That was a waste of time. For your host, anyway. It was The Minnesota International Center's Academic WorldQuest for High Schools, International Trivia Competition First question: could the name of this event be any longer? As much as I would love to bring you exciting button-pounding action with smart lads and lasses leaning intently into the microphone to say “Chad,” it wasn’t that sort of College-Bowl-style event. The moderator read the questions; the students wrote out the answers on paper.
Chaska won, if you had any money on the event. I
would love to show the video I took, but on the way out a kind spokesperson asked me not to reveal the questions, since they’re going to be used again in a week. Well. Nothing stops me from giving you some of the answers.
Toledo, on Thursdays
El Greco’s imaginary wombat
The Madagascar Cork Weevil (yes, I know, it was a trick question)
Pecan Sandies
The butler, in the conservatory, with the lead pipe
The correct sequence is Nero, Richelieu, Hoffa, Madonna
47 Rue St. Germaine, Monaco
Use them for good. The questions were tough, and the students were smart; there's something reassuring about a table of young people whooping and clapping because they knew the answer was Mumbai, and they were right. Congrats to Chaska, and better luck next year to Mounds View.
Trivial mind
I once participated in a "college bowl" type competition in High School. We almost won.
I did not think it was my specialty but, it turned out that I knew the answer to all the pop culture type questions such as who won the academy award for best actress that year. Since then I always say I have a "trivial mind" and had a good run when Trivial Pursuit was the hot board game.
We lost because there were a number of math questions and they had a guy who was a math genius, one of those guys who thinks in 6 dimensions. He was also familiar with all the popularly published math quiz books and answered questions before the questions were finished being read (Maybe that is why the quiz James L attended has the students write down the answers).
It was fun.