Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with trivia

Library-Related Trivia?

Jaybo — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:48:28 -0800

Library-Related Trivia? I'm helping to plan a fun, informal gathering for the professional librarians who work at my mid-sized Canadian public library system. For one activity, I'd like to have some library-related trivia questions.

These don't have to be 100% accurate. For example, Q: Anecdotally, this is the most stolen book in public libraries. A: What is "Sex" by Madonna (I would also accept "Joy of Sex"). Another one is "This is the most written-about historic figure in public library holdings." Who is Jesus.

The main thing I'm looking for is questions that most librarians would have a reasonable shot at answering. (I'll avoid the "What's the Dewey number for books on Platypus mating habits?")

Dark Corners: huh?

Iosephus — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:35:44 -0800

Plateofbeaning Dark Corners the movie? Oddities, trivia and overanalysis for your amusement. Spoilers inside, I'm sure. Having just watched Dark Corners, which I found quite interesting, I noticed several oddities that I don't know if they go only as far as tidbits and trivia, or instead might be winks to something. Plus one truly WTF moment for bonus.

1) In the mortuary there seems to be a fireplace. It is decorated with the prominently displayed "AUDI VIDE TACE" motto betweena pair of things that look like cowbells. Google suggests this is some masonic motto. Wha?

2) Susan parades around the las minutes of the movie in a t-shirt that blatantly cries "Camp Watexa". Google=fail. Wha? bis.

3) What the hell are we supposed to make of the evil kid that bites off a chunk of Karen's leg? Some extra Freudian wink I'm not in the know about?

4) WTF bonus: on the second hypnotherapy session, Susan wakes up and there's a big hairy male arm just, er, grabbing her boob. She doesn't seem to realize, and there's noone around her sofa that arm belongs to. I can't imagine this is a blooper, boob grabbing, come on?

suggestions for how to run a trivia night

matt755811 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:10:14 -0800

hi guys...this question is pretty random but hoping to get some good ideas... i'm planning on hosting a trivia night for 15-20 friends, and im trying to think of cool way to format the competition. i'd like to split up teams but i'm not sure if i should do small teams of large ones, tournament style or not, family fued type, or some other game show.... rather than doing same ole ask everyone and wait for answers i'd like to mix it up a bit. i was thinking maybe a seeding round than seperating teams into brackets like march madness. any suggestions? i appreciate it...

Boombox Cinema

billtron — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:27:26 -0800

By 1989 the boombox had established a fairly stable place in the pantheon of pop culture cinema, with the releases of both Do the Right Thing and Say Anything. Can you remember seeing (and hearing!) the machine in earlier films? I'm especially interested to learn its earliest appearances.

Can non-UK citizens enter BBC game shows?

rollick — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:06:56 -0800

Are non-UK residents eligible to enter the BBC quiz show Mastermind? I'm interested in applying for the 2010 series of Mastermind, a BBC quiz show. However, I can't work out from the program's website whether or not I would be eligible to participate.

I'm an Irish citizen, living in Ireland, and would be able to go to the Belfast audition centre (or else take a short flight to England). Is there anything in the terms and conditions (which I can't find, aside from "We regret that BBC members of staff and their immediate families are not eligible to apply") that restricts entry to UK citizens?

Double agent

chmmr — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:30:09 -0800

There was a player in the NBA who played in the same game for both teams, I think due to the final minutes needing to be replayed on a different date and a trade happening in the meantime. I can't think of the name of the player or teams, and my Google-fu doesn't seem up to the task. Can anybody help?

Languages of the Western Hemisphere

math — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:42:03 -0800

Awesome trivial question: How many official state languages are there in the Western Hemisphere? Give yourself a moment to think about this before you read my first guess on the inside. Here's what I have at first blush. English, Spanish, and Portugese are easy ones. French and Haitian Creole are both official languages of Haiti, and Dutch is the state language of Suriname. There's a little bit of Russia that sticks into the Western Hemisphere (it's the part that Sarah Palin can see from her front porch), so that counts as well.

So, that's seven.

Danish was once the official language of the now-US Virgin Islands, but I think that it was fairly marginal and anyways now that the islands are US, it's a moot point.

Any others that I'm missing?

Help me remember something truly trivial

crush-onastick — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:58:42 -0800

Trying to remember a carbonated ginseng beverage sold between 1988 and 1994 at Whole Foods in Austin (and eventually sold at the incredibly fancy flagship HEB). I seem to recall that it came in a purple can and tasted vaguely like dirt. I haven't seen it since and it's driving me crazy that I can't remember what it was called. And no, it was not Ginseng Up.

how to host a fun trivia-games party

pipti — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:55:34 -0800

What do you think makes a really fun trivia/quiz game? If you were hosting an at-home trivia party how would you go about it? I need resources for making this a good time for about twenty people.

Help me find fun facts.

EnormousTalkingOnion — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:16:34 -0800

What are some good blogs for surprising/absurd/historically interesting facts? I'm looking for sites with especially cool trivia (not standard pub quiz kinds of things), the kinds of fun facts that blow your mind or seem too absurd to be true and make you want to share them with all your friends.

Emotional state vs. DNA evolution in SW: ROTJ

parmanparman — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:36:23 -0800

Star Wars Filter: Does the Emperor not foreseeing that Darth Vader would kill him mean that all Jedi have lost this force ability and that midichlorians leave the body after death and have evolved as they drifted with innumerable species by finding an athletic host who would benefit from incredible power?

What's in my pocket?

amarynth — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:06:17 -0800

I've been asked to take over a small games/trivia section in our department newsletter. Asking for ideas and a copyright question inside! Our department of about 200 people has a newsletter that comes out every 3 months. We had a small trivia section that had trivia questions about staff members (questions included matching a person with their first job, a list of staff members and what they had in common (all had met spouses at work), a couple of baby pictures that you had to match with staff members, and guessing the year a picture of a couple of staff members that had know each other forever was taken). The people who had been writing the questions have run out of ideas, and I've been asked to take over after I came up with inauguration trivia questions for a cookie hour. Here's what I'm looking for:

Ideas for general trivia questions that aren't too, too googeable. They don't have to be impossible, but I want people to have to work at it at least a little.

Ideas for more staff-related trivia.

Other games that it might be ok to use. For instance, I have a book of those word-picture puzzles (you know, like this:

mind
matter

and the answer is "mind over matter"). Is it ok for me to copy one or two to put in the newsletter? What about ones that I find on websites, can I copy those?

Lastly, the next newsletter comes out in March, so I was thinking of putting in some college basketball team logos and having people identify the teams. Is there anything sketchy about using the logos without permission of the team or anything like that to be aware of?

QuizzoFilter

LilBucner — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:42:14 -0800

I am auditioning to host a quizzo (pub trivia) night at a new bar in Philly ... help me with research! Does anyone have any good recommendations for websites with good trivia questions/answers? I have played many a night of quizzo in the past - my strengths are baseball, movies, and geography. But I need to do one list (10 questions) of a well-rounded quizzo for the audition. Suggestions?

Where do I go to get my timed trivia fix?

fructose — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:20:36 -0800

What are some websites with "name X in Y minutes" format quizzes like Sporcle and Mental Floss? I like doing those online quizzes where you name X things in Y minutes, like the ones here and here.

I'm looking for sites that are more on the slick, legit side of things. A lot of online trivia quizzes that are written by random people are often riddled with errors, Sporcle being the main exception I've found.

We moved to Syracuse. Now what?

activitystory — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:00:44 -0800

Syracuse Filter: Ms. Activitystory & I recently moved to the 'cuse from Brooklyn and have some questions about making our own good times here. We've found a few somewhat fun bars for trivia and sports watching, but not to the degree we've become accustomed. We've come to understand that there is no indie rock scene here. Fine. What we really want to do is host a multimedia-trivia-pop-culture game show, preferably at a bar. The question is, where, around here, has the appropriate facilities and a willingness to try something new? We've been visiting places around campus (which we live quite close to) with an eye out for projectors, screens, and PA systems, but have had little luck.

We'd also be interested in learning about trivia/comedy/film/freeform nights and other interactive activities at local places, or basically anything fun that happens once the sun goes down and everything freezes. For context, we're both librarians, music geeks, into movies, and rabid (real-world) game players.

Can anyone suggest some great trivia categories?

torietorie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:55:07 -0800

Can anyone suggest some great trivia (pub quiz, what have you) categories? We're running a pub quiz tomorrow and are stumped for categories. Has anyone ever run into a really great category at a bar trivia night?

So far, our other categories are an audio category featuring 'Song About the Moon" (really just an excuse to play Gil Scott Heron's 'Whitey on the Moon') and a category about famous drinks from movies (James Bond, Lebowski, etc)

Let me know!

Need Buffy Artifacts

craven_morhead — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:16:47 -0800

I need help creating a complicated, buffy-themed christmas present for my girlfriend. Problem: I know very little about Buffy. I'm looking for a list (and photos, if possible) of buffy artifacts. I saw this post regarding the kickass alice-in-wonderland themed birthday present, inspired by the art of alex cf.

I'd like to put together a sample kit that was assembled during an investigation into the big Sunnydale explosion that ended the Buffy franchise. I'm trying to collect a list of artifacts to be displayed, and hopefully a format for a map of Sunnydale, as well as fragments of an assembled report. I especially need photos, and suggestions for what the sample tags might say. Help make for an awesome christmas gift.

Are there singular/plural pairs in english with completely different spellings?

Crosius — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:41:58 -0800

In French, the singular of eye is "oiel" and the plural is "yeux." Are there any nouns in English that have completely different spellings of the singular and plural like this?

Shortest distance between two tongues

math — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:52:49 -0800

What are the closest distinct languages? I found myself involved in a discussion about this the other day, when we were trying to figure out if the Spanish-Portugese separation was greater than the English-Dutch separation. Then, someone else brought up the Swedish-Norwegian pair, and we all ended up rather confused. Now, obviously, different dialects of the same language are really, really close. And, I suppose that creoles are not that far away from their constituent tongues. I'm thinking about distinct languages that (ideally) have their own literature, and such that the spoken and written language would have to be translated to be understood by speakers of the other language. I believe this eliminate Swedish and Norwegian (and I wish I had thought of that the other day, during the original discussion).

Resol evad gib!

plinth — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:03:33 -0800

MuppetFilter: Who was that guy? In the Linda Carter episode, Muppet News conjures a crocodile via the phrase Resol Evad Gib, which is "Big Dave Loser" backwards.

Who is Dave? Dave Goelz?

Fun, easy and cheap ways for contestants to "buzz in" to answer quiz questions?

VeniceGlass — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:28:51 -0800

Our corporate outing next week is going to include a few trivia questions, and we need a good way for people to answer. There will be 10 teams and a captain on each team. Money's a little tight, so those cool electronic buzzers are out. I'd prefer not to suffer the chaos of shouting out answers and figuring who is quickest. So I'd like a method that's fun and accurate. Any ideas?

Quiz night games!

twirlypen — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:32:19 -0800

Quiz night games- I'm organising a quiz night for 150+ people (argh!) and need to fill the time between rounds with games. Does anyone have suggestions for interesting and fun games for people to play at a quiz night? Ideally, they'd be short (less than five minutes) and wouldn't require a huge amount of effort beforehand.

Traditionally, games like head and tails (throw two coins, people guess how they're going to land) or true and false are played, but they're pretty humdrum and I'm hoping to get something new.

Any ideas are appreciated. There will be around 8 rounds, so I'll need 7 games.

(also, if there are any questions you've had at a quiz night that were more than regular trivia type things, I'd be happy to hear those too)

Thanks!

Where are all the fun online trivia games?

UseyurBrain — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:50:11 -0800

I love trivia! And, I love playing games on the internet. Problem is, finding both of these has been disappointing. There are some well-known sites such as funtrivia.com. But these usually have static games that track your scores against other people.

I want to play in real time, such as the way a game like isketch.net works. When you google this question, you get a lot of sketchy sites asking for all kinds of information to register, and then no one is actually playing.

My trivia needs are so unfulfilled. Can anyone help?

Complete list of Trivial Pursuit questions online?

obiwanwasabi — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:29:29 -0800

Where can I find a complete list of questions from the Genus editions of Trivial Pursuit online? So apparently, some guy tried to sue the Trivial Pursuit people for using a bunch of questions from his trivia books, including errors and typos. The TP people argued in court that yes, they had used his stuff, but that 'facts are not protected by copyright'. They won.

So, I figure it must be legal to put up a list of all Trivial Pursuit questions, seeing as though they're apparently just 'facts'. Such a list would be great for quickly grouping trivia questions around a theme (eg, show me all the questions that contain the word 'dog'). Does such a list exist online?

The Steady-State Question

math — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:26:16 -0800

How far can you travel in a particular state (geographical, not emotional) without leaving it? I was thinking about this the other day when travelling from Asheville to Kitty Hawk, NC, and I realized that it was an amazingly long journey to take all within a relatively small (but long) Eastern state. One can actually travel about 625 miles within NC, from Wehutty (out there in the far west corner by Tennessee) to Cape Hatteras (on the Outer Banks), but of course that pales in comparison to the 850 miles from Perdido Bay to Key West, FL, and that can't compete with the Western states or Alaska. And let's not get started on Hawaii.

Still, this is the kind of thing that internet road geeks should have figured out by now. Is there a web site that has a state-by-state guide to the longest road trip one can take without ever leaving the state? It's perfectly OK to make up rules as you wish (no back roads? no ferry rides?) and also wild conjectures; mine is that the longest two drives east of the Mississippi are in FL and NC (although I'm a little worried about Michigan's upper peninsula and NY's Long Island).