2. Who are the top four motor vehicle manufacturing countries in the world?
3. What is the second deepest lake in the United States?
4. What popular author wrote the book titled “Kiss the Girls?”
5. What is the official sport of Alaska?
6. What is the state fish of Georgia?
7. Which family restaurant is associated with the slogan, “Share the Love?”
8. Name the two Atlanta Braves who struck out more than any others in franchise history.
9. Who replaced Walter Cronkite as anchor on the “CBS Evening News?”
10. Name the actor that played Raymond’s father in the television show, “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
How did you do?
(In order to obtain the answers, you must read this column in its entirety).
Trivia is a popular craze being played everywhere, including LaGrange. As a matter of fact, schedule permitting, I play on Tuesday nights in the heart of downtown. I look forward to joining the team each week to test our knowledge of useless information.
The competition begins with a freebie. All one has to do is go to the website to retrieve the answer to the first question. There is also an invisible movie challenge on the site that depicts a cinematic scene with faces of the characters removed. If the team correctly identifies the movie, they are rewarded five bonus points. On a good night, groups can bag 15 points without even having to strain the brain.
Questions 2 through 20 are not gratis. Inquiries into multiple subject areas possess different point values and vary in degree of difficulty. In between each question, music blares and a team can receive a bonus point by identifying the musical artist. The 21st question is the wagering question on which a crew can bet from one to their entire kitty of points.
The secret to success in trivia is having a good blend of talent in one’s group. A team needs an entertainment guru for the music, television and movie questions; an analytical person for science, math and geography; a well-read individual for history and literature, and a wannabe jock for sports questions. The songs played in between questions transcends six decades, so chronological diversity is also a positive quality.
Our team, originated about a year ago, consists of seven regulars. One guy knows a lot about everything, two comical brothers excel in the performance areas, two over-the-hill jocks are of little use, and two really good-lookin’ women come up with miraculous answers on a regular basis. The age range is 42 to 54. As a result, the more recent music often stumps us. A few times we have brought in one or more of our children (ringers) to make us more effective.
We laugh hard every week and regularly reminisce about some of our previous answers. An example: “What valuable mineral plates the roof of the Capitol building in Arizona?” My answer, unanimously accepted by my teammates: turquoise! Desert southwest; makes sense, right? We cackle about that one every week.
One of our players is a self-proclaimed “Different Strokes” expert. Remember the television show with Gary Coleman? Well, we have yet to miss a question about “Different Strokes.” The problem is there has only been one question pertaining to this subject matter since our team was formed.
The team captain gets ribbed as well. He is not the best speller in the world and sometimes his written renditions of difficult names or titles are hilarious. He claims he bases all his word construction on phonics. And when our most knowledgeable player knows an answer and someone else tries to give input, he bluntly says, “End of discussion,” and everyone shuts up.
We lost our star for a few months and struggled mightily. Even without him, though, on one occasion we managed to tie for third. The six of us proceeded to lose in a playoff to a one-man team. That was kind of embarrassing.
Our claim to fame was never finishing alone in dead last - that was, until this past Tuesday.
The irony in this story is that prior to a year ago, the characters who make up our group were, for the most part, loosely connected. But now, trivia has made us fast friends and we anticipate our time together knowing we will have a big time. Laughter has been described as “the best medicine,” so on Tuesday nights we all get together for a strong dose of antidepressants.
Answers: 1. Hoyt Wilhelm; 2. Japan, United States, Germany and China; 3. Lake Tahoe; 4. James Patterson; 5. Dog sledding; 6. Bass; 7. Red Lobster; 8. Dale Murphy and Andruw Jones; 9. Dan Rather; 10. Peter Boyle.
BONUS: Valuable mineral on Arizona Capitol: Copper (though turquoise would be more attractive).
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