Online Test - Recent(ish) events

[doihavetoreally]

Before the test, someone normally posts a recent events lists (events, award winners, notable deaths etc.). Here is a start, I will update according to your input.

I also suggest that for notable deaths - there are great people who died, but some are not on J radar. For example, Jean Beliveau is among hockey greats (as reported, I know nothing about hockey), but only one hit on J.

---

Deaths:
Maya Angelou - Clinton inauguration, I know why the caged bird sings
Richard Attenborough - Gandhi director (1982 Oscar)
Lauren Bacall
Ernie Banks - Mr.Cub
Ben Bradlee - WaPo editor, Watergate
James Brady - Reagan 1981
Ann B Davis - played character 'Alice Nelson' on The Brady Bunch
Ruby Dee - actress
Baby Doc Duvalier - Haiti dictator
James Garner - The Rockford files, Maverick
P.D.James - Adam Dalgliesh
Casey Kasem - Radio personality
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Oscar for Capote
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Nobel, one hundred years of solitude
Colleen McCullough – The thorn birds
Mike Nichols - The graduate, wife is Diane Sawyer
Chuck Noll - Steelers coach, 4 super bowl wins
Gary Owens – announcer of ‘Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in’
Don Pardo - announcer for SNL and J too
Harold Ramis
Oscar de la Renta - Fashion Designer
Joan Rivers
Mickey Rooney - actor
Pete Seeger - folk singer
Ariel Sharon - Israel prime minister, 'Ariel' word play
Shirley Temple
Robin Williams

Deaths - probably good to know too
Jean Beliveau - Montreal Canadiens
Jane Byrne - Chicago's only female mayor
Lesely Gore – ‘Its my party’ song
Tony Gwynn - San Diego Padres great
Charles Keating Jr. - Savings and loan scandal 1980s (Important Keating Five senators - John Glenn (Ohio), First american to orbit, part of mercury seven; John McCain 2008 republican presidential nominee)
Tom Magliozzi - NPR Car talk
Tom Menino - Boston Mayor
Maximilian Schell - Oscar for 'the Judgement at Nuremberg'
Maria von Trapp - The sound of music
Eli Wallach - The 'ugly' character in The good, the bad and the ugly movie

Oscars
Birdman - Best Picture
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything - Best Actor
Julianne Moore - Still Alice- Best Actress
J. K. Simmons - Whiplash- Best Supporting Actor
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman - Best Director
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood- Best Supporting Actress

Events:
Scotland stays in UK
Russia gets Crimea
Protests in Hong Kong
Ferguson
Obamacare roll-out pains - Sibelius resigns
Bridgegate - Chris Christie
Ebola
ISIS
Landing on Comet. Mission's name - Rosetta; landing module name - philae
Haiyan typhoon in Philippines
Malaysian Airlines, GermanWings Airlines

Pop Culture/Music Hits?? - No idea here.
Happy - Pharrell Williams
All of Me - John Legend
Dark Horse - Katy Perry
Fancy - Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX
Counting Stars - OneRepublic
Rude - MAGIC!
All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor
Stay With Me - Sam Smith
Shake It Off or Blank Space - Taylor Swift
Royals - Lorde
Let It Go - Idina Menzel
Chandelier - Sia
Best Day of My Life - American Authors
Anaconda - Nicki Minaj
*********
Take Me To Church - Hozier
Sugar - Maroon 5
Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson f. Bruno Mars

TV
True Detective - HBO - Woody Harrelson & Matthew McConaughey
Fargo - FX - Billy Bob Thornton & Martin Freeman
Outlander - Starz - based on Diana Gabaldon books - Scotland time travel
Game of Thrones - HBO - purple wedding/King Joffrey or Tyrion Lannister played by Peter Dinklage
Empire - Fox - Cookie & Lucious Lyon

Books
All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins


Box Office Hits of 2014
American Sniper
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The LEGO Movie
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Transformers: Age of Extinction
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Big Hero 6
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Godzilla (2014)
22 Jump Street
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Interstellar
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Gone Girl
Divergent
Neighbors

[SheikoS]

James Brady - Reagan 1981

His wife Sarah just passed away this past Saturday as well. She was the driving force behind the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the eventual legislation, signed into law by Bill Clinton, which bore her husband's name (the Brady Bill).

[bpmod]

Pete Seger

Is that Bob Seger's brother?

Brian

[doihavetoreally]

Pete Seger

Is that Bob Seger's brother?

Brian

lol - first of many. Fixed it.

[triviawayne]

With "Charles Keating Jr. - Savings and loan scandal 1980s", would also be good to know the two well-known senators in the Keating Five:

John Glenn
John McCain

Bringing this up: anyone else watch How to Get Away with Murder? There was an episode revolving around a financial scandal, and since the main character has the last name of Keating, her students were referred to as the Keating Five during a news report in the background of one scene.

I love little inside jokes like that on TV shows.

[MarkBarrett]

2014 Deaths
Ann B. Davis
Don Pardo

Oscars
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Host: Neil Patrick Harris

Pop Culture/Music Hits picking some off the top of Billboard top 100 for 2014
Happy - Pharrell Williams
All of Me - John Legend
Dark Horse - Katy Perry
Fancy - Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX
Counting Stars - OneRepublic
Rude - MAGIC!
All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor
Stay With Me - Sam Smith
Shake It Off or Blank Space - Taylor Swift
Royals - Lorde
Let It Go - Idina Menzel
Chandelier - Sia
Best Day of My Life - American Authors
Anaconda - Nicki Minaj
*********
Take Me To Church - Hozier
Sugar - Maroon 5
Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson f. Bruno Mars

TV
True Detective - HBO - Woody Harrelson & Matthew McConaughey
Fargo - FX - Billy Bob Thornton & Martin Freeman
Outlander - Starz - based on Diana Gabaldon books - Scotland time travel
Game of Thrones - HBO - purple wedding/King Joffrey or Tyrion Lannister played by Peter Dinklage
Empire - Fox - Cookie & Lucious Lyon

Books
All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

[OrangeSAM]

...Pop Culture/Music Hits picking some off the top of Billboard top 100 for 2014
...Dark Hore - Katy Perry...

Talk about your Freudian slips.

[MarkBarrett]

...Pop Culture/Music Hits picking some off the top of Billboard top 100 for 2014
...Dark Hore - Katy Perry...

Talk about your Freudian slips.

Hey, I have to make sure someone is reading what I post. And I like her and her music. Yikes! What an embarrassing typo.

[Woof]

Box Office Hits of 2014
American Sniper
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The LEGO Movie
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Transformers: Age of Extinction
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Big Hero 6
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Godzilla (2014)
22 Jump Street
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Interstellar
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Gone Girl
Divergent
Neighbors

(Bolded entries have hits in the j-archive database)

[Blue Lion]

SPORTS

Sports questions seem to be coming up a bit more frequently these days, and some of them have been Triple Stumpers.

2014 NBA champion: San Antonio Spurs, their fifth title.
NBA player who went back to Cleveland this season: LeBron James.
2014 Stanley Cup champion: LA Kings.
2014 British Open champion: Rory McIlroy.
U.S. Open tennis: Bob and Mike Bryan, twin brothers, won the men’s doubles and hold the record for most Grand Slam doubles titles. They’ve come up in the past on Jeopardy.
World Cup winner: Germany. Final game was played in Rio de Janiero’s Maracana Stadium, which has come up in Jeopardy.
World Series winner: San Francisco Giants.
World Series MVP: Madison Baumgarner. Also named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.
He retired last year after playing 20 seasons for the New York Yankees: Derek Jeter.
He returned to the Yankees this year after a season-long suspension: Alex Rodriguez.
He became baseball commissioner last year: Rob Manfred.
2015 college football national champion: Ohio State.
2014 Heisman Trophy: Marcus Mariota, University of Oregon.
Super Bowl XLIX winner: New England Patriots. Idina Menzel sang the National Anthem.
Patriots coach: Bill Belichick. Has won four Super Bowls.
2015 NCAA men’s basketball champion: Duke, their fifth title.
2015 NCAA women’s basketball champion: Connecticut plays Notre Dame tonight. UConn has won nine women’s championships and is the only school to win both the men’s and women’s title in the same year.

Deaths

Terry Pratchett.
Ed Brooke. First African American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.
Joe Cocker.
Donna Douglas. Ellie May of the "Beverly Hillbillies."
Theodore Hesburgh, long-time Notre Dame president.

[Woof]

Best Selling Books of 2014
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
The Long Haul - Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid series)
Divergent, Insurgent & Allegiant - Veronica Roth
Killing Patton - Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Frozen - Victoria Saxon
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
If I Stay - Gayle Forman
Orphan Train - Christina Baker Kline
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

[goatman]

Best Selling Books of 2014

Unbroken - Lauren Hillenbrand

NB: Laura Hillenbrand; agree pre-call for book AND film!

[eboettch]

More lit stuff to know:
Nobel for literature (2014): Patrick Modiano*
Man Booker: the Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan
National Book Award (fiction): Redeployment, Phil Klay
National Book Award (young people's): Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson
National Book Award (poetry): Faithful and Virtuous Night, Louise Gluck
National Book Award (non-fiction): Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China, Evan Osnos
2014 Pulitzer** (fiction): The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
2014 Pulitzer** (drama): The Flick, Annie Baker
2014 Newbery: Flora & Ulysses: the Illuminated Adventures, Kate DiCamillo

Bookish news:
Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman - follow-up to To Kill a Mockingbird, shocked everyone by its very existence, controversy over whether Lee wanted it published
Facebook book club - first pick, The End of Power by Moises Naim, got a huge bump in sales, but has since kind of petered out
Hachette/Amazon ebook pricing dispute


*other Nobel winners, though I think even expecting you to know Modiano is a stretch. Probably Malala Yousafzai is the most "household name" on here:
Physics: Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki
Chemistry: William E. Moerner, Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell
Medicine: Edvard Moser, May-Britt Moser,John O'Keefe
Economics: Jean Tirole
Peace: Kailash Satyarthi, Malala Yousafzai

**they must be about to announce 2015 Pulitzers, perhaps even the week of the test, so I'd be surprised if these were asked about

[nightreign]

I'd add Mo'ne Davis of Philadelphia's Taney Dragons, who at the age of 13 was the first girl to earn a win and pitch a shutout in the Little League World Series. In addition, she was the first Little League player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Also, I don't think anyone has mentioned the Sochi Olympics yet, so here are some notable events:
-controversy over anti-LGBT laws in Sochi
-New events: Women's ski jumping, ski halfpipe, ski and snowboard slopestyle, snowboarding parallel slalom, figure skating team event
-The US was shut out of long track speedskating medals, to their dismay
-US women's hockey team won silver, men were fourth
-Erin Hamlin won the first-ever US medal in singles luge, with a bronze

Notable People:
-Meryl Davis and Charlie White, American ice dancing gold medal winners (Meryl also won Dancing with the Stars.)+
-Bode Miller, alpine skier and Super-G bronze medalist*
-Ted Ligety, alpine skier and giant slalom gold medalist*
-Mikaela Shiffrin, alpine skier and slalom gold medalist (becoming the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history, at age 18)*
-Gracie Gold, figure skater who won 4th in the individual event, and contributed to team bronze
-Noelle Pikus-Pace, skeleton athlete who won a silver

*has hits in the archive
+were brought on to read clues, but have not been a correct answer

Music
Recent Grammy winners:

-Beck, album of the year for Morning Phase (also won Best Rock Album)
-Sam Smith, record and song of the year for Stay With Me (Smith also won Best New Artist, and Best Pop Vocal Album for In the Lonely Hour)
-Pharrell, best pop solo performance for Happy
-A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Say Something
-Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga won Best Traditional Pop Album for Cheek to Cheek
-Paramore, best rock song for Ain't it Fun
-Beyonce and Jay-Z, best R&B song and Best R&B Performance for Drunk in Love

More notable Billboard hits:
-Radioactive - Imagine Dragons (this one's a little old, but it recently became the longest-running song on the Billboard Hot 100 with 87 weeks
-Problem - Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea
-Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran
-FourFiveSeconds - Rihanna, Kanye West, and Paul McCartney
-Time of Our Lives - Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo
-Pompeii - Bastille
-Turn Down for What - DJ Snake and Lil Jon
-Am I Wrong - Nico&Vinz
-A Sky Full of Stars - Coldplay

Other music news:
-U2 released their new album, Songs of Innocence, for free on iTunes
-Jay-Z released a new streaming service, Tidal, which is the first artist-owned streaming service. Several other artists are stakeholders.
-Zayn Malik left British boy band One Direction, and the band continued as a four-piece

[opusthepenguin]

Deaths

Terry Pratchett.

Sadly, he only has two mentions in the archive. Maybe this will be the boost he needs.

[MitchO]

I have nothing to add but my undying thanks! I was doing up literature quiz sheet right before stopping to read this, and was extremely unsatisfied with my best sellers setup; never mind I hadn't even gotten to notable deaths.

I was compiling 2013-2015 ... is it (relatively) safe to think that they would focus almost entirely on 2014?

[doihavetoreally]

I have nothing to add but my undying thanks! I was doing up literature quiz sheet right before stopping to read this, and was extremely unsatisfied with my best sellers setup; never mind I hadn't even gotten to notable deaths.

I was compiling 2013-2015 ... is it (relatively) safe to think that they would focus almost entirely on 2014?

Typically they will have 2-3 questions on recent events - I think from 2014 is good enough. Sure you can go back to 2013 or earlier, but the goal is not to be completely blank on those couple of questions. This is only going to help if you are good with all the typical J stuff - presidents, Shakespeare, History, US States, geography, etc.

Personally, I think notable deaths are more important - as they are in news and will get couple of hits on J and then probably never.

I think what we have so far is great. I will probably keep track of latest presidential aspirants and US-Cuba relations.

Thanks to all the contributors.

[Woof]

Most Watched Primetime TV shows of 2014

NBC Sunday Night Football
Big Bang Theory
NCIS
NCIS: Los Angeles
Dancing With the Stars
The Blacklist
The Voice
Person of Interest
Blue Bloods
Resurrection
Criminal Minds
Castle
60 Minutes
Grey's Anatomy

[Woof]

Best Selling Books of 2014

Unbroken - Lauren Hillenbrand

NB: Laura Hillenbrand; agree pre-call for book AND film!

Good catch! Now fixed.

[nklotz]

I'd bet a fair amount of money on Jordan Spieth being mentioned. Just won the 2015 Masters and in doing so tied the lowest score ever at Augusta (tied with Tiger Woods) and became the 2nd youngest player ever at 21 years old to win the tournament (behind only Tiger). He's also from Texas, which could be mentioned in the clue.