Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 12

 It’s day 12 of this 40 til 40 blog series as part of the countdown to my 40th birthday on July 10.

Last time I revealed the 40 biggest blunders that the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pirates and Penguins made.  In this entry, I will talk about 40 of my favorite Final Jeopardy! clues from my birth to the present.

Category:  THE SUPREME COURT

Answer:  Warren Harding’s 1st appointment to the court set a precedent by making him Chief Justice.

Correct response:  Who was William Howard Taft?  (The precedent was that a former president became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.)

Category:  KID STUFF

Answer:  In tic-tac-toe, maximum number of X’s you can have on the board without winning.

Correct response:  What is 5?

Category:  THE 50 STATES

Answer:  The 2 states that begin with “M” whose capitals begin with “J”.

Correct response:  What are Mississippi (Jackson) & Missouri (Jefferson City)?

Category:  AMERICAN HISTORY

Answer:  Alexander Hamilton Stephens of Georgia was the only person to hold this office.

Correct response:  What was vice president of the Confederacy?

Category:  U.S. PRESIDENTS

Answer:  Of the 1st 7 presidents, only these 2 were not re-elected.

Correct response:  Who were John Adams & John Quincy Adams?

Category:  AMERICAN AUTHORS

Answer:  A 40-year-old widower, he was engaged to remarry when he died mysteriously in Baltimore in 1849.

Correct response:  Who was Edgar Allan Poe?

Category:  20TH CENTURY WOMEN

Answer:  This legendary 71-year-old performer, the widow of a diplomat, died in Panama in 1991.

Correct response:  Who was Dame Margot Fonteyn?

Category:  ACTRESSES & THEIR ROLES

Answer:  In 1992 Angela Bassett played the Jacksons’ mother on TV & Betty Shabazz in this film.

Correct response:  What is “Malcolm X”?

Category:  BILLIONAIRES

Answer:  On Fortune magazine’s 1993 list of 101 billionaires, this American family ranked second.

Correct response:  Who are the Waltons? (Walmart)

Category:  PHILANTHROPISTS

Answer:  In the early 1900s, he was Lord Rector of the Universities of St. Andrews & Aberdeen.

Correct response:  Who was Andrew Carnegie?

Category:  AMERICAN HISTORY

Answer:  On May 29, 1765 Patrick Henry’s Stamp Act protest was interrupted with this one word.

Correct response:  What is Treason?  (The speaker of the House of Burgesses shouted “Treason!”, and Patrick Henry’s response was “If this be treason, make the most of it.”)

Category:  TRINIDADIAN AMATEUR ICHTHYOLOGISTS

Answer:  This common aquarium fish was named for a Trinidadian clergyman.

Correct response:  What is the guppy?

Category:  REPUBLICANS

Answer:  He died in Topeka October 12, 1987, a month after his 100th birthday.

Correct response:  Who was Alf Landon?  (West Middlesex native)

Category:  STATE SONGS

Answer:  The titles of the state songs of Kansas & Kentucky both contain this word.

Correct response:  What is home? (Home on the Range and My Old Kentucky Home)

Category:  20TH CENTURY NEWSMAKERS

Answer:  Due to police irregularities, this man’s Arizona conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966.

Correct response:  Who was Ernesto Miranda?

Category:  TOY SAFETY

Answer:  According to the Public Interest Research Group, the most dangerous toy for children up to age 8 is this common party decoration.

Correct response:  What are balloons?

Category:  U.S. CITIES

Answer:  Founded in 1758, it’s named for a British prime minister who was a noted defender of the American Colonists.

Correct response:  What is Pittsburgh? (named for William Pitt)

Category:  THE 7 ANCIENT WONDERS

The oldest of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, they’re also the only ones still standing today.

Correct response:  What are the Great Pyramids of Egypt?

Category:  HEADLINES OF THE LAST 40 YEARS

Answer:  The first 2 New York Times headlines set in 96-point type were in these 2 years, 5 years apart.

Correct response:  What were 1969 & 1974?  (Man Walks on Moon & Nixon Resigns)

Category:  WORLD FLAGS

Answer:  Never directly seen in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s featured on the flags of 5 of the world’s countries.

Correct response:  What is the Southern Cross?

Category:  ISLANDS

Answer:  Of the world’s 10 largest islands, 3 belong all or in part to Indonesia & 3 belong to this country.

Correct response:  What is Canada?  (Baffin, Victoria & Ellesmere)

Category:  WOMEN OF THE 1930s

Answer:  1 of the men who shot her realized when he saw her body that she’d often waited on him at a cafe in Dallas.

Correct response:  Who was Bonnie Parker?

Category:  ENTERTAINERS

Answer:  In 2007 this entertainer & former sitcom star was made an honorary corporal by the U.S. Marine Corps.

Correct response:  Who was Jim Nabors?

Category:  PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HISTORY

Answer:  Due to the large numbers of men away from home, it was the first year a majority of states counted absentee votes.

Correct response:  What was 1864?

Category:  HISTORIC SPEECHES

Answer:  He said, “We look forward to a world founded upon” freedom of speech, freedom of worship, from want & from fear.

Correct response:  Who was Franklin Delano Roosevelt?  (Four Freedoms speech in 1941)

Category:  AMERICANA

Answer:  Riding the subway in New York in 1908, Jack Norworth saw a sign for the Polo Grounds & was inspired to write this song.

Correct response:  What is “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”?

Category:  U.S. POPULATION

Answer:  Between 2000 & 2010 these 2 states that border each other led the nation in highest percentage of population increase, 35% & 25%.

Correct response:  What are Arizona & New Mexico?

Category:  AMERICAN MILITARY MEN

Answer:  In April 1951 he told Congress, “In war there can be no substitute for victory”.

Correct response:  Who was General Douglas MacArthur?

Category:  BOARD GAMES

Answer:  In the classic version of Monopoly, the only 2 improvable properties without Avenue or Place in their names.

Correct response:  What are Marvin Gardens & Boardwalk?

Category:  MUSICAL THEATER

Answer:  In “Godspell” this character leads the company in singing, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord”.

Correct response:  Who is John the Baptist?

Category:  HISTORIC LEGISLATION

Answer:  In 1820 Jefferson called this bill “the knell of the Union”, saying “a geographical line… will never be obliterated”.

Correct response:  What is the Missouri Compromise?

Category:  2016 U.S. OLYMPIANS

Answer:  If this U.S. state were a country, it would have been in the top 10 in gold medals with 14 - 9 of them by 1 man & 1 woman.

Correct response:  What is Maryland? (Michael Phelps & Katie Ledecky)

Category:  OSCAR HISTORY

Answer:  In the 1940s he became the first person to receive nominations as actor, director & writer for the same film.

Correct response:  Who was Orson Welles?

Category:  U.S. BODIES OF WATER

Answer:  The Jordan, Bear & Weber Rivers deposit over a million tons of minerals into it annually, much of that chloride & sodium.

Correct response:  What is the Great Salt Lake?

Category:  POLITICAL PHRASES

Answer:  Speechwriter Samuel Rosenman said FDR “attached no importance to” this phrase, “two monosyllables” in a 1932 speech.

Correct response:  What is New Deal?

Category:  BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES

Answer:  Based on a 1974 novel, this film has been described as combining “An Enemy of the People” & “Moby Dick”.

Correct response:  What is “Jaws”?

Category:  NATIONAL ANTHEMS

Answer:  “Terre de nos aieux” follows the title in the French version of this anthem.

Correct response:  What is “O Canada”?

Category:  NAMES IN U.S. HISTORY

Answer:  This father was the only man among the 13 plaintiffs in a class-action case filed in 1951.

Correct response:  Who was Oliver Brown? (Brown v. Board of Education)

Category:  FAMOUS AMERICANS

Answer:  In his 1999 memoir he wrote, “I had been shot down a short walk’s distance from the French-built prison, Hoa Lo”.

Correct response:  Who was John McCain?

Category:  COLLEGE TOWNS

Answer:  2 schools in the Southeastern Conference are located in cities with the same name but in different states.

Correct response:  What is Columbia?