Nothing but Zero Trivia Quiz

Answer: Coca-Cola

Coke Zero came out in 2005. It was an effort by the company to get men to drink diet sodas, which had heretofore been consumed mostly by women. In the United Kingdom, the product has been nicknamed "Bloke Coke".

Answer: white

The Zero Bar was introduced by the Hershey Company way back in 1920. It is filled with peanuts, nougat, caramel, and covered in white fudge. Yummy.

Answer: Agatha Christie

"Towards Zero" is a Superintendent Battle mystery--a police superintendent who is a recurring protagonist in a number of Christie tales. It was first published in the UK and the US in 1944.

Answer: The mission to kill Osama Bin Laden

"Zero Dark Thirty" came out in 2012. It told the story of the culmination of the decade-long effort to locate and kill Osama Bin Laden after the attacks on the US in September 2001.

Answer: Annie Rooney's dog

"Little Annie Rooney" was the title of a comic strip in King Features publications. She was an orphan, but she had a dog, Zero, and a favorite exclamation: "Gloriosky!" The strip debuted in 1927, shortly after "Little Orphan Annie" appeared in the "Chicago Tribune" papers and became wildly popular. Orphan Annie had a dog, Sandy, and a favorite exclamation, "Leapin' Lizards". So, we have two orphaned girls whose given names are the same and who both have dogs and habitual epithets, but surely there could have been no attempt by King Features to imitate the "Chicago Tribune".

Answer: One where income plus outgo totals zero

Zero-sum, or zero-based budgets, which became popular in the latter half of the twentieth century, begin with a projection of the cost that must be incurred for the individual or business to accomplish whatever goals have been identified for the budget period. Once the cost of achieving each goal is identified, funds are then allocated to each one.

The process is complete when all funds have been allocated, resulting in a difference of zero between income and expenditures.

Answer: Billy Preston

Billy Preston started his music career early--he was in his mid-teens when he played with Little Richard professionally. He played on some of the tracks of The Beatles' "Abbey Road", played in their final live performance, and portrayed Sergeant Pepper in the film of the same name. "Nothing from Nothing" was arguably Preston's biggest hit.

Answer: Dave Barry

Dave Barry is the son of a minister, born in New York State in 1947. He started writing humor columns in a small Pennsylvania newspaper in the early 1970s, and eventually joined the staff of "The Miami Herald", where he wrote a nationally syndicated humor column until 2005. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He has authored a number of books, and has had his works used in television and movies.

Barry also plays in a unique band-infrequently--called The Rock Bottom Remainders, comprised of writers and such, which has featured Matt Groening, Roy Blunt, Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen King, and Amy Tan--among many others.

Answer: Fiddler on the Roof

Mostel played Tevye in the Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof". He is also known for his work in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "The Producers". He was one of the actors blacklisted in the forties, being well-known for his left-leaning political orientation.

Answer: Albert Einstein

Einstein's 1916 Theory of Relativity predicted the existence of black holes (although it was not the first time the phenomenon was postulated). Einstein himself reportedly did not believe in them despite his own work's pointing to their existence.

Although the "dividing by zero" remark is often attributed to Einstein, the comedian Stephen Wright is also sometimes given credit for it.