Magnum Trivium, Omnium Trivium

What was once true remains true: if you want trivia, go to the source.

Last night was the annual Trivia Contest that the local symphony orchestra sponsors as a fundraiser. Teams pay an entry fee and get to compete for Glory, Honor, and Fabulous Prizes. There is also food. Mostly, it must be said, we do it because we’re just nerds that way and think taking a five-round quiz qualifies as a fun evening.

You can’t really get all Conan on your competition at a Trivia Contest. You can try to crush your opponents, but it’s hard to revel in the lamentations of their women when you’re all at a level of nerdity that may or may not include much of a social life. There was a surprising amount of trash-talking done by the editor of the town newspaper, though.

Hah. He thinks that mere journalists know trivia? The university invented trivia. It is our stock in trade.

The Home Campus team has now won this event four years running, and it may be time to retire. We scared off the Exclusive Local Private University this year – apparently losing to us state employees year after year stung a bit. And people have begun to hiss at us. I can’t really blame them. We are professionals, after all. It’s like inviting the Eagles to your Pop Warner football tournament. There’s always a chance you can beat them – they’re not the Packers or Patriots, after all – but the odds are not good.

We had a marvelous time. The questions were a lot harder this year, but we managed to answer more of them than any other team despite the odd fixation of the question writers on volleyball. We had some good competition – this was not a runaway victory by any means. And we got the snazzy little trophies, the fabulous prizes (I chose tickets to see the local minor league hockey team play some Friday night) and whatever glory and honor arise from all this.

It’s all good.