Comments | word_geek: Trivial Pursuits

word_geek

Trivial Pursuits

Nov 22, 2010 13:49

In between all the other things that happened in one week in October, there was one other bit I didn't mention yet. It happened on Friday, so a few days after getting back from Massachusetts, and the night before the baseball game.

( But it was decidedly trivial. )

trivia

Comments 9

If you can't join 'em, beat 'em. ohsochewy November 22 2010, 21:55:01 UTC

Sweet ( ... )

Re: If you can't join 'em, beat 'em. word_geek November 23 2010, 14:01:01 UTC

Satin jackets with trivia nicknames embroidered on them? I'll tell ya, every time I start to think that I'm entirely too geeky, the universe shows me someone who's geekier than I'll ever be.

Quibbles! malabranca November 23 2010, 14:35:50 UTC

> "Which nation consists of over 8,000 islands?" (answer: the Philippines)

As opposed to Indonesia which consists of over 17,000 islands? :)

Re: Quibbles! word_geek November 23 2010, 14:57:34 UTC

Y'know, Indonesia was the answer we gave. (Which elicited quite a bit of mocking when the answer was the Philippines, since Mom, and therefore Kate and myself, have slight Filipino ancestry.) In fact, Wikipedia indicates that the Philippines is only 7000+ islands, which would make the question entirely incorrect.

But after the Nixon/Reagan thing, I wasn't going to quibble with any of the answers. During a break, Dad and I concluded that question had to be wrong, and I stepped outside to check on my phone (smart phones weren't allowed in the hall, for obvious reasons). Once I verified that I was right, I did approach the judges at the urging of my parents -- yes, politely, I know, it's hard to believe -- but I was told that "we buy these questions from this guy, and he has a team that does research..." When I started to wave my phone and said, "Yeah, but, I looked it up, and..." I was rather brusquely told "It's a game, for charity. Let it go, all right?" There were several other questions I thought were suspect, but I decided ( ... )

Re: Quibbles! malabranca November 23 2010, 15:07:43 UTC

> but I was told that "we buy these questions from this guy, and he has a team that does research..."

How do I get this guy's job? He can afford a /team/ and doesn't even have to be right! Sounds like my cup of tea.

Re: Quibbles! ohsochewy November 23 2010, 16:24:57 UTC

Oh, man. That's the first rule of Trivia Club: do not [mess] with the Trivia People. Our Team Trivia games are usually pretty clean, but every championship always ends up in some sort of kerfuffle.

Like our last one, for example: I can't remember the exact question, but it was something like, "What was the first non-variety show filmed before a live studio audience?" I believe they wanted I Love Lucy, but we gave them Howdy Doody, which preceded I Love Lucy by four years. They mumbled something about how Howdy Doody was a kid's show, but that's not what the question asked... and even though we weren't actually in the money for that one, it could have meant up to $200 for us. (At the previous championship, we uncharacteristically bet 0 on a four-parter we got correct, which would have given us $1500. Ouch ( ... )

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