19 May, 2016: Day 79

Question 1:
The 2010 tennis match that lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes beat the previous record for the longest match by how many hours? Answer: 4 1/2 hours.

Please see Day 43 for the explanation.

Question 2:
What was the profession of the man who served as foster father to the title character of a 1980's sitcom about a little girl and her dog, Brandon? Answer: Photographer.

The sitcom was Punky Brewster starring Soleil Moon Frye, co-starring George Gaynes(who acted as a reoccurring character in the Police Academy movie series) as the old, grouchy photographer that adopts Punky. You can get this by using 1980s sitcom dog Brandon for a search query.

A side search:
Ms. Frye suffered from macromastia in her teen years, thus putting a damper on her acting career. To correct this she underwent reduction mammaplasty. What medical procedure is the opposite? Place answers in comments below.

Question 3:
In a famous King Crimson debut album cover, the character's terrified eyes are looking down towards what side of his body? Answer: Right.

Please see Day 28 for the explanation.

12 Feb, 2016: Day 59

Question 1:
What is the name of the facility where Holly goes each week to visit Salvatore Tomato? Answer: Sing Sing.

Please see Day 31 for the explanation.

Question 2:
The longest tennis match in history was played over three days and included how many strokes by the American born player? Answer: 1094.

After spending a few hours understanding the game and trying to dig out statistics on this game I finally settled on using tennis strokes longest game -rally to start the search. On the resulting page is a number that will answer Goggle's question. Take 2198 strokes tennis and you will find details on one of the greatest tennis matches in living memory.

Question 3:
Ancient myth believed that beneath Mount Etna a mighty giant was buried. Who was believed to have hurled this giant from heaven? Answer: Jove.

Try using as your search term Mount Etna mythology then Enceladus mythology. Contained is the story of Enceladus, one of the race of Giants, who in the war against the Olympian Gods was the foe of Athena. The island of Sicily was created when she threw a mountain at him as he fled. According to Wikipedia it was Zeus(Jove) who directed Athena to carry out this act. I will have to consult an expert. Stay tuned.

27 Jan, 2016: Day 43

Question 1:
What musical period is best described as an era of contrasts; e.g., between loud and soft, fast and slow? Answer: Baroque.

This is tricky because of the contrasting messages one would get when running the search. You can try musical period era contrasts. You might find search results that are comparing two periods.

Question 2:
Chapter 10 of "Geography of India" by Prithvish Nag, Smita Sengupta discusses what geographical feature? Answer: Landuse.

Type "Geography of India" Nag Sengupta. Then click the tab for Books below the search bar. Look for the first title, then in the preview look for the answer within the table of contents.

Question 3:
The 2010 tennis match that lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes beat the previous record for the longest match by how many hours? Answer: 4 1/2 hours.

I had to ask for a hint on this one, then figure out why the question is wrong. Yes, the question is wrong, by a 1/4 hour. First let's answer the question in the contemporary sense with 2010 tennis 11 hours 5 minutes. You will get information on the Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. The problem comes when one is looking up for the second longest match. As write this answer that record is held by the first round Davis Cup in 2015, Leonardo Mayer defeated Joao Souza after 6 hours, 43 minutes of play. The previous second longest match was 6 hours, 33 minutes of the first round of the 2004 French Open, Fabrice Santoro won against Arnaud Clément. This match held the title before the 2010 Wimbledon Championships and was the match Google used.

25 Dec, 2015: Day 15

Question 1:
What year was the term that refers to the four-year period between Olympic Games first used? Answer: 1896.

For clarification, Google is asking for the modern Olympics, not the ancient Olympics. it would help to know what the four year span between Games is called. That way you can find out when it was first used, historically and contemporarily. four-year period between "Olympic Games" will get the answer Olympiad. Looking further into the results one runs across the first modern Olympics, which was held in Athens, Greece.

Question 2:
In the Roger Federer biography, "Quest for Perfection", the author describes her first meeting with Federer in what year? Answer: 1996.

Look up rené stauffer roger federer meeting. On the first page of results Google have a list of results that described a meeting between the author and the tennis phenom. One of those sports articles has the age of Federer at the time the meeting and the byline date. You can extrapolate the year they met from that information.

Question 3:
What former Baltimore Colt inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968, published an autobiography in 1987? Answer: Art Donovan.

FYI: I use Wikipedia to crack this question. First, look up the list of players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Next, you want to find all the inductees for 1968(there are seven). I looked at every single Wikipedia entry for a player who wrote a book in 1987. Hint: Fatso is the title of the book.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!