0. Realm: Body Swap Movies
Subrealm: Fortune Cookies
Question: The Lindsay Lohan remake of this 1976 movie was critically popular, but omitted several scenes from the original, including a water skiing moment.
Answer: Freaky Friday
Song: Super Freak
Artist: Rick James
Hint: The Lohan role was played in 1976 by Jodie Foster
1. Realm: Embarrassing family nicknames
Subrealm: Obsolescence edition
Question: The daughters of the Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander are referred to collectively by what nickname, and why?
Answer: The A-Team, because their names all start with the letter A (Amalia, Alexia, and Ariane)
Song: Royals
Artist: Lorde
Hint: Has to do with the princesses' names
2. Realm: Scientists
Subrealm: That James's mom has worked with
Question: The UMass Medical School is the home of Nobel laureate Craig Mello, who won his Nobel prize for what discovery?
Answer: RNAi
Song: Play with Fire
Artist: The Rolling Stones
Hint: It's a four-letter acronym
3. Realm: Chiropractry
Subrealm: Small of the back
Question: Baseball player Wade Boggs claimed to have injured his back by putting on what item of clothing?
Answer: Cowboy boots.
Song: This Cowboy's Hat
Artist: Chris LeDoux
Hint: Ted Cruz wears them
4. Realm: Mistakes
Subrealm: I've made a few
Question: Baseball player Wade Boggs claimed to have drank how much of what beverage on a cross-country flight?
Answer: 64 beers
Song: Drinkin' Thinkin'
Artist: George Canyon
Hint: The number of drinks is both a perfect square and a perfect cube
Note: Boggs himself declines to give a number, saying only that it was "a few Miller Lites." ESPN asked him about it in a video at the bottom of this page.
5. Realm: A foreign country
Subrealm: (The past)
Question: Name the childhood best friend of the father of the boyfriend of the actress who plays Ginny Weasley.
Answer: Stephen Sondheim
Song: Memory
Artist: Andrew Lloyd Webber
6. Realm: Kids These Days...
Subrealm: And their whacky college traditions
Question: This traditional Yale University game, involving rolling a large ball through New Haven streets, was banned in the early eighties but has been the focus of several recent attempts at revival.
Answer: Bladderball
Song: Red Rubber Ball
Artist: Cyrkle
Hint: There's a gross body part in the name
Note: Bladderball consisted of rolling a 6-foot diameter exercise ball through the streets of New Haven, where teams would fight for possession, using any means they chose. From the Wikipedia article: "In the absence of any scoring system, victory consisted of fervent declarations of victory by each team. Listeners to the Yale radio station, WYBC, would invariably learn that the station team had won a mighty victory, while readers of the Yale print media were invariably informed that each particular publication had bested all other teams handily, by scores often ranging into the thousands of points."
7. Realm: Unhealthy foods
Subrealm: Italian edition
Question: This Italian Marche town is known for its stuffed, fried olives.
Answer: Ascoli Piceno
Song: William Tell Overture
Artist: Gioachino Rossini)
Hint: The town's football (soccer) team is traditionally associated with the woodpecker
8. Realm: Jesus Christ Superstar
Subrealm: Episode III: Revenge of the Christ
Question: In one of his lesser known miracles, a very hungry Jesus came across a tree expecting fruit and found the tree barren. He cursed it to wither and die. What kind of tree was it?
Answer: A fig tree
Song: Gethsemane
Artist: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Hint: The fruit from this tree has two seasons, both in the summer
Note: See Mark 11:12-14 and 11:20-25 and Matthew 21:18-22. Seems kind of harsh.
9. Realm: Fire
Subrealm: Not in Greece
Question: In a siege of what city was Maslama ibn Abd al Malik defeated by a man given the epithet the Isaurian?
Answer: Constantinople
Song: Istanbul, Not Constantinople
Artist: They Might Be Giants
Hint: Listen to the song lyrics
Note: Leo III the Isaurian was Byzantine Emperor from 717 to 741. The seige in question occurred from 717-718.
10. Realm: Del Toro movie titles
Subrealm: In Athens?
Question: After the deification of Heracles, one of this man's sons protected Heracles' children and fought a war with Eurystheus. One of his wives hanged herself after her son rejected her advances. That son who preferred horses to women was Hippolytus. Who was this man?
Answer: Theseus
Song: Underground
Artist: David Bowie
Hint: His most famous role in Greek mythology involves a maze
Note: The wife in question was Phaedra. She was Hippolytus's stepmother, not his mother. There are various stories about what happened when he turned her down, but none of them end well.
11. Realm: Linguistic anthropology
Subrealm: For dummies
Question: This island is host to about 850 languages, making it the most linguistically diverse place in the world.
Answer: New Guinea
Song: Let It Go
Artist: Kristen Lopez-Anderson
Hint: Archipelago!
12. Realm: In theory, theory and practice are identical
Subrealm: In practice, they're often completely different
Question: According to the Keynesian Consumption model, attempting to increase what quantity by lowering autonomous consumption will lead to a reduction in output and no increase in this quantity after all?
Answer: Saving
Song: Banks of Marble
Artist: Pete Seeger
Hint: Not spending
13. Realm: Massachusetts towns
Subrealm: that no one cares about
Question: Walt Disney named a college in several of his films after this town, which he visited multiple times by flying his plane to a landing strip on the property of some of his friends.
Answer: Medfield
Song: Little Town
Artist: Alan Menken
Hint: It's also the hometown of the actress who plays Crazy Eyes on the Netflix show Orange is the New Black
Note: Medfield College is the setting for The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, the Monkey's Uncle, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him, Now You Don't, and The Strongest Man in the World. The cornerstone of Medfield Middle School, formerly Medfield High School, has a quote from Walt Disney inscribed on it: "Our greatest natural resource is in the minds of our children." Disney, of course, made a living by harvesting that resource as early as possible.
14. Realm: Death
Subrealm: Will it happen to you?
Question: Skydiving, which has a 9-in-a-million chance of dying, is a 9 in what unit?
Answer: Micromort
Song: Die Young
Artist: Ke$ha
Hint: Sounds like a Harry Potter antagonist
Note: A micromort is a one-in-a-million chance of dying.
15. Realm: Flowery wars
Subrealm: Somnium Vigilantis
Question: Of this man's three grandchildren who survived infancy, two were executed by King Henry VIII due to their superior claims to the throne.
Answer: Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Song: Armchair Anarchist
Artist: Kingmaker
Hint: His father was the earl of Salisbury
Note: Richard Neville was one of the Yorkist leaders of the Wars of the Roses.
16. Realm: Misfits
Subrealm: Besides Williams students
Question: Members of this group include people motivated by Puerto Rican nationalism, an Italian man driven insane by crippling abdominal pain, an unemployed house painter who thought he was King of England, a man inspired by the movie Taxi Driver, and a recently paroled follower of Charles Manson.
Answer: Failed assassins of U.S. presidents
Song: Another National Anthem
Artist: Stephen Sondheim
Hint: Members of a related group include Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgosz (SHOL-gosh)
Note: The attempted assassinations were of Harry Truman (Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, 1950), Franklin Roosevelt (Giuseppe Zangara, 1933), Andrew Jackson (Richard Lawrence, 1835), Ronald Reagan (John Hinckley, 1981), and Gerald Ford (Squeaky Fromm, 1975). Judging from Freaky and the Fridays' undeniable affinity for Stephen Sondheim, this question was likely inspired by Sondheim's musical Assassins.
17. Realm: Cherubs
Subrealm: Division 3
Question: Class of 2015 Churchill winner Jesse Freeman is a dead ringer for this mathematician, who died in a duel at an age two years younger than Jesse is today, having already created an entire mathematical field.
Answer: Evariste Galois
Song: Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)
Artist: The Klein Four
Hint: Fields
Note: The story of Galois' duel is one of the most famous in the history of mathematics. Knowing that he would lose, he wrote down as much of the theory he could the night before. It took about 15 years for the manuscript to find someone who could understand it, but when it did, it revolutionized abstract algebra.
18. Realm: Science, bitch!
Subrealm: Silicates
Question: This noted evolutionary biologist may have been given cancer by his asbestos-riddled office.
Answer: Stephen Jay Gould
Song: Ronan
Artist: Taylor Swift
Hint: He was closely associated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York
Note: Stephen Jay Gould was a rare survivor of mesothelioma, which is linked with exposure to asbestos. He lived 20 years past his diagnosis and died of unrelated lung cancer in 2002.
19. Realm: Contract Law
Subrealm: The fun kind
Question: In a contract with Orbital Outfitters, what adjective did Elon Musk specify that their spacesuits for SpaceX needed to be?
Answer: Badass
Song: Paper Trail
Artist: Joey BadA$$
Hint: Associated with Neil DeGrasse Tyson
20. Realm: The kitchen sink
Subrealm: The Royal National Theatre
Question: Which play was based on its author's affair with a British biographer and complained of the play's original West End run that Michael Gambon was a bit too drunk in the last scene?
Answer: Betrayal by Harold Pinter
Song: Someone Like You
Artist: Adele
Hint: The movie adaptation featured Jeremy Irons and Ben Kingsley
Note: Betrayal was inspired by Pinter's 7-year affair with BBC Television presenter Joan Bakewell.
21. Realm: Training Methods
Subrealm: That are probably bad for your health
Question: This legendary Czech runner was noted for training in his army boots.
Answer: Emil Zatopek
Song: Chariots of Fire
Artist: Vangelis
Hint: He won three gold medals in the Helsinki Olympics
Note: Emil Zatopek is the only runner to win gold in the 5000 meters, 10000 meters, and marathon in the same Olympics (1952). He broke the Olympic record in all three events, even though he had only decided to run the Marathon at the last minute. He grew up working in a shoe factory, so you'd think he would have a better grasp of footwear.
22. Realm: Magic underpants
Subrealm: Magic jockstraps
Question: Mormon baseball player Bryce Harper, after being asked whether he was taking advantage of Canada's lower drinking age, responded with this now-legendary rebuke.
Answer: Clown question, bro.
Song: Send in the Clowns
Artist: Glynis Johns
Hint: Three words. First word: circus performer. Third word: see also lax
23. Realm: Luke
Subrealm: 8:33
Question: This Russian biologist attempted to use his theories on evolution to support his anarchist ideology.
Answer: Peter Kropotkin
Song: Anarchy in the UK
Artist: the Sex Pistols
Hint: One of his most famous books is called The Conquest of a certain foodstuff that peasants are supposedly fond of
Note: The book referenced in the hint is The Conquest of Bread.
24. Realm: Doppelgangers
Subrealm: Broads edition
Question: Who did Abbi Jacobson think Ilana Glazer actually was when the two of them had first met on an improv team?
Answer: Alia Shawkat (aka Maebe from Arrested Development)
Song: Watching Me Watching You
Artist: Jethro Tull
Hint: Marry me! Babysit me!
Note: Jacobson and Glazier are the creators and stars of Broad City, which started as a webseries and then moved to Comedy Central.
25. Realm: Doing Acid
Subrealm: In Ethiopia
Question: A fossil specimen of this species suggested that bipedalism developed before large brain size in hominin evolution.
Answer: Australopithecus afarensis
Song: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Artist: The Beatles
Hint: A famous example shares a name with the song currently playing
Note: The example in question is Lucy, discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. The members of the expedition who found her named her after the Beatles song, making this an excellent song match.
26. Realm: Nominative determinism
Subrealm: Sarcasm
Question: A specialist in Baroque German literature with a degree from an undistinguished Oxford college, this fictional cuckold owns an engraved silver cigarette lighter which was stolen from him in Delhi and returned to him decades later in Berlin.
Answer: George Smiley
Song: The Shadow of Your Smile
Artist: Marvin Gaye
Hint: His codename in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is Beggar-Man
Note: George Smiley appears in many of John LeCarre's spy novels.
27. Realm: The 0.000,000,008%
Subrealm: 1930s Edition
Question: A tax proposal by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935 had a maximum tax rate of 79% on incomes over $5 million. How many Americans would have to pay tax at the 79% rate? (bonus points if they name the people)
Answer: One person, John Rockefeller
Song: If I Had a Million Dollars
Artist: The Barenaked Ladies
Hint: He, like Daniel Plainfield, is an oil man
28. Realm: Textbook covers
Subrealm: Of the obscene variety.
Question: Bacteria have their version of sex by using this method.
Answer: Conjugation
Song: Song Against Sex
Artist: Neutral Milk Hotel
Hint: Also something you do to verbs in Spanish class
29. Realm: Jeri Johnson
Subrealm: The decline of American democracy
Question: Ted Kennedy used the last line of this poem in a 1980 DNC speech.
Answer: Ulysses by Tennyson
Song: Ulysses
Artist: Franz Ferdinand
Hint: Tis not too late to seek a newer world
Note: The line in question is "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." Kennedy actually quotes several lines from the poem, eliding some lines in between. This was at the end of his famous speech, which resulted in over 30 minutes of applause from the audience.
30. Realm: London
Subrealm: St. Paul's
Question: What did Edmund Bentley invent? Bonus points if you write one about your team.
Answer: Clerihew
Song: Pink Panther Theme Song
Artist: Henry Mancini
Hint: A literary form
Note: A Clarihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem. The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person put in an absurd light. The rhyme scheme is AABB, and the rhymes are often forced. The line length and meter are irregular. Bentley invented the clerihew in school and then popularized it in books.
31. Realm: Content dictates form
Subrealm: Juxtapositions
Question: This composer has set other people's words to music on two occasions
Answer: Stephen Sondheim
Song: God from Sondheim on Sondheim
Artist: Stephen Sondheim
Hint: A member of Williams College Class of 1950
Note: The two external texts put to music by Sondheim were 1) a poem by Garfield assassin Charles Guiteau, which he sings in Assassins, and 2) Shakespeare's "Fear No More the Heat of the Sun," from Cymbeline, which appears in The Frogs.
33. Realm: An infinite amount of knowledge
Subrealm: That's also full of trolls
Question: This law of the Internet posits that the best way to find the correct answer to a question on the internet is to deliberately post the wrong answer and wait to get corrected.
Answer: Cunningham's Law
Song: If Everyone Cared
Artist: Nickelback
Hint: Shares a name with the actor who plays Davos Seaworth on Game of Thrones
Note: The law is named after Ward Cunningham, father fo the Wiki.
34. Realm: Vicious politics
Subrealm: Because the stakes are so low
Question: Which historian from the University of London was embroiled in scandal after admitting to posting nasty amazon.com reviews of his competitors?
Answer: Orlando Figes
Song: London Calling
Artist: The Clash
Hint: In 2010 he wrote a well-received book about the Crimean War
35. Realm: Contemporary novels
Subrealm: Too cruel for school
Question: Name the novel in which a main character, an English professor, fantasizes about writing everything that could possibly be written about the novels of Jane Austen out of sheer spite for other practitioners of literary analysis.
Answer: Changing Places by David Lodge
Song: Yale Fight Song
Artist: Cole Porter
Hint: That English professor is named Morris Zapp
36. Realm: More aptronyms
Subrealm: You're really not going to believe this one
Question: Name the man, one of whose sons is a North Korea expert, who fathered between 25 and 50 children.
Answer: Philander Rodman
Song: Teach Your Children
Artist: Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Hint: Shares a last name with Kim Jong-Un's pal Dennis
Note: In case it wasn't clear, Philander Rodman is Dennis Rodman's father. The Worm has made several trips to North Korea and met with Kim Jong-un.
37. Realm: Canine companions
Subrealm: Like toddlers, but with good motor skills
Question: In a 1994 book, psychologist Stanley Coren ranked the intelligence of a number of dog breeds. Which breed ranked as the lowest intelligence?
Answer: Afghan Hound
Song: Hound Dog
Artist: Elvis Presley
Hint: They were initially bred in the mountains of Central Asia
Note: The ranking put border collies first.
38. Realm: Box office hits
Subrealm: That probably aren't going to win Best Picture
Question: When criticized for making bad movies, this director replied: "I make movies for teenage boys. Oh dear, what a crime."
Answer: Michael Bay
Song: Battle Cry (Transformers 4 Theme Song)
Artist: Imagine Dragons
Hint: Explosions!
Note: Michael Bay has directed three Transformers movies and two Ninja Turtles movies to date, as well as Mystery Men, a favorite of your archivist and the source of at least two Williams Trivia team names.
39. Realm: Reckless imperialism
Subrealm: Now immortalized in small town road names
Question: This early colonial war was the bloodiest per capita ever fought on American soil.
Answer: King Philip's War
Song: Home
Artist: Phillip Phillips
Hint: The leader of one of the involved factions was named Metacomet.
Note: King Philip's War was fought from 1675 to 1678 between the Puritan settlers of New England and a coalition of Native Americans.
40. Realm: Dance Parties
Subrealm: Gone Wild (in all the wrong ways)
Question: In July 1518, 400 people danced in the streets of Strasbourg for days until dying of heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion. What was the name of the woman who started this outbreak?
Answer: Frau Troffea
Song: Shut Up and Dance
Artist: Walk the Moon
Hint: The phenomenon, called dancing mania, was alternately known as the Dancing Mania, Choreomania, and St. Vitus's Dance
Note: The event is known as the Dancing Plague of 1518.
41. Realm: Geopolitics
Subrealm: Marx Brothers Edition
Question: Which country has accidentally invaded Liechtenstein at least twice?
Answer: Switzerland
Song: Proud Mary
Artist: Tina Turner
Hint: This country is multi-lingual
Note: The two accidental invasions took place in 1992 and 2007.
42. Realm: Hollywood
Subrealm: Pfft, what a circus!
Question: When giving an acceptance speech at the Oscars, how long do you have before the orchestra plays you off?
Answer: 45 seconds
Song: A Day at the Mall
Artist: The Flower Kings
Hint: The song that's playing is this long
Note: The time limit came into being in 2010.
43. Realm: Insults
Subrealm: That your oblivious British lecturer might inadvertently say to you
Question: A person born underweight might be expected to have which body part be disproportionately large?
Answer: The head
Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Artist: Traditional Canon
Hint: It's a pretty important body part
44. Realm: Poor planning
Subrealm: British upper class edition
Question: The first Athletics Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge was held in 1864. Which side won? Bonus point for the final score.
Answer: Tie - 4-4
Song: Oxford Comma
Artist: Vampire Weekend
Hint: The dart's tournaments the Drone's Club of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series often has a similar outcome
45. Realm: When Adam delved and Eve span
Subrealm: Elitism
Question: When asked his father's career while a college student, this future U.S. President replied, a gentleman.
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt
Song: Gentleman
Artist: PSY
Hint: He was the first (president) of his (last) name
Note: Theodore Roosevelt Sr. was a businessman, notably in the plate-glass importing business.
46. Realm: Wink wink nudge nudge
Subrealm: Game of Boners
Question: In the third season of the show Game of Thrones, Tyrion refers to a prostitute's unique ability to perform a peculiarly-named sex act, an in-joke recalling what George R.R. Martin attributed to his inability to move along a particular plotline in A Song of Ice and Fire. What is the name of this sex act, and which character is central to this plotline?
Answer: Sex act: Meereenese knot Character: Daenerys Targaryen
Song: The Rains of Castamere
Artist: The National
Hint: The character spends much of the time in the eponymous city dealing with the so-called fighting pits
Note: Martin's problem was that his novel had grown too long and too complicated. Just as Alexander solved the Gordian Knot problem by cleaving it in two, Martin solved the problem he dubbed the "Meerenese Knot" by splitting his book into two.
47. Realm: Economists do it with models
Subrealm: Puns
Question: Chicago's basketball team is called the Bulls and its football team is called the Bears. Why would an economist find this funny?
Answer: Chicago is where the bulk of commodity trades occur. Bulls and bears refer to market activity.
Song: Mo Money Mo Problems
Artist: Notorious B.I.G.
Hint: The game Pit
48. Realm: The worst form of government
Subrealm: Except for all the others
Question: The little town of Muskogee, Oklahoma has gained some notoriety in pop culture over the years, but in May 2008, a local election brought it to national attention yet again. What was so special about this election?
Answer: The town elected a 19-year-old as mayor
Song: Okie from Muskogee
Artist: Merle Haggard
Hint: At least it wasn't a cat that they elected
Note: John Tyler Hammons served as mayor of Muskogee from 2008 to 2012. He is among the youngest mayors in US history. He is now a law student at the University of Oklahoma.
49. Realm: Mixtape
Subrealm: Of the Organic Variety
Question: These single celled eukaryotes have the best of both worlds, and caused a crisis for taxonomists, leading to the creation of the now discredited Kingdom Protista. They can take in nourishment both by eating, like animals, and by photosynthesizing, like plants. What are these organisms called?
Answer: Euglena
Song: Weird Science
Artist: Oingo Boingo
Hint: The species name of a red-colored species of this group is sanguinea
50. Realm: Nuts
Subrealm: Double-entendres
Question: Which nut is included in the name of one of the most infamous orgies in history?
Answer: Chestnuts (the Banquet of Chestnuts)
Song: Sex on Fire
Artist: Kings of Leon
Hint: The plant that produces the nut is a member of the beech family
Note: The Banquet of Chestnuts was a party thrown in Rome in 1501 by Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI. The master of ceremonies described it this way: "On the evening of the last day of October, 1501, Cesare Borgia arranged a banquet in his chambers in the Vatican with 'fifty honest prostitutes,' called courtesans, who danced after dinner with the attendants and others who were present, at first in their garments, then naked. After dinner the candelabra with the burning candles were taken from the tables and placed on the floor, and chestnuts were strewn around, which the naked courtesans picked up, creeping on hands and knees between the chandeliers, while the Pope, Cesare, and his sister Lucretia looked on. Finally, prizes were announced for those who could perform the act most often with the courtesans, such as tunics of silk, shoes, barrets, and other things."
54. Realm: Eat your vegetables, kids
Subrealm: Avoid skin lesions
Question: After the introduction of maize to Spain, large numbers of people came down with an illness resulting from niacin and tryptophan deficiency. Why did this disease arise in Spain but not in similarly maize-dependent populations in Mesoamerica?
Answer: Nixtamalization, a process of preparing corn used in Mesoamerica, makes niacin in corn biologically accessible.
Song: Jimmy Crack Corn
Artist: Eminem
Hint: It has nothing to do with the soil it's grown in
Note: Nixtamalization means soaking and cooking the maize in an alkalai solution, usually limewater, and then hulling it.
55. Realm: War, what is it good for?
Subrealm: Bat poop, apparently
Question: These three countries fought a war over islands primarily valued for their guano resources.
Answer: Peru, Chile, and Spain
Song: South American Getaway
Artist: Burt Bacharach
Hint: One European, two South American
Note: The war was the Chincha Islands War, 1864-1866.
57. Realm: The magic kingdom
Subrealm: In da club
Question: Courtney Love claims to have auditioned for the Mickey Mouse club how?
Answer: By reading a Sylvia Plath poem.
Song: Lucky
Artist: Britney Spears
Hint: Not a Ted Hughes poem
Note: Love was 12 at the time, and the poem was about incest. Go figure.
58. Realm: On the backs of four elephants, on the back of a turtle, swimming through the cosmos
Subrealm: Ankh-Morpork
Question: There are several villages in England that claim to be homes to naturally occurring deposits of a certain foodstuff, after coordinated campaigns in the 1930s to paint it as a natural resource, similar to coal. What is the foodstuff?
Answer: Treacle
Song: The Candy Man
Artist: Sammy Davis Jr
Hint: According to a character in P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster books, it can be used to quietly break windows
Note: Treacle mining has been a joke in British humor since the mid-19th century.
59. Realm: Johto
Subrealm: The Field of Mars
Question: What book series was written when the author was bet by a friend that he couldn't combine a certain children's cartoon/videogame/card series and the legendary missing legion of Ancient Rome?
Answer: Codex Alera
Song: Space Oddity
Artist: David Bowie
Hint: The children's series was Pokemon
Note: The Lost Roman Legion, IX Hispana disappeared from the records 43 and 120 CE. There is no record of what happened to it.
60. Realm: Here
Subrealm: But also over there. What the heck?
Question: There's more than one River Avon or Avon River in England, including the Avon that Stratford is Upon and the Avon in Bath and the Cotswalds. What's the deal? Avon was just the local Celts' word for river.
Answer: The Romans got confused.
Song: Down to the River to Pray
Artist: Alison Kraus
Hint: Rio, fleuve, fluss, ???, ???, ????...
Note: Your archivist suspects that the last line of the question was supposed to be the answer.
61. Realm: Spies
Subrealm: And booze
Question: What TV show had to rename its spy agency after the original name was used by the Islamic State?
Answer: Archer
Song: Danger Zone
Artist: Kenny Loggins
Hint: Are we not doing phrasing anymore?
Note: The agency was the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS). It was merged into the CIA.
62. Realm: The Goopy Glue that holds us together
Subrealm: And NYCPrep.
Question: Which SNL alum attended school with Gwyneth Paltrow?
Answer: Maya Rudolph
Song: Lovin' You
Artist: Minnie Riperton
Hint: She does a mean Beyonce impression
Note: When Paltrow hosted SNL, she had Rudolph join her for her monologue. They have known each other since they were 7. Their fathers were best friends in college.
63. Realm: Gen X
Subrealm: The Brat Pack
Question: Why is Ally Sheedy's character in detention in The Breakfast Club?
Answer: She had nothing better to do.
Song: Better Things
Artist: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Hint: The French might call it ennui
64. Realm: She stoops to conquer
Subrealm: The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death
Question: In which work of fiction does a character, on his deathbed, quote from Oliver Goldsmith's Elegy?
Answer: The Painted Veil
Song: Finishing the Hat
Artist: The original Broadway cast album of Sunday in the Park with George (Mandy Patinkin)
Note: may have to start song about minute or so in because of dialogue
Hint: Made into a movie starring Edward Norton
Note: The Painted Veil is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham.
65. Realm: Heaven(s)
Subrealm: Hell
Question: What name is shared by a major astronomer and a popular webcomic artist?
Answer: Tycho Brahe
Song: Rocket Man
Artist: Elton John
Hint: He owned a tame moose/elk
Note: Jerry Holkins writes the webcomic Penny Arcade under the pseudonym Tycho Brahe.
66. Realm: Cartovexillography
Subrealm: That seems like a real word, right?
Question: What country has a map of itself on its flag?
Answer: Cyprus
Song: Maps
Artist: Maroon 5
Hint: It's an island country
Note: Kosovo also has a map of itself on its flag. Tuvalu has a representation of its archipelago, with stars representing islands.
67. Realm: Organized group conflicts
Subrealm: Involving thrown spheroids
Question: There are two days of the calendar year when there are guaranteed to be no big four professional sport games in the United States. What are they?
Answer: Two of the three days of baseball's all star break.
Song: Centerfield
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Hint: Summertime
Note: Since 2009, the All-Star break is 4 days long. The home run derby is on the first day, the game is on the second, and on the other two sportscasters are reduced to covering golf and tennis.
69. Realm: Anatidae
Subrealm: Anacondas
Question: This is both a rapper and a type of bird.
Answer: Drake
Song: Birdhouse In Your Soul
Artist: They Might be Giants
Hint: Wheelchair Jimmy
Note: Jay (as in Jay-Z) was also accepted.
70. Realm: Troglodytidae
Subrealm: Sheldonian
Question: This architect shares his name with a bird
Answer: Christopher Wren
Song: I'm Like a Bird
Artist: Nelly Furtado
Hint: Submitted a plan to rebuild London after the fire
Note: Your archivist suspects that there are other architects who also share a name with a bird, though perhaps none as famous as Christopher Wren.
71. Realm: Yellow journalism
Subrealm: Hearst Castle
Question: What does Charles Foster Kane drop as he dies?
Answer: A snowglobe
Song: La Vie En Rose
Artist: Edith Piaf
Hint: You probably bought one at Disney World
72. Realm: The ocean
Subrealm: The cosmic ocean
Question: This tall, possibly fictional American World War II veteran is worshipped as a quasi-deity in parts of the South Pacific.
Answer: John Frum
Song: Some Enchanted Evening sung
Artist: Paulo Szot (from 2008 revival of South Pacific
Hint: He's primarily associated with the island of Tanna
Note: The John Frum religion is an example of a cargo cult.
73. Realm: Canada's breadbasket
Subrealm: But mostly before the bread
Question: Every Canadian province but British Columbia has a holiday to line up with America's Presidents' Day. Manitoba's version is named after this man, who founded the province and fought for the rights of the Metis.
Answer: Louis Riel
Song: The Presidents
Artist: Jonathan Coulton
Hint: I hate everything.
Note: The Metis are one of the aboriginal peoples of Canada.
74. Realm: Department of Redundancy Department
Subrealm: Department of Redundancy Department
Question: Sky Pilot is a nickname for a man of what profession?
Answer: Clergyman
Song: Paper Planes
Artist: MIA
Hint: A TV example is The Colbert Report's Jim Martin
Note: The term refers especially to a military chaplain.
75. Realm: The set of all permissible sets in classical set theory
Subrealm: The set of all permissible sets in axiomatic set theory
Question: Bertrand Russell discovered a simple set that caused a paradox that nearly took down set theory. What was the set?
Answer: The set of all sets that do not contain themselves
Song: Pace is the Trick
Artist: Interpol
Hint: It's super meta
Note: There are many ways to formulate Russell's paradox in natural language. One is: "The barber of Seville is a man who shaves all those men in Seville who don't shave themselves, and no others." The question, then, is whether the barber shaves himself. It's a paradox because no answer to the question makes sense. Thus Russell and his collaborator Alfred North Whitehead decided it was necessary to disallow all self-referential definitions of sets.
Note: Another way to say it (a favorite of your archivist) is in terms of adjectives. Some adjectives describe themselves, like "pentasyllabic," "recherche", "short", and "quirky". Most don't. Define an adjective to be "autological" if it describes itself, and "heterological" if it doesn't. The question, then, is: "Is 'heterological' heterological?" Try it, it's fun!
76. Realm: Space
Subrealm: Near-space
Question: Canada is very proud of the one piece of the ISS they are responsible for, so proud that its name contains the word Canada in full. What is it?
Answer: The Canadarm
Song: Canada is Really Big
Artist: the Arrogant Worms
Hint: Limb
Note: The original Canadarm was attached to the Space Shuttle. It was retired in 2011. The arm on the ISS is known as Canadarm2.
77. Realm: Granfalloons
Subrealm: Regional jingoism
Question: How many U.S. State Capitals have either a Football, Basketball, Baseball, or Hockey team?
Answer: 16
Song: Sports Go Sports!
Artist: Garfunkel and Oates
Hint: Its a perfect square
Note: The question is vague about what kind of teams count. The capitals with a team in either the MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL are Phoenix, Sacramento, Denver, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Boston, Saint Paul, Raleigh, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Salt Lake City, and Columbus. That's 12. If you throw in three Canadian provincial capitals, you also get Toronto, Edmonton, and Winnipeg, making 15. If you throw in Hartford, which used to have an NHL team, I guess that makes 16. If we throw in minor league teams, the answer must be higher than 16.
78. Realm: Schow basement
Subrealm: You know, the vending machines
Question: What popular soda brand had to apologize for a commercial celebrating their founding, and why?
Answer: Fanta, invented by Nazis
Song: I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing
Artist: the Hillside Singers
Hint: Godwin's Law is applicable here
Note: Fanta was created by the German division of the Coca Cola compnay during World War II, when it became impossible to import Coca Cola syrup into Germany.
79. Realm: In the vacuum of space
Subrealm: No one can hear you scream
Question: In the year 1967 The Beatles held the number-one spot on Billboard's pop-album chart for the second-greatest number of weeks. What song held it for the most weeks in that year?
Answer: Sounds of Silence
Song: 4'33
Artist: John Cage
Hint: No, the song did not disconnect
Note: The question mixes song records and album records, but it doesn't make sense either way. The single "Sound of Silence" charted in 1965/1966, and was number one for 2 weeks. The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" was number 1 for 7 weeks in 1966. The longest run at the top for a single in 1967 was 5 weeks for "To Sir with Love" by Lulu. The album "Sounds of Silence" peaked at number 21 in 1966. Sgt. Pepper's held the number one spot on the album chart for 15 weeks in 1967. The Monkees held the number one album spot for 29 of 1967's weeks, with four different albums: The Monkees (5 weeks), More of the Monkees (18 weeks), Headquarters (1 week), and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (5 weeks). Needless to say, there wasn't much room at the top for anyone else.
80. Realm: The Hunters of Kentucky
Subrealm: My Old Kentucky Home
Question: Two U.S. states have each been used in the titles of more than one Billboard #1 hit songs. What are they?
Answer: Georgia and California
Song: Sweet Home Alabama
Artist: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Hint: One is Southern, one is West Coast
Note: Georgia and California have each appeared in 3 number one hits. The complete list of number ones which contain state names is: Kansas City (Wilburt Harrison), Georgia On My Mind (Ray Charles), The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia (Vicki Lawrence), Midnight Train To Georgia (Gladys Knight and the Pips), Hotel California (The Eagles), How Do U Want It/California Love (2Pac Featuring K-Ci And JoJo), California Gurls (Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg)
82. Realm: Ghost towns
Subrealm: Idiots
Question: Why do only eight people live in Centralia, Pennsylvania?
Answer: Because a mine underneath the town has been on fire since 1962 emitting lots of toxic fumes
Song: Girl on Fire
Artist: Alicia Keys
Hint: Fossil fuels can be dangerous
83. Realm: Brevity
Subrealm: Wit?
Question: Which Shakespeare play has the fewest lines?
Answer: Comedy of Errors
Song: A Boy Named Sue
Artist: Johnny Cash
Hint: Twin city
85. Realm: The heavens
Subrealm: And the earth
Question: A shooting star is the visible path of a meteoroid as it crashes through the atmosphere. What film about another famous collision originally featured the shooting star as a symbol of death?
Answer: Titanic
Song: When You Wish Upon a Star
Artist: Gene Simmons cover
Hint: It's like a really famous movie. Really.
86. Realm: Apex Predators
Subrealm: Not quite apex enough
Question: What extinct marsupial predator features on the Tasmanian coat of arms?
Answer: Thylacine/Tasmanian Tiger
Song: Eye of the Tiger
Artist: Survivor
Hint: It was striped
87. Realm: Oxymorons
Subrealm: Military intelligence
Question: During World War II, the US toyed with the idea of dropping incendiary bombs attached to what animal to start fires in inaccessible areas?
Answer: Bats
Song: American Idiot
Artist: Green Day
Hint: They were chosen because they could fly to inaccessible areas to start fires.
Note: From the Wikipedia article on Bat Bombs: "Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican Free-tailed Bat with a small timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats which would then roost in eaves and attics in a 20-40 mile radius. The incendiaries would start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper construction of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target." The weapon was never deployed.
88. Realm: BEES?!
Subrealm: GOB's not on board
Question: According to tradition, the rosary was given to St. Dominic by an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1214 in what church?
Answer: Prouille
Song: Losing My Religion
Artist: REM
Hint: It's the cradle of the Dominicans.
89. Realm: Innovative drug policy
Subrealm: I mean, it's better than what we've got right now
Question: Vancouver, B.C. installed last year the world's first crack pipe vending machines, as part of an effort to wean addicts off safe drugs. Whatever your opinions are on this decision, we can all agree that their design is a aesthetic catastrophe. What pattern are they decorated with?
Answer: Polka dots
Song: Dots on Maps
Artist: Say Hi
Hint: First word is a type of dance.
90. Realm: Reaaaally weird pop culture trivia
Subrealm: We were so excited about this one
Question: (The text of this question was apparently ad-libbed. It asked what specific type of actors had January Jones worked with.)
Answer: Actors with pork-based names (Kevin Bacon in X-Men First Class, after Jon Hamm in Mad Men)
Song: Meat is Murder
Artist: The Smiths
Hint: Think food.
91. Realm: A slow boat to China
Subrealm: Too slow, one should say.
Question: When we saw The Master, we assumed this mixed drink Joaquin Phoenix made in the Navy was just another product of PT Anderson's twisted imagination. In fact, during World War II, US sailors really made something like them. What's the drink?
Answer: Torpedo Juice, made from grain alcohol syphoned out of torpedo fuel.
Song: Chandelier
Artist: Sia
Hint: Named after a weapon they used.
92. Realm: Trains, Planes, and Automobiles
Subrealm: Boats too, I guess?
Question: The Boston University Bridge is unique in that it's the only place in America where what can happen?
Answer: A plane can fly over a car driving over a train going over a runner running over a boat
Song: It's the End of the World As We Know It
Artist: REM
Hint: Vertical planes.
93. Realm: Tudors and Yorks
Subrealm: The and New, specifically
Question: What self-included tax was imposed by Henry VIII of England that would be particularly profitable if imposed by the Borough of Brooklyn today?
Answer: Beard tax
Song: Taxman
Artist: the Beatles
Hint: Think fashion trends
94. Realm: YouTube
Subrealm: Ze Frank copycats
Question: The Green Brothers, of The Fault in Our Stars fame, first became big on youtube with what impatient song by Hank?
Answer: Accio Deathly Hallows
Song: Book 8
Artist: Hank Green
Hint: Harry Potter.
95. Realm: Slovenian philosophers
Subrealm: Who have been played on Comedy Bang Bang
Question: The Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek was caught plagiarising last year. Who did he plagiarize, and how was he caught?
Answer: American Renaissance, a white supremacist magazine. Someone noticed his prose was too lucid. Accept answers that do not include the name of the magazine.
Song: Speak Clearly
Artist: Purr Machine
Hint: They're bad people.
96. Realm: Standing in a shadowed doorway, watching the yellow lamplight reflect off the rain as it fell in sheets
Subrealm: She had legs for days and was just the sort of dame you'd never expect to see talking to a guy like me
Question: Regarding the cause of death of a character in a movie being made about one of his books, Raymond Chandler apparently said, [The screenwriters] sent me a wire asking me, and dammit, I didn't know either. What's the movie, and what surprising person was one of the screenwriters?
Answer: The Big Sleep, written in part by Faulkner.
Song: Sleepsong
Artist: Bastille
Hint: Hawks
97. Realm: Aves
Subrealm: Corvus
Question: What do you call a group of Ravens, other than a football team?
Answer: An unkindness
Song: That's So Raven
Artist: Raven-Symone
Hint: You should be able to google this. Come on, people.
98. Realm: D movies
Subrealm: A plays
Question: Jaime Keeling thought Keanu Reaves was so bad in Point Break that he invented a reality play parody of it called Point Break Live! What city has an official Point Break Live day?
Answer: San Francisco
Song: Tweeter and the Monkey Man
Artist: The Travelling Wilburies
Hint: The city sits on a peninsula.
99. Realm: Springfield
Subrealm: The District of Columbia
Question: What US president's middle name is the first name of a character on The Simpsons?
Answer: Richard Milhous (Millhouse) Nixon
Song: Love Me, I'm a Liberal
Artist: Phil Ochs
Hint: He wasn't, but maybe by modern standards.
100. Realm: War.
Subrealm: War is hell.
Question: Who was the last British king to die in battle?
Answer: James IV of Scotland (DO NOT accept Richard III--he was king of England and the question specifically refers to British kings, i.e. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland)
Song: I'm Henry VIII
Artist: Herman's Hermits
Hint: British king.
101. Realm: Horcruxes
Subrealm: That includes all diaries, right?
Question: What did Samuel Pepys eat following the burial of his next-oldest brother (i.e. the oldest brother younger than him)?
Answer: Oysters, cheese, and cake
Song: Hey Brother
Artist: Avicii
Hint: It wasn't kosher.
102. Realm: Alcohol
Subrealm: That drink your dad jokes about drinking every Jewish holiday
Question: What is slivovitz made of?
Answer: Plums
Song: No woman no cry cover
Artist: Matisyahu
Hint: Clue character
103. Realm: The past
Subrealm: Also, foreign countries
Question: Name the only three best picture winners that are longer than 3 1/2 hours.
Answer: Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, and Lawrence of Arabia
Song: Yakity Sax
Artist: Boots Randolph
Hint: They're all kind of but not really war movies
104. Realm: The Red Herring
Subrealm: That section out back where the band plays over the summer
Question: What animal is able to consume large amounts of naturally fermented nectar of up to 3.8% alcohol content all year without any apparent effect on behavior?
Answer: Pen-tailed treeshrew
Song: Margaritaville
Artist: Jimmy Buffet
Hint: It's a member of the Ptilocercidae family.
105. Realm: Jolly Old England
Subrealm: Lecture halls and boat races
Question: Jesus was the first person to have both an Oxford and a Cambridge college named after him. Who was the second?
Answer: Isaac Wolfson
Song: Werewolf Bar Mitzvah
Artist: from 30 Rock (Tracy Morgan)
Hint: His Oxford college is located in North Oxford on the Cherwell.
106. Realm: Georgia
Subrealm: No peanuts involved
Question: What animal did President Jimmy Carter claim swam aggressively toward his fishing boat?
Answer: Swamp rabbit
Song: The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Artist: Charlie Daniels
Hint: It was a long-eared friend.
107. Realm: The Golden Years
Subrealm: Minus the gold
Question: In 2010, 75% of Americans nearing retirement age had less than what dollar figure in their retirement accounts?
Answer: $30,000
Song: My Generation
Artist: The Who
Hint: It's less than the average college graduate makes in their first job