Tuesday Trivia

1. Which was the first novel ever sold through a vending machine?
2. The oldest surviving daily newspaper is the Wiener Zeitung of Austria. When was it first printed?
3. Where does the “Hey Diddle Diddle” nursery rhyme come from?
4. There are 10 million books in the Russian Public Library in Leningrad — enough to supply every person in the city with two books. If the books housed in the United States Library of Congress were doled out to those living in the city of Washington, D.C., how many books would each person receive?
5. Why was part of Lewis Carroll's classic, "Through the Looking Glass," featuring a giant wasp wearing a wig omitted from the original publication and only made known to the general public 107 years later?

Last Week's Answers
Author Eric Blair wrote under what pen name?

Eric Blair, author of Animal Farm and 1984, wrote under the pseudonym George Orwell. Blair considered several names including P. S. Burton, Kenneth Miles, and H. Lewis Allways. He finally adopted the nom de plume George Orwell because, as he told Eleanor Jacques, "It is a good round English name."


Which Aldous Huxley work was the inspiration behind Jim Morrison naming his band The Doors?

The book The Doors of Perception, by Aldous Huxley, was the inspiration behind Jim Morrison naming his band The Doors. The book extols the use of hallucinogenic drugs.


Which classic novel was written based on a bet between several authors vacationing together in 1818?

Mary Shelley and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, were visiting their friend Lord Byron when she got the idea for Frankenstein. The three friends agreed to see who could come up with the best ghost story to scare the other two.


Which piece of American literature containing over 50,000 words does not once use the letter “e”?

American author, Ernest Vincent Wright wrote Gadsby: A Champion of Youth, which, except for the introduction and a note at the end, does not use the letter “e.” Every word is properly spelled and all narration is grammatically correct. He actually taped down the letter “e” on his typewriter to avoid accidentally using it.

Which word in the English language has the most definitions?

Of all the words in the English language, the word ’set’ has the most definitions.