I love trivia. I love remembering and recalling facts. It
helps make conversations interesting as spark debates about whether a piece of
information is correct or not. According to National Day Calendar.com, today is
National Trivia Day. Trivia day is a great day to share all of these facts that
almost nobody knows, making this day a fun and interesting one to spend with
friends or family. Although in my opinion, sharing trivia any day is a great
time to have fun with family and friends. Here’s a little history about trivia
as well as my favorite board game and my favorite TV game show.
The word trivia is plural for trivium which is Latin for a
place where three roads meet. During the Middle Ages, trivium comprised of the
first three divisions of the seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric and logic.
They were considered to be less important than arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,
and music. Trivia is information that is matters or things that are very
unimportant, inconsequential, or nonessential. In the 1960s, college students
and others began to informally trade questions and answers about the popular
culture of their youth. After writing trivia columns, Columbia University
students, Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky, created the earliest inter-collegiate
quiz bowls that tested cultural significant but virtually useless information.
They would later write the first book on trivia in 1966. Trivia has come to
refer to obscure or arcane information. Here are a few trivia facts:
- While many believe Hydrox cookies are an Oreo knock-off, Hydrox actually came first in 1908. Oreos were first introduced in 1912.
- Forty is the only number whose letters are in alphabetical order
- The most shoplifted food item in the US is candy. In Europe, it’s cheese.
- The Pledge of Allegiance was used as part of a plan to sell flags to schools
My favorite board game is Trivial Pursuit. I own four
versions of the game: the 20th anniversary edition, Star Wars, Lord
of the Rings, and a team edition. I also own a video game version for the PS2. The
game was first created in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1979 by Chris Haney and
Scott Abbott. The game consists of general knowledge and popular culture
questions in subjects as geography, entertainment, history, arts &
literature, science & nature, and sports & leisure. The game became
extremely popular by 1984 and continues its popularity as it has spawned
different editions like the ones I mentioned earlier. The creators of the game faced a few lawsuits
over copyrights. In October 1984, Fred L. Worth, author of The Trivia Encyclopedia and other trivia books, filed a $300
million lawsuit in which he claimed that a quarter of the questions in the
Genus edition were taken from his book. Haney and Abbott acknowledged that they
used Worth’s books for questions; however, no one can claim copyright over
facts. The courts agreed.
My favorite TV game show is Jeopardy! First created by Merv
Griffin, it debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964 and ran until January 3, 1975 with
Art Fleming as host. Its current format premiered on September 10, 1984 with
Alex Trebek as its host. I know many people are familiar with Jeopardy! It is
quiz competition in which clues are given in the form of an answer and the
contestants must respond in the form of a question. For example, in a category
of The White House, an answer would read “He was the second U.S. President to
live in the first White House.” The correct response would be “Who was Thomas
Jefferson?” According to Merv Griffin, his wife, Jillian, came up with the idea
that the answers would be presented and the contestants had to come up with the
question. She noted that there had not been a successful question and answer
show since the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. She suggested changing it up.
The game hosts yearly tournaments for Champions, teens, kids, and teachers even
a Celebrity edition in which contestants play for their favorite charities.
In conclusion, I love trivia. Some of my fondest memories is
watching Jeopardy! with my grandmother and she urged me to try out for the
game. Even now as I watch with my husband, he tells me I have to get on the
show. Although, getting on the show is a very difficult process, I don’t think
I’d do very well. It’s one thing to give responses on the safety of your couch,
it’s another to go on national television. Maybe one day I will; but for now
enjoy National Trivia Day and discover tidbits of information you may have not
known before.
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