ANSWER: Halloween

Turnips


The Jack-O-Lantern came about from an old Irish folktale about "a stingy drunkard of an Irish blacksmith named Jack" who outwits the devil.

At the end of the rather involved tale, Jack is denied entrance into heaven and hell and doomed to walk the earth until Judgement Day with only a turnip housing a burning coal to light his way (hence the name jack's lantern, later changed to jack-o'-lantern).

The upshot of the tale was that people would dress up in costumes, leave treats, and carve turnip lanterns to both appease and scare away wandering spirits on All Hallow's Eve.

When the Irish Potato Famine devastated Ireland, over 700,000 fled to America, bringing the carved-turnip custom with them. Unfortunately, turnips were not as readily available in their new home. Pumpkins, however, could be found in abundance and were a whole lot bigger and easier to carve.

Matt: WRONG
Record: 49-29

QUESTION: Halloween

What were the first Jack-o-Lanterns made out of?

ANSWER: Football

Bart Starr


Quarterback Bart Starr was the first Most Valuable Player in the first Super Bowl, a game officially known at the AFL-NFL World Championship. The game would not be known as the Super Bowl until the fourth playing.

In leading the Packers to a 35-10 victory over Kansas City and Green Bay's second consecutive NFL championship (it won the NFL title in 1965), Starr completed 16 of 23 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 49-28

QUESTION: Football

Who was the MVP of the first Super Bowl?

ANSWER: History

116 Years


The Hundred Years' War (French: Guerre de Cent Ans) was a prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne, vacant with the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings.

The conflict lasted 116 years but was punctuated by several brief periods of peace, and two lengthy periods of peace, before it finally ended in the expulsion of the Plantagenets from France (except the Pale of Calais).

Matt: WRONG
Record: 48-28

QUESTION: History

How long did the Hundred Years' War last?

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

There will not be a new question until Wednesday due to the fact that the moderator is in NYC hanging tough and rocking out to the New Kids on the Block.

ANSWER: Games

225


The playing board consists of 15 x 15 squares in the playing area with gridlines to separate the squares. There are special premium squares on the board with bonus score values.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 48-27

QUESTION: Games

How many squares are there on a Scrabble board?

ANSWER: Beauty/Cosmetics

Q-Tips


The Q-tip cotton swab was invented by Leo Gerstenzang in 1923. He got the idea watching his wife apply wads of cotton to toothpicks to clean hard-to-reach areas.

He sold it through his Leo Gerstenzang Infant Novelty Co. in New York City, which marketed baby care accessories. He first called them Baby Gays, and later changed the name to Q-tips Baby Gays. The Q stands for quality.

Matt: WRONG
Record: 47-27

QUESTION: Beauty/Cosmetics

What beauty tool/household staple was originally known as "Baby Gays"?

ANSWER: Television

Microsoft



Two partnerships with the name MSNBC were founded in 1996 by Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit, which is now NBC Universal. Although Microsoft and NBC shared operations of MSNBC cable at its founding, it was announced on December 23, 2005, that NBC Universal would purchase a majority stake in the television network, which left Microsoft with 18%. The two companies remain 50-50 partners in msnbc.com. MSNBC, like sister channel CNBC, shares the NBC logo of a rainbow peacock.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 47-26

QUESTION: Television

What do the letters "MS" in MSNBC stand for?

ANSWER: Superheroes

Green Arrow


Green Arrow (Oliver Jonas "Ollie" Queen) is a fictional character, published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941. His secret identity is Oliver Queen, billionaire and former mayor of fictional Star City; he is best known to his associates as Ollie.

Dressed like Robin Hood, Green Arrow is an archer, who invents trick arrows with various special functions, such as a glue arrow, a net arrow, explosive arrow, time bomb arrow, grappling arrow, fire extinguishing arrow, flash arrow, tear gas arrow, cryonic arrow, a boxing-glove arrow, and even a kryptonite arrow.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 46-26

QUESTION: Superheroes

Who is Oliver Queen?

ANSWER: Animals

Bat


A bat is a mammal in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of flight (though other mammals, such as flying squirrels, flying possums and colugos, can glide for limited distances). The word Chiroptera comes from the Greek words cheir "hand" and pteron "wing," as the structure of the open wing is very similar to an outspread human hand with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers that also stretches between hand and body.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 45-26

QUESTION: Animals

What is the only mammal that can fly?

ANSWER: Presidential Elections

Chicago Daily Tribune


"Dewey Defeats Truman" was a famously incorrect banner headline on the front page of the first edition of the Chicago Tribune on November 3, 1948. President Harry S. Truman, who had been expected to lose to Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential race, won the election. A delighted Truman was photographed at St. Louis Union Station holding a copy of his premature political obituary. Only a few hundred copies of the paper were published before the Tribune issued a second edition that backed off from proclaiming a winner. The headline is a cautionary tale for journalists about the dangers of being first to break a story without being certain of its accuracy.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 44-26

QUESTION: Presidential Elections

What was the name of the newspaper that erroneously reported “Dewey Defeats Truman” in 1948?

ANSWER: Music

The Dakota


The Dakota, constructed from October 25, 1880 to October 27, 1884, is an apartment building located on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City.

It is best known as the home of former Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, starting in 1973, and as the location of Lennon's assassination by Mark David Chapman on December 8th, 1980. As of 2008, Ono still has an apartment in the building. The Strawberry Fields memorial was laid out in memory of Lennon in Central Park directly across Central Park West. Every year, Ono marks the anniversary of Lennon's death with a now-public pilgrimage to the memorial.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 43-26

QUESTION: Music

What was the name of the apartment building where John Lennon was assassinated?

ANSWER: Anatomy

Under your nose (the dent)


The philtrum, also known as the infranasal depression, or Bruce's Fossa is the vertical groove in the upper lip, formed where the nasomedial and maxillary processes meet during embryonic development.

The philtrum allows humans to express a much larger range of lip motions than would otherwise be possible, which enhances vocal and nonverbal communication.

Matt: WRONG
Record: 42-26

QUESTION: Anatomy

Where on your body is your philtrum?

ANSWER: Fashion

To match the copper rivet


The orange thread traditionally used to sew Levi Strauss blue jeans was intentionally selected to match the copper rivets that doubled the durability of the jeans.

Only once did it appear as if the orange stitching on the rear pockets would become a thing of the past. The material shortage during World War II prompted Levi to contribute to the war effort by temporarily ceasing production of jeans with the trademark stitching on the rear pockets, as this was considered frivolous and wasteful. To avoid a break in continuity of the Levi tradition, the Company had the design hand painted on the rear pockets of each pair of jeans produced.

To this day, the copper rivets, matching orange thread, and ornate stitching on the rear pockets still adorn all Levis produced.

Matt: WRONG
Record: 42-25

QUESTION: Fashion

Why were Levi's original blue jeans sewn with orange thread?

ANSWER: Art

A color that cannot be mixed from or formed by combining any other colors.



It is also a 1998 film starring John Travolta based on the popular book (a success fueled in part by speculation over the identity of the then-anonymous author, Joe Klein). It also starred Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates and Adrian Lester.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 42-24

QUESTION: Art

What is a primary color? (definition)

ANSWER: Hockey

200' X 85'


The official size of the rink shall be two hundred feet (200') long and eighty-five feet (85') wide. The corners shall be rounded in the arc of a circle with a radius of twenty-eight feet (28').

The rink shall be surrounded by a wooden or fiberglass wall or fence known as the "boards" which shall extend not less than forty inches (40") and not more than forty-eight inches (48") above the level of the ice surface. The ideal height of the boards above the ice surface shall be forty-two inches (42"). Affixed to the boards and extending vertically shall be approved safety glass extending eight feet (8') above the boards at each end of the rink and not less than five feet (5') along both sides of the rink.

Except for the official markings provided for in these rules, the entire playing surface and the boards shall be white in color except the kick plate at the bottom of the board which shall be light yellow in color.

Matt: WRONG
Record: 41-24

QUESTION: Hockey

What are the official dimensions of an NHL ice rink?

ANSWER: Food

Banana


The Twinkie was invented on April 6, 1930 by bakery manager James Dewar, making thrifty use of pans that were used for shortcake production only during the strawberry season. Twinkies originally contained a banana cream filling, but this was replaced with a vanilla cream filling during a banana shortage during World War II. The original flavor would be revisited more than half a century later as an alternative flavor.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 41-23

QUESTION: Food

What flavor was the original filling of Twinkies?

ANSWER: Weather

Nimbus


A nimbus cloud is a cloud that produces precipitation. Usually the precipitation reaches the ground as rain, hail or snow, however, that is not a requirement, falling precipitation may evaporate as virga.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 40-23

QUESTION: Weather

Which of the following means “rain” when added to a cloud’s name? Alto, Nimbus, or Cirrus?

ANSWER: Movies

James Stewart


The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring, and Charlton Heston as the circus manager running the show.

James Stewart plays Buttons, the mysterious clown who never takes off his make-up even between shows. There are subtle hints as to his motives and background: he wraps bandages around a trapeze bar in an expert manner; he holds a discreet conversation with a member of the audience who turns out to be his mother; and, when an acrobat has a nasty fall, a doctor expresses admiration for the way Buttons handles his injuries, the clown explaining that he used to be a pharmacist's mate. It turns out that he is in fact on the run from the law, in a way similar to that of Doctor Richard Kimble in the classic TV series The Fugitive, which was made some ten years later.

Matt: WRONG
Record: 39-23

QUESTION: Movies

Who played Buttons the clown in the Oscar winning movie "The Greatest Show On Earth"?

ANSWER: Bible

The Book of Psalms


The Book of Psalms is a collection of prayers, poems, and hymns that focus the worshiper's thoughts on God in praise and adoration. With 150 individual psalms, it is clearly the longest in the Bible. It is also one of the most diverse, since the psalms deal with such subjects as God and His creation, war, worship, wisdom, sin and evil, judgment, justice, and the coming of the Messiah.

Matt: WRONG
Record: 39-22

QUESTION: Bible

What is the longest book in the Bible?

ANSWER: Flowers

Rose


September 23, 1986, the House of Representatives passed a joint resolution naming the rose as the "national floral emblem" of the United States. The Senate had passed the resolution in 1985.

The measure then went to President Ronald Reagan. He signed the resolution into law on October 7, 1986 in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

On November 20, 1986, President Reagan signed Proclamation 5574: The National Floral Emblem of the United States of America: The Rose.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 39-21

QUESTION: Flowers

What is the national flower of the United States?

ANSWER: Comic Strips

Arbuckle


A nerdy and clumsy man, Jon Arbuckle is the owner of Garfield and Odie. He converses with Garfield and is often the butt of his jokes. In the animated Garfield and Friends, he was frequently portrayed as being incredibly gullible when faced with unscrupulous salesmen and rather dumb in general.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 38-21

QUESTION: Comic Strips

In Garfield, what is Jon's last name?

ANSWER: Candy

Sour Patch Kids


Sour Patch Kids were originally called Mars Men, little aliens that were sold for one cent each. The product's inspiration and design came at a time when UFO sightings were exciting the Western world. Invading aliens from Mars were modeled into the shape of the product and specially coated with sour coating.

Matt: CORRECT
Record: 37-21

QUESTION: Candy

What popular candy started out in the late 70s as a candy called Mars Men?