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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 28, 2004 Commentary A night of trivial questions, answers Jennifer Squires On Thursday night, I finished Trivial Pursuit for the first time ever. I'm not saying I played the game for the first time ever, but that a group of friends and I hunched over the round board for two-plus hours, intent on not just finishing the game, but winning. Under the impression we may know more about the world we live in, rather than that of our parents, we were playing the 20th Anniversary Edition, which purports to be "A celebration of all things trivial from the past 20 years!" Trivial, yeah. Example: "What Police song rhymes "he starts to shake and cough" with "that book by Nabokov?" We went male versus female believing we could combine the random tidbits of information we stored away since childhood to zip through the questions with ease. Of the nine of us around the table, seven will graduate this spring and two within a year. We had two international studies majors, a political science-journalism double-major, a theatre major, an environmental studies major, an art major, a business major, a music major and me, a journalism-Spanish double-major. Somehow, the political science-journalism near-graduate amazed us all with "Don't Stand So Close to Me." As it turned out, the male team had read the wrong question. That correct answer didn't count and we were stuck with "What beloved icon would John Goodman make the best replacement for, according to a Zogby poll of 1,043 'believers'?" The political science-journalism girl came up with a short list of famous people Goodman may look like. She really pulled for Winston Churchill because, apparently, the two have similar facial features. The international studies major on our team vied for Buddha because people don't "believe in" Churchill, but do consider Buddha an icon. Just to mock the group, I yelled out "Santa Claus!" This idea was immediately disregarded because, really, who would liken Goodman to Santa? Of course, we can't see the card, so we don't realize "believers" has quotes around it and we didn't even try to figure out what "Zogby" meant. Several minutes later, political science-journalism and international studies are trying to make their case to environmental studies. Somehow, I got Santa through and, really, 1,043 "believers" think Goodman would make a decent Santa stand-in. We got that one, but missed "What U.S. beverage company set up shop in China's Forbidden City, near the famed hall of Preserving Harmony, in 2000?" (Starbucks), "What P-word has been defined as the 'science of cracking the phone network'?" (Phreaking) and "What strip joint is portrayed on HBO by the Satin Dolls nightclub of Lodi, New Jersey?" (The Bada Bing). Two hours into the game, having finished dinner and dessert, we were down a player and the teams started to blur together. We'd decided much earlier that changing the rules would not be allowed, but when each team was down to the final wedge, calling a draw seemed like a decent idea. The guys' team just needed the yellow wedge - 20 years worth of headlines - while the girls were looking for the pink piece - movies, music and more. Just before midnight, the guys finally landed on yellow and finally answered the question correctly. In seconds, the game had been boxed up and people begged to never play Trivial Pursuit again, although the guys did have to gloat over their win a bit. Just now, though, as I skim through the absurd questions and "I should have known that" answers, I learned something very key. The guys didn't win. After that last wedge, according to the official Trivial Pursuit rules, the player or team must move down the hub to the center of the board and answer the Game-Winning Question. Since we eliminated any rule-changing, I guess it's a draw. We'll have to hold a rematch. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams