Missing Trivia - 05/31/2013

What controversial doctor did President Richard M. Nixon dub “the most dangerous man in America”?

• Dr. Timothy Leary, the clinical psychologist whose advocacy of LSD and other mind-altering drugs (“turn on, tune in, drop out”) made him a counterculture hero in the psychedelic 1960s.

 

How many times have the Olympic Games been cancelled because of war?

• Five: once during World War I (in 1916, before the winter Olympics were introduced); and four times during World War II (summer and winter games in 1940 and in 1944).

 

How high can a penguin jump out of the water to get onto an iceberg?

• 6 to 6½ feet.

 

What American Idol winner was the first female performer named Entertainer of the Year two years in a row by the Academy of Country Music?

• Carrie Underwood, in 2008 and 2009. She won Idol in 2005, its fourth season.

 

When it comes to the World Wide Web, what is a metaverse?

• A virtual 3-D online representation of reality. The word metaverse is a combination of meta (meaning “beyond”) and universe. It was first used in the 1992 cyberpunk sci-fi novel Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson.

 

Which two U.S. presidents had first ladies named Abigail?

• John Adams and Millard Fillmore.

 

What historic resort city is located on Aquidneck Island?

• Newport, Rhode Island. The largest island in Narragansett Bay, it’s commonly referred to as Aquidneck to avoid confusion between its official name, Rhode Island, and the state in which it’s located. (The state’s full name is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.)

 

Where are the only two saddle joints in the human body?

• At the base of both thumbs. The saddle joint allows the thumb to move back and forth and from side to side, and to reach across the palm to grasp things between the fingers and the thumb.

 

How much does a gallon of whole milk weigh?

• 8.6 pounds.

 

What Memorial Day tradition started with the poem “We Shall Keep the Faith,” written in 1918 by Moina Michael?

• Wearing a red poppy in memory of the nation’s war dead. Michael’s poem, which was inspired by the John McCrae poem “In Flanders Field,” includes the lines: “We cherish too, the poppy red/That grows on fields where valor led,/It seems to signal to the skies/That blood of heroes never dies.”