Trivia #1

1. When is the New Years Day Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, not held on January 1st?

When New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday. Tournament officials instituted a “Never on Sunday” policy in 1893 “to avoid frightening horses tethered outside local churches and thus interfering with worship services.”


2. What embarrassing goof cost jockey legend Bill Shoemaker a sure win in the 1957 Kentucky Derby?

Shoemaker, while leading the field on Gallant Man, mistook the 16th pole for the finish line and stood up to celebrate—allowing jockey Bill Hartack to pass and win by a nose aboard Iron Liege. Shoemaker won the Kentucky Derby four times.


3. How long—in inches—is the typical adult human spinal cord?

About 18 inches in men; an inch less in women.


4. In baseball score keeping, why is the letter K used to indicate a strikeout? Why not an S?

The S was needed to represent a sacrifice under the scorekeeping system devised in the mid-1800s by sportswriter Henry Chadwick. So he used the K, the last and most prominent letter in the word struck, as the symbol for a strikeout.


5. What flamboyant celebrity did funnyman Robin Williams claim made “Liberace look Amish”?

Pop singer Elton John. Williams made the remark in 2007 at John’s 60th birthday celebration in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

(from Page-A-Day Calendars)