tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233985392011-12-06T00:56:17.163-06:00...because it is trivial. A soon-to-be-abandoned new quiz blog.Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-45248776755174165182010-09-15T11:18:00.009-05:002010-09-15T12:44:28.626-05:00

I haven't seen yesterday's Jeopardy yet. But I've read about it, and I've glanced at the J-Archive page for it. And I must say one thing:Wow.In 2002, I set the single day record on Jeopardy, in the process becoming the first player to score $50,000. Since then, if I'm not mistaken, 3 other regular season players have broken the 50G mark, in each case setting a new one day record:Brian Weikle (

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-88289331863580566552010-05-14T08:40:00.006-05:002010-05-14T09:33:46.113-05:00

So, you're playing in the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. It's the 4th quarterfinal game, Double Jeopardy round. The categories come up and "Australian Capitals" is one of them. Is the year 2003 or 2010? The correct answer is: both.I remember watching the 2003 ToC, keeping score as I always do. I believe I got 3 of the 5 correct, all of them from the extra hints in the clue, and not because

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-17989438572987483592010-02-15T09:02:00.010-06:002010-02-15T09:46:19.852-06:00

In the February 1963 issue of Bullwinkle Comics (from Gold Key), that machine that Peabody and Sherman use to travel back in time is spelled "WAY-BAC" (capitalized as in the original comic, although everything Peabody says in the original comic is capitalized). This is as close to a contemporary reference to the actual spelling of the thing I've been able to find:Bullwinkle and Rocky Number 4 (

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-63446430160962205442010-02-09T16:48:00.003-06:002010-02-09T16:57:52.613-06:00

SmurfsThe Na'viThe Blue Man Group (and wannabe Tobias Funke)The Fugates of Troublesome Creek, KentuckyHank "The Beast" McCoyAnd Nightcrawler. And Mystique.Who am I missing?-M

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-10126122919571852752008-06-08T13:54:00.004-05:002008-06-08T14:33:32.463-05:00

According to the April 2008 edition of the Harper's Index in Harpers magazine, Radiohead has won the exact same number of Grammys as Barack Obama—2.Radiohead:Best Alternative Music Album, 1998: OK ComputerBest Alternative Music Album, 2001: Kid A (shared with producer Nigel Godrich)Barack Obama:Best Spoken Word Album, 2006: Dreams of My FatherBest Spoken Word Album, 2008: The Audacity of

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-32775505645033849432007-11-27T13:50:00.000-06:002007-11-27T14:33:19.359-06:00

I scanned this article 6 or 7 years ago to test some new OCR software, and I thought it might be of interest to this blog's readers. Enjoy!---"YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS TO BE A CONTESTANT" "We Want Average Americans Who Are Aware of What's Going On" From Daytime TV magazine, July 1974On March 30, Art Fleming celebrated the 10th anniversary of Jeopardy. "People are always asking me if I'm

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-56453187161259412292007-11-18T14:29:00.000-06:002007-11-27T14:08:07.439-06:00

Last Saturday (November 10) the Fourth European Quizzing Championships were held, in Blackpool, England. Three of my favorite trivial-minded bloggers have weighed in on the festivities, and an interesting common theme has emerged.Those bloggers -Ken Jennings, Bob Harris, and "The Quiz Blogger"- all make mention of how difficult or obscure the questions were by mentioning similarly formated lists

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-84105535767127863902007-11-17T00:03:00.000-06:002007-11-17T00:08:54.470-06:00

I've had this sitting on my hard drive for a while, and pop culture questions don't get any fresher as they sit. Questions have been pulled from various sources, mostly magazines I've purchased or acquired in the last 6 months.1. The name of what 1980 album by The Police comes from the Sanskrit for "top of the world"?2. For much of the summer of 1967, what group's "Headquarters" was the Number 2

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-54979698820360695332007-04-15T20:13:00.000-05:002007-04-15T20:24:34.041-05:00

A discussion over at the Ken Jennings Message board has led me to dig up an old piece I composed about 10 years ago for the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.trivia, regarding the letter Y and its use as a vowel and a consonant. It's one of my favorite things I've ever written, and I present it here for your enjoyment. Quoted email addresses have been truncated by Google Groups.---From: "Myron M. Meyer

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-68136381614014143302007-01-28T10:47:00.000-06:002007-01-28T10:58:43.097-06:00

Just entered into the j-archive is the first game of 5-day champion Rich Lerner. It has a really good Final Jeopardy! clue. Let's dissect it, to have a gander at how good FJ!'s work and what makes a good Jeopardy! champion. The category is LITERATURE.It's where Philip Nolan asked to be buried.That's all there is. 8 words. Final Jeopardy! clues are written to be able to be figured out if you don't

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-28655494701869106082007-01-14T23:10:00.000-06:002007-01-14T23:44:09.982-06:00

Calculatrivia is a contest created by Games Magazine in 1978. In it's most basic form (which, in that first issue, it was) you'd answer a bunch of trivia questions with numbers for answers. Then you'd plug those numbers into a formula, solve some math, and end up with a final value for X, which was your entry to the contest. The contest was so popular that Games would run sequels and spinoffs (

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1988047808340748772007-01-12T18:18:00.000-06:002007-01-12T18:23:06.157-06:00

Picked this one up from "How Much is Inside Granola Bars?" at cockeyed.com: matryoshka.Had no idea what is was, so I looked it up at my old nemesis Kelly Clarkson wikipedia. Click on the link and you can too......Learn. Something. New.

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-53880404331860541712007-01-07T11:14:00.000-06:002007-01-07T11:57:17.333-06:00

In this post, I mention that I think there should be more quiz questions about prescription drugs. I mean, they're advertised on TV all the time, most people are on 1 or a couple, and I'm a pharmacy technician which means that I'd get plenty of extra points you wouldn't get, since I'm around prescription drugs all the live-long day.A couple of weeks ago, I ran across this quiz from mcsweeneys.net

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1168189500648824512007-01-07T10:57:00.000-06:002007-01-08T00:11:53.262-06:00

On of the advantages of j-archive is that you can see patterns emerge which would not be so visible by simply watching the show in it's chronological format. Take this game, for instance. This is the first game from the week I was on the show, taped June 10, 2002, aired September 2, 2002. I saw this one from the audience. I hadn't noticed until right now as I entered the game into the archive

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1161533887159113832006-10-22T10:51:00.001-05:002006-10-22T11:51:13.153-05:00

One of my favorite books in college was Neil Steinberg's "If At All Possible Involve a Cow," a history of college pranks. The book gave a general history of college pranking, but it also featured detailed chapters on U of Wisconsin, Madison's Pail and Shovel Party, and Caltech's Ditch Day. It was from that chapter on Ditch Day that I developed my Dichotometric Theory of Trivia Writing. Just as

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1148250247840742782006-05-21T17:19:00.000-05:002006-05-21T17:30:20.006-05:00

I finally again have the computer that had my "Trivia Book of the Year" master list on it, so I can review my choices. Most years have two or three choices, a winner and then some honorable mentions. However 2002 has only a single book listed: The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know 3rd ed., by E.D. Hirsch, et al.I'm pretty sure I picked this one because it came

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1148011691811071192006-05-18T22:19:00.000-05:002006-05-18T23:16:07.250-05:00

I spent the evening at Buffalo Wild Wings, playing NTN's "Six" game. "Six" is a general knowledge game in six categories. If I correctly understand my NTN history, the game used to be "Trivial Pusuit", until whatever licensing deal they had expired. So now they just have a game with 6 categories very similar to the original 6 in Trivial Pursuit. It's a great game.Six has 2 special rounds which

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1147308989069514132006-05-10T19:39:00.000-05:002006-05-10T20:00:25.153-05:00

I had forgotten how much fun it is to play along with Jeopardy! And having the burden of missed-clue-stenography lifted makes it that much more so. The VCR thought that Monday was Sunday, so I missed the first show. But I did see, and score along at home, the second and third shows of the Tournament of Champions. Hence there may be spoilers, so read ahead at your own risk.1. I have a degree in

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1146946967818189722006-05-06T14:48:00.000-05:002006-05-06T15:51:51.213-05:00

In 1997, I started seriously watching, taping, reviewing and studying Jeopardy! with an eye toward getting on the show. Somehow perfect inspiration struct almost immediately and I developed a scorecard system that served me well in the 5 years of preparation that led to my appearance on the show.Here's how it worked. I took a piece of three-ring looseleaf paper and drew a Jeopardy board on each

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1146673665141821582006-05-03T11:11:00.000-05:002006-05-03T11:29:34.786-05:00

Because there is a theoretically finite body of "general knowledge" out there, it is inevitable that quiz shows will repeat questions. Because there are so few quiz shows on television, it is unusual when 2 shows duplicate questions on episodes airing so closely together.From Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Friday, April 28, 2006:(For $25,000) The registration number NCC-1701 is displayed on the

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1146451175363272592006-04-30T21:34:00.000-05:002006-04-30T21:57:23.926-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I don't watch many movies. The last movie I saw in the theater was the 3rd Harry Potter about a year and a half ago. This is kind of stupid, because my student ID entitles me to the free second-run movie on campus every week, and they're mostly popular big screen licks. I could have seen Brokeback or Crash or Willy Wonka or any of a good number of recent films for

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1146195592468248582006-04-27T22:09:00.000-05:002006-04-27T22:49:26.443-05:00

The year 2001 was an embarrassment of riches for trivia book fans. A pair of books were released that were so great they inspired me to begin naming a "Trivia Book of the Year," which I have done sporadically ever since. Earlier this year I picked books to represent 2003, 2004, and 2005.Last year's winner was "The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Book" by the Editors of Entertainment Weekly. Good

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1146156655268133872006-04-27T11:32:00.000-05:002006-04-27T21:52:37.320-05:00

Yesterday I saw the first episode of Jeopardy! I've seen this season. My classes/work schedule have prevented me from seeing the show when it first airs, and although I taped a few episodes earlier in the year, I haven't had time to get to them, and the urgency has passed. I follow the episodes online now, either at j-archive.com or at the jeopardy.com message board.I saw the Double Jeopardy

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1144686495596117922006-04-10T11:26:00.000-05:002006-04-10T11:28:17.996-05:00

I read fark.com, even though it makes me feel like a bad Christian sometimes. They're always good for an interesting fact or link, though. Like this one:What is anthropodermic bibliopegy?Here's a clue: it's gross, but relatively common.The answer may be found in the comments.

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1143266093588850512006-03-24T23:52:00.000-06:002006-03-24T23:54:53.596-06:00

Based on the years in which their movies were set, who was framed first, Roger Rabbit or Andy Dufresne?

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23398539.post-1141456376521487152006-03-04T01:09:00.001-06:002006-03-04T01:51:33.440-06:00

Q: Who played Wilbur Peterson on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow from 1953 to 1955?A: Don Knotts

Myronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12977781487816210942noreply@blogger.com0