The Great American Odd One Out Quiz, Part 1

Answer: Sakakawea

Located on the US/Canada border, the 'Great Lakes' of Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario make up the largest freshwater system in the world.

Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota is actually a reservoir and is the 12th largest lake by surface area in North America. It was created by the construction of a dam on the Missouri river in the 1950s.

Answer: Barack Obama

Barack Obama is the only Democratic Party president listed. The others were Republicans.

Obama, the 44th president, served from 2009 to 2017 and was the first African-American to be elected to the office. While he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, domestically Obama's tenure was a personally frustrating one. His major success was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, 'Obamacare'.

Answer: Neil Diamond

Tork, Dolenz, and Jones were, with Michael Nesmith, members of The Monkees. This was a created-for-television band aiming to jump onto the 1960s Beatles bandwagon.

The aim was that the foursome would act out scenes and adventures, all featuring songs. They were not expected to be great musicians and early records were produced with session musicians.

Neil Diamond was one of those charged with writing songs for the band. He crafted four, "I'm a Believer", "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow", and "Love To Love". Diamond was to go on to have his own stellar musical career. He had three number ones among 13 that charted in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. They were "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", a duet with Barbra Streisand, "Cracklin' Rosie", and "Song Sung Blue".

Answer: Enterprise

NASA built six space shuttles that could be reused after operations. Three mentioned in the list, plus Endeavour and Atlantis, took part in space operations. Enterprise, though, did not take part in any space flights.

Enterprise was the first built and was used to test crucial aspects of shuttle operation, including landing.

Answer: Jerry Jeff Walker

Jerry Jeff Walker was born in New York State, the others were born in Texas.

Born Ronald Clyde Crosby in Oneonta, New York, in March 1942, Jerry Jeff Walker came to music on the 1960s New York folk scene, but eventually found his way to Austin, Texas, where he settled, and where he died in October 2020.

A leading member of the Outlaw Country scene, Walker popularised the music of many other songwriters. His own most famous song was "Mr Bojangles".

Answer: Salt Lake City, Utah

St Louis, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, were the three cities that hosted the Summer Olympics in the 20th Century. Salt Lake City hosted a Winter Olympics in 2002.

Those 2002 games were to prove controversial. Salt Lake City had applied four times before and been turned down as hosts. It was later revealed that organisers had bribed members of the International Olympics Committee for their votes. Six IOC members were expelled. "The New York Times" reported that payments of between $5,000 and $70,000 were made to individuals.

Answer: Glenn Close

Gwyneth Paltrow, Helen Hunt, and Frances McDormand were all winners of Best Actress Oscars in the 20th Century.

At the time this quiz was written in January 2021, Glenn Close held the unenviable record of being the actress nominated most times - four - without winning any.

Answer: Saratoga

Saratoga was a victory for the colonists against the British in the War of Independence in 1777. The other three were battles in the American Civil War.

In the Autumn (or Fall if you prefer) the British mounted a three-pronged attack aimed towards Albany, New York State. By mid-September, 7,500 Redcoats under General John Burgoyne reached the village of Saratoga. They were faced by 8,500 men of the Continental Army led by General Horatio Gates.

On September 19, the two sides fought a series of exchanges that could probably be classified as British victories, however the British momentum was lost and they decided to dig in and wait for reinforcements. When none arrived, they attempted to withdraw but were harried by the colonists and chose to dig in again. Surrounded by their enemy, Burgoyne surrendered.

Saratoga is classed as the most significant victory for the colonists to that time.

Answer: Atlantis

Atlantis was the fictional ACN in the television show "The Newsroom". The other three were among America's (real) major networks.

In 2019, statista.com calculated that there were 1,761 commercial television stations in the USA. These figures were for 2017 and it was noted that stations had been bought and sold in between times.

Meanwhile, ACN was the network that featured in Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom" that ran for three seasons from 2012 to 2014. It had a solid cast that included Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, and Sam Waterston.

The show had mixed reactions, although many critics liked it - let's face it, people writing or broadcasting in the media are often well disposed to shows about the media. Eventually many felt that Sorkin was using it as his own "soapbox". Sorkin classed the show as a failure for himself. (For the record, as an ex-'meeja' person, this quiz author gets sucked in by shows about the media.)

Answer: New York

The six states of the USA that make up an area collectively known as "New England" are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

New York, although close in proximity, is not classed as one of the New England states. It lies to the south of the six states, which, Vermont apart, all have Atlantic shorelines. In 2020, the New England states were estimated to have a population of just under 15m. New York State had an estimated population of 19.4m.

In 2019, the New York and New Jersey areas were placed on one list as the 23rd richest urban area in the USA when classified by median family income. ($75,368 in this case). There are no bonus points for knowing the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area topped that list: median income $117,474.