Opinion > Star Staff
Minutia by the minute
By Monique Oaks, Looking Up
Printed on the backs of our placemats at Tuesday's 15th Annual Trivia Night at the Little Elm Recreation Center was this: The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Ben Franklin in 1731, was the predecessor of the free public lending libraries we enjoy today.
Another snippet reads, "Thanks to you, we spent about $28,000 raised from recent Trivia Night events to purchase 35 brand new computers for the expanded library last month!"
And that ain't trivial.
Neither was the fun we had.
The five of us in our group -- three of whom had never met -- began the first round offering tentative answers. But there was no time to spare learning each other's strengths; we had one minute after hearing each question to write our answers.
By the end of the final round, we were mouthing answers to each other (and fake ones to opponents who might be watching) and grabbing the answer sheet to write in those we felt confident of.
Two of us drew silly pictures on the backs of our placemats to clear our minds of minutia -- such as the Eldorado Parkway jam that helped delay the start of the night's festivities.
We learned some neat little facts -- a preying mantis' "ear" is on its underside; "ambulance" comes from the Latin word for "to walk." But mostly we learned that you should go with your first answers, viewing the team as a unit. And if you challenge a teammate's answer, be prepared to back the challenge with a good defense.
And I think we're agreed on this: next year, we're going to hire a helicopter to bypass Eldorado Parkway altogether.
It's open for discussion -- but we just get a minute to come up with our final answer.
Contact Monique Oaks at moaks@starlocalnews.com
Another snippet reads, "Thanks to you, we spent about $28,000 raised from recent Trivia Night events to purchase 35 brand new computers for the expanded library last month!"
And that ain't trivial.
Neither was the fun we had.
The five of us in our group -- three of whom had never met -- began the first round offering tentative answers. But there was no time to spare learning each other's strengths; we had one minute after hearing each question to write our answers.
By the end of the final round, we were mouthing answers to each other (and fake ones to opponents who might be watching) and grabbing the answer sheet to write in those we felt confident of.
Two of us drew silly pictures on the backs of our placemats to clear our minds of minutia -- such as the Eldorado Parkway jam that helped delay the start of the night's festivities.
We learned some neat little facts -- a preying mantis' "ear" is on its underside; "ambulance" comes from the Latin word for "to walk." But mostly we learned that you should go with your first answers, viewing the team as a unit. And if you challenge a teammate's answer, be prepared to back the challenge with a good defense.
And I think we're agreed on this: next year, we're going to hire a helicopter to bypass Eldorado Parkway altogether.
It's open for discussion -- but we just get a minute to come up with our final answer.
Contact Monique Oaks at moaks@starlocalnews.com
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