570: WInter Olympics

Today is the 14th day of competition at the 23rd Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Here are a few things you might not have known about these Olympics and the Olympic Winter Games in general.

• Ninety-two nations are competing in 102 events in 15 sports during the 19-day competition. The host South Koreans marched with their counterparts from North Korea under a unified Korean flag during the opening ceremony. The two countries combined to field a unified women’s ice hockey team, but otherwise participated separately.
• This is the third time the Winter Olympics have been held in East Asia, and the first of those to be held outside of Japan. Japan hosted the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo and the 1998 games in Nagano. It’s the second time South Korea has hosted an Olympics, the first was the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. It’s the first of three consecutive Olympics that will be held in Asia, with the 2020 Summer games scheduled for Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Olympics set for Beijing, which will become the first city to host the Summer and Winter Olympics.
• 2,914 athletes are competing, with 1,672 men and 1,242 women qualified. Six countries are making their Winter Olympics debut: Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore. Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo and Singapore have each sent one athlete, while Malaysia has sent two and Nigeria has sent three. One country not officially represented is Russia, which was suspended following a doping controversy at the 2014 Olympics. Select Russian athletes are being allowed to compete under the Olympic Flag as Olympic Athletes from Russia.

Our question: This was not the first time North and South Korea marched together during the opening ceremony. What other years, and in what cities did the Koreans march as one?

Today is World Day of Social Justice, Wednesday is National Sticky Buns Day, Thursday is National Margarita Day, Friday is Diesel Engine Day, Saturday is International Sword Swallowers Day, and Sunday is National Clam Chowder Day

Today is the birthday of actor Sidney Poitier, who is 91; and singer Kurt Cobain, who would have been 51. Singer Nina Simone would have turned 85 on Wednesday, which is also the 78th birthday of U.S. Representative and civil rights activist John Lewis. Thursday is the birthday of George Washington, who was born in 1732. Friday is the birthday of educator and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, who was born in 1868. Sunday would have been the 75th birthday of musician George Harrison.

Now, we’ll spin the wheel to pick a year at random.

This week in 1980, the top song in the U.S. was “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen.

The No. 1 movie of 1980 was “The Empire Strikes Back,” while the novel “Princess Daisy” by Judith Krantz topped the New York Times Bestsellers list this week.

Now for the answer to last week’s question, which was: What is the current initiation fee and annual dues for Club 33 at Disneyland?

The answer is a reported $50,000 initiation fee and $15,000 yearly dues, although Disney doesn’t publicize either of those numbers.

The first listener with a correct answer was Jim Cardillo.

This week’s question: Which two Winter Olympic events debuted at the Summer Olympics?

Submit your answer at triviapeople.com/test and we’ll add the name of the person with the first correct answer to our winner’s wall … at triviapeople.com. We'll have the correct answer on next week’s episode.

Thanks for listening to the Trivia Minute, please rate the show on iTunes, or support it at triviapeople.com/support. For other details, visit triviapeople.com

We'll talk to you next week.

Lin