How well do you know 2018? The Washingtonian team has put together 28 questions to test your all-around D.C. knowledge—sports, food, pop culture, and, of course, plenty of politics.
QUESTIONS:
1. Which of the following activities was NOT mentioned in the Georgetown Prep yearbook page of Brett Kavanaugh?
- a) Beach Week Ralph Club
- b) 100 Kegs or Bust
- c) Potomac Beer Bong Championship
- d) Wendy Whitney Fan Club
2. Senior White House aide Stephen Miller claimed to have thrown away $80 worth of which foodstuff after being cursed at by a bartender?
- a) Lobster
- b) Sushi
- c) Bulgogi
- d) Kebabs
3. What hashtag did the DC government use in its failed campaign to win Amazon’s HQ2?
- a) #ObviouslyDC
- b) #OfCourseDC
- c) #DuhDC
- d) #DCOrBust
4. Which of the following past controversies did not involve a player recently acquired by the Washington Redskins?
- a) The player was suspended for a season after being charged with felony child abuse for using a switch on his young son
- b) The player was released by his previous team following a second arrest on domestic-abuse allegations
- c) The player’s “butt fumble,” leading to a touchdown for the opposing team, was ranked by ESPN as the most embarrassing moment in his prior franchise’s history
- d) The player pioneered the trend of quietly kneeling during the national anthem to protest police shootings which drew sharp attacks from conservative commentators
5. Which local music artist was up for a Grammy this year?
- a) Rare Essence
- b) Hammered Hulls
- c) 9353
- d) GoldLink
6. How many times did Donald Trump tweet the name “Mueller” in 2018?
- a) 49
- b) 68
- c) 81
- d) 103
7. What is the name of the all-female, members-only co-working space that opened in Georgetown?
- a) The Swing
- b) The Wing
- c) The Spot
- d) The Room
8. What was the most expensive cocktail sold at the Trump Hotel in 2018?
- a) $100 martini, with oysters and caviar
- b) $169 Royal Tokaji Cobbler, served with a crystal spoon of Hungarian wine
- c) $87 brandy julep with Rémy Martin Louis XIII cognac and mint gold flakes
- d) $245 manhattan with pre-prohibition vermouth
9. How many bathrooms will Jeff Bezos’ Kalorama mansion ultimately feature, according to blueprints filed with the DC government?
- a) 7
- b) 12
- c) 17
- d) 25
10. Which DC barbershop did LeBron James visit in September for an episode of his HBO series The Shop, featuring Drake and Mystics star Elena Delle Donne?
- a) World Class Cuts, Mt. Vernon Square
- b) Barber of Hell’s Bottom, Shaw
- c) Signature Cuts and Shaves, U Street
- d) Charles Barber Shop, Farragut Square
11. Which DC area restaurant was the scene of a confrontation between then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt and a fellow diner in July?
- a) Teaism, in Penn Quarter
- b) MXDC, by the White House
- c) The Red Hen, in Bloomingdale
- d) Cafe Milano, in Georgetown
12. Which of these was NOT a Russian in the DC news this year?
- a) Alex Ovechkin
- b) Maria Butina
- c) Pierre Bezukhov
- d) Sergey Kislyak
13. As of Opening Day 2018, a 24 oz. craft beer at National Park cost how much?
- a) $12
- b) $14
- c) $16
- d) $18
14. Which antisemitic conspiracy theory did DC Councilmember Trayon White apologize for spreading on his Facebook page earlier this year?
- a) Jews control the economy
- b) Jews control the government
- c) Jews control the weather
- d) Jews control the media
15. Which of these is NOT a real quote attributed to a senior government official in Bob Woodward’s book, ‘Fear’?
- a) Trump has the intelligence “a fifth- or sixth-grader.”
- b) Trump is “an idiot.”
- c) Trump is “a professional liar.”
- d) Trump is “a fucking liar.”
- e) Trump is “a clown without makeup.”
16. Which DC media figure interviewed porn actress Stormy Daniels at Politics & Prose bookstore—and had VIP tickets to see her strip show afterward?
- a) Jon Meacham
- b) George F. Will
- c) Sally Quinn
- d) Maureen Dowd
17. At which Washington nightlife spot was NBA player Tristan Thompson allegedly seen cheating on his girlfriend, Kloe Kardashian?
- a) Decades in Dupont Circle
- b) Madam’s Organ in Adams Morgan
- c) Darna in Arlington
- d) Madhatter in Dupont Circle
18. What quintessential DC food did Mayor Muriel Bowser claim she was annoyed by?
- a) Half-smokes
- b) Senate Bean Soup
- c) Mumbo sauce
- d) Chili and Cheese Dog
19. What DIDN’T the Capitals put in the Stanley cup after their big win?
- a) Horse food
- b) Strawberry daiquiris
- c) A dog
- d) Borscht
20. Which of these topics did Kanye West NOT discuss during his Oval Office meeting with President Trump?
- a) Trapdoors to the Unabomber
- b) Polo-sporting Obama
- c) A hydrogen-fueled plane made by Apple to replace Air Force One
- d) NFL kneelers
21. With what novel name did Whole Foods annoy some DC residents when its Navy Yard store opened?
- a) National Landing
- b) South Capitol Hill
- c) Riverfront Terrace
- d) Jefferson’s Wharf
22. Whose wedding did former President Obama officiate this past year?
- a) Former staffers from the Obama Foundation and White House, in a ceremony at District Winery
- b) Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk’s dreamy Hamptons wedding
- c) A former colleague at University of Chicago Law School, in Hyde Park
- d) Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough’s secret wedding ceremony at the National Archives
23. Which of these restaurants (and tabs) did Rep. Duncan Hunter NOT visit, according to an indictment alleging misuse of $250,000 in campaign funds?
- a) Bullfeathers, $7,968
- b) Tune Inn, $2,204
- c) Hawk and Dove, $1,605
- d) Jack Rose Dining Saloon, $1,059
24. Former RNC chair and Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus is starting a second act. What is it?
- a) Getting his own show on Fox News
- b) Joining the Navy
- c) Writing a cookbook
- d) Becoming an executive at an investment bank
25. A Michelle Obama artifact in DC was repeatedly vandalized by what appear to be Trump fans this year. Which one was it?
- a) Her portrait at the Smithsonian
- b) A display window of her book “Becoming” at Kramerbooks
- c) A community garden dedicated to her
- d) A Little Free Library dedicated to her
26. A movie starring Jon Voight and filmed in DC this summer attracted controversy. The movie is about which landmark Supreme Court decision?
- a) Brown v. Board of Education
- b) Roe v. Wade
- c) Bush v. Gore
- d) Obergefell v. Hodges
- e) Citizens United v. FEC
27. Which Washingtonian did NOT get into a verbal or physical altercation in public this year?
- a) Washington Redskin Montae Nicholson
- b) Fox News star Tucker Carlson
- c) Donald Trump, Jr.
- d) Outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly
- e) Former Trump Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski
- f) National security advisor John Bolton
28. According to the Bob Woodward book ‘Fear,’ what name did Reince Priebus give Trump’s bedroom?
- a) The Saboteur’s Dungeon
- b) The Leprechaun’s Haberdashery
- c) The Devil’s Workshop
- d) The Psych Ward
ANSWERS:
1. Answer: C) Potomac Beer Bong Championship. Kavanaugh’s 1983 yearbook page, which took on outsize importance during the controversy surrounding his Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court, included references to “Beach Week Ralph Club,” “100 Kegs or Bust,” and membership in the “Wendy Whitney Fan Club.”
2. Answer: B) Sushi. According to the Washington Post, Miller ordered $80 of sushi from a restaurant near his apartment. A bartender followed him into the street and confronted him, raising both middle fingers and cursing at him. Miller reportedly threw out the sushi as an act of counter-protest.
3. Answer: A) #ObviouslyDC. Mayor Bowser unveiled the #ObviouslyDC campaign in September 2017, which included a government website. The campaign was led by the local marketing group Brllnt.
4. Answer: D) The player pioneered the trend of quietly kneeling during the national anthem to protest police shootings which drew sharp attacks from conservative commentators. Redskins running back Adrian Peterson was previously suspended for child abuse; the team claimed Reuben Foster off waivers after a domestic violence arrest; quarterback Mark Sanchez gained notoriety for the “butt fumble” when he played for the Jets. The Redskins did not sign Colin Kaepernick to a contract, after several quarterbacks went down to injury.
5. Answer: D) GoldLink. DC hiphop artist Goldlink was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his single “Crew,” which features DC-area artists Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy.
6. Answer: B) 68. Trump tweeted the name “Mueller” 68 times in 2018, according to the publicly available Trump Twitter Archive.
7. Answer: B) The Wing. The venue, which opened in April, costs $215 monthly or $2,350 annually for membership.
8. Answer: B) $169 Royal Tokaji Cobbler, served with a crystal spoon of Hungarian wine. The Royal Tokaji Cobbler doesn’t contain any hard liquor, but offers a glass of sweet Hungarian late harvest wine, fresh citrus, and berries, based on a 19th-century American recipe for a sherry cobbler. Bonus: The order comes with a crystal spoon of Essencia by Royal Tokaji, billed as the “richest and rarest” of the Hungarian wines.
9. Answer: D) 25. The plans also call for a ballroom, several bathrooms, multiple elevators, and a whiskey cellar.
10. Answer: B) Barber of Hell’s Bottom, Shaw. James visited the 14th Street location. The staff didn’t get to cut the stars’ hair, though: They travel with their own private barbers.
11. Answer: A) Teaism, in Penn Quarter. A sixth-grade teacher in the DC area confronted Pruitt with her two-year old son in tow, and urged Pruitt to resign while he dined alone at the Japanese cafe.
12. Answer: C) Pierre Bezukhov. Ovechkin led the Capitals to a Stanley Cup; Maria Butina was charged in a conspiracy to act illegally as an unregistered Russian agent; Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, was reported to have met with Butina. (Bezukhov is a character whose story spans the length of Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.”)
13. Answer: C) $16. And Nationals fans had plenty to drink about this year. “The Nationals’ new beer prices could pay for Bryce Harper’s contract themselves,” read one headline from Big League Stew.
14. Answer: C) Jews control the weather. White, who represents Ward 8, posted a video to his Facebook page in March when it began to flurry, in which he suggested the snow was attributable to “the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities…Be careful.”
15. Answer: E) Trump is “a clown without makeup.” Those other quotes:
- Trump has the intelligence “a fifth- or sixth-grader.” — Defense Secretary James Mattis
- Trump is “an idiot.” — Chief of Staff John Kelly
- Trump is “a professional liar.” — Former Top Economic Adviser Gary Cohn
- Trump is “a fucking liar.” — Former Personal Attorney John Dowd
16. Answer: C) Sally Quinn. Quinn interviewed Daniels as part of her fall book tour, after becoming enthralled with her memoir, “Full Disclosure.” Quinn told Washingtonian got the idea from her astrologer.
17. Answer: C) Darna in Arlington. In April, TMZ posted black-and-white footage in which Thompson appeared to kiss a woman, and bury his face in the cleavage of another.
18. Answer: C) Mumbo sauce. In November, Bowser issued a statement on Facebook, noting in part, “I wish people would stop suggesting that [mumbo sauce] is quintessential DC.” (Washingtonian food critic Anna Spiegel argues that DC has no official food—and that’s a good thing.)
19. Answer: B) Strawberry daiquiris. Each Capitals player got to spend a day with the Stanley Cup this summer. Ovechkin packed the cup with Russian caviar, while another player preferred Cap’n Crunch cereal.
20. Answer: D) NFL kneelers. Kanye West’s other quotes:
- “Would you build a trap door that if you mess up, that if accidentally something happens, then you fall and you end up next to the Unabomber?”
- “We want Polo-sporting Obama again. We want a brand more than we want land.”
- “This right here is the iPlane1. It’s a hydrogen-powered airplane. And this is what our president should be flying in. Look at this, Jared.”
21. Answer: B) South Capitol Hill. Whole Foods name decision is fraught with intra-neighborhood tensions about the appropriate name for the area. “It’s a pretty blatant marketing approach for who they think their target audience is,” Michael Stevens, head of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District, told Washingtonian in December. “They’ve overlooked our 9,000 residents.”
22. Answer: A) former staffers from the Obama Foundation and White House, in a ceremony at District Winery. Obama officiated the wedding of Dana Remus and Brett Holmgren, a development that was kept secret from guests until the ceremony began.
23. Answer: B) Tune Inn, $2,204. Hunter and his wife were indicted in August. (The trial date is set for September.) The San Diego Tribune has documented 301 bars and restaurants frequented by Hunter.
24. Answer: B) Getting his own show on Fox News. Priebus will join the Navy as a reserve officer, not an entirely uncommon move for politicians. Outgoing Secretary of Defense Mattis wrote Priebus a recommendation letter.
25. Answer: D) A Little Free Library dedicated to her. The small edifice, which holds about 20 books, has been vandalized repeatedly, and once saw the name “Obama” crossed out and replaced with Trump’s.
26. Answer: B) Roe v. Wade. The movie, which is reportedly critical of the Supreme Court decision, has had a tumultuous production process, with several crew members leaving the project in protest. In July, during filming near the Jefferson Memorial, a Daily Beast reporter and crew members tussled, resulting in the reporter being thrown off the set.
27. Answer: C) Donald Trump, Jr. The other conflicts this year:
- Nicholson and a friend were charged with misdemeanor assault in December, after accosting two people outside the World of Beer restaurant in Ashburn, Virginia.
- Tucker Carlson got in a verbal (and, allegedly, physical) confrontation with a barstool patron at the Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia. Carlson alleges the incident began when the man called his daughter “Tucker’s whore,” which the man denies.
- The New York Times reported that Chief of Staff John Kelly and informal Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski got into a physical altercation outside the Oval Office in February. The “near brawl,” in which Kelly grabbed Lewandowski’s collar, required “Secret Service intervention.”
- In October, Politico reported Kelly and John Bolton had a shouting match outside the Oval Office, this one over immigration policy.
28. Answer: C) The Devil’s Workshop. The remark came in the context of Trump’s tweeting: Priebus called Trump’s White House bedroom the “devil’s workshop,” where Trump would tweet between 3am and 8am.
SCORING:
24-28 correct: You’re an Honorary Washingtonian of the Year
18-23 correct: You’re a Night Mayor
12-17 correct: You Might Still Call Them “The Bullets”
6-11 correct: You Might Never Have Ridden the Silver Line
0-5 correct: You’re a “National Landing” Resident
