That's Odd Trivia Quiz

Answer: Course numbers in university catalogs

Universities tend to number their courses: "English 198" rolls off the tongue more easily than a complete course title like "Early Romantic Poets and Perspectives on the Vicarage." One common numbering scheme assigns 101 to each department's introductory course for possible majors in the field, reserving numbers below 100 for "Chemistry for Poets" and other offerings for non-majors.

Many universities use different systems -- for example, my first class as a physics major was "Physics 15a" -- but "101" is enshrined in popular culture.

Answer: Blackjack

The name 21 comes from the player's goal: to achieve a hand whose cards sum to a value as close to 21 as possible. Face cards are worth ten points each; an ace can serve as a one or a eleven. You can't get rid of the cards you've got, but you can get more from the dealer, so it's important to know the odds of drawing a card with a workable value.

After all, if you end up with a score above 21, you're toast!

Answer: Eleven

Accordingly, both movies had (basically) the same title, "Ocean's 11"; the 2001 remake spawned sequels with similar titles, starting with "Ocean's 12." Each is a classic heist movie with a fine ensemble cast: every member of Ocean's crew has a talent, a task, and a moment to shine.

The buildup is thrilling and the payoff beautiful, even if the outcomes are rather different for the two bands.

Answer: Garfield, the cat

It's housecats that supposedly have nine lives, which would give them a terribly unfair advantage against mice! The tale arises from cats' observed ability to walk away unscathed from perilous situations, like falls from a great height. A taleteller watching Garfield, the eponymous orange tabby of Jim Davis's newspaper comic strip, would certainly tell a different story. Garfield doesn't do anything more dangerous than sleeping and eating lasagna!

Answer: He's the seventh son of a seventh son.

The first book in the series, "Seventh Son" (1987), tells the dramatic tale of Alvin's birth and early childhood. In a version of 19th-century America where people's knacks reflect their magical abilities, Alvin's family attempts a dangerous river crossing during his mother's labor with him. Alvin's oldest brother ends up sacrificing his life to save them, but hangs on long enough for Alvin to be born the seventh son. Later, another seventh son is born -- Calvin, the seventh living son -- and the conflict between these magical brothers drives much of the series to come.

The idea that the seventh son of a seventh son has special powers was not invented by Card; it's a fairly common notion in folklore.

Answer: Seventeen

Or, as ABBA put it, "young and sweet, only seventeen." Partly thanks to aspirational teenagers, this catchy tune was a tremendous success for the Swedish group, waltzing to the top of charts as diverse as the Australian Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100, and earning a gold certification in both the UK and the US. To paraphrase the lyrics, "[They] can dance, [they] can jive, having the time of [their lives]."

Answer: Multiply two odd numbers together

An even number is a whole number that's divisible by two; an odd number is a whole number that isn't. Every even number contains a factor of two, so the product of an even number with any other whole number will contain a factor of two as well -- that is, it will be an even number, too. Meanwhile, a zero times any number will give you zero again. You can debate whether or not zero counts as an even number, but it certainly isn't odd.

Multiplying two odd numbers, however, will get you an odd number every time. Think of 1x3=3, or 5x11=55, or 7x7=49. No factors of two go in, so no factors of two go out!

Answer: Hydrogen

The atomic number of an element is the number of protons in its nucleus; it's also, therefore, the number of electrons that orbit that nucleus in an electrically neutral atom. At its most fundamental, chemistry is governed by the way atoms gain, lose, or share electrons in interacting with each other.

Hydrogen, the first element in the periodic table, has an atomic number of 1. Orbiting electrons prefer to be in pairs, so this makes hydrogen very reactive. Helium (2), neon (10), and argon (18) are noble gases, found in the rightmost column of the periodic table. Not only are their electrons paired, but in the ground state, those pairs also fill up the successive available orbitals exactly. Since their electron configurations are complete, these elements are typically very unlikely to participate in chemical reactions.

Answer: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

I can't really bear to say much more about this execrable 1989 movie, which was directed by William Shatner (best known as Captain Kirk). I will give you this general advice: it is a bad, bad idea for a space western to focus on a literal, physical search for God. It is a much, much worse idea for the characters to actually find anything at the end. In the movie's defense, however, the camping scenes at the beginning were okay.

In my opinion, which is infallible on this subject, the "Next Generation" movie "Star Trek IX: Insurrection" (1998) gives "Star Trek V" real competition for its shameful ranking, as does "Star Trek X: Nemesis" (2002), which I hope never again to be reminded of. "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984) and "Star Trek VII: Generations" (1994) are passable bridge movies, which may be watched as part of the sequence but probably won't be re-watched on their own merits.

Answer: 99

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall,
Ninety-nine bottles of beer!
Take one down, pass it around,
Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall!"

And the verses repeat, with one less bottle of beer on the wall each time. Wikipedia claims that it takes about half an hour to sing all the way down to zero; I categorically refuse to test this claim, or whether it includes pauses for pleas and/or threats from annoyed adults. In teetotaling circles, children may replace the beer with bottles of milk or Coke, reducing the tempting subversion of the song.