the shrewdness of apes

yes indeed we won again. for the second month in a row, kaci, jim, marc and i owned dr. fact's night of fifty questions at Buttermilk getting 34 out of the possible 50 points for another 1 point victory. the questions got significantly harder this time around, but as marc mentioned we even managed to get one of the bonus questions exactly right. they asked "how many credit cards (bank and store) are there in North America?" i said 1 billion at first, then decided to go up to 1.2 billion. the answer: 1.2 billion. we couldn't believe it and it led to a free pitcher of beer and this exchange:

me: that just might be the proudest moment of my life!
Mary: umm, didn't you just get married?
me: that's a close second.

but enough gloating. well, maybe not - we were told that if we win 3 times in a row we might be asked to skip one in the interest of sharing the wealth (which at $224 was not insignificant). this time around let's focus on some of the questions we got right:

1. who was the first person to be given an honorary U.S. citizenship?
2. in what year was the first NY City Marathon run?
3. in what year did the first Wal-Mart open: 1952; 1985; 1929; or 1962?
4. what unique characteristic do the following words have in common: month; purple; orange; silver?
5. what is the longest word in English that does not contain any of the standard vowels: A, E, I, O or U (hint: it's 7 letters)?

click the continuation to see the answers...