Author: ianrandalstrock

A wonderfully horrific day!

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Proof-IanHorrorToday is publication day, and Fantastic Books is horrified to announce the arrival of Horror for the Throne, the third in the popular series of genre-specific anthologies of short fiction.

After an interminable delay brought about by the horror of the pandemic, Fantastic Books is getting back into gear in a big way with this thrilling collection of short stories guaranteed to scare… it right out of you. Editors James D. Macdonald, Tom Easton, and Judith K. Dial have selected forty little gems that’ll get your blood pumping and tickle the tiny hairs on the back of your neck.

You’ll probably want to read it with the lights on.

Amazing Stories said the first volume (Science Fiction for the Throne) is “not a book to try and read in one sitting (as I largely did). It is what I sometimes refer to as ‘a dipping book:’ for maximum effect, you should read a story or two here, a story or two there, a story or two somewhere else.” Hugo-winner Allen Steele said “For the bathroom, for the bedroom, for the bus to work, for that chair in the department store where bored spouses sit while their wives or husbands try on new clothes… this is a perfect way to entertain yourself during idle moments in a way that won’t rot your mind. Read this and have fun.”

Asimov’s Science Fiction said the second volume, Fantasy for the Throne, is “a fun collection, exactly right for those moments when you have just a few minutes to read.” While Analog Science Fiction and Fact called it “a little gem. Or rather, here are 40 little gems by as many authors, all packaged in one sweet volume.”

Horror for the Throne is now available in trade paperback and hardcover formats—and will soon be available as an e-book—through all your major online retailers. It is distributed to all physical book stores through Ingram: just ask!

With an introduction by Bruce Coville, Horror for the Throne features the horrific stylings of: E.C. Ambrose, Colleen Anderson, Kevin David Anderson, Diane Arrelle, Stewart C. Baker, T.L. Barrett, James Blakey, Bruce Boston, Michael Bracken, Tiffany Michelle Brown, Elliot Capon, Jeff C. Carter, Gregg Chamberlain, Brenda Clough, Ian Creasey, Randee Dawn, Steve Dillon, Stephanie Ellis, Kevin M. Folliard, Eric J. Guignard, Liam Hogan, Emma Johnson-Rivard, Daniel M. Kimmel, Chris Kuriata, Geoffrey A. Landis, Sharon Lee, Gordon Linzner, Nicola Lombardi, Linda Silverman McMullen, Gregory Nicoll, Brian Rappatta, Gary L. Robbe, Chuck Rothman, Steve Rasnic Tem, Mark Towse, Mary A. Turzillo, Douglas A. Van Belle, Marie Vibbert, Dawn Vogel, and Marcia Wilson.

Get it now, before it gets you!

Horror for the Throne: One-Sitting Reads
edited by James D. Macdonald, Tom Easton, and Judith K. Dial
introduction by Bruce Coville
Fantastic Books. 176 pages.
trade paperback: $14.99. ISBN: 978-1-5154-2409-3.
case laminate hardcover: $22.99. ISBN: 978-1-5154-2410-9.

Tough Trivia, 7/15/21

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The Korean War ran from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953, just over three years. M*A*S*H, the medical sitcom set during the Korean War, ran from 1972 to 1983, eleven years. Put these television shows in order by the length of their runs (number of episodes). Bonus points if you remember the actual number of episodes (within 10) of each/any.

  • The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
  • The Big Bang Theory
  • Bonanza
  • Dallas
  • E.R.
  • The Ed Sullivan Show
  • Gunsmoke
  • Happy Days
  • Law & Order (the original)
  • M*A*S*H
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • Supernatural

***

1280px-Solar_sys8Yesterday’s question was: The planets’ orbits around the Sun are ellipses. Nearly circular, but not quite. Nevertheless, we usually quote a single number for the distance from the Sun to, say, Earth. It’s usually quoted in miles or kilometers.

The speed of light is quite nearly 3 x 10^8 meters per second, or 186,000 miles per second. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. Similarly, a light-minute, light-second, and so on. So your challenge today: how far is each of the planets from the Sun, in light-minutes. (And yes, we’ll accept miles or kilometers instead.)

The answers:

  1. Mercury: 36.1 million miles (57.9 million kilometers) = just over 3 light minutes
  2. Venus: 67.6 million mi (108.2 million km) = 6 light minutes
  3. Earth: 93 million mi (149.6 million km) = 8 light minutes
  4. Mars: 142.5 million mi(228.0 million km) = 12 and a half light minutes
  5. Jupiter: 484 million mi (781 million km) = 43 light minutes
  6. Saturn: 891 million mi (1,437 million km) = 80 light minutes
  7. Uranus: 1,787 million mi (2,883 million km) = 160 light minutes
  8. Neptune: 2,797 million mi (4,511 million km) = 251 light minutes. In other words, it takes light four hours and eleven minutes to reach Neptune from the Sun. So if the Sun suddenly turned off, Neptune wouldn’t know about it for more than four hours.
  9. Pluto: Pluto has a highly elliptical orbit. At it’s closest to the Sun, it is inside Neptune’s orbit, 2,758 million miles from the Sun (4,449 million kilometers), or about 247 light minutes. But at it’s farthest from the Sun, Pluto is about 4,585 million miles (7,396 million kilometers) from the Sun: 411 light minutes.

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/14/21

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

The planets’ orbits around the Sun are ellipses. Nearly circular, but not quite. Nevertheless, we usually quote a single number for the distance from the Sun to, say, Earth. It’s usually quoted in miles or kilometers.

The speed of light is quite nearly 3 x 10^8 meters per second, or 186,000 miles per second. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. Similarly, a light-minute, light-second, and so on. So your challenge today: how far is each of the planets from the Sun, in light-minutes. (And yes, we’ll accept miles or kilometers instead.)

***

800px-Bakst_NizhinskyYesterday’s question was to match the ballets with their composers. The answers are:

Afternoon of a Faun — Claude Debussy
Appalachian Spring — Aaron Copland
The Firebird — Igor Stravinsky
The Four Seasons — Giuseppe Verdi
Midnight Sun — Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
The Nutcracker — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Rite of Spring — Igor Stravinsky
Romeo and Juliet — Sergei Prokofiev
The Sleeping Beauty — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Swan Lake — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

MatthewBournesSwanLake***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/13/21

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Match the famous ballets to their composers:

Ballets:

  1. Afternoon of a Faun
  2. Appalachian Spring
  3. The Firebird
  4. The Four Seasons
  5. Midnight Sun
  6. The Nutcracker
  7. The Rite of Spring
  8. Romeo and Juliet
  9. The Sleeping Beauty
  10. Swan Lake

Composers:

  • Aaron Copland
  • Claude Debussy
  • Aaron Copland
  • Sergei Prokofiev
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
  • Igor Stravinsky
  • Igor Stravinsky
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • Giuseppe Verdi

***

U.S._Military_Academy_Coat_of_Arms.svgYesterday’s question was:

The US military academies, give their names, dates of founding, locations, and which services they serve.

The answers are:

The United States Military Academy, also known as West Point, was established on March 16, 1802, in West Point, New York. West Point is the training academy for the US Army

The United States Naval Academy, also known as Annapolis, was established on October 10, 1845, in Annapolis, Maryland.

The United States Coast Guard Academy was established in 1876 in New London, Connecticut.

The United States Merchant Marine Academy was established in 1943 in Kings Point, New York.

The United States Air Force Academy was established on April 1, 1954, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/12/21

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Today’s question: The US military academies, give their names, dates of founding, locations, and which services they serve.

***

They_Might_Be_Giants_-_Istanbul_(Not_Constantinople)Friday’s question: On the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon wrote “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” which was released by The Four Lads in 1953. That gives away one of the answers, but today’s question regards old names of world cities. How many of the current city names do you recall? (Some other time, we’ll do US cities.): Ikosium, Stuart, Bytown, Lutetia, Batavia, Edo, Leningrad, Byzantium, Londinium.

The answers are:

  • Ikosium / Icosium became Algiers, Algeria, when the present city was founded in 944CE.
  • Stuart, the third largest town in Australia’s Northern Territory, was renamed Alice Springs on August 31, 1933.
  • Bytown, founded in 1826, was incorporated as Ottawa (the current capital of Canada) in 1855.
  • Lutetia was a part of the Roman Empire. By the end of the empire, the city had been renamed Paris, taken from the Parisii, a Celtic tribe who lived there from the 3rd century BCE.
  • Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies, founded in 1619. In 1942, the name was changed to Djakarta, and in 1972, to the present spelling of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
  • Edo became the de facto capital of Japan in 1603, as the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1869, with the overthrow of the shogunate, the Emperor Meiji moved to Edo and renamed it Tokyo (meaning Eastern Capital).
  • In the 1600s, Swedish colonists built the fortress Nyenskans on the Neva River. In 1703, Peter the Great captured it, and built the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was the center of the city that became known as Saint Petersburg. In 1712, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. In 1914, to remove German-sounding parts of the name, the city was renamed Petrograd. On January 26, 1924, under the Soviet Union, the city was renamed Leningrad (after Lenin, who had died five days earlier). That name remained until the fall of the USSR. On June 12, 1991, the city name reverted to Saint Petersburg, Russia.
  • Byzantium was colonized by the Greeks in 657 BCE. In 324 CE, it was renamed New Rome, and then, on May 11, 330, renamed Constantinople in honor of Emperor Constantine the Great. In 1930, the name was officially changed to Istanbul, which had been a colloquial Greek name for the city since the eleventh century.
  • Londinium was established around the year 50 CE, but it was abandoned some 400 years later. Two hundred years later, the settlement of Lundenwic was founded there, and then Alfred the Great “refounded” London in 886 CE. It is the capital of the United Kingdom.

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/9/21

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

On the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon wrote “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” which was released by The Four Lads in 1953. That gives away one of the answers, but today’s question regards old names of world cities. How many of the current city names do you recall? (Some other time, we’ll do US cities.): Ikosium, Stuart, Bytown, Lutetia, Batavia, Edo, Leningrad, Byzantium, Londinium.

***

logo_scrabbleYesterday’s question was: The word game of Scrabble was created in the 1930s and 1940s, with the distribution and point values of the letter tiles determined by frequency analysis. Thus, the highest-scoring letters were those which were exceedingly difficult to use. In later years, however, with the growth of Scrabble tournaments, and the expansions of acceptable words beyond “a standard English dictionary,” those difficult-to-use letters became much easier to use, but their values were not adjusted. Today’s question: for how many of the 26 English letters do you know the Scrabble point values?

The answers:
10 points: Q and Z
8 points: J and X
5 points: K
4 points: F, H, V, W, and Y
3 points: B, C, M, and P
2 points: D and G
1 point: A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T, and U

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/8/21

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

The word game of Scrabble was created in the 1930s and 1940s, with the distribution and point values of the letter tiles determined by frequency analysis. Thus, the highest-scoring letters were those which were exceedingly difficult to use. In later years, however, with the growth of Scrabble tournaments, and the expansions of acceptable words beyond “a standard English dictionary,” those difficult-to-use letters became much easier to use, but their values were not adjusted. Today’s question: for how many of the 26 English letters do you know the Scrabble point values?

***

800px-Gilbert_Stuart,_John_Jay,_1794,_NGA_75023
John Jay, painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1794.

Yesterday’s question was: The US Constitution set up the government with three co-equal branches: the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial. The leader of the Executive branch is the President. The leaders of the Legislative branch are the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate. The leader of the Judicial is the Chief Justice. Over the years, we’ve had 45 presidents and 52 speakers, but only a scant 17 chief justices. How many of those chief justices can you name?

The answers:
1. John Jay (served from October 1789 until he resigned in June 1795)
2. John Rutledge (his nomination was not approved by the Senate, so he served only from August to December of 1795)
3. Oliver Ellsworth (March 1796–December 1800 [resigned])
4. John Marshall (February 1801–July 1835 [died in office])
5. Roger B. Taney (March 1836–October 1864 [died])
6. Salmon P. Chase (December 1864–May 1873 [died])
7. Morrison Waite (March 1874–March 1888 [died])
8. Melville Fuller (October 1888–July 1910 [died])
9. Edward Douglass White (December 1910–May 1921 [died])
10. William Howard Taft (July 1921–February 1930 [retired])
11. Charles Evans Hughes (February 1930–June 1941 [retired])
12. Harlan F. Stone (July 1941–April 1946 [died])
13. Fred M. Vinson (June 1946–September 1953 [died])
14. Earl Warren (October 1953–June 1969 [retired])
15. Warren E. Burger (June 1969–September 1986 [retired])
16. William Rehnquist (September 1986–September 2005 [died])
17. John Roberts (September 2005– )

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/7/21

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

The US Constitution set up the government with three co-equal branches: the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial. The leader of the Executive branch is the President. The leaders of the Legislative branch are the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate. The leader of the Judicial is the Chief Justice. Over the years, we’ve had 45 presidents and 52 speakers, but only a scant 17 chief justices. How many of those chief justices can you name?

***

MetalTypeZoomInYesterday’s question was a two-fer: An isogram is a word in which none of the letters appears more than once. It appears that the longest possible isogram in the English language has 17 letters. Do you know this word? And do you know a longer isogram? (The longest theoretically possible isogram is, of course, 26 letters long.)

What is the shortest word in the English language that uses all five vowels?

The answers:

Subdermatoglyphic — an underlying skin matrix that determines the pattern of arches, whorls, and ridges that make up our fingerprints.
Eunoia — a feeling of good will, especially one that exists between a speaker and an audience.

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/6/21

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Two questions today, because they’re kind of brief:

An isogram is a word in which none of the letters appears more than once. It appears that the longest possible isogram in the English language has 17 letters. Do you know this word? And do you know a longer isogram? (The longest theoretically possible isogram is, of course, 26 letters long.)

What is the shortest word in the English language that uses all five vowels?

***

Enterprise_NX-01Friday’s question was: The Star Trek series featured a veritable fleet of starships named Enterprise. Let’s pare it back a little, and just focus on the television shows and movies. On screen, how many captains of the starship Enterprise can you name? (People actually assigned as captain, not just “Mr. Scott, take the conn while I beam down to this planet to romance the alien of the week.”) Bonus points if you remember the actors who played them.

The answers:

NX-01 (during the Star Trek years 2151–2161): Jonathan Archer (played by Scott Bakula) [in the series Star Trek Enterprise (aired 2001–2005)]

USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701),_ENT1231NCC-1701 (2245–2285): Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter in the unaired pilot, and Sean Kenney in “The Menagerie”); James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner) [Star Trek the Original Series (1966–1969)]; Willard Decker (Stephen Collins), Admiral James Kirk (William Shatner) [Star Trek the Motion Picture (1979)]; Spock (Leonard Nimoy) [Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan (1982)]; commandeered and commanded by, and then destroyed by, Admiral James Kirk (William Shatner) [Star Trek III: the Search for Spock (1984)]

NCC-1701-A (2286–2293): demoted Captain James Kirk (William Shatner) [Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: the Final Frontier (1989), and Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country (1991)]

NCC-1701-B (2293-2329): John Harriman (Alan Ruck) [Star Trek: Generations (1994)]

Enterprise_ForwardNCC-1701-C (2332-2344): Rachel Garrett (Tricia O’Neil) [Star Trek the Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (1990)]

NCC-1701-D (2363-2371): Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) [Star Trek the Next Generation (1987–1994) and Star Trek Generations (1994)]; Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox) [Star Trek the Next Generation episode “Chain of Command” (1992)]; Admiral William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) [Star Trek the Next Generation episode “All Good Things…” (1994)]

NCC-1701-E (2372– ) Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) [Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)]

The series were rebooted with the Kelvin Timeline in the 2009 film:

NCC-1701: Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) [Star Trek (2009)]; James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) [Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek Beyond (2016)]

Further modifications came about with the series Star Trek Discovery:

NCC-1701: Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) [Star Trek Discovery, second season (2019)]

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.

Tough Trivia, 7/2/21

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

The Star Trek series featured a veritable fleet of starships named Enterprise. Let’s pare it back a little, and just focus on the television shows and movies. On screen, how many captains of the starship Enterprise can you name? (People actually assigned as captain, not just “Mr. Scott, take the conn while I beam down to this planet to romance the alien of the week.”) Bonus points if you remember the actors who played them.

[Note: Tough Trivia is going to take off Monday, July 5, for the holiday (even though the actual day is the 4th).]

***

188px-National_Football_League_logo.svgYesterday’s question was: Watching National League Football is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States, so this may be a fairly easy question: how many of the 32 teams can you name? Bonus points if you can put them in the proper conference (I’m not asking about divisions within the conferences).

The answers:

American Football Conference

  • East Division: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Jets.
  • North Division: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers.
  • South Division: Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans.
  • West Division: Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers.

National Football Conference

  • East Division: Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Football Team.
  • North Division: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings.
  • South Division: Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
  • West Division: Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks.

***

Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.