POSTED: MARCH 1, 2024
Trivia night. For some just those two words are enough to make them run in the opposite direction. I had a bit of those feelings when asked to fill in for a missing team member for such an event recently but based on the interesting people who made up that team, I decided to give it a go. Now for those who are not familiar with this pursuit, it is a night at a local pub, restaurant or bar. Questions, film clips or images are up on a screen or music is played and there are a series of choices to be made on which person, date, etc, is the right answer.
The drinks are often discounted so that somewhat enhances the skills of the participants or at least the enjoyment of the activity. For our little group, the five other team members did most of the heavy lifting that evening but I did have a few moments of contribution. We came third of more than ten teams so clearly those teams were drinking more than we were.
I had fun. I did not think it was going to be as enjoyable, but quickly realized what makes for a good trivia team we had in spades. The ideal team member mix is people of different ages, and backgrounds as it is just as important to know the name of a type of fishing lure as the size of an African country or name of one of the bones in your finger, or who wrote a hit single from 1996.
The significance of that diversification of team was not lost on me. We may not all have the same knowledge but we can all learn from each other. A bit of a lesson for some who would have us all be the same. Perhaps a trivia night should be obligatory before being allowed to function in a community!
And there were other real lessons for me as well. I recently turned seventy and I think I am in pretty good shape for that age. But it also was very clear to me when with a combination of younger and older people all scrambling to come up with the right answers that I don’t process information as quickly as I once did. I also often doubt my responses. Age does that to all of us, and most of us realize it.
Joe Biden, if you are reading this, there is a lesson here – experience counts, and experience and insight together create wisdom which counts even more, but there is some point where the baton should he handed off to some younger folks as there is a point where the mental acuity is eroding faster than the wisdom is being generated.
As I was walking back to my boat, I learned an equally important lesson. A fellow who was at the other side of the room for the trivia event was walking my way and we got to chatting about the evening. I realized when I heard his voice that he was the one who had called out a few funny comments. The one I remarked to him that I enjoyed the most was a bit of dark humour to the question: “What stunt did 3M create for the sole purpose of introducing Scotchgard?”
This fellow walking with me, had a drawl from the southern United States and had called out: “The assassination of JFK, and Jackie did not have any stains on her outfit”. Now this game is not played by calling your answers out, but the absurdity of this response in combination with some alcohol drew quite a bit of laughter at the trivia night but when I referenced it to him, he was looking quite grave. “Yes, that is the correct answer but no one seemed to believe it” he said in a very serious and somewhat upset tone.
As we walked along and we chatted about a few other parts of the evening it became evident that this was one of those fellows who will believe the conspiracy theory before the logical conclusion. After a few more examples this became very clear. I had previously only heard about these sorts of people, and could not imagine they actually exist.
Donald Trump if you are reading this you need to know that just because there may be more than one right answer to a question, does not mean that all answers are correct. Also, just because something is a plausible answer does not make it the right answer.
As we walked along, he also explained to me that he had been disappointed that Malta, where I live, and he was visiting, is a democratic place and it was upsetting for him that we did not all vote on the responses to the questions to determine which ones were right.
I usually confront weird stuff head on, but decided the smartest thing in this context was just say goodnight to this fellow and to peel off at the next street and take a longer way home.
I had expected a fairly goofy event with a lot of people all of the same age just using it as an excuse to drink. But my experience at Trivia Night, like a lot of things in life, can have unforeseen enriching aspects.
So now, I keep my Wednesday nights free in case I am needed as a substitute for a missing trivia team member.
Django