1. What term, used in a snowboarding context to describe any maneuver in the halfpipe where one rotates 180 or more degrees in an uphill direction, also describes a pass made to set up a slam dunk in basketball?

2. In baseball, what is it called, when a baserunner is caught between two or more defensive players who narrow the running area by throwing the ball strategically back and forth while coming together, thus pinching the runner for an out?

3. What word, which means to move in a zigzag fashion, is used in football to describe a movement by a player designed to misdirect or fake-out the other opponent?

4. When playing tennis, what is the name for a shot made between the legs as you are running back towards the baseline?

5. What is the name of the position held by a figure skater while executing a “sit-spin”?

1. What country borders both Greece and Iraq?

2. Before separating into the continents we have today, what was the name of the giant land mass that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras?

3. Gary, Gurnee, and Oak Park are suburbs of what major US city?

4. What river carries the greatest volume of water of any river in the world?

5. Before winning its independence in 1971, Bangladesh was part of what country?

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1. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”

2. “Call me Ishmael.”

3. “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”

4. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

5. “It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

1. What 1975 movie warned “Don’t go in the water”?

2. Directed by Richard Donner, what 1976 film was remade and released on June 6, 2006?

3. What actress was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for The Exorcist as Linda Blair’s mother, Chris MacNeil?

4. In The Shining, what room number did Jack enter to find a naked beauty in the bathtub, only to discover while embracing her that she was actually a rotting corpse?

5. In 2002’s The Ring, the role of Rachel Keller, which was first offered to Jennifer Connelly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale, was ultimately played by whom?

1. Who first gained his fame with his invention of the phonograph in 1877, and eventually became known as “the Wizard of Menlo Park?”

2. Who invented the cotton gin?

3. What transportation device was unveiled by Dean Kamen in December of 2001?

4. Who received a US patent for using copper rivets for strengthening pants pockets in 1873?

5. In 1852, who invented a device that made elevators much safer by preventing them from falling if the hoisting cable parted, then in New York in 1857, installed the first ever passenger elevator?

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1. The Persistence of Memory, featuring melting clocks, was painted by what surrealist?

2. DaVinci’s famous work of art, La Gioconda, is also known by what name?

3. In Boticelli’s Birth of Venus, what is Venus standing on?

4. What Spanish artist founded the artistic movement known as Cubism with French artist Georges Braque?

5. Whose brain-teasing, mostly black and white, graphic art pieces include Waterfall, Drawing Hands and Relativity?

1. What American master of the short-story is being kicked in I am the Walrus?

2. On what show did the Beatles make their famous first live U.S. television appearance?

3. In what city are Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields located?

4. In what Beatles song do we heard the words “my heart went boom”?

5. What Beatles song is the most covered song of all time, with over 2,500 known versions?

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1. Due to her controversial role in the 2000 presidential election, Florida’s Secretary of State rose to national attention. What is her name?

2. The first in the series of Harry Potter movies was released in 2001. Before his death in 2002, who appeared as Albus Dumbledore the first and second films?

3. For what film did Halle Berry win the 2002 Best Leading Actress Academy Award, making her the first African American woman to receive the honor? (To this day, she is the only one.)

4. On February 1, 2003, when returning from its 28th flight, what space shuttle was destroyed during re-entry?

5. One of 11 military personnel ultimately convicted, what knocked up Army reservist was the poster child for torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib?

1. In 2005, Jesse Jackson traveled to Florida to support and argue on behalf of the Schindler family, who was trying to keep what 41 year old woman on life support?

2. After much debate over the official definition for the term ‘planet’, Pluto was booted in 2006. At what prestigious, private research university in Baltimore was ‘The Great Planet Debate’ held?

3. While I was on my honeymoon in April 2007, the US witnessed the deadliest peacetime shooting incident by a single gunman in our history. At what university did this occur?

4. The year is 2008.  You’re sitting in front of your computer, researching something of surpassing depth and grave importance.  In your travels through cyberspace, you click a link to what you believe will be an informative piece for your knowledge quest, only to be suddenly victimized by a song and its accompanying music video called Never Gonna Give You Up.  What has just happened to you?

5. Almost one year ago, a US Airways pilot landed flight 1549 in the Hudson River. How do you spell his first name?

1. In what state, the last of the 48 adjoining continental states to enter the Union, is there a possible 25 year prison sentence for cutting down a cactus and a law against having more than two dildos in a house?

2. In what state, named by Ponce de Leon in 1513, is it not only illegal to sing in a public place while attired in a swimsuit, but is it illegal to fart in public after 6 PM?

3. In what state, the 42nd state admitted into the union, where it is illegal to pretend that one’s parents are rich, was a law banning public breast-feeding repealed in 2001?

4. In what state, which does not have a single straight line in its state boundary, can residents be fined for not owning a boat?

5. In what state, the most populus in New England, where no gorilla is allowed in the back seat of any car, was a law banning tattoos and body piercings repealed in 2000 because it violated First Amendment rights?

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1. Ann Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles began with 1976 publication of what book?

2. What teacher in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series is a lycanthrope?

3. What English actor played Frankenstein’s Monster in the original film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous novel?

4. In Beowulf, who invades Heorot, the mead-hall of the Danes, and makes it uninhabitable?

5. First published in 1886, what Scottish author wrote the novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

1. What school set a record for consecutive Final Four appearances with 10 from 1967 – 1976?

2. In 1902, what was the first non-Ivy league school to win the NCAA Football National Championship?

3. What point guard from Gonzaga was the first-round pick by the Utah Jazz in the 1984 NBA Draft?

4. During his 36-year career, what basketball coach for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill won 879 games, two national titles and took his team to 11 Final Fours?

5. Three schools share the record for most Hesiman Trophy winners, each with 7. Name two.

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1. How many properties on the classic Monopoly board are named after US States?

2. In the original game of Risk, how many countries or regions are there in South America?

3. Name the six characters, including the correct titles, in the game of Clue.

4. In the game of Life, how many seats are there in each car?

5. Trivial Pursuit was officially introduced the same year as “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” and Seattle’s waterfront streetcar. Name that year!

1. Washington’s state tree is the Western Hemlock, its state gem, petrified wood. What is the state flower?

2. On April 30, 1789, George Washington took his oath of office as the first President of the US. In what state was he born, 57 years earlier?

3. The Redskins have called Washington DC home since 1937, but they were an expansion team in 1932. What was their original city?

4. IMDB says that Denzel Washington’s first role was in a 1977 made-for-TV movie, but his big break came when he starred in what popular 1980s television hospital drama?

5. Not renamed as the University of Washington until Washington became a state in 1889, the Territorial University of Washington was first established on a forested 10-acre knoll overlooking Elliott Bay, on the site of what is now the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. In what year did the school open?

1. 1954 – “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”

2. 1967 – “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

3. 1975 – “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

4. 1986 – “Your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.”

5. 1994 – “Either get busy living, or get busy dying.”

1. (12 weeks at #1, April-July)

2. (1 week at #1 in October)

3. (3 weeks at #1 in January)

4. (6 weeks at #1 in Feb, Mar & Apr)

5. (2 non-consecutive weeks at #1 in November)

1. In 2007, the Rockafeller Center Christmas tree went “green,” employing LED lights. After being taken down, the tree was used to furnish lumber for housing construction by what non-profit organization?

2. What actor, who appeared as Alfred in Batman Begins, played Scrooge in 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol?

3. There’s a plant that we see every year around Christmas in grocery stores. It’s a green plant whose leaves turn red and look like huge petals. How do you spell its name?

4. In the song The 12 Days of Christmas, what was the gift on the eleventh day?

5. How many total gifts would get if you actually received all the gifts in that song?

1. What restaurant chain, whose motto is “Mmmm… Toasty,” has a green and red logo?

2. The hemoglobin in human blood turns red when it comes in contact with oxygen. In the Star Trek universe who has green blood?

3. Of the nine professional teams in the four major men’s sports in North America whose team name does not end in the letter S, one has a logo which is promarily red and green. Which is it?

4. Of the 12 birthstones, two are red (one being ruby) and two are green (one being emerald). Name one of the other two.

5. Running from 1991-2006 and earning the title of longest running live-action scripted comedy in the world, what Canadian TV comedy depticts a lazy handyman who trusts the majority of his work to duct tape?
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1. In 1930, the Mars family introuced its second product, a candy bar which was named after the family’s favorite horse.  Name that product.

2. What fruity candy was originally an adult breath mint marketed as an alternative to smoking, and comes in a dispenser?

3. Made from white and milk chocolate and topped with pieces of peppermint candy, what delicious holiday treat is sold by Williams-Sonoma and Ghirardelli?

4. Of the 8 colors of M&Ms that have existed since the candy was first introduced in 1941, only three have been in production the entire time. Name two.

5. What country lifted its 12-year ban on chewing gum in 2004 after pressure from US manufacturers?

1. On what 90’s sitcom, in an episode called Xmas Story, did Santa want to kill Phil Hartman’s character Bill McNeal?

2. On this year’s Christmas episode of The Office, Michael gets upset when Jim promises that who can be the office Santa?

3. According to Friends, who is Santa’s representative for all the southern states and Mexico?

4. On one brilliant sitcom, the patriarch, George, was released from prison for one day, Christmas Eve, to take part in the Living Classics paegant, where he and his grandson were to portray Michaelangelo’s The Creation of Adam. Name that sitcom.

5. Scheduled to appear on ABC Family for the 5th time this year on Christmas Eve, what is the name of the 1974 claymation classic that features the Heat Miser and Snow Miser?

1. The third largest of all rodents, what round and slow nocturnal animal, which can be any of 27 species, is attracted to roads in areas where rock salt is used to melt ice and snow, and is known to gnaw on vehicle tires or wiring coated in road salt?

2. Orbiting at a distance of approximately 25,000 light years from the galactic center of the Milky Way, and over 2.5 billion miles from the formerly-known-as-a-planet Pluto, what celestial body completes one clockwise orbit every 225–250 million years?

3. Completed in the Czech Republic in 1905, what body part, which has unmyelinated nerve endings sensitive to touch, temperature and chemicals, but has no blood vessels, did day laborer Alois Glogar receive from 11-year-old Karl Brauer in the first documented human tissue transplant?

4. Stemming from the plural of the Latin word for “dregs,” what is often used to diagnose the presence or absence of a medical condition?

5. What was the Catholic tribunal established in 1478 and definitively abolished in 1833, intended to ensure the orthodoxy of recent converts?

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The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)

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Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)

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Santa Baby

4.
Last Christmas

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Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

1. What French explorer is often credited with discovering Canada in 1534?

2. What name did Shakespeare give to a record five different characters in his plays, including one title character?

3. What name is given to a phrase in which a quoted sentence is linked by a pun to the manner in which it is attributed. Example: “That’s the last time I’ll stick my arm in a lion’s mouth,” the lion-tamer said off-handedly.

4. What mathematical symbol did math whiz Ferdinand von Lindemann determine to be a transcendental number in 1882?

5. What nation did Niger, Algeria, Laos, Haiti, Tunisia and the Congo all gain independence from?

1. Beach Boys – California Girls – “I dig a French bikini on a wild island coast by a palm tree in the sand”?

2. Pearl Jam – Daughter – “Alone, listless, breakfast table in an otherwise empty room. Young girl, violins, center of a rhodedendron”?

3. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody – “Beelzebub has a devil for a son for me”?

4. Beck – Loser – “So, open the door, I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me”?

5. Manfred Mann – Blinded By The Light – “Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night”?

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1. According to the 2005 Saturday Night Live digital short Lazy Sunday, starring Chris Parnell and Andy Sanberg, Mr. Pibb plus Red Vines equals what?

2. On what amazing Twitter site, which quotes a 73-year-old man, could you read “Here’s a strawberry, sorry for farting near you…Hey! Either take the strawberry and stop bitching, or no strawberry, that’s the deal.”?

3. Who stars alongside adorable, two-year-old Pearl McKay in The Landlord, a short comedy film voted “Most Viral Video” in the 2007 Guy’s Choice Awards, presented by Spike TV?

4. In the movie Airplane, Steve McCroskey, played by Lloyd Bridges, says on four occasions that he picked the wrong week to quit something. Two of these were smoking and drinking. What were the other two?

5. A standup routine called No Cure For Cancer is a Thanksgiving staple in my crew.  The comedian was accused of plagiarizing comedian Bill Hicks, supposedly stealing not only his material but his persona and attitude.  When asked about the comedian in question, Hicks told an interviewer: “I have a scoop for you. I stole his act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did.”  Who are we talking about?

1. What deadly infectious disease, which most commonly affects the lungs, was in the past called Consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within with bloody cough, fever and pallor?

2. Alice in Wonderland syndrome, or micropsia, is a disorienting condition which affects which of the five human senses?

3. What is the condition that involves complex lateral and rotational curvature and deformity of the spine?

4. What disorder, which is the most common over-activity of thyroid hormone production, was Seahawks wide receiver Bobby Engram diagnosed with in October 2006?

5. Hodgkin’s is characterized clinically by the orderly spread of disease between clusters of what parts of the body, known for fighting bacteria and viruses?

1. Once the unofficial home to the Rat Pack, The Sands, which opened in 1952, was imploded in 1996 to make room for what new hotel and casino?

2. What is the name of the southern-most county in Nevada that contains the city of Las Vegas?

3. What is the name of the pedestrian mall and attraction in downtown Las Vegas that sports a 1500-foot-long LED display on it’s arched ceiling?

4. Opened in November of 1989, which hotel and casino was the first Megaresort built on the Las Vegas strip and from 1990 to 2003 was the venue for the Siegfried & Roy show?

5. With over 1300 slot machines, what is the name of the international airport that services Las Vegas and the surrounding areas?

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1. What was Sean Penn’s character’s name in Fast Times At Ridgemont High?

2. What low-budget, government-funded, allegedly a documentary but actually a propaganda film from the mid-30s dramatized the dangers of marijuana use and demonized weed?

3. In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, who plays Dr. Frank-N-Furter?

4. What singer/songwriter provided the soundtrack for 1971’s Harold and Maude?

5. The 1982 classic film Blade Runner is set in futuristic, proto-punk Los Angeles in 2019, starring Harrison Ford as an ex-cop who hunts down renegade human replicants. What is the name of the Philip K. Dick novel the film is loosely based upon?

1. Albert Einstein was born in what country?

2. Where are you if you buy something with Krona (the national currency)?

3. In July of 1978 the world’s first test tube baby was born in what country?

4. What was the first European country to give women the right to vote?

5. From what nation did Slovenia declare its independence in 1991?

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1. It’s generally accepted that there are four major professional men’s sports (football, baseball, basketball and hockey). Seattle won its first championship in which of these?

2. Mariners hall of fame inductee Dave Niehaus has been known to say “Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma, it’s grand salami time” and “My, oh, my”. What broadcasting partner of his, whom he affectionately referred to as “Red”, was probably best known for saying, what seemed to listeners to be hundreds of times per game, “he’s gotta keep the ball down”?

3. In what year did a 12 and 0 season lead to the Huskies being voted co-National Champions alongside the Miami Hurricanes by the USA Today/CNN Coaches Poll?

4. What was the name of the Major League Baseball team that played only one season in Seattle, moving in 1969 to Milwaukee and becoming the Brewers?

5. Which former Seahawks wide receiver was elected to the House of Representatives in 1994 in Oklahoma?

1. UPC (one of a wide variety of barcode languages called symbologies, it was the original bar code widely used in the US and Canada)?

2. BBC (largest of its kind in the world)?

3. TVA (a federally owned corporation created in 1933 under FDR)?

4. JPEG (a commonly used standard method of compression for photographic images)?

5. FICA (an employment tax imposed in an equal amount on employees and employers to fund federal programs for retirees, the disabled, and children of deceased workers)?

1. Kenneth Bianchi, along with his cousin Angelo Buono, killed 15 women in southern California and Washington state from 1977 to 1979 before being captured in Bellingham. He is better known by what name?

2. What serial killer, who was responsible for the deaths of 33 young men in the 70s, was known around Chicago for dressing as a clown and entertaining children at local hospitals and for immersing himself in organizations such as the Jaycees, working to make his community a better place to live?

3. What Wisconsin serial killer, who was the inspiration for the movies Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs, was arrested in 1957 after police found several body parts in his home along with many pieces of furniture upholstered in human skin?

4. “Son of Sam” was the name given to what serial killer who claimed he was controlled by a 3000-year-old demon which, to the untrained eye, appeared to be Harvey, his neighbor’s black labrador?

5. What notorious female serial killer, on whom the movie Monster was based, was a prostitute who killed 6 men in Florida?

1. Dirty Mind (from Dirty Mind – 1984)

2. Dirty Little Secret (from Move Along – 2005)

3. Dirty Mutha Fuzz (from Ferociously Stoned – 1990)

4. Dirrty (from Stripped – 2002)

5. Dirty Laundry (from I Can’t Stand Still – 1982)

1. What type of fish, often over 13 feet long and nearly 2000 pounds when harvested at maturity, does beluga caviar come from?

2. What is the world’s most expensive mushroom? Be specific.

3. What is the name for the pancreas or thymus of a calf, lamb, or other young animal soaked, fried, and served as food?

4. What type of pate is made by force feeding ducks or geese until their livers become grossly enlarged?

5. A well-known novelty dish in parts of the American West and the Canadian Prairies, what is the culinary name given to calf or bull testicles that are peeled, coated in flour, salt and pepper and then fried?

1. What American dramatist won Tony Awards for the plays Death of a Salesman and The Crucible?

2. What provocative French-born author and cult figure of the early feminist movement authored House of Incest and Delta of Venus before dying in 1977?

3. What British spy novelist wrote the children’s story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

4. What bestselling Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist, who wrote a nationally syndicated column for the Miami Herald from 1983 – 2005, has a sewage pump substation named after him in Grand Forks, North Dakota and documented that event in his 2003 book Boogers Are My Beat?

5. Who was the best selling female author of the 1990s?

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1. You are in Africa, in the Serengeti National Park enjoying seeing all the animals: zebra, giraffe, elephants and even the black rhinoceros. Not too far away is the mountain that inspired one of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories. What is this mountain?

2. You are in a city that stands at the entrance to the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is a French-speaking city, but you may spot some English signs. Expo 67 was held here and it is home to McGill University. Where are you?

3. You are beside the highest navigable lake in the world, watching the reed boats sailing on the water. It lies between Bolivia and Peru. What lake is it?

4. You are in San Simeon, California visiting the home of a late newspaper magnate. It is built in Italian, French, Spanish and Moorish styles. Much of the building material and many of the home’s contents were imported from Europe, including one of the two swimming pools. By what name is it commonly known?

5. You are on a triangular-shaped Pacific Island looking at some gigantic statues called megaliths, or Moai. These statues have very large heads. In fact the head is the only part visible in many of them. Where are you?

1. What Oscar-winning director of The Silence of the Lambs also directed 1993’s Philadelphia and the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate?

2. What influential director of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Full Metal Jacket said, “If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed”?

3. What director lent his warped vision to such features as Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Edward Scissorhands, and the short film Frankenweenie?

4. What director of 2001’s Bandits also directed such 80’s classics as The Natural, Good Morning, Vietnam and Rain Man?

5. What brilliant brothers are responsible for writing and directing such films as Raising Arizona, Fargo, and O Brother Where Art Thou?

1. Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. She was born by springing forth, fully grown, from what?

2. Which Roman god is the equivalent to the Greek god Zeus?

3. In Egyptian mythology, what god of the sky, usually depicted as a falcon or falcon-headed man, was the son of Isis and Osiris?

4. Who had “the face that launched a thousand ships”?

5. What mountain did the Greeks believe was built up with crystal mansions wherein the principal gods in the Greek pantheon dwelt?

1. #24 from 1985 – Sara

2. #5 from 1984 – Hard Habit To Break

3. #20 from 2001 – When It’s Over

4. #10 from 1984 – Missing You

5. #19 from 1985 – Broken Wings