FunTrivia Blockbusters: I'll Have a 'J' Quiz

Answer: Jellyfish

Jellyfish are found in all oceans and at all depths. There have been jellyfish for more than 500 million years.

Jellyfish defend themselves and attack prey through stinging. Some are deadly to humans, leading to many deaths in the Pacific. Other jellyfish stings can cause agony to humans. Other collective nouns for jellyfish include bloom, brood, fluther and smuth.

Answer: John

With a bit of lateral thinking you should have arrived at John Wayne and King John.

John Wayne, nicknamed "Duke", played a cowboy in many movies.
King John of England signed Magna Carta in 1215. It established the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law.

Answer: Elton John

Sir Elton John had a worth of £290 million ($376m at that time.) Sadly (for Elton anyway) that was only enough to rank him equal 401st in the top 1,000.

Elton John was one of the most successful composers and performers of his generation.
He had nine number one hits on the US Billboard charts and seven in the Official UK Singles charts.

Answer: Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa, on October 23, 1925 and died in Los Angeles, California, on January 23, 2005.

Carson served in the US Navy during World War 2. Afterwards, at University of Nebraska, he decided to concentrate on a career in radio and began to broadcast in 1950.

A career in television followed, with some mixed responses to a number of shows in which he featured. In 1964, he succeeded Jack Paar as host of "The Tonight Show", a role he filled until his retirement in 1992.

Carson was regarded as a consummate host and many others in the genre have spoken of his influence.

As to the toilet paper reference in the question, in December 1973 he joked on air about a shortage of toilet paper. It was untrue (at least when he said it) but it prompted panic buying and there was then a shortage.

Answer: Jump Rope

Jump Rope is a mainly Americanised name for what Brits call 'skipping rope'.
From a basic childhood pastime, it has developed into a sporting competition in its own right.

It is a simple sport, needing only a rope - and someone to hold it. Many techniques have developed.

Jump Rope, or Rope Skipping as it is also known, is a world wide activity and has its own competitive world championships.

Answer: Janus faced

Janus was the Roman god for beginnings and endings. His symbol was of two male faces, one pointing backwards and the other forwards.
The symbol relates to being 'two faced", or hypocritical.

Answer: Jamaica

Although Jamaica was already settled by indigenous peoples, Columbus claimed it for Spain and called it Santiago.
It was captured by England in 1655 and became a leading producer and exporter of sugar.
The English renamed the island Jamaica and in 1855 freed all the slaves that had worked the plantations. (The slaves had been initially introduced by the Spanish.)
Jamaica became independent from the United Kingdom in 1962, but remained a part of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Which brings me neatly to the joke many of you will have been anticipating:
"I say, I say, my wife has gone to the West Indies."
"Jamaica?"
"No, she went of her own accord."

Answer: James

James VI became king of Scotland in 1567 and inherited the throne of England (and Wales and Ireland) in 1603, becoming James I. He reigned the newly united kingdom until his death in 1625.

James was only son of Mary Queen of Scots, who reigned from 1542 to 1567.
Mary was later implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I, Queen of England, and was convicted and put to death.

Elizabeth, meanwhile, ruled England until her death in 1603.

Answer: Jenga

Jenga was created in the early 1970s and is played with a set of 54 wooden blocks. The size can vary, as long as each individual block fits the formula of being three times longer than it is wide.

At the start of the game, a tower made up of 18 layers of three blocks is created.

To continue, players take it in turn to remove one block from low on the tower and place it on top to make another layer, using one hand only.

The game continues until the tower topples. The winner is the player who last successfully placed a block on top.

Although initially intended to be played indoors on a table, larger Jenga sets have been created for outdoor use.

Answer: John Locke

John Locke was born in 1632 into a well-to-do family in southwestern England.
He became a prolific writer and commentator and his "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" laid down many of his liberal beliefs.

He believed in limited government and was also in favour of religious tolerance.
He was noted for his pronouncements, including "All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions."

Although he lived and worked in England, his philosophy was well known in North America, indeed it has been argued that: "The single most important influence that shaped the founding of the United States comes from John Locke." [Source: ushistory.com.]

That source comments that Locke's ideas influenced Thomas Jefferson when he drafted the US Declaration of Independence.

Answer: Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney, Jr) was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on October 17, 1948 and died there on September 16, 2007.

Jordan was a veteran of the Vietnam War and after college graduation worked for the US Navy as a nuclear engineer.
He started to write in 1977 and quickly became noted for his "Conan The Barbarian" series, which comprised seven titles.

The first in the "Wheel of Time" series was published in 1990 and in all 14 volumes were published. He also wrote a prequel novel. Many topped the "New York Times" best sellers list.
The books were noted for their imagery that drew together elements of mythology from several backgrounds.

In April 2017, Sony Pictures announced that the series was to be adapted for television.

Answer: Jurassic Park

"Jurassic Park" was directed by Steven Spielberg and was based on Michael Crichton's novel. It was the story of tourists trapped in a theme park that featured cloned dinosaurs.

Despite all the precautions, the dinosaurs were able to reproduce and a power failure meant they could escape from their confines.

Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Sir Richard Attenborough and Jeff Goldblum led the cast.
The movie won three Oscars; Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.

Answer: The Jordanaires

Founded in 1948 as a gospel group, the Jordanaires met Elvis in Memphis in 1955. The following year when he recorded his first session for RCA he insisted that the Jordanaires sang background vocals.

The grouping were to become regulars on Elvis recordings and also appeared in some of his movies and TV shows.

The Jordanaires, with a changing line-up, continued to perform and record in their own right long after the death of 'the King'.

Answer: Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson was born in Yorkshire on July 1, 1903 and died in the Thames Estuary on January 5, 1941.
While working as a secretary in London in the 1920s, she began learning to fly as a hobby and obtained her pilot's licence in 1929.

With the assistance of funding from her father, she bought a second-hand de Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth.
On May 5 1930, she took off in the aircraft, which she had named "Jason", from Croydon aerodrome - then London's main airfield - and crash-landed near Darwin on May 24 after a trip of 11,000 miles.

Many other pioneering flights followed both as a solo pilot and with co-pilots, often her husband, Jim Mollison. These included flights to India, to Tokyo via Moscow, and from Wales to the USA.

In 1940, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary and was one of the many women who flew aircraft - fighters and bombers - from the factories where they were built to the airfields where they were needed for combat.

In January 1941, while flying an Airspeed Oxford from Prestwick in Scotland to an RAF base near Oxford, she ran out of fuel in atrocious weather conditions and baled out. She was spotted alive in the Thames by the crew of a British warship, and although its commander dived into the water, he was unable to retrieve her and he died several days later. Johnson's body was never recovered.

The circumstances surrounding her death remain controversial. There is speculation that the aircraft was shot down by British anti-aircraft fire after Johnson failed to provide accurate identification. It has also been claimed that she had been sucked into the propellers of the ship that tried to rescue her.

Answer: Jezebel

Defenestrated - what a lovely word; it means thrown out of a window.
That was the fate of Jezebel, wife of King Ahab.

She was a Phoenician princess who worshipped her own deity, Baal. She tried to introduce the worship of Baal to Israel. She was also responsible for many other iniquities, which resulted in her name being used in later times to describe any evil or devious woman.

After Ahab died in battle, Jezebel probably knew her days were numbered and when Jehu, an army commander, was appointed king he ordered his servants to throw Jezebel from a window of her palace.

Answer: Jupiter

The planets in our solar system listed in distance from the sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto.

Or, as one well known mnemonic has it: Man Very Early Made Jugs Stand Up Nearly Perpendicular.
(This question ignores the debate on whether or not Pluto should be classed as a planet.)

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. In terms of mass, it is twice the size of all the others put together.

Much like the Sun, it has an atmosphere made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter has four large moons and many smaller moons in orbit around it.

Answer: Joltin Joe

Joe DiMaggio is one of those baseball greats whose name is known in places where the sport is not even played.

Nicknamed "The Yankee Clipper" or "Joltin Joe", DiMaggio was one of the best players of his era and was a hero to followers of the sport. It was a fame cemented by his brief marriage to Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe.

Di Maggio was born on November 25, 1914, in Martinez, California and died on March 8, 1999, in Hollywood, Florida.

His sporting career spanned the years 1936 to 1951, and was split either side of service with the US Army Air Force in WW2. He was a one-club player, featuring with the New York Yankees for 13 seasons.

Answer: Jennifer Jareau

Jennifer Jareau was known as "JJ" on the show and was played by A J Cook.

JJ was one of the original crime profilers when "Criminal Minds" first aired in 2005 and featured in the first 12 seasons (albeit with a break in Season Six).

The drama featured officers of the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit (BAU). Their task was to get into the minds of serial killers and bring them to justice.

The FBI did have a real BAU, but its officers were known to rue the fact that when they traveled by air it was by commercial airliner and not the private jet their fictional counterparts had access to.

Answer: Jade Empire

"Jade Empire" was released in 2005 on Xbox, but has also been seen on other gaming platforms.

Set in Imperial China, the player assumes a character, male or female, to progress through adventures based on traditional martial arts.

Answer: Jura novit curia

It is taken to mean "the court knows the law."

It is generally a principle of civil law and not criminal law and is recognised by many leading international legal and trade organisations