The Year Poker Came Home to Roost

The Year Poker Came Home to Roost

TTGT11 VI: Lick My Love Pump

Written by Matt Larson of the University of Iowa Academic Quiz Club.

Edited by Matt Larson and the University of Iowa Academic Quiz Club.

Theme: A multidisciplinary packet concerning the events to date of the year 2004.

Toss ups

1. On January 20th, they announced that the late Joan Kroc had left the group $1.5 billion – by far the largest gift they had ever received, and likely the single largest donation to any charity in history (*). Founded by William Booth in 1865, it took its name in 1878 after his son objected to the word Volunteer in the title of the group’s annual report. FTP, identify this religious charity whose bell-ringers have become as much a part of the Christmas holiday as the tree.

Answer: Salvation Army

1. The man who wrote the code for it, David Bradley, retired in January 2004. Allegedly, he once said that he “may have invented it, but Bill (*) made it famous.” Colloquially known as the three finger salute, it was intentionally chosen because it was a keyboard combination which would hard to hit accidentally. FTP, identify this three-key combination which now brings up the Task Manager in Windows and caused a hard reboot on DOS machines.

Answer: Control-Alt-Delete

1. He returned to cycling in 1997 but was felled by a black cat which ran out in front of him during the Giro d’Italia. He finished third in the Tour de France that year, a prelude to 1998 (*), when he became the first Italian in 33 years to win the Tour. However, in 1999, he was disqualified from the Giro for a suspiciously high red blood cell count, and his career never recovered. FTP, identify this cyclist who was found dead of a cocaine overdose in February.

Answer: Marco Pantani

1. Working as a team, Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz first discovered it in November 2003, although no formal announcement was made until March 15, 2004. Likely the first detection of the Oort cloud (*), it is estimated to be three-fourths the size of Pluto, and lies between 8 and 84 billion miles from the Sun, depending on its orbit. FTP, identify this most distant known object in the Solar System, named after the Inuit goddess of the sea.

Answer: Sedna

1. In an unusual concession, the Red Cross was allowed into the area, and they estimate 150 people were killed and another 1300 injured, with almost 2000 houses being destroyed entirely and another 7000 damaged. At first it was thought that it might be an assassination attempt against Kim Jong-Il (*), but it turned out to be an accident after contact with live electrical wires. FTP, identify the town that was devastated by a North Korean train blast on April 23.

Answer: Ryongchon(Prompt on anything similar to North Korean train blast)

1. Two 43-foot pavilions serve as markers and entries on the north and south ends. Four bronze columns support four eagles (*) that hold a suspended victory laurel. 56 granite pillars celebrate the unity of the nation, while a sculpted rope linking those pillars symbolizes the bonding of the country. Opened on April 29 and dedicated on May 29, this is, FTP, what new monument on the National Mall, whose memorial pavilions include the inscription “1941-1945”?

Answer: National World War II Memorial

1. The title figure is dressed in blue and sits in front of a wall adorned with floral wallpaper. He wears a laurel wreath on his head, and holds the title object (*) at chest level with his left hand. Painted while the artist was just 24, it is typical of his Rose Period, and was a part of the famed Whitney collection until May 5. FTP, identify this Picasso work which set a record when it was auctioned off at Sotheby’s in May for $104.1 million.

Answer: Boy With a Pipe or The Young Apprentice or Garçon à la pipe

1. Cowboys, hot dog costumes, knights in armor, Herman Munster, dunce caps, swift boats, three Purple Hearts (*), Waffle Huts, ball gags, nuclear missiles, brain transplants, three more Purple Hearts, the Dean scream, Botox, three more Purple Hearts, a sad Indian, the Governator, and Pres. Clinton getting slapped are all part of, FTP, what internet cartoon written by Gregg and Evan Spiridellis and featuring John Kerry and George W. Bush butchering Woody Guthrie?

Answer: JibJab or or This Land(NOT This Land Is Your Land)

1. During the 1980s, he ran a private law firm in Texas, supporting the presidential bids of Jesse Jackson and later Jerry Brown. However, after 1992, he became disenchanted with the Democrats and in 2000 he ran Ralph Nader’s (*) presidential campaign in Texas. However, he came into direct conflict with Nader in June at the Green convention. FTP, identify the man who the Green Party nominated as their presidential candidate for 2004.

Answer: David Cobb

1. On July 29, it announced that its accounting practices are the subject of an informal inquiry by the SEC. The inquiry is concerned with the company’s repurchase of franchises as well as a recent earnings warning. Apparently, the company thought the legend (*) about founder Vernon Rudolph winning the recipe in a poker game was license enough for them to gamble with the company’s future. FTP, identify this deliciously glazed alliterative doughnut chain.

Answer: Krispy Kreme

1. "I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? (*) Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father?" Also asking if parents were waiting for Jesus to pull up their kids’ pants, FTP, what entertainer resumed the tough love mantra in July 2004 that he had last visited with Fat Albert?

Answer: Bill Cosby(No, he didn’t really do that in Fat Albert. Not really.)

1. “I was walking along a path with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused (*), feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety,” wrote the artist concerning this work. Of course, that anxiety didn’t stop armed thieves from stealing a version of it from a Norwegian museum in August. FTP, identify this masterwork of Edvard Munch.

Answer: The Scream(Prompt on ‘Munch’ before the end)

1. On February 6, 39 people were killed in this city after a bomb detonated on a subway train. On February 14, the roof on an indoor water park collapsed (*), killing more than 25. In August, another subway bomb, this time attached to a female suicide bomber, detonated, killing 10. FTP, all of these events occurred in what city in 2004, whose Domodedovo airport saw two planes take off only to be blown up in midair in August?

Answer: Moscow

1. The manufacturer knows it as model number 316m while the FAA knows it by the registration number of N328KF (*). Even though it is capable of powered flight, it’s registered as a glider, although it was a powered flight on June 21 when it topped 100 km on the altimeter. FTP, identify this Scaled Composites spacecraft which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize on October 4th.

Answer: SpaceShipOne

1. It kicked off September 20 in Odessa, Texas with a bill including Story of the Year, lostprophets, and Autopilot Off. Last year’s success was credited as much to headliners Evanescence (*) as to the low ticket price, which will return this year - most stops are selling tickets for less than $20. The tour is meant to appeal to kids who will hopefully buy the products they can play on kiosks at the concert. FTP, identify this concert tour sponsored by a major Japanese video game company.

Answer: Nintendo Fusion

1. In late August, he and CBS announced that he would be hosting a new reality program, tentatively titled “The Cut” (*), in which contestants will live together in a loft in Soho and be given tasks that test their skills in fashion design, sales, and marketing. The prize will be the chance to design a collection under his label – a label he launched in 1984. FTP, identify this designer whose company trades publicly under the giggle-inspiring symbol THC.

Answer: Tommy Hilfiger

1. Its creator later abandoned it completely, calling it the “biggest blunder” of his life. However, in February 2004 the Hubble Space Telescope showed that “Dark energy” is pushing apart the universe (*), leading astronomers to announce that it may have been right after all. Initially included because the creator was dissatisfied that his equations wouldn’t allow for a static universe, FTP, what constant was discarded by Einstein only to be resurrected years later?

Answer: cosmological constant

1. After a few minor film roles, including turns in such X-rated fare as The Farmer’s Daughter and Little Orphan Dusty, he parlayed a small part in a 1984 Oscar (*) winner into a critically-aclaimed monologue which cemented his fame. Known to suffer bouts of depression, he was declared missing in January 2004 and on March 7 the New York City medical examiner reported his body had been found in the East River. FTP, identify this actor famous for his Swimming to Cambodia.

Answer: Spalding Gray

1. The EPA announced on March 11 that their work here was finished. In 1976, officials at the 99th Street School (*) noticed an abnormally high absentee rate, and cancer rates in the area were found to be higher than average. The former landowner, Occidental Petroleum, had buried 19000 cubic yards of toxic waste in the area, and by 1980 the EPA was telling residents they were at a high risk for cancer. FTP, identify this Niagara Falls neighborhood which brought about the EPA Superfund program.

Answer: Love Canal

1. Reputedly founded in 791 AD by Harun al-Rashid, it claims, though that claim is disputed by Mazar-e-Sharif, to be the burial site of Imam Ali (*), founder of Shi’a Islam. Near that tomb is the Wadi-us-Salaam, or Valley of Peace, a large cemetery containing the graves of many other Shi’a prophets – and the location of a highway built by the regime of Saddam Hussein. Now home to the Mahdi Army, FTP, identify this Iraqi city where an insurgency is led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Answer: Najaf

1. He joined the National Guard in 1955 while just 15, and at 18 joined the regular army, being assigned to the 1st Cavalry. He served in South Korea for a year and Europe for three before a reassignment to the DMZ in 1964. In January of 1965, he told a patrol he was with that he was going to investigate a noise (*), and the U.S. Army would not see him again for almost 40 years. FTP, identify this former soldier who allegedly defected to North Korea and turned himself in to American authorities on September 11.

Answer: Charles Robert Jenkins

Bonuses

1. Identify the related people, ten each.

A)On January 23, he resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group after it failed to find any evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, saying he didn’t “think they existed.”

Answer: David Kay

B)On January 28, he said his inquiry determined that Tony Blair did not intentionally exaggerate intelligence on Iraq’s weapons programs, and was highly critical of the BBC’s sloppy reporting and editorial judgment.

Answer: Lord Hutton

C)Appearing on 60 Minutes on January 11, this former Treasury secretary said that the administration had been planning a war on Iraq since the first days of the Bush presidency.

Answer: Paul O’Neill

2. At the end of February, the Hollywood elite come together as one and turn a blind eye to the Golden Raspberry awards, honoring Hollywood’s worst. Identify the winners of the following awards from the 2004 ceremony, ten each.

A)The Governor’s Award for Distinguished Under-Achievement in Choreography went to Travis Payne for his contributions to this beach blanket bomb.

Answer: From Justin to Kelly

B)Not surprisingly, this film won Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Screen Couple, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay.

Answer: Gigli

C)He pulled in a Worst Supporting Actor win for his turn in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. This is no surprise, as in 2000 he won for Worst Actor of the Century.

Answer: Sylvester Stallone

3. On March 29, NATO added seven new nations to the alliance. For 5 points each and a maximum of 30, name any six of the seven new nations. You’ll have ten seconds.

Answer: Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia

4. FTSNOP, answer the following about a legal morass.

5) On March 5, she was convicted of four counts of obstruction of justice. Now she’s head to a

federal prison in West Virginia. It’s a good thing.

Answer: Martha Stewart

15) Five for one, fifteen for both, identify the company whose stock Martha dumped and the

CEO of that company, whose sell-off netted him a 7 year jail sentence.

Answer: ImClone, Sam Waksal

10) He claimed that Martha instructed him to sell ImClone if it fell below $60 a share. His

reward? He lost his job with Merrill Lynch and got 5 months in jail, just like Martha.

Answer: Peter Bacanovic

5. On September 1st, armed terrorists invaded a middle school and took several hundred students and adults hostage. FTSNOP, answer the following.

10) The school takeover and subsequent rescue operation, which ended with over 300 deaths,

took place in what Russian city?

Answer: Beslan

15) Beslan is located in what Russian republic, which sits right across the border from its ethnic

brothers in Georgia?

Answer: North Ossetia-Alania (Don’t prompt)

5) The terrorists have been linked to the fight for independence in what Russian province?

Answer: Chechnya

6. On May 5th, Roger Clemens recorded strikeout number 4,137 to put him in second on the all-time list. Answer the following, 5-10-15.

5) That strikeout left Clemens a mere 1,577 strikeouts behind this man, the all-time leader.

Answer: Nolan Ryan

10) Clemens passed this Philadelphia Phillie hurler for second place. He was subsequently

passed by Randy Johnson as well, and sits in fourth all time.

Answer: Steve Carleton

15) His 3,701 strikeouts round out the top five of all time.

Answer: Bert Blyleven

7. On July 22, the 9/11 Commission released their final report. FTSNOP, given information about possible conflicts of interest, identify the member of the commission.

A)He has close ties to Boeing, which built all the planes destroyed on 9/11. Of course, as a former senator from Washington, these ties aren’t hard to understand.

Answer: Slade Gordon

B)Vice chair of the commission, he also sits on boards which advise the CIA, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Army. Nope. No conflict there!

Answer: Lee Hamilton

C)Past government cover-ups in South America were one of the many conflicts of interest which prevented this original chair of the commission from ever taking the post.

Answer: Henry Kissenger

8. On August 19, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston were the lead underwriters of one of the most anticipated IPOs in recent memory. First, for five points, what internet search engine began trading on NASDAQ on August 19?

Answer: Google

For 10 points, what was the initial price of a share of Google stock at its opening on August 19?

Answer: $85

5 for one, 15 for both, identify the co-founders of Google who almost derailed their own IPO when an interview with them appeared in the September issue of Playboy, a violation of SEC rules governing IPOs.

Answers: Sergey Brin and Larry Page

9. Answer the following about books written by people who don’t normally write books, ten each.

A)In April, she announced that her lesbian Western novel Sisters, published in 1981, will remain out of print despite used copies selling for upwards of $500.

Answer: Lynne Cheney

B)The foreword is written by Thomas Jefferson. George “Iceman” Gervin is profiled, and you learn how to make a yarn puppet of Clarence Thomas in this “textbook” from Jon Stewart and the writers at “The Daily Show.”

Answer: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart PresentsAmerica (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction

C)Pretend all you want, but you know – what’s the title of Paris Hilton’s 2004 autobiography?

Answer: Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose

10. Answer the following about political goings-on, ten each.

A)After leading protests against former president Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003, Mikhail Saakashvili was elected president of this country on January 4.

Answer: Georgia

B)He became the new prime minister of Spain in March after his Socialists triumphed over the ruling Popular Party in the wake of the Madrid train bombings.

Answer: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero