The minor victories of trivia

I play an all-night trivia game twice a year although, frankly, it's really hard to stay up all night.  (After all, I'm not in college anymore.)  But several times during the Williams College Trivia game, there's a sublime little moment that I equate to a surfer catching a perfect wave.  It arrives at that tipping point, that beautiful fulcrum, where you just can't quite remember the answer to a question...but then you can!

There was one game we played where the question was: what fragrance was pitched to Troy McClure on the Simpsons?  I chewed on this then blurted out: "Smellin' of Troy!"

So I really enjoyed this WashPost article about the elite of trivia players: " The coolest, weirdest Internet community you’ll never be able to join."  (We'll see about that...we'll see)

There is zero need to know the kind of information LearnedLeague tests. “There’s also no need to be able to throw a wad of paper into a wastebasket 20 feet away,” says Bushfield, but “it feels awesome when it goes in — in a totally meaningless but still fulfilling way.” The comparison is apt; there are truly few sensations so gratifying as knowing the correct answer to a LearnedLeague stumper.

Yup.  I went 2/8 on the sample quiz, so my victories were few and fleeting.  Still cool.