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Last Week's Quiz

Read This First

  • Submit your answers by 1:58am ET 11/20/24
  • Don't cheat. Cheating is bad. Using Google IS cheating.
  • Trivia graders don't care about spelling (but try your hardest)
  • No negative points for incorrect responses (so guess to your heart's content)
  • Email [email protected] for clarification on any questions

Singles Day aka Double 11 aka Bachelors’ Day is an unofficial Chinese shopping holiday celebrated each and every November 11.

Since the Arabic numerals 11/11 are used to denote the date and one is the loneliest number, it makes sense to me!



There’s an awful lot of amazing things that have happened when people are alone, so let’s free solo through a few of their feats!

SOCIAL STUDIES Q1. Iconic Isolation: At one point in July 1969, Michael Collins was over 2,000 miles away from the nearest two humans, setting a record for the furthest anyone had ever been from any other person. What was Michael Collins’s occupation at that time?



POP CULTURE Q2. Acting Alone: No, volleyballs are not people. Tom Hanks received an Oscar nomination for the part of Fed-Ex employee Chuck Noland in what 2000 movie, in which he was the only person on screen for roughly two-thirds of the run time?



SOCIAL STUDIES Q3. Lonely Leaders: Long before Jason Derulo released his 2010 classic “Ridin’ Solo,” U.S. Presidents John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur all served their entire term without someone filling what office?



FINE ARTS Q4. Deliberate Discovery: Transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau spent two years in solitude near what pond in Concord, Massachusetts which also serves as the name of the book he wrote about his experiences there?



MISCELLANEOUS Q5. Female Founders: “Everything about my journey to get ______ off the ground entailed me having to be a salesperson–from going to the hosiery mills to get a prototype made to calling Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. I had to position myself to get five minutes in the door with buyers.” Fill in the blank with the underwear company founded solely by Sara Blakely in 2000?



SOCIAL STUDIES Q6. Solo Soldiers: Having not received official orders to stop fighting, Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda hid in the jungles of the Philippines carrying out solo guerrilla warfare until surrendering in 1974, way way way after the official end of what war?



FINE ARTS Q7. Singular Scholarship: Considered by many as one of the greatest achievements in scholarship by a single person, Samuel Johnson spent almost 10 years in the 1700s writing an early example of what type of book that Merriam Webster defines as “a reference source in print or electronic form containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms”?



POP CULTURE Q8. Solo Superstars: The four most successful solo musical acts in terms of all-time total record sales are Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Elton John, and Madonna. Which of their stage names is NOT the first name they were given at birth?
  Michael
  Elvis
  Elton
  Madonna



MISCELLANEOUS Q9. Ridiculous Records: On March 27, 2021 Croatian Budimir Šobat set one of the most amazing solo Guinness World Records at 24 minutes 37.36 seconds. What activity did he do for almost 25 minutes?



MISCELLANEOUS Q10. Religious Rationale: Paul of Thebes, Simeon Stylites, Anthony of Lérins, and Peter Noone’s bandmates are all examples of what crabby six letter word that Merriam-Webster defines as “one that retires from society and lives in solitude especially for religious reason”?



TIEBREAKER Stranded Sailors: Chinese seafarer Poon Lim found his way onto an eight-foot wooden raft on November 23, 1942 when the British cargo ship “SS Benlomond” was sunk by U-172 in the South Atlantic. How many days did he survive alone on the raft before being rescued by Brazilian fishermen?

Quiz is closed and your answers are now locked! Graders are grading and results will be sent on 11/20/24