Celebrate MinnPost's SECOND birthday

and the start of our THIRD year

Sunday, Nov 8, 2-5 pm

St. Anthony Main Event Centre | 219 SE Main St, Mpls
Free ramp parking | Directions here (PDF or MAP)

2:00  Complimentary light refreshments and cash bar

2:45  Ooh! Ooh! I know this one -- Al Sicherman, Master of Ceremonies

3:45  Birthday cake and coffee

4:00  Distribution of "The Best of MinnPost.com" -- our 2nd anniversary commemorative print edition

Admission is free to 2009 MinnPost members/donors

Click here to become a member | Others: $10

RSVP by Nov. 4 to vkujawa@minnpost.com

Members team prospects advance to next round

Eleven finalists are now competing for four spots on the MinnPost members team.

Voting is open to the public from now through Wednesday, Nov. 4. Each voter may vote for up to four finalists.  The four highest vote-getters will move on to the Trivia Battle of the MinnPost brains on Sunday, Nov. 8. Event details above.

The brief bios posted below were written by the finalists themselves. We asked for up to 140 characters but our system couldn’t enforce the limit. Answers to the prelim questions are given below, courtesy of Don Effenberger.

Finalists in alphabetical order

Becky Beyers: Journalist and writer and trivia junkie.

Joe Fleischman: Seventh son of first son, moved to MN in '60s to teach on college level (history), then went into admin. Now retired, I am volunteer grant writer for JazzMN Big Band.

Mike Fralick: Itinerant rememberer of useless information gathered over 64+ years, mostly in MN but now in WI.

Marty Hillman: IT Director for a Twin Cities consulting company who competes annually in the World's Largest Trivia Contest in Stevens Point, Wis.

Paul Linnee: 63 YOA, former cop, former director of Minneapolis 911. Lifelong Mpls resident. Self-confessed "news addict."

Brad Lundell: 30+ year veteran of political wonkery and policy hackery. Currently executive director of a non-profit organization that develops policy and lobbies Minnesota Legislature for increased funding. One of my mottos: If it's worthless, know it or own it.

John Roberts: Just an old dude.

Dane Smith: President, Growth & Justice, former reporter for Star Tribune and Pioneer Press.

Sheila Smith: Executive Director of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and cabin lover.

Marshall Tanick: Marshall Tanick is a senior partner in the law firm of Mansfield Tanick and Cohen. He specializes in Employment law, Constitutional law, and Media law. He was born, raised and educated in Minneapolis. He graduated with a degree in Journalism from the Univ of Mn, and received his law degree from Stanford University.

Matt Wells: A marketing statistician from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Sacred Harp singer, father of two boys.

Vote for your top four finalists

Stumped by the prelim questions? Check out these answers

1. What latitude runs through the Twin Cities metro area, and what street in Northeast Minneapolis does it perfectly bisect?
Answer: The 45th Parallel, which runs right down the center of Broadway Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis. The street was purposely laid out that way.

2. What is the name of Minnesota’s disputed 1898 archaeological find that purports to offer proof that the Vikings “discovered” America before Columbus?
Answer: Kensington Runestone.

3. What company in northern Minnesota was involved in the landmark 1970s environmental case presided over by U.S. Judge Miles Lord?
Answer: Reserve Mining, which was ordered to stop dumping taconite tailings from its Silver Bay plant into Lake Superior after a marathon trial. At one point, the plant was dumping 47 tons of waste rock into the lake every minute.

4. What was the former name of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport during the years 1921 to 1944?
Answer: Wold-Chamberlain Field. Its original name was Speedway Field, named for the former Twin Cities Speedway racetrack on the site. In 1921 (or 1923, depending on source), the airport was renamed Wold-Chamberlain Field in honor of World War I pilots Ernest Groves Wold and Cyrus Foss Chamberlain. In 1944, it was co-named Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airport. The word International was substituted four years later.

5. Minnesota has more than 15,000 lakes of 10 acres or more. Within five, how many of them are named Mud Lake?
Answer: 201.

6. What was the name of the Minnesota territorial legislator who prevented the territorial capital being moved from St. Paul to St. Peter by absconding with the official document until the end of the 1857 legislative session?  
Answer: Joe Rolette (1820-71), who took the official document and then dropped out of sight for the final days of the session and, according to legend, holed up in a hotel room drinking and playing poker with friends. He didn’t reappear until it was too late to have the bill signed into law. He hailed from Pembina County, which at the time was part of the Minnesota Territory. Today, it is part of North Dakota.

7. What controversial piece of national legislation is Minnesota Congressman Andrew Volstead best known for championing?
Answer: Prohibition. Andrew Volstead (1860-1947) helped push the 1919 legislation that enforced the 18th Amendment, which banned the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol. It was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.

8. What U.S. presidential nominee of a major party used chemical symbols on his bumper sticker?
Answer: Barry Goldwater. His bumper sticker read: Au H20.

9. Who is the only sitting U.S. senator both to have had a Top 40 record and won a Grammy Award?
Answer: Sen. Everett Dirksen, who hit the Top 40 with his spoken record, “Gallant Men,” in 1966 and won a Grammy in 1968 for best documentary recording with the album “Gallant Men.”

10. What famed entertainer began her life in northern Minnesota as Frances Gumm?
Answer: Judy Garland (1922-69), who was born and spent her early childhood in Grand Rapids. The city holds an annual Judy Garland Festival on the fourth weekend in June.

11. Opera’s Pagliacci is mentioned in the lyrics of two No. 1 hits -- one from the 1950s, and one from the early 1970s. For one point, name one of them.
Answer: Either The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” in 1954 (“Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci, and lots of wavy hair like Liberace”) or Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “The Tears of a Clown” in 1970 (“Just like Pagliacci did, I try to keep my sadness hid”).

12. The Beatles played their only Minnesota concert in 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium, drawing 25,000 to 30,000 fans. Within $1, what was the price of the top concert ticket?
Answer: Tickets for the Aug. 21, 1965, Beatles concert ranged from a high of $5.50 (for first-deck box seats and second-deck box seats) to the “cheap seats” ($3.50).

13. Who was Minnesota’s most successful all-time professional female golfer?
Answer: Patty Berg (1918-2006), first president of the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She won 15 professional championships and is in the World Golf Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame. Bonus Point: Nickname: Dynamite.

14. Who was the first Minnesotan in the Baseball Hall of Fame?
Answer: Pitcher Charles Albert “Chief” Bender (1884-1954). Bender, a member of the Ojibwe tribe, faced discrimination throughout his career, including the stereotyped nickname that has stuck with him throughout history.

15. For several years, the late, beloved WCCO-TV news anchor Dave Moore (1924-98) moonlighted on late-night Saturdays in the 1960s with a satiric news show. What was it called?
Answer: “The Bedtime Nooz.” There’s debate over the right spelling (Newz or Nooze or Nooz). His sons use “Bedtime Nooz” in their History Theatre play about their dad.

16.Legend says that before the advent of TV news, airline pilots flying over Minnesota’s small towns and farms late at night could tell when this famed radio broadcaster ended his 10 o’clock news show because they could see houses across the area go dark as folks ended their day and turned in for bed. What was his name?
Answer: Cedric Adams (1902-61), who the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame describes as, “for thirty years, the best-known voice in the Upper Midwest.” A highly regarded newspaper columnist as well, he was dubbed “The Ten O’Clock Sandman” because the end of his WCCO radio news show signaled bedtime for many.

Trivia Battle of the MinnPost Brains

(This is the back story for anyone interested)

Think you're so smart?

Here's how to qualify for the MinnPost members team

The Trivia Battle of the MinnPost Brains will pit TWO carefully selected MinnPost teams against each other, and against on-the-spot teams formed by event attendees. Think Quiz Bowl meets Irish pub brawl.

The MinnPost staff team will consist of Don Effenberger and three more MinnPosters -- anyone he can talk into making fools of themselves.

The MinnPost members team will consist of four brave souls chosen through the process below. Applicants must be 2009 MinnPost members/donors at the Cub Reporter level or higher.

Instructions for applicants

Step 1: The prelims. Answer the questions below. No cheating. You'll only embarrass yourself. Deadline Oct. 24.

Step 2: The scoring. MinnPost judges will choose an unspecified number of the top-scoring applicants. Depends how many entries we get. If we only get 4, all 4 will be our top scorers.

Step 3: The posting. Assuming we get lots of entries, names and brief bios of top scorers will be posted on this page by Oct. 27.

Step 4: The voting. Online voting for the MinnPost members team will be open to the public from Wednesday, Oct. 28 through Wednesday, Nov. 4. Each voter may choose up to four applicants. 

Step 5: The team advances. The four highest vote-getters will be announced on Nov. 5 and will challenge the MinnPost staff team on Sunday, Nov. 8 starting at 2:45 pm.