365 Days of Amazing Trivia! (2014)

By appearing in a video in which he drives an armored personnel carrier over a Mercedes that is parked in a bike lane. Mayor Arturas Zuokas posted the car-crushing video on the city's website as a zero tolerance warning to illegal parkers. (The city had purchased the Mercedes secondhand for the stunt.)



Thursday, August 28, 2014

How were the words nutter, skip, and jumper in the British editions of the Harry Potter books Americanized in U.S. editions?​
 
Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada, where the traffic was considered too light; and Massachusetts, where the roads were considered too winding and the roadside foliage too thick. The amusing ads, posted between 1925 and 1963 in groups of five or six, carried messages such as "Passing School Zone / Take It Slow / Let Our Little / Shavers Grow / Burma Shave."



Monday, September 1, 2014

The first railroad workers union in the United States was the Brotherhood of Footboard, founded in 1863. So what is a footboard?​
 
It's a catwalk or platform for the engineer and fireman on the front end of a locomotive. Union members quickly realized that few people knew this and changed the name to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. It's now known as the Brotherhood of Engineers and Trainmen. For safety reasons, footboards have been banned on locomotives in the United States since the late 1970s.



Tuesday, September 2, 2014

What religious sect was founded by Jakob Amman?​
 
The Amish. The sect is named for Amman, who led his followers in their split from the less conservative Swiss Mennonites in the late 17th century. Sect members fled to the United States in the early 18th century to escape persecution, with many of them settling in Pennsylvania to take advantage of William Penn's promise of religious tolerance.



Wednesday, September 3, 2014

What board game was developed during World War II as a diversion for people waiting out air raids and air raid drills in bomb shelters?​
 
Alan Arkin. His Oscar for Best Supporting Actor was for his portrayal of Grandpa Edwin Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine.



Monday, September 8, 2014

What name did singer Willie Nelson give to his favorite guitar? How about Keith Richards and George Harrison and their favorite guitars?​
 
Nelson's favorite guitar was named Trigger, for singing cowboy Roy Rogers's faithful horse; Richards's guitar was named Micawber, for a character in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield; and Harrison's cherry red guitar was named Lucy, for redheaded comedian Lucille Ball.



Tuesday, September 9, 2014

What was the first service offered by American Express when it was founded in 1850?​
 
Shipping. At the time, the U.S. Postal Service limited its services to letter-size envelopes. Seeing a need that wasn't being met, newly formed American Express began by offering express delivery service, specializing in freight and valuables. After a growing number of banks and brokerage houses began using its services to ship stock certificates, bonds, and other financial instruments, American Express expanded into financial services—offering money orders in 1882, Travelers Cheques in 1891, and charge cards in 1958.



Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Who drew the simple line drawing of Alfred Hitchcock's portly profile that was shown at the start of TV's suspenseful Alfred Hitchcock Presents?​
 
Only once. The beans, however, are cooked twice. They're boiled in water until soft and then fried. The name refried beans results from the mistranslation of frijoles refritos, the Mexican-Spanish name for the dish. Correctly translated, frijoles means "beans," fritos means "fried," and refritos means "very (or well) fried," not refried. That's because in Mexican-Spanish, the prefix re- is used for emphasis rather than to indicate a repeated action, as it is used in English.



Friday, September 12, 2014

Where in the world were the first pay toilets installed to raise public revenue?​
 
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