Did you miss trivia this week? Here are all the questions an answers from the past week (plus a bonus or two)!
The daily trivia question airs every weekday at 5:30pm on 99.5 WCRB.
FRIDAY, October 7 (Tyler Alderson edition)
Q: Where exactly did Columbus land in 1492?
A: Well... We're not sure exactly, but it was an island in what is now the Bahamas. We do know that natives called the island Guanahani, and Columbus named it San Salvador, but we don't know which of the many islands in the area it was. The most likely candidate was renamed San Salvador Island in 1925.
THURSDAY, October 6 (Tyler Alderson edition)
Q: Which two teams played in the first ever World Series in 1903?
A: The Boston Americans (later re-named as the Red Sox) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1903 Series, backed by good pitching from ace Cy Young and a tough Series for Pittsburgh's star Honus Wagner (he hit just .222).
WEDNESDAY, October 7
Q: How many nations make up the continent of Africa?
A: 54! The total population is about 1.1 billion people.
TUESDAY, Tuesday, October 4
Q: The United States is one of only three countries which do not use the metric system. What are the other two?
A: Liberia and Burma (Myanmar)
More on the history of the metric system in the U.S. via Time Magazine.
MONDAY, October 3
Q: What is the only place under United States jurisdiction that drives on the left instead of the right side of the road?
A: U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John) is the only left-hand jurisdiction in United States. Amusingly, because most cars are imported from mainland U.S., driver USVI drivers also sit on the left! Here's a taste of what that might feel like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLwTdMuhLOE
Allegedly, before there were cars, donkey carts were the favored mode of transportation, and they traveled on the left hand side of the road. This was so ingrained in the population that when the driving age came about, nobody bothered move to the right!
Tips on driving left while sitting left? Open the window and stick your elbow out. If its hitting trees, you're on the correct side of the road. If not... move over!
List and map of left-side driving nations
BONUS: FRIDAY, September 30
Q: What is an "interrobang?"
A: An interrobang is this punctuation mark: "?!" When you combine a question mark and an exclamation point, you have an interrobang. It was designed in 1962 by Martin Speckter as a way to express surprised rhetorical questions with a single mark. He came up with the name using the Latin for "rhetorical question," interrogatio; and printer's/programmer's jargon for the exclamation point, bang.
Despite its most frequent appearance as just a question mark next to an exclamation point (or vice versa), an interrobang is actually meant to be a single symbol, "‽". Find out more about it, including how to type one on your phone, here.
BONUS: THURSDAY, September 29 - National (and International) Coffee Day!
Q: With respect to coffee, which one of these is NOT true?
A) The United States consumes more coffee, per capita, than any other nation in the world.
B) Every nation which grows coffee is located along the Equator.
C) Coffee is the second most highly-traded commodity, after oil.
A: A! The U.S. does NOT consume more coffee, per capita, than any other nation in the world. In fact, it's not even in the top 10 consumers. As of 2014, the top slot belongs to the Netherlands, where on average every person in the nation drinks 2.14 cups a day, nearly double the next closest nation, Finland. The U.S. is 16th.
More about world coffee consumption via The Atlantic
The Daily Trivia Question airs every weekday at 5:30 on 99.5 WCRB. If you would like to submit a trivia question, do so by sending me a message via Twitter.
