Send the man a quarter if you ever played Trivial Pursuit
Or a dollar. You may want to after you learn of this nugget from Salon's cover story today by Louis Bayard about the book by Jeopardy uberchampion Ken Jennings, Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs,:
"Brainiac" impresses with its diligence and its restless curiosity. Rather than simply spin out old "Jeopardy" war stories, Jennings turns the lens outward as much as possible. He showcases the lightning-fast reflexes of quiz-bowl striplings. He smuggles himself into a beer-fueled pub-trivia contest in Boston. He digs up obscure and poignant figures like Fred L. Worth, the obsessive fact compiler whose life's research was, without a word of thanks or a dime of compensation, appropriated by the inventors of Trivial Pursuit. (Worth went to court and lost.)"
I'd think the guy who made up lots of those Trivial Pursuit questions and answers deserves some credit for the work. Apparently Fred Worth's trivia volume was complete with invented (also known as wrong) answers that would guarantee people couldn't steal his work (for example: Both Worth's trivia volume and the Trivial Pursuit clue say "Philip" is the first name of Peter Falk's title character, Detective Columbo of the popular American TV series. But he is never named during the show). Think of the hours that man must have spent gathering (and making up) all those facts.
Don't you just want to send the guy a little something after reading this? I didn't even like Trivial Pursuit that much but I love games and have had hours of fun playing that game alone.
Wouldn't it be fun to make a little difference in his life? Let's find him and send him a quarter or a dollar. And I can test my two-or-three degrees of separation theory (that anyone you really want to contact is only two or three and not six people away from you).
"Brainiac" impresses with its diligence and its restless curiosity. Rather than simply spin out old "Jeopardy" war stories, Jennings turns the lens outward as much as possible. He showcases the lightning-fast reflexes of quiz-bowl striplings. He smuggles himself into a beer-fueled pub-trivia contest in Boston. He digs up obscure and poignant figures like Fred L. Worth, the obsessive fact compiler whose life's research was, without a word of thanks or a dime of compensation, appropriated by the inventors of Trivial Pursuit. (Worth went to court and lost.)"
I'd think the guy who made up lots of those Trivial Pursuit questions and answers deserves some credit for the work. Apparently Fred Worth's trivia volume was complete with invented (also known as wrong) answers that would guarantee people couldn't steal his work (for example: Both Worth's trivia volume and the Trivial Pursuit clue say "Philip" is the first name of Peter Falk's title character, Detective Columbo of the popular American TV series. But he is never named during the show). Think of the hours that man must have spent gathering (and making up) all those facts.
Don't you just want to send the guy a little something after reading this? I didn't even like Trivial Pursuit that much but I love games and have had hours of fun playing that game alone.
Wouldn't it be fun to make a little difference in his life? Let's find him and send him a quarter or a dollar. And I can test my two-or-three degrees of separation theory (that anyone you really want to contact is only two or three and not six people away from you).
posted by vanillagrrl at 10:45 AM
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