenge issue forthwith. Since I don't want them appearing on my doorstep saying "Ni!" to me incessantly, I hereby obey. Though that wasn't much of a task; I'd been meaning to do a trivia post for a while. So without further ado: The Questions!

1) While an active player, Davey Johnson batted immediately behind not one, but two of baseball's all-time home run hitters. Who were they?

2) She's been a flight attendant for Pan-Am and American Airlines. She's also had careers as a teacher, a nurse, a ballerina, a rock star, and an animal-rights activist. Who?

3) Meanwhile, in his career as a show business legend, he's played roles ranging from barber to matador. One of his Oscar winning films was about the Knights of the Round Table. Who is he?

4) Who was #1 on Mr. Blackwell's 37th Annual Worst-Dressed Women List in 1997?

5) According to my sources, only three pitchers in MLB history have thrown no-hitters in 2 different centuries. Who are they? (Extra credit if you can find one my sources missed.)

6) Oh, baby! What got 9 inches longer in 2004?

7) Two great writers both died on the same date: April 23, 1616. Who?

8) Contrary to the implication of the preceding question, the two writers in question did not die on the same day. Why not?

9) Just recently, in 2003, researchers at a University in Greater Manchester, England, finally debunked a popular fallacy being distributed in email. Now that the world knows the truth, just what is it that they proved?

10) After he grew older and lost his employment in Hollywood, this child actor later found employment as a hunting guide and bartender, boozing and carousing incessantly before meeting an early end at 32 by being shot to death over a $50 gambling debt. Who was this ill-fated wild child, and what was his best-known role?

11) In the Bond flick Moonraker, Our Hero James (played by the ever-so-suave Roger Moore) gains access to a restricted laboratory by watching as one of the villian's henchmen enters a secret code onto a musical numeric pad. What's interesting about the code?

12) After molding 1.4 billion crayons, over 37 years, Crayola's senior crayon maker, Emerson Moser, retired. What secret did he reveal after he had made his last crayon?

13) On an afternoon in 1966 an event at Boston's PBS station, WGBH, drew a crowd of 10,000 people, more than the same afternoon's Red Sox game. What was that event?

14) What situation defines "coyote ugly?"

15) One summer while on vacation, I was driving down I-94 in North Dakota near Jamestown, ND. What record-holding monument did I see (it's pretty damn near impossible to miss)?

16) What was the name of Apple's first personal computer which used a mouse for user input? For extra credit: why did it get that name?

17) Calvin Coolidge was known for his brevity. Although not necessarily shy, "Silent Cal" was certainly not verbose and rarely spoke at social gatherings. One evening at a dinner party, one senator's wife bet another that she could persuade the president to say three words over the course of the evening. What was Coolidge's response?

18) Certain people are deemed so important that they are not allowed to travel together, to reduce the risk that they will both be killed in an accident. The President and Vice-President of the US are two; Prince Charles and Prince William of the United Kingdom are two more. Two other people are not allowed to travel together, for fear that if they were to both die a certain critical secret would be lost forever. Who are they?

19) On September 17, 1977 the Tennessee Valley Authority shut down a nuclear power plant at Knoxville, TN, for 17 days, for an unusual reason. What was that reason?

20) The reason for the Knoxville reactor shutdown was unusual, but hardly weird, all things considered. At the University of Florida there's a research reactor that is constantly being shut down and restarted for what one might consider a very weird reason. What is that?

Answers posted on Tuesday, probably (to give y'all who are interested the same amount of time that most weekend challenges (which are usually posted on Friday evenings) have gotten.

Len on 11.20.04 @ 09:01 PM CST