The Big Book of American Trivia

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The Big Book of American Trivia Page 23

by J. Stephen Lang


  12. In Humboldt, Kansas, with its annual Biblesta Parade; the name is a combination of Bible and fiesta. All people on the floats must wear biblical costumes. [Back]

  13. New York, naturally [Back]

  For Kids’ Sake // Answers

  1. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz [Back]

  2. Bozo the Clown; Harmon not only portrayed Bozo but also owned the Bozo franchise, meaning he licensed (and sometimes trained) other actors who portrayed Bozo in the United States and abroad. [Back]

  3. Dick and Jane (“See Dick read the trivia book.”) [Back]

  4. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital [Back]

  5. The Boy Scouts of America [Back]

  6. A mouse [Back]

  7. Little League baseball, which has a museum and its international headquarters there [Back]

  8. Tinkertoys [Back]

  9. William Holmes McGuffey; the famous McGuffey’s Readers were used in schools for many years. [Back]

  10. Boys Town, formerly for boys only [Back]

  11. Dolls and their accompanying books [Back]

  12. Wild Animals I Have Known [Back]

  13. Brooklyn [Back]

  14. The Hardy Boys [Back]

  15. The Girl Scouts [Back]

  16. Etch A Sketch, one of the best-loved toys of all time [Back]

  17. The U.S. president [Back]

  18. Little Women [Back]

  19. Nancy Drew [Back]

  20. Mattel, a name formed from Matson and Elliot [Back]

  21. Twister [Back]

  22. Rugrats [Back]

  23. The Newberry Medal, which has been awarded since 1922 [Back]

  Festivals of Food // Answers

  1. Strawberries; the Florida Strawberry Festival is one of the biggest food festivals in the nation. [Back]

  2. Oysters, what else? [Back]

  3. Crawfish [Back]

  4. Alabama; the festival is held at Gulf Shores. [Back]

  5. New Mexico; the area around Portales grows many peanuts—thanks to irrigation. [Back]

  6. Lobster, at the Maine Lobster Festival [Back]

  7. Oktoberfest, with a real feast of German food [Back]

  8. Kansas [Back]

  9. The date; about 95 percent of American dates are grown in this area. [Back]

  10. Peaches, since Georgia is the “Peach State”; in fact, the festival is held in Peach County. [Back]

  11. Pork [Back]

  12. Chocolate. The town was once home to a Hershey plant; the festival continues though the plant is gone. [Back]

  13. California [Back]

  14. Asparagus [Back]

  15. Pears; the city has a Pear Blossom Festival every April. [Back]

  16. Catfish [Back]

  17. Shrimp and oil; the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival is held each Labor Day weekend. [Back]

  18. A four-block-long table, in the attempt to serve “the world’s largest breakfast” [Back]

  19. New Mexico; Hatch bills itself as the Chile Capital of the World. [Back]

  20. Maine, almost as famous for potatoes as Idaho is [Back]

  Capitols: Those State-ly Buildings // Answers

  1. The U.S. Capitol in Washington [Back]

  2. Illinois; the old capitol in Springfield served as capitol till 1876. [Back]

  3. Montgomery, Alabama [Back]

  4. George Washington’s, a Virginia native [Back]

  5. Utah’s capitol in Salt Lake City [Back]

  6. An underground ceremonial chamber [Back]

  7. New York’s, in Albany [Back]

  8. James K. Polk, the eleventh president [Back]

  9. Delaware; the capitol, in Dover, is called the State House. [Back]

  10. The first two burned. [Back]

  11. St. Peter’s, in the Vatican in Rome [Back]

  12. Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln [Back]

  13. Montgomery, Alabama; for the sake of dignity, Goat Hill is now usually called Capitol Hill. [Back]

  14. The State House in Annapolis, Maryland [Back]

  15. Statuary Hall; these statues are also seen in the Rotunda. [Back]

  16. Massachusetts [Back]

  17. Oil; the capitol grounds’ oil pump operated from 1941 to 1986. [Back]

  18. Robert E. Lee; the statue stands on the spot where he accepted the command. [Back]

  19. Texas’s, of course [Back]

  20. Sulfur; the fountain’s water has so much sulfur that it can be burned. [Back]

  21. Maine’s, in Augusta [Back]

  22. Montgomery, Alabama, which was also the first capitol of the Confederacy [Back]

  23. Nashville, Tennessee’s [Back]

  Statues, Stadiums, and Such: City Landmarks // Answers

  1. Washington, D.C. [Back]

  2. Nashville, Tennessee [Back]

  3. Memphis, Tennessee [Back]

  4. Minneapolis, Minnesota [Back]

  5. Atlanta, Georgia [Back]

  6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [Back]

  7. Chicago, Illinois [Back]

  8. Baltimore, Maryland [Back]

  9. New Orleans, Louisiana [Back]

  10. Boston, Massachusetts [Back]

  11. Richmond, Virginia [Back]

  12. Portland, Oregon [Back]

  13. Charleston, South Carolina [Back]

  14. Detroit, Michigan [Back]

  15. Milwaukee, Wisconsin [Back]

  16. Charlotte, North Carolina [Back]

  17. Indianapolis, Indiana [Back]

  18. Cleveland, Ohio [Back]

  19. Louisville, Kentucky [Back]

  20. San Diego, California [Back]

  21. Orlando, Florida [Back]

  22. New York, New York [Back]

  23. Seattle, Washington [Back]

  24. Las Vegas, Nevada [Back]

  25. Miami, Florida [Back]

  26. Asheville, North Carolina [Back]

  27. Williamsburg, Virginia [Back]

  28. Birmingham, Alabama [Back]

  29. Omaha, Nebraska [Back]

  30. Tampa, Florida [Back]

  31. Washington, D.C. [Back]

  32. Winston-Salem, North Carolina [Back]

  33. Norfolk, Virginia [Back]

  34. Savannah, Georgia [Back]

  35. Cincinnati, Ohio [Back]

  Ivy and Ivory Towers: Colleges and Universities // Answers

  1. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York [Back]

  2. The University of Alabama [Back]

  3. Columbia University in New York [Back]

  4. Daytona Beach [Back]

  5. Columbia, the state capital [Back]

  6. The University of Pennsylvania [Back]

  7. Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart [Back]

  8. Louisiana State University (LSU) [Back]

  9. VMI, the Virginia Military Institute [Back]

  10. Princeton, which originally was called the College of New Jersey [Back]

  11. Women; it was the first American college founded for this purpose. [Back]

  12. The University of Florida [Back]

  13. There is no tuition. All students perform some kind of work on the campus. [Back]

  14. Chicago [Back]

  15. Sweden; he was a great Protestant hero in the religious wars of the 1600s. He was also Lutheran, which is the college’s denominational affiliation. [Back]

  16. Columbia [Back]

  17. The University of Mississippi, “Ole Miss” [Back]

  18. St. Paul, which is not exactly a rural place [Back]

  19. Auburn, now a state school [Back]

  20. A nuclear reactor [Back]

  21. Judaism [Back]

  22. Pennsylvania State University, home of the Nittany Lions [Back]

  23. Indiana University’s main campus [Back]

  24. University of Texas [Back]

  25. Cornell [Back]

  26. Educator Booker T. Washington and scientist George Washington Carver (The school was known until recently as Tuskegee Institute.) [Back]

  Famous Fo
rts // Answers

  1. Chicago [Back]

  2. Nashville, Tennessee, naturally [Back]

  3. Baltimore, Maryland [Back]

  4. Gen. George Custer; he never returned. [Back]

  5. Confederate general Robert E. Lee, naturally [Back]

  6. Fort Worth; it has had military encampments but never an actual fort structure. [Back]

  7. Lewis and Clark, who left Fort Clatsop in 1806 to return east [Back]

  8. Long after its construction in 1777, local residents had forgotten its purpose, so they called it “nonsense.” [Back]

  9. Pittsburgh, of course [Back]

  10. Geronimo [Back]

  11. Sweden; the original settlers of Delaware were Swedish. [Back]

  12. Tampa [Back]

  13. U. S. Grant, the eighteenth president; people said “U. S.” stood for “Unconditional Surrender.” [Back]

  14. The French and Indian War [Back]

  15. The Netherlands [Back]

  16. St. Augustine [Back]

  17. Georgia, naturally; the state and the fort were both named for England’s King George II. [Back]

  18. It was fought after the Confederate surrender—due to the slowness of communication in those days. [Back]

  19. Fort Christmas [Back]

  20. Fort Matanzas, near St. Augustine; the name Matanzas means “slaughters.” (Apparently the Spanish were not ashamed of what they’d done.) [Back]

  21. The U.S. Army Transportation Museum [Back]

  22. New York [Back]

  23. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point [Back]

  Parks, Caverns, and So Forth: State Landmarks // Answers

  1. Arizona [Back]

  2. Hawaii [Back]

  3. Virginia [Back]

  4. Alabama [Back]

  5. Connecticut [Back]

  6. California [Back]

  7. Florida [Back]

  8. Wisconsin [Back]

  9. Mississippi [Back]

  10. Colorado [Back]

  11. Texas [Back]

  12. New Mexico [Back]

  13. Georgia [Back]

  14. Pennsylvania [Back]

  15. Indiana [Back]

  16. Maine [Back]

  17. Michigan [Back]

  18. Tennessee [Back]

  19. Minnesota [Back]

  20. Montana [Back]

  21. Washington [Back]

  22. Alaska [Back]

  23. California [Back]

  24. Wyoming [Back]

  25. Illinois [Back]

  26. Massachusetts [Back]

  27. Nevada [Back]

  28. Alabama [Back]

  29. Ohio [Back]

  30. North Carolina [Back]

  31. Kentucky [Back]

  32. Louisiana [Back]

  33. Utah [Back]

  34. Rhode Island [Back]

  35. South Carolina [Back]

  36. Oklahoma [Back]

  37. Oregon [Back]

  38. Kansas [Back]

  39. Arizona [Back]

  40. Florida [Back]

  41. Arkansas [Back]

  42. South Dakota [Back]

  43. Idaho [Back]

  44. Maryland [Back]

  45. New Jersey [Back]

  Colors on the Map // Answers

  1. Yellowstone, which Wyoming shares with Idaho and Montana [Back]

  2. Red River [Back]

  3. The Blue Ridge Parkway [Back]

  4. Broadway [Back]

  5. The White House [Back]

  6. Bluegrass [Back]

  7. Montgomery, Alabama, and Richmond, Virginia; both cities were Confederate capitals, and both have the residences of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. [Back]

  8. Alabama; the Belt is actually a wide band of rich, black soil crossing the state’s center. [Back]

  9. Baton Rouge, the state capital [Back]

  10. Norwegian; Little Norway is a popular tourist site and includes a lovely wooden stave church. [Back]

  11. Green Bay, of course [Back]

  12. It was painted white after the fires of the War of 1812 had blackened the original gray walls. [Back]

  13. Orange [Back]

  14. The Green River [Back]

  15. White, like the sand, as protective coloration; they are almost the sole inhabitants of this barren area. [Back]

 

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