Totally Useless and Obscure 9 Trivia Quiz

Answer: New Brunswick

From the Charter: "16.(2) English and French are the official languages of New Brunswick and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the legislature and government of New Brunswick." This is presumably because of the historic link to both the English and the French (New Brunswick was the site of the French colony of Acadia).

Answer: I play

"Ludo" is the Eurasian name of what we in North America call "Parchisi". Another name in Harry Potter with Latin origins is that of Albus Dumbledore - "albus" means "white" in Latin.

Answer: Bill Amend

The cartoon was first run in newspapers on April 10, 1988. Bill Amend has no artistic education, although he does have a Bachelor's degree in Physics, which might explain why one of the main characters is an elementary-school math geek who knows much more than his older brother (who takes high school physics) and his older sister (whom he enjoys irking).

Answer: Haakon VII

Prince Carl of Denmark was named king by the Storting (Parliament) in 1905, when he was 33 years of age. He assumed the name Haakon VII. Norway is a constitutional monarchy, meaning that the king has little real power (the power is taken by the government), but is an important figurehead in society.

Answer: Sphygmomanometer

An electrocardiogram is a test to measure the heart's electrical activity; the others are made up to fool you. I did, however, use realistic prefixes: "Athero-" coming from "atherosclerosis"; "sclero-" means "referring to the veins" (though blood pressure is measured in the arteries); and "Cardio-" is a well-known one meaning "referring to the heart".

Answer: True

Not as weird as it might seem; the skin in humans is considered part of the excretory system along with the organs responsible for passing urine.

Answer: Quintranilly

"Irksome" means "bothersome" or "annoying;" "aa" is a rough, solidified lava; "pahoehoe," which is pronounced "pa-ho-ee-ho-ee" is another type of solidified lava, but it is smooth and undulating. "Quintranilly" is just a word that I made up to describe the feeling when you are fighting with yourself because you are cold, tired and wanting to roll over and go back to sleep but you need to get up and go to work.

Answer: L. Frank Baum, author of the Land of Oz series

L. Frank Baum was born on 15 May 1856 - his deathday was May 6, not his birthday. Other major events that happened on May 6 were the Hindenburg crash (1937), Princess Margaret's marriage (1960), the coronation of George V of England (1910), and my birthday.

Answer: Amchitka Island, Alaska

At 179 degrees east, Amchitka Island is the easternmost part of the United States, only one degree away from being the westernmost part of the USA. Even though it is in a different hemisphere as continental America, it is still on the same day - the international date line diverges from its path along 180 degrees in order to miss Alaska.

Answer: Columbia

Capable of accurately moving up to 30 000 kg in space, the first Canadarm was presented as Canada's contribution to the Space Shuttle Program in 1981 (four more were bought by NASA afterwards). In 2001, Canadarm 2 was installed as part of Canada's contribution to the International Space Station with help from astronaut Chris Hadfield, who was the first Canadian to operate the original Canadarm.

Answer: Kanji

Romanji is how we write Japanese in our roman alphabet (a, b, c, d, e, f, g...), which uses 26 letters with different sounds; hirigana and katakana - collectively called kana - are two different sets of symbols to write the same syllables (a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki...). Kanji is the "picture writing" most English-speakers refer to when speaking about "Japanese," where each symbol has a "whole-word" meaning.

Answer: 42

The atomic number of an element shows how many protons are in an atom of that element. Molybdenum is a silvery-white transition metal in its pure state. As part of molybdic oxide and ferromolybdenum, it is used as a catalyst or in pigments, lubricants, and alloys.

Answer: Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth

Ironically, the fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. The fear of teenagers is ephebiphobia and the fear of being tickled by feathers is pteronophobia. I have no idea why they need words for these things.

Answer: trumpet

Maynard Ferguson was born on May 4, 1928 in Montreal, Quebec, and kept performing as leader of his Big Bop Nouveau Band until after his 75th birthday. He started playing the trumpet at the age of 9 and drew inspiration from the likes of Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis, and Freddie Hubbard.

Answer: 24.91 tonnes

It was made by Palm Dairies Ltd. in Edmonton, Alberta.