Toosday Trivia

From last week:

1. Holy freaking crap PRND21 is the gears of a car! It seemed so baffling then and so obvious now. Man, I was never superb at that kind of thinking game, but now my mind just doesn't work that way.
2. Lactic acid causes rigor mortis, as the Noticeably Knowledgeable Michael5000 pointed out. I should have recalled this, having read a book by a marathoner this year.
3. Roots took place in The Gambia, as the Wonderously Well-read Michael5000 knew.
4. I like Bananas the best.
5. It's actually Jesse Ventura, as the Insufferably Intellectual Randall pointed out. I knew that, of course --- but a slip of the tongue like that on "Game Show" means a wrong answer.
6. Travelin' men.
7. "The Taming of the Shrew," too? I had forgotten that the main story is actually a play within the play. This has turned my whole world view around. It's like finding out that Shakespeare himself was a fictional character.

And now, the new stuff.

1. What empire was united by a king named Shaka during the early 19th century?
The Zulus, as the infamous miniseries "Shaka Zulu" should serve to remind us all.

2. In September, what graying rock band had their fifth consecutive album debut atop the charts, a Billboard record?
I'm thinking Metallica, because they just came out with a new one.

3. Because of its famous mineral water, what British town lent its name to the chemical salt magnesium sulfate?
Bath, I guess. Or are those named after baths?

4. What beer was advertised by the famous "Whassup?!" TV ad campaign of 1999?
I'm not a guy who knows a lot about ads, having successfully ignored them most of my life. Was it Budweiser? I know they had the three frogs, but maybe they had those guys too.

5. What's the only U.S. state on the Atlantic that also extends into the Central Time Zone?
Florida?

6. What leading lady of TV and movies called her autobiography Knock Wood, in memory of her father?
Never heard of it. But Candice Bergen, daughter of ventriloquist Edgar, seems the most reasonable guess.

7. What unusual distinction is shared by these nations, and no others? Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, China, Congo, Egypt, Great Britain, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Japan, Madagascar, Mongolia, Peru, Ukraine, Venezuela.
I have never worn a dress within their borders.