On May 2, 2011, the Polyphonic Polymaths, a trivia team composed mostly of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh staff, won second prize in the World Tavern Trivia National Championships, held in Atlantic City, NJ. The team’s reward for having brains stuffed to the gills with random facts? $2,000 in cash, and a really spiffy plaque:
Library workers know things...
Don’t hate us because we know things. If you, too, have aspirations of winning fame and fortune in trivia competitions — perhaps next year’s Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council Trivia Bowl? — then stop by the library and stock up on selections from our vast storehouse of facts and miscellanea. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
- Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get Wrong, Rod L. Evans.
- Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days, Ken Jennings
- Pennsylvania Trivia: Weird, Wacky and Wild, Jodi M. Webb
- 1,001 Things You Didn’t Know You Wanted to Know, Anna Mantzaris
- Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge, Susan Aldridge and Elizabeth King
Just can’t get enough random, obscure information? Try searching the catalog for Questions and Answers, Curiosities and Wonders, or the sinister-sounding, yet perfectly inoccuous, heading of Handbooks Vade Mecums Etc.. Drop that one casually in front of your opponents before the trivia contest begins, and you’ll win on the sheer intimidation factor alone. Just remember to be gracious in victory, and never forget that no matter how much you know, there will always be something more to learn.
Leigh Anne
already studying for next year
