Things I Like: Trivia

Special shout out goes to Kelly M. for enabling my idiocracy.

Picture this: a crowded bar on a cold Wednesday night in January. A group of friends sits around two tables pushed together.  The atmosphere is tense and competitive.  People are shuffling all around and a large American Indian man with a pony tail is on the mic.  He poses a question: What is Ronnie's signature drink?  Ron-Ron Juice. Duh.  Thirteen more questions are asked, all pertaining to the Jersey Shore and all are answered with flying colors.  The tense round ends with a tie and representatives from 5 teams are asked to approach the official's table.  The representative from the aforementioned group of friends has competition in her eyes and trash-talk at the ready just in case she loses.  A tie-breaking question is asked: What is Mike "The Situation's age? 27? NO! 28!  WINNER!  My friends, that Wednesday night was trivia night and that winner was I.  I was so proud of myself and my team members.  Others might think we are an embarrassment, but I say they are just jealous of our triva skillz (yes, with a Z). 

As I sit here in my pajamas, listening to T.I., I consider what it is that makes me one of the nerdiest people I know, and the answer is: trivia.  I love trivia.  Did you know that a cockroach has two brains?  Also, cochineal and carminic acid, popular colorants used to impart deeper red shades to fruit juices, gelatins, ice creams, and candies, are made from ground beetles (Yum).  Oh, and that celebs are selected to get a star on the Walk of Fame, but have to cough up $15,000 of their own money to actually get it there.  I love little fun facts like that.  There is so much useless information in the world to learn.  I have books upon books of random crap that no one cares about.  Thanks Kelly.  Day in and day out we are on autopilot saying "Goodbye" or shaking hands.  Where do those customs come from?  We eat tomatoes and pineapples, not even realizing that they are considere berries...bet you didn't know that one.  How about this little fun fact: The custom of carrying a bride over the threshold comes from kidnapping practices of Germanic Goths.  Usually, the men would marry women from their communities, but when the supply ran short, they would raid neighboring villages and steal their girls and carry them home to be their wives.  The abduction practices turned into our symbol of carrying brides over the threshold.  There you have it.

Trivia is not just about knowing the most useless information on the planet, but it's about questioning our everyday living.  If you've got a curious nature and you want to know what Meatloaf's real name is (Marvin Lee Aday), then maybe it wouldn't hurt to open up a book of trivial information.  It's impossible to know every stupid thing in the world, but I'm trying. Really hard.

Disclaimer: Now, that I've made myself look like the lamest person that's ever walked the Earth, I should mention that the books from which this info was acquired were called So, Now You Know: A Compendium of Completely Uselss Information by Harry Bright and Harlan Briscoe and The Little Book of Answers by Doug Lennox.