Baseball Candy Bars - Random Trivia Questions

It's not unusual for celebrities to use their fame to push products. But even I didn't realize that the practice was so pervasive that you can have an entire quiz on nothing but candy bars created for Major League Baseball players! Some of these questions are pretty hard because the products didn't last longer than your kids' Halloween booty, but most of them are guessable.

Baseball Candy Bars Questions

• Q1) What baseball player remarked, "If I played in New York, they'd name a candy bar after me"?
• Q2) What baseball player had the Pronk candy bar named for him?
• Q3) What baseball player had the Big Hurt candy bar named for him?
• Q4) What baseball player had the 40/40 Power Bar named for him?
• Q5) What baseball player had the Moose candy bar named for him?
• Q6) What baseball player had the .352 candy bar named for him?
• Q7) What baseball player had the Supercharg'r energy bar named for him?
• Q8) What baseball player had the Base Hit candy bar named for him?
• Q9) What baseball player had a candy bar named for him in 1989 when he was only a rookie?
• Q10) What baseball player had a candy bar named for him in 1994 after four consecutive seasons with at least 30 home runs and 110 RBIs?
• Q11) What baseball player had a candy bar named for him in 1998 after his first and only MVP award?
• Q12) What baseball player had a candy bar featuring a picture of him as a 10-year-old?

Chunky Companion -- Quiz Quilt 146 Solution

Category Answers:

Entertainment & Food	CLAPTON	Guitarist and singer Eric Clapton was also a member of the Yardbirds, Cream, and Blind Faith.
Sports & Games	FRASER	Eight-time medalist Dawn Fraser was the first woman to swim the race in less than a minute on October 27, 1962.
Geography & Nature	SWEDEN	The region was inhabited as far back as the Stone Age, but the current Sweden has existed since it split from the Kalmar Union in 1523.
History & Government	PIZARRO	Conquistador Francisco Pizarro ordered the death of emperor Atahualpa, and the empire disappeared shortly thereafter.
Math & Science	FEYNMAN	Broderick played the young Manhattan Project scientist Richard Feynman.
Literature & Arts	MISERY	Annie Wilkes insists that author Paul Sheldon bring his fictional heroine Misery Chastain back to life.

Quiz Quilt Answer: CREAMY (Diagonally from the top left)

Peanut butter commonly comes in chunky and creamy varieties.

Chunky Companion -- Quiz Quilt 146 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Entertainment & Food	What singer was Derek in the band Derek and the Dominos?
Sports & Games	What female Australian swimmer won the Olympic 100-meter freestyle in 1956, 1960, and 1964?
Geography & Nature	What is the 174,000-square-mile country of just over nine million people whose currency is the krona?
History & Government	Who was the Spaniard whose army crippled the Inca Empire in 1532 but was then killed by his own men?
Math & Science	What physicist's life is the focus of the 1996 movie Infinity, starring Matthew Broderick and Patricia Arquette?
Literature & Arts	What 1990 movie was based on a 1987 Stephen King novel about a writer tormented by a fan who wants her favorite character restored?

Alliterative Actresses and Artists (Musical) - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Tina Turner. Anna Mae Bullock was known as "Little Ann" when she and Ike Turner tried to get married in 1958, but he hadn't finalized his divorce yet. They became The Ike & Tina Turner Revue in 1960 and officially got married two years later.
• A2) Gloria Gaynor. Gloria Fowles wasn't happy with using her last name when record producer Johnny Nash suggested Gaynor so she could be nicknamed "GG". Fowles liked the new name and used it on her first single "She'll Be Sorry" in 1965.
• A3) Greta Garbo. A teenaged Greta Lovisa Gustafsson learned to act from director Mauritz Stiller, who changed her last name.
• A4) Vivian Vance. Vivian Roberta Jones took her new stage name from author and folk singer Vance Randolph.
• A5) Doris Day. On bandleader Barney Rapp's advice, Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff shortened her last name to match "Day After Day", the first song she had sung for him.
• A6) Barbie Benton. Barbara Lynn Klein chose Benton from a list of possibilities provided by her agent for the 1970 movie How Did a Nice Girl Like You Get in This Business?
• A7) Joan Jett. After her parents divorced, Joan Marie Larkin switched to her mother's maiden name Jett.
• A8) Suzanne Somers. Suzanne Marie Mahoney married Bruce Somers in college, having gotten pregnant during her freshman year. The marriage lasted only two years, but Somers kept the last name.
• A9) Susan Saint James. Susan Jane Miller changed her name to Saint James when she was in Paris, just before she headed to Hollywood at age 19.
• A10) Marilyn Monroe. Norma Jeane Mortenson was given her dad's last name at birth, but was baptized Norma Jeane Baker using her mom's first married last name, as her parents were separated and would get divorced soon thereafter. She borrowed her mother's maiden name for her stage name.
• A11) Fannie Flagg. Patricia Neal was forced to change her name because of the older Academy Award and Tony Award-winning actress of the same name.
• A12) Susan Sarandon. Susan Abigail Tomalin married college classmate Chris Sarandon in 1967. Both were acting when they divorced in 1979.

Alliterative Actresses and Artists (Musical)

My name doesn't alliterate, but it would have if my parents (or rather, the INS) had used a different translation for our last name. My sister's name alliterated before she got married, while my wife's has since we got married. So I know a thing or two about the topic. How about you? From their given first initials and last names, can you identify the following dozen actresses and singers, who gained alliteration (with one exception because she already had it) when they got married or took a stage name?

Alliterative Actresses and Artists (Musical) Questions

• Q1) A. Bullock (singer)
• Q2) G. Fowles (singer)
• Q3) G. Gustafsson (actress)
• Q4) V. Jones (actress)
• Q5) D. von Kappelhoff (actress)
• Q6) B. Klein (actress)
• Q7) J. Larkin (singer)
• Q8) S. Mahoney (actress)
• Q9) S. Miller (actress)
• Q10) N. Mortenson (actress)
• Q11) P. Neal (actress)
• Q12) S. Tomalin (actress)

Procured a Pig in Pigtown -- Quiz Quilt 145 Solution

Category Answers:

Entertainment & Food	GIGI	The movie was released in 1958 with Leslie Caron in the title role.
Math & Science	O	The blue stars range from 54,000° to 108,000° Fahrenheit.
Geography & Nature	TAIWAN	The word means "beautiful island".
Sports & Games	HENIE	Norwegian skater Sonja Henie won every year from 1927 to 1936 and collected all three Olympic gold medals during the span.
Literature & Arts	AARP	Ethel Percy Andrus founded the nonprofit American Association of Retired Persons in 1958. The periodical is now AARP the Magazine.
History & Government	MARX	German Karl Marx had taken refuge in London in 1849 and spent the last half of his life there.

Quiz Quilt Answer: GOTHAM (First letters)

If you "procured a pig", you might have "got ham" in Pigtown, the Brooklyn neighborhood where Ebbets Field was. Gotham City is a nickname for New York City.

Procured a Pig in Pigtown -- Quiz Quilt 145 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Entertainment & Food	What was Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's Academy Award-winning film that had the song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls"?
Math & Science	What letter designation does the Morgan-Keenan spectral classification assign to the hottest stars?
Geography & Nature	What country do the Portuguese refer to as Formosa?
Sports & Games	What female figure skater won the most world championships?
Literature & Arts	What organization published the magazine Modern Maturity?
History & Government	Who was the originator of communism buried in London's Highgate Cemetery?

Presidential Pretenders - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Beatrice Arthur. Bea became famous in the All In the Family spin-off Maude from 1972 to 1978 and cemented her legacy as Dorothy Petrillo Zbornak on The Golden Girls from 1985 to 1992.
• A2) Harry Harrison. Stanley R. Greenberg's screenplay, including the addition of cannibalism, helped the movie win the 1973 Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.
• A3) Elvin Hayes. In addition to his 28.4 points per game, the Big E averaged 17.1 rebounds for the San Diego Rockets.
• A4) Marilyn Monroe. With Bernie Taupin's lyrics, the song was not completed until 1973, a full eleven years after the actress died.
• A5) Mary Pierce. The daughter of an American father and French mother vaulted to a career-high #3 ranking with the win and would later capture the French Open in 2000. Although not officially retired, Pierce has not entered a Grand Slam tournament since 2006, but she would have played in the 2008 Olympics if not for an injury.
• A6) Victoria Adams. The future Mrs. Beckham was nicknamed Posh Spice by the British magazine Top of the Pops in 1996.
• A7) Flip Wilson. Clerow Wilson Jr. escaped from poverty in Jersey City through the Apollo Theater to guest appearances on The Tonight Show, Laugh-In, and The Ed Sullivan Show to the highest rated show on television in 1970 and 1971, The Flip Wilson Show.
• A8) Samuel L. Jackson. The ubiquitous Morehouse College graduate managed to make 36 movies from 1990 to 1999, a full half dozen more than Harvey Keitel. Whoopi Goldberg led all actresses with 29 movies.
• A9) Bonnie Tyler. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" held the #1 position for a full four weeks and sold six million copies.
• A10) Booker T. Washington. The 'T' stands for Taliaferro, not Tuskegee, although he died in the Alabama town in 1915.
• A11) Jimmy Johnson. His 1987 Miami Hurricanes upset the #1 Oklahoma Sooners in the Orange Bowl on January 1, 1988, and his Dallas Cowboys downed the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl on January 31, 1993 (and again on January 12, 1994 in an unprecedented rematch).
• A12) Elizabeth Taylor. At age eleven, the actress played Priscilla in Lassie Come Home, and the following year she starred as Velvet Brown in National Velvet.

Presidential Pretenders - Random Trivia Questions

As we are midway between 2009's Presidents Day and 2010's, this week's random quiz is not about U.S. Presidents. None of the following people have ever been U.S. President or even played one in a movie, but they do all share a last name with one of our 44 Chief Executive Officers. How many can you name?

Presidential Pretenders Questions

• Q1) What television actress, born as Bernice Frankel, was famous for playing characters whose last names were Findlay and Zbornak?
• Q2) What author's 1966 sci-fi novel Make Room! Make Room! inspired the movie Soylent Green?
• Q3) What NBA player, who went on to play exactly 50,000 minutes in his career, was the last rookie to lead the league in scoring?
• Q4) Whom did Elton John's original version of "Candle in the Wind" honor?
• Q5) What Canadian-born woman won the 1995 Australian Open tennis tournament?
• Q6) Which of the Spice Girls married soccer player David Beckham on July 4, 1999?
• Q7) What comedian was famous for his catchphrase "The devil made me do it!"?
• Q8) What American actor appeared in the most major movies in the 1990s?
• Q9) What singer, born as Gaynor Hopkins, had a number one pop hit in 1983?
• Q10) Who founded the National Negro Business League and named his autobiography Up From Slavery?
• Q11) Who was the first coach to win both an NCAA football championship and a Super Bowl?
• Q12) What star movie actress claimed, "Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses"?

Pair of Pairs Partner -- Quiz Quilt 144 Solution

Category Answers:

History & Government	CARTIER	Actually, sailor Jacques Cartier gave the name to a small bay in 1535, and a cartographic error later led to the river taking the name.
Literature & Arts	GUERNICA	The painting is named for the Spanish town whose bombing it depicts.
Geography & Nature	ARKANSAS	The honeybee has been its state insect since 1973.
Entertainment & Food	RECITATIVE	The term also applies to oratorios, cantatas, and other music works.
Math & Science	QUININE	Because of its bitter taste British colonists in India, who added it to their tonic water to prevent malaria, invented the gin and tonic.
Sports & Games	INKSTER	Californian Juli Inkster became the sixth woman to accomplish the quadruple.

Quiz Quilt Answer: KICKER (Third letters going up)

In poker, the fifth card in a hand with two pairs is the kicker, which serves as a tiebreaker.

Pair of Pairs Partner -- Quiz Quilt 144 Puzzle

Category Questions:

History & Government	What French explorer indirectly named the St. Lawrence River?
Literature & Arts	What masterpiece did Picasso paint in six weeks in 1937 as an indictment of future dictator Francisco Franco?
Geography & Nature	What is the U.S. state whose official tree is the pine, flower is the apple blossom, and bird is the northern mockingbird?
Entertainment & Food	What is a passage of sung dialogue in an opera called?
Math & Science	What alkaloid, isolated from the bark of Cinchona trees, was used to treat malaria before synthetic drugs were available?
Sports & Games	What female golfer completed her career Grand Slam when she won the 1999 LPGA Championship?

Wayne's World - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Gordie Howe. Howe tallied 1,850 points and 801 goals in 1,767 games, 1,006 and 93 fewer than Gretzky did in 282 fewer games.
• A2) Paul Coffey. Coffey assisted on 1,102 goals, an astonishing 860 fewer than Gretzky.
• A3) Doug Gilmour. Gilmour helped win 13 games in his career with overtime assists, two fewer than Gretzky.
• A4) Marcel Dionne. Dionne reached 40 goals 10 times in 18 seasons, while Gretzky did it 12 times in 20 seasons.
• A5) Mike Bossy. Bossy reached 40 goals every season from 1977-78 to 1985-86, three fewer than Gretzky's record of 12 from 1979-80 to 1990-91.
• A6) Mark Messier. Messier's impressive 295 points on 109 goals and 186 assists fall short of Gretzky by 87, 13, and 74.
• A7) Claude Lemieux. Lemieux netted the game-winner 19 times in his playoff career, five fewer than Gretzky.
• A8) Mario Lemieux. The unrelated Lemieux's 199 points and 114 assists with the Penguins in 1988-89 were 16 and 49 below Gretzky's 1985-86 records and also trail the Great One's next three best seasons in points and next six best seasons in assists (tied with his eighth best effort).
• A9) Brett Hull. Hull's 86 goals with the Blues in 1990-91 were six fewer than Gretzky's 1981-82 record and one fewer than his 1983-84 season.
• A10) Adam Oates. Oates assisted on at least one goal in 18 consecutive games with the Bruins in 1992-93 (28 assists), five short of Gretzky's record in 1990-91 (48 assists).
• A11) Mario Lemieux. Lemieux's 44 points and 28 assists in the 1990-91 playoffs trail only Gretzky's 47 points in 1984-85 and his 31 assists in 1987-88 (and 30 in 1984-85 and 29 in 1986-87).
• A12) Gary Suter. Suter helped out on six Flames goals on April 4, 1986 against the Oilers, one fewer than Gretzky did for the Oilers on February 15, 1980 against the Capitals.

Surprisingly, Wayne Gretzky's best playoff year goal production was only 17, two behind leaders Jari Kurri (1985 Oilers, mostly assisted by Gretzky though) and Reggie Leach (1976 Flyers), one behind Joe Sakic (1996 Avalanche), and tied with Mike Bossy (three times), Newsy Lalonde, Steve Payne, and Kevin Stevens.

Wayne's World - Random Trivia Questions

With the NHL season upon us, our thoughts have turned to the ice (at least until basketball season starts ;-). If you're ever faced with an ice hockey trivia question to which you don't know the answer, just guess "Wayne Gretzky". The Great One set so many records that they kept track of his record for how many records he had (61, including some ties, right now). But that trick won't work here. This week, the question is who would hold these records if #99 were disqualified for being a superhero or an alien life form? [Unhelpful hint: only one person is the answer to two questions below.]

Wayne's World Questions

• Q1) Career Record: Regular Season Points and Goals
• Q2) Career Record: Regular Season Assists
• Q3) Career Record: Regular Season Overtime Assists
• Q4) Career Record: Seasons with 40 or More Goals
• Q5) Career Record: Consecutive Seasons with 40 or More Goals
• Q6) Career Record: Playoff Points, Goals, and Assists
• Q7) Career Record: Playoff Game-Winning Goals
• Q8) Season Record: Points and Assists
• Q9) Season Record: Goals
• Q10) Season Record: Consecutive Regular Season Games with an Assist
• Q11) Season Record: Playoffs Points and Assists
• Q12) Game Record: Assists by a Rookie

Lower Weight Incendiary -- Quiz Quilt 143 Solution

Category Answers:

Geography & Nature	NOSE	The Canadian Kennel Club has used nose prints as unique signatures since 1938.
Sports & Games	RYUN	Jim Ryun, the author of In Quest of Gold, lowered his time another two tenths of a second on June 23, 1967, a U.S. record that stood for 37 years until Alan Webb reduced it by half a second.
Literature & Arts	NINA	The caricaturist helpfully included a count next to his signature so you would know how many instances of his daughter's name to look for.
History & Government	MALTHUS	English demographer Thomas Malthus, who preferred to be called by his middle name Robert, wrote about his views in "An Essay on the Principle of Population".
Entertainment & Food	ABDUL	Paula Abdul's 1988 album featured the #1 singles "Cold Hearted", "Forever Your Girl", and "Straight Up".
Math & Science	LIBBY	UC Berkeley alumnus Willard Libby received the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research.

Quiz Quilt Answer: BUTANE (Fourth letters going up)

Butane is the most commonly used cigarette lighter fluid.

Lower Weight Incendiary -- Quiz Quilt 143 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Geography & Nature	What type of prints are used to identify dogs more accurately than paw prints?
Sports & Games	What U.S. college student set a world record of 3:51.3 in the mile in 1966?
Literature & Arts	What name did New York Times cartoonist Al Hirschfeld hide in almost all his drawings?
History & Government	In 1798, what English minister and economist claimed that population always increases faster than food supply?
Entertainment & Food	What former Los Angeles Lakers cheerleader gained stardom as a singer with her debut album Forever Your Girl?
Math & Science	What U.S. scientist won a Nobel Prize for discovering carbon dating?

Major Moons - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Jupiter. Since 2004, the largest planet has had 63 known moons, fourteen of which remain unnamed. Saturn has been closing the gap but currently stands at 61, eight of which remain unnamed.
• A2) The moon. Our moon has a diameter 27.2% of the Earth's. Charon has a diameter 52.3% of Pluto's, one of the main reasons the former ninth planet got demoted.
• A3) Triton. The largest irregularly shaped (non-spherical) moon has a diameter 5.5% of Neptune's, edging out Titan (4.3% of Saturn's) and Ganymede (3.7% of Jupiter's).
• A4) Titan. In 1655, Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens used a refracting telescope that he invented to spot Saturn's largest satellite.
• A5) Iapetus. From 1671 to 1684, Italian-born, French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovered the four moons of Saturn he called Sidera Lodoicea (the Louisian Stars, in honor of his benefactor France's King Louis XIV). The other three moons, later named Rhea, Tethys, and Dione, would be the last new moons found for over a century.
• A6) Adrastea. Pictures taken from Voyager I on July 8, 1979 revealed Jupiter's inner moon, the first moon alphabetically. Saturn's Janus had already been noted from Earth as far back as 1966, but Voyager I confirmed its existence in 1980.
• A7) Mars. Despite its relative nearness, Mars was officially moonless until Deimos and Phobos were spotted 1877, after Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto in 1610), Saturn (Titan in 1655), Uranus (Titania and Oberon in 1787), and even Neptune (Triton in 1846).
• A8) Neso. Neso takes a whopping 9,374 days (25.7 years) to orbit Neptune. The next three slowest (Psamathe, Laomedeia, and Sao) also belong to the eighth planet. At the other extreme, Naiad and Metis only need seven hours to circle Neptune and Jupiter respectively.
• A9) Phobos. With a semi-major axis (the larger "radius" of the ellipse) of only 5,828 miles, Phobos actually revolves around Mars faster than Mars rotates. Its twin Deimos is the second closest at 14,577 miles.
• A10) Ganymede. The largest satellite in both volume and weight orbits Jupiter, edging Saturn's Titan in both categories.
• A11) Io. Slightly larger than the moon and less slightly heavier, Jupiter's Io is the only satellite on which you weigh more than you would on the moon. Ganymede and Titan both have lower enough densities to offset their larger sizes.
• A12) Y. Ymir, named for the giant whose body Odin used to create the world in Norse mythology, was discovered orbiting Saturn in 2000. The letters Q and V also begin the names of no moons.

Major Moons - Random Trivia Questions

Now that Pluto has been demoted to dwarf planet status, our solar system contains eight planets with 167 known moons orbiting them. This week's random quiz tests your knowledge of those natural satellites.

Major Moons Questions

• Q1) Which planet has the most moons orbiting it?
• Q2) What is the largest moon relative to its planet's diameter?
• Q3) What is the second largest?
• Q4) After the Earth's moon and the four Galilean moons, what was the next moon to be discovered?
• Q5) What was the next moon after that?
• Q6) What was the first moon discovered with the aid of a spacecraft*?
• Q7) Which of the six planets with moons was thought to be moonless until the most recently?
• Q8) What moon takes the longest time to orbit its planet*?
• Q9) What moon has the smallest orbit around its planet*?
• Q10) What is the heaviest moon?
• Q11) What moon has the highest surface gravity?
• Q12) Of W, X, Y, and Z, which is the only letter that starts the name of a moon?

* Very hard question, so take the point just for naming the planet plus a bonus point for the moon.

More Ideal -- Quiz Quilt 142 Solution

Category Answers:

Entertainment & Food	QUAID	Dennis Quaid had appeared with her in Innerspace in 1987 and D.O.A. in 1988.
Literature & Arts	STOKER	The hero of Bram Stoker's story is solicitor Jonathan Harker, who had acquired a house in London for the Count.
History & Government	POLK	Democrat James Polk won the election but lost the latitude. The boundary between the Oregon Territory and British Columbia was eventually set at 49° North.
Sports & Games	SPY	The marshal-killer bears the letter 'S'.
Math & Science	PI	Pi is the first letter of perimetros, Greek for "perimeter".
Geography & Nature	HALIFAX	When Halifax, Nova Scotia was a British military post, the town, now the province's most populous city, was named for George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax.

Quiz Quilt Answer: UTOPIA (Second letters)

Sir Thomas More coined the word "utopia" in his 1516 novel of the same name.

More Ideal -- Quiz Quilt 142 Puzzle

Category Questions:

Entertainment & Food	What actor married Meg Ryan on Valentine's Day in 1991?
Literature & Arts	What English novelist wrote Dracula in 1897?
History & Government	Which U.S. President supposedly ran with the campaign slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight"?
Sports & Games	What is the only piece in the board game Stratego that has a letter on it rather than a number?
Math & Science	What is the transcendental number that equals the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter?
Geography & Nature	Which provincial capital city is Canada's largest, ice-free port?