Monday Trivia, No. 159 [Mo wins]

72 thoughts on “Monday Trivia, No. 159 [Mo wins]”

1. Number of times proposals have been made to partition states.Report

2. Hmm… it starts with 3 of the 4 largest states, and ends with a lot of relatively small states. This must be important.Report

3. With the exception of Massachusetts and maybe Utah, those top states are all big producers of talent at the high school football level. At least, based on my understanding. Maybe Mass and Utah are better than I understand.Report

   1. Texas is way, way too low for that to be the case.Report

      1. Duh. Great point. I was less focused on what was missing than what was there. Okay, so it is definitely not high school football talent.Report

      2. I was less focused on what was missing than what was there.

         You’d be a great cop.Report

4. Total rum consumption by state.Report

5. LNG filling stations?Report

6. Per cent of population over 65 years old?Report

   1. I don’t think it’s the percentage or number of seniors notwithstanding Florida’s top ranking. Pennsylvania would be much higher in either case, as it has one of the oldest populations of any state.Report

7. NUMBER of people over 65 years old?Report

8. Number of residents arrested for driving while intoxicated.Report

   1. Number of residents over 65 arrested for driving intoxicated on rum in proximity to LNG filling stations.Report

      1. Who are good at football.Report

      2. While petitioning to partition their state.Report

9. Greatest number of immigrants?Report

   1. Texas would be much higher if that were the case.Report

10. Where is Washington? No ties? British Columbia maybe?Report

    1. Wisconsin is listed twice, so maybe one of those is supposed to be Washington.Report

       1. Yes, the first mention is actually Washington. It’s now corrected. My apologies, and thank you for bringing it to my attention.Report

11. Tuesday hint:
    These are counts, not percentages, and while population matters, so does state law.Report

    1. Number of state correctional facilities?Report

12. Number of active driver licenses.Report

    1. CDLs maybe?Report

13. If they’re counts, the numbers are very small. There wouldn’t be so many ties otherwise. Maybe the first three states are high, but things tighten up quickly.Report

    1. Just for kicks, you might expect something like this:

       30 Florida
       20 California
       16 New York
       13 [Illinois, Massachusetts]
       12 [Ohio, Utah, Washington]
       11 [New Jersey, Oregon]
       10 [Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin]
       9 [Connecticut, Kansas, Texas]
       8 [Colorado, Arizona, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Vermont, Virginia]
       7 [Alaska, Delaware, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee]
       6 [Hawai’i, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, West Virginia]
       5 [Alabama, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island]
       4 [Arkansas, South Dakota, Wyoming]
       3 Nevada
       2 North Dakota
       0 D.C.Report

       1. Not bad. Your top-end is only slightly high, and your bottom end is only slightly low (DC > 0).Report

14. Number of specialty car license plates available?Report

    1. That would seem odd that there would be such a high correlation to state size.Report

       1. More people translate into more groups that want a specialty plate “in honor of” them. When I worked for the Colorado legislature, I was surprised by the number of bills introduced each year to create an additional specialty plate. Also, since most states have their plates stamped and painted by inmates, more people => more prisoners => greater ability to handle the variety.

          It was just something that popped into my head.Report

       2. Montana has a ridiculously high number of specialty license plates. There is a single high school (maybe it’s a district) that has two of them. Idaho has far fewer.Report

       3. More people translate into more groups

          Getting warmer.Report

       4. BSA troops by state?Report

       5. Something related to churches? Nevada is awfully low relative to its population.Report

       6. State “things”, like bird, flower, reptile… that sort of nonsense?Report

15. Is it something like “Number of members of Congress with more than X (let’s say 10) years of service)”?Report

    1. You’re more optimistic than I am. I was thinking something like # of elected officials currently serving time.Report

       1. If NJ was in the top 5 instead of barely the top 10, I would concur.Report

16. Wednesday hint: Each state has more than two, but most are insignificant.Report

    1. Most are insignificant? Ummmm… legislators?

       State highways?Report

    2. @jm3z-aitch Insignificant eh!? Wait til you get home!Report

    3. Is it the number of state holidays?Report

    4. “Each state has more than two, but most are insignificant.”

       Libertarians!Report

    5. Congresspeople.Report

    6. Neither are right, but I’m pretty sure either Kolohe and Schilling deserves a special prize.Report

       1. So it must relate to third parties somehow. I know it isn’t number of official registered third parties, with California ranked so high (we have only 5 qualified third parties here).

          So.. Number of third-party candidates for office? Say, House and Senate? It can’t include state-level offices because I’d expect New Hampshire with its massively huge state legislature to have more.Report

       2. You’re simultaneously applying two different standards.Report

       3. Presidential candidates on the ballot in 2012?Report

       4. Burt almost had it, but tripped himself up.Report

       5. Third party candidates for president?Report

       6. Or number of gubernatorial candidates, period.Report

       7. Total number of third party candidates.Report

       8. Sooooooo close.Report

       9. Third party candidates for State and Federal offices.Report

       10. Not to pick on Burt, but in this very rare case,what he thinks he knows he doesn’t actually know.Report

       11. A number of third parties.Report

       12. Mo wins, with an assist from Burt. At the top end are Florida with 21 political parties, California with 21, and New York with 20. At the bottom end are Nevada with 6, North Dakota with 5, and DC with 4. The data comes from Project Vote Smart.Report

       13. cite please. Every source I looked at said that California had six or so qualified political parties. How do you count all the non-qualified parties?Report

       14. Project Vote Smart. Not all of these parties are qualified for the ballot, but they exist, or did the last time PVS updated their list, or are struggling to establish a real existence.

           There are some who are not recognized, some who are recognized but not regularly ballot qualified due to restrictiveness of state laws, and some who are ballot qualified.Report

       15. James,
           http://www.ballot-access.org/2012/09/prohibition-party-places-presidential-nominee-on-louisiana-ballot/

           Some parties missing?Report

       16. 50 states and a lot of people obsessed over their own particular issues means there will be some degree of turnover among third parties. I’m sure Project Vote Smart has limited resources and so can only update occasionally. Possibly they last updated before 2009. Possibly the Louisiana Prohibition Party (rightfully) ceased to exist since then.

           This is a good general case of what federalism brings us–a near impossibility of staying up to date on the current status of just about any issue that is under the control of the states.Report

       17. James,
           Apparently about $8,000 a year is riding on the Prohibition Party still existing:
           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_PartyReport

       18. Possibly the Louisiana Prohibition Party (rightfully) ceased to exist since then.

           Their priorities are messed up. The first state to go should be Texas.Report

       19. Thanks.Report

17. Ooh! Theme Parks.Report

    1. It is neither social nor economic.Report

18. Number of languages state forms are printed in?Report

    1. Something similar had occurred to me as well.Report

19. Internet nodes?Report

20. The order in which states have banned you from dancing of singing?Report

    1. Since its a count of whole numbers, that would be the number of times I’ve been arrested in each state for singing or dancing. But come on, that would, umm, err, be ridiculous. [nervously tugs collar]Report

21. Number of independent politicians serving the state ?Report

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