Ringorang Newsletter: February 1 - 5

February was named for the Roman festival of purification, so what better way to kick off Week 65 of the All-Purpose Question Everything Challenge than with some good, clean trivia about being good and clean? Of course, you can't have light without darkness, so we go black for a day and also talk to a groundhog.

We do want to give a big thanks to the brains at mental_floss for letting us hook into their How Did You Know? 5-Day Trivia Hunt last week. Twas a lot of fun!


Week 65 Themes:

• Monday - Purity: We're celebrating Februalia, Ringorang style! 10 Qs about getting and being pure. And awesome, although that's more implied.
• Tuesday - Weather, or Not: It's Groundhog Day. Trivially-speaking, it's that rainy day.
• Wednesday - Paint It "Black": A word association day to complement Monday's sheer whiteness. No, I don't mean that racially. Settle down.
• Thursday - Getting Animated: The Annie Awards are February 6th, so we tip our caps to the world of ink and paint and pixels.
• Friday - A Bowl That Is Super: The Big Game of American Gridiron Football That We Can't Name For Copyright Reasons is this Sunday. Are you ready for some trivia about said aforementioned NFL contest!?

If you win any particular day, you'll win yourself a $15 iTunes gift card! Play every day and you'll be eligible for our daily T-shirt drawing, too! Remember, we do special contests through our Twitter and Facebook channels (TwitFace, if you will). Be sure to become our fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@ringorang). Twitter's also the best place to drop us a line if you have a Q about our Qs.

Awesome 80s Lyrics Contest

Hey everyone,

On Wednesday, we'll continue our crossover game with mental_floss and "How Did You Know?" with a day of Awesome 80s trivia. If you're a fan like me of rad songs like this ...



... then tomorrow is your day to play!

We're also going to run a special contest on Facebook.

The winner will receive a Ringorang T-shirt, the book "mental_floss presents: Instant Knowledge," and a $25 Old Navy gift card.

Seriously, if you're not totally stoked right now, you better check your pulse, dude.

Here's how to play:

• Become a fan of Ringorang on Facebook. (Only fans of our Facebook page are eligible to participate in this contest.) Also, tell your friends to become fans of Ringorang as well. This is key! I'll explain in a second.

• Take a verse from your favorite 80s tune and alter the lyrics so that it's about Ringorang or Mental_Floss and their Trivia Hunt. Heck, if you want to reference HDYK?, Bonus City or even getting 450 dallions, go ahead!

• Post it on our Facebook page beginning at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, and get as many friends as possible to "Like" your lyrics.

• The person with the most "likes" to their lyrics will win our contest! Don't forget, your friends have to be a fan of our Facebook page to "like" your lyrics.

If you have any questions, post them here!

To become a fan of Ringorang on Facebook, click here.

And one more note: Be careful your song is actually from the 80s. Don't do what our very own Mike Dotta did and enthusiastically change the lyrics to Roxanne only to discover later it's technically a '70s song. Oh noes!

Ringorang, you don't have to put on the Rang light

I've grown so much smarter

And now I'm answering all your questions right!

Very clever. But, yeh. Don't do that. ;)

Good luck! We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Ringorang Themes: January 25 - 29

For Week 64 of the All-Purpose Question Everything Challenge, we're teaming up with the knowledge junkies at Mental Floss magazine to posit one question: How Did You Know?

Well, actually, we'll still be asking 50 brain-defying questions, but our themes will run in conjunction with Mental Floss' How Did You Know? 5-day trivia hunt, which challenges all you brainiacs to solve a series of puzzles hidden across the web.

• Monday - Instant Knowledge: We've pulled some tidbits from Mental Floss' Instant Knowledge, a pocket-sized guide containing a wide range of fun facts and instructions on how to use them.
• Tuesday - "Bird" is the Word: These ten questions relate to various birds, some with feathers, some not.
• Wednesday - Awesome 80s: An ode to the totally tubular and righteously radical period from 1980 to 1989.
• Thursday - Law & Order - Special Trivia Unit: No, not the long-running police procedural franchise. After these ten law and law enforcement factoids, you'll be able to say, "I fought the law!" Whether or not you win that fight is up to you.
• Friday - X-actly: 'X' marks the spot for this ten Qs.
  

Remember, if you win any particular day, you'll win yourself a $15 iTunes gift card! Play every day and you'll be eligible for our daily T-shirt drawing, too!

The trivia hunt begins on Tuesday. So, after tuning up your brain with Monday's tournament, swing by the How Did You Know? page on Facebook, which will act as the starting point for your puzzling puzzle adventure. Our Tuesday through Friday tournament themes reflect the themes of How Did You Know? The answer to one puzzle will lead you to the next, so keep at it!

Ringorang Themes: January 18 - 22

For Week 62, we're moving the All-Purpose Question Everything Challenge from its 11:35pm timeslot to an 8:00am - 6:00pm PST slot in order to accommodate Jay Leno.

...oh wait, that was somebody else. Anyhoo...

• Monday - MLK: We're observing Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday with 10 Qs about the man and the world he so greatly affected.
• Tuesday - The Tonight Show: NBC's long-tenured programming bookend to Today has quite a legacy. As for its future, well...
• Wednesday - Game On: Who needs late night comedy when you've got Farmville on Facebook? 10 Qs about "video" games new and old.
• Thursday - Berry Barry Good: As evidenced by these ten people, if one were to form a company with employees all named Berry or Barry, you'd have a pretty successful company. Roll that around your brain for a while.
• Friday - The Sopranos: Once upon a time, HBO was worried that people would think their new drama was about singers. 9 years and 6 seasons later, some have called David Chase's drama the best TV show of the 2000s.

Also, be sure to participate in our special "Power Hour" quizzes via Twitter and Facebook this week. We'll do a rapid fire blitz of trivia via our Facebook profile, so be sure to become our fan. Check out this blog post for rules and details.

We might also have a special contest brewing for those following @ringorang on Twitter. Just saying.

Ringorang Themes: January 11 - 15

The All-Purpose Question Everything Challenge is so meta this week, from 8am to 6pm PST, Monday through Friday.

• Monday - Here Comes the Sun: 10 Qs devoted to the astronomical body that literally makes the world go round.
• Tuesday - That's So Metamorphosis: Things change. Into animals. It happens.
• Wednesday - Not-So-Mad Scientists: You know how I know the sun makes the world go round? Because of these ten nerds. And Wikipedia. But mostly nerds.
• Thursday - What's In a Name?: A rose by any other name might smell just as sweet, but if it moved to Hollywood, it'd get plastic surgery and change its name to "Cruise" or "Caine" or "Enterprise." Like I said, things change.
• Friday - Gleeful Song Lyrics: In 2009, one Fox TV show reintroduced millions of Americans to pop hits young and old on a weekly basis, in the process becoming the most tweeted about show of the year. No, silly, not that long-in-the-tooth talent competition... GLEE! We'll present lyrical excerpts from ten songs on the Glee soundtrack and see if you can name that song.

Speaking of songs, $15 iTunes gift cards if you win any day of trivia. But you knew that...

Ringorang Themes: January 4 - 8

Happy New Year! Ready for the apocalypse? Or your new diet? The All-Purpose Question Everything Challenge is! Our trivia themes for next week, running every day form 8am to 6pm PST.

• Monday - Apocalypse Later: Nothing says "new year" quite like the threat of total world annihilation. So, we'll kick off the week with a cinematic quiz of apocalyptic proportions.
  
• Tuesday - The Beginning of the End: This quiz is devoted to first impressions, last words, and all those places where something starts and something else finishes.
• Wednesday - Can't Spell Diet Without D-I-E: Losing weight is a popular, if ill-fated, New Year's resolution. If you can ace this quiz, then you obviously know what I mean.
• Thursday - Coming Up Roses: Every new year brings with it a Rose Bowl. And this year, two of them! The BCS Championship is tonight at the Rose Bowl, so we'll take a look at various "roses."
• Friday - Gateways: A rose is a rose is a rose, but sometimes a gate is more than a gate. Here's 10 of the world's most famous points of entry.