Garrett M. Vonk

After work yesterday, I dashed up to Buckhead to attend the book signing for Brainiac, the book Ken Jennings wrote about his experiences with Jeopardy! and as a paean to trivia in general. I highly recommend the book and the blog.

Maybe the best test of a well-composed trivia question is how you feel when you don’t know the answer. Anybody can enjoy getting a question right, even if it’s poorly written or dull. It’s fun to show what you know. But the ideal trivia question is so good that you even enjoy getting it wrong: you liked the mental exercise of rooting around for the answer, and you like the surprise of hearing the right answer after you gave up.

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I took apart trivia questions and interviewed trivia writers hoping to find the “quintessence,” the life-giving force, that made trivia tick. I wanted to hold in my hand the mysterious Element X that differentiates a humdrum run-of-the-mill fact from the kind of sparkling, brilliant memorable fact that spawns trivia questions, the hidden factor that separates trivia from minutiae.

Well, defining “good trivia” turned out to be elusive, but the more trivia I look at, the more I realize that, like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about porn, I know it when I see it. And at least you don’t need to hide trivia under your mattress so your mom doesn’t find out.

I haven’t posted anything about trivia for a while because our team has been performing poorly for a good string of Wednesday nights. I think it’s safe to say that the “Olsen Twins” dynasty is over, since we haven’t won in many weeks. However, last night, we broke our slump. In an impressive showing, Dean, Mike, and I pulled off the first place finish with probably the smallest team we’ve ever had.

Highlights

• Angelina Jolie is the daughter of which famous actor? Yes, a gimmee, and this was a social. Jon Voight
• Which U.S. president has made the most Supreme Court appointments? Probably my favorite question of the night, because it made me feel clever George Washington
• How many times has World Series extended into November? We came up with the correct answer, and the correct circumstances, but figured we were off by one, and guessed wrong. Second-guessing yourself sucks. Two - 1989 (Earthquake in SF) and 2001 (9/11)
• What year was the Georgia-Florida game last played outside Jacksonville? 1995
• What word corresponds to each of the following ingredients when you order Waffle House hashbrowns?
  • Tomatoes Diced
  • Onions Smothered
  • Chili Topped
  • Mushrooms Capped
• Name the father, mother, and two children on The Addams Family Gomez, Morticia, Puggsley, and Wednesday

We had a strong first round, but we weren’t the only ones. We were tied for first with four other teams. We correctly determined that Cleveland moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens in 1996 and managed to stay within a few points of the lead.

Kelly, the Trivia Guy, was out for the duration and had to send a replacement to run the game (though Kelly still wrote the questions, as evidenced by the Waffle House question based on a suggestion by our team).

Going into the final question, we were three points behind first place. The question: “What year were Ethel and Julius Rosenberg executed?” (1953) The answer to this one was truly pulled from the depths of my memory, and I think we were the only team to get it correct, giving us the win!

All in all, I’m proud of our showing, especially with so few of us on the team, and perhaps (just perhaps), we are poised for another winning streak.

How fun it is to play trivia at a bar and win money. Not only did you hang out with your friends, but you ate and drank, essentially, for free. If you’re good, you can go out once a week, drink all the beer and eat all the pizza you want, and pay nothing but cab fare. It’s high-risk, of course, but it’s a true meritocracy.

Last night it was Mellow Mushroom trivia, and we got lucky by playing at the actual bar, not at a table, because we were thus able to enlist the help of our trusty bartender with the four-part bonus question “Name the 4 original members of The Rolling Stones besides Mick Jagger”.

After a thrilling tiebreaker, and some additional assistance from our bartender with the category “70’s Rock and Roll”, we were victorious.

And now I recall to you a story that happened in Orlando last week when Heather and I were there in Mickey-town.

We were at the Disney-MGM Studios. Nice park, tied for #2 on my list, fun place. They have a “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” attraction where they have a replica studio set up and everyone in the seats there has little buttons they can press to try to get into the hot seat.
You play for points, the million point question is worth a trip to New York to see a taping of the show, and in general it’s a good way to pass the time because you get to play on every question.
So we had been to see this attraction a few times and I had been in the top ten before (they have a leaderboard) but never got to the hot seat (you are playing against 600 other people).

(OK, 599 people. Why are you always correcting me?)

It’s tough. You really have to hit that button fast. They do a fastest finger question first to put an initial person in the hot seat, and when they ran the fastest finger question this time, it was tough. It asked: Put the following consumer products in order according to the order they were introduced, starting with the earliest: Barbie, Jenga, Operation, and some other product I forget.

Anyway, Heather and I were both in the top ten on that question but not in first. When the break after 5 questions comes around with this dude in the hot seat, they show the leaderboard again and I am in second place. So close. Then, when he finally gets his question wrong, the board comes up again and I was at the top of the list! How exciting.
So I run down there and it’s definitely more nervous being down under the lights. For the Disney World version they have some aspiring actor as a host and he did fine. I got stuck on a question about where St. Mark’s Square is because, well, I’ve never been to Venice. But the lifeline I used there helped me out. I passed the 1000 pt. question, where I was guaranteed a hat and some pins. I was very successful until the 32,000 point question. It was:
Who was the first African-American Mayor of Los Angeles?
Maynard Jackson
Andrew Young
Tom Bradley
Bill Campbell
Now–I know what you are thinking. Three of those were politicians in Atlanta. That’s exactly what I thought too. Somehow, since I had never heard of Tom Bradley, I went with Maynard Jackson. Oh well. I lost. I got an ugly hat and had to sign a release saying I wouldn’t play again for 30 days.