Davis - Dont Know Much About Anything

" P OP QUIZ, HOTSHOT.

Remember when crazed bomber Dennis Hopper tossed that line at Keanu Reeves in the great thriller Speed? Well, now its your turn.

Actually, those words take most of us back to our school days. And they may still turn your blood cold and make you weak in the knees. Whenever my teachers said, Okay, class, clear off your desks. Time for a quiz, beads of sweat formed on my brow. It was a moment of pure dreadunless it was a spelling quiz. For some reason, I was always a good speller.

But the truth isand this may be a bit of a jolt coming from the author of more than twenty Dont Know Much About books for adults and kidsI was not a great student. When I was a little boy, no matter how hard I tried, I couldnt sit still in school. Each day, from the get-go of opening bell, I fidgeted and squirmed at my desk, watching the clock and waiting for three oclock to roll around so that I could hit the playground and ride my bike. I hated textbooks, fought with fractions, and got stomachaches at the simple thought of taking a test.

But heres the odd partI liked learning and knowing stuff. I was extremely curious. I loved doing crossword puzzles and word games, like the Jumbles in the newspaper, as well as watching game shows that let me test my knowledge. The original daytime Jeopardy! , with Art Fleming and Don Pardo, was a sick day favorite.

And I loved to read. My bed was always full of booksfrom the Golden Books I had as a small child to a series of biographies of famous people as children I discovered and read over and over again. I remember getting an encyclopedia on the installment plan, picking up a new section each week where it was sold in the local supermarket, and putting it into an enormous ring binder.

The trip to the public library in town was practically a ritual each week, and I remember the awe I felt when I moved from the childrens room on the ground floor to the majestic marbled adult room upstairs. Whether I was at home or away at summer camp, I ate up comic strips and comic books, everything from Batman and Dare Devil to the Green Lantern and the Fantastic Four. I was also a devoted cereal box reader and always imagined that Battle Creek, Michigan must be such an interesting place. And I loved to spread out a map on my lap in the backseat during family trips to places like Gettysburg and Fort Ticonderoga, where I came to see that history wasnt about memorizing dates and speeches, but about real people doing real things in real places.

In other words, learning wasnt what I hatedjust the boring way it was usually dished out in school.

Maybe thats why I grew up wanting to make learning fun. When I began to write, I set out to create the kinds of books I wanted to read, and my Dont Know Much About series for adults was born out of my personal curiosity and a passion for American history. From there, I moved on to other subjects that have fascinated me since I was younggeography, religion, astronomy, and mythology. Rejecting the widely held notion that these are the boring requirements of high school, I always attempted to make these subjects relevant by connecting them to everyday life. Eventually I branched out into books for children and wrote about the presidents, fifty states, the solar system, mummies, world myths, and significant people, among other topics.

But my goal was always the same. And it was simpleto make sure no ones eyes glazed over when they turned the pages. My approach was to ask offbeat questions, bust myths, and bring to light little-known facts that made readers say, I never heard that. Why didnt they tell us that in school!

A few years ago, when I became a contributing editor of USA Weekend , I was offered a dream assignmentto construct weekly quizzes on lots of different topics. For me, this was an invitation to conspire with readers like myself who groaned when the teacher said, Okay, class. Put down your pencils. Times up.

These quizzes cover a wide gamut of subjects, but I dont think they are trivia. Id like to believe that anything that is worth knowing is not trivial. So to enjoy this book, all you need is curiosity. No thinking caps, stopwatches, or #2 pencils allowed. And no final grades either. My hope is to get you to agree with the poet William Butler Yeats who said, Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

If you think you dont know much about anything, but youd like to learn, then welcome aboard.

Youve come to the right place, Hotshot.

DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT

Benjamin Franklin

H AD HE ONLY INVENTED bifocals and the stove bearing his name, he would have been notable. If he had only experimented with electricity and charted the Gulf Stream, he would have been a giant of science. If he had only helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, he would have been a legend. But Benjamin Franklin did all of these thingsand much more. Americas first true international celebrity, Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706, the fifteenth child in a family of seventeen children, the son of a soap and candle maker. In a remarkable life, Franklin became wealthy, famous, and one of the most important Founding Fathers. When he died at the age of eighty-four on April 17, 1790, nearly twenty thousand admirers attended his funeral. What else do you know about this unique man who helped invent America?

• 1. Franklin was the only person to sign the four key documents that created America. What are they?
• 2. Which office did Franklins illegitimate son hold?
• 3. What did Franklin produce every year for twenty-five years?
• 4. What did his famous kite experiment prove?
• 5. What was his greatest accomplishment during the Revolutionary War?
• 6. Franklin preferred what animal as Americas symbol?
• 7. What was Franklins final public role?