The contest again featured retro-hours where rules from 1981 and prior were used. Some hours had ten questions instead of the usual eight. For several hours the questions were assigned point values and frequently we could guess at question answers until we nailed it or ran out of time. The guessing questions lowered team point totals by creating numerous 10-point or even 5-point answers resulting in team scores 25% lower than previous years. An unfortunate side effect of 10-point questions was boredom. All those easy (or guessable) questions made for some real yawner hours. Let’s hope that in the future, guessing questions are much more difficult.

A 32nd place trophy was awarded this year to the team finishing in 32nd place. This begins a tradition of the place-of-the-year trophy (next year a 33rd place trophy will be awarded). Too bad most of us won't be around to see the last place team get a trophy in 400 years.

We’ve got the music medley questions down to a science using technology and skilled people, but we still managed to not get credit for “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” (track 6, Beatle’s “White Album”).

The usual contest question patterns reached a zenith (or nadir) this year when we frequently found ourselves looking for answers based on an alphabetic hint: all answers seemed to start with the same letter. Some hours we were chasing down ‘S’ answers. Other hours it was ‘L’, ‘M’, or ‘K’. And for many hours the answer to the eighth question began with a ‘W’.

Thanks to the miracle of DVDs, we know that Ben Stiller did not throw Viceroys on the roof in “Meet the Parents.” We found out after the contest that Children of a Lesser God also fought this one with scenes from their DVD copy of the movie. 

The 33rd place trophy was awarded this year to the Dad’s Computer team continuing the tradition of the place-of-the-year trophy (next year a 34th place trophy will be awarded). 

The top ten finishing teams received some extra prizes this year in addition to a trophy. The teams received a Studebaker John and the Hawks music CD and a Family Pass to the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana. Dad’s Computers also received the pile o’ Studebaker stuff.

You might have thought from the contest publicity poster that a couple of All In the Family questions might be in order, but not this year. Trivia 33 was about Studebakers on every street corner, Callahans, Clancys, Yancys, Harrys, Rams, Lambs, and ding dongs (almost all worth about 10 points each). It wouldn’t be Trivia without Horowitz questions and all the traditional questions that are asked year after year.

And let’s try that Trivia Stone question again next year. I can’t recall missing a Stone question ever, but maybe Pointers are not used to seeing pawn shop symbols. Next year we will be ready.

The Internet continues its value both in answering questions and writing the questions. Many questions this year were reverse engineered to make sure the answer fits the pattern of the questions (the aforementioned Callahans, Studebakers, etc.). I guess that major medium called the Internet or the Web or the Net is here to stay and it’s not a fad after all. 

The 34th place trophy was awarded this year to the "Phones Down, Phones Down In the Back" team continuing the tradition of the place-of-the-year

Mea Culpa... A 285-pointer about a fraternity name in a Subway commercial rightly gets tossed after one of the question writers confused epsilon with sigma. I guess four teams watching TV ads also were confused by the letters as they received points credit for being "correct."

trophy. 

This contest marked the 25th anniversary of Jim Oliva's involvement in the contest. He started writing questions as The Oz in 1979. For most teams, too young to remember the first ten years of the contest, Jim is the one and only face of Trivia. Congratulations to Jim and his 15-year veteran partner John Eckendorf. 

A major thank you goes out to Tim Somers of the Beer Pigs who put together the Shoutcast web stream of the contest. WWSP did not broadcast the contest over the web this year, but Tim got something up and running allowing our out-of-state team members and others to listen in and play. Tim might need donations next year to defray his expenses, so please contribute if you plan to use the web stream. If you have questions about the technology or want to contribute to fund the next contest please visit the Trivia Forum.

The 36th place trophy was awarded this year to the "Nightmare Squad" team continuing the tradition of the place-of-the-year

Jeopardy... Ken Jennings, the all-time winnings champ visited Stevens Point during the contest to do research for a book he is writing. The game show gazillionaire was spotted in numerous places around town throughout the weekend.

trophy.

The documentary film crew was back getting more pictures and video. As part of the Triviatown documentary project, the producers and camera teams visited several of the trivia teams including the Norm's Stool team. The finished product might be ready in 2006. 

We missed some big pointers again this year. We had New Trivia Times picture #10 (Paula Raymond) but we didn't call it in costing us 290 points. We knew the 335-point Spirit and Doors album covers question (hour 33, question 7), but due to confusion, did not call the answer in. The question was "According to the back of the album Family That Plays Together, take the minimum amount of money painted on the window and add it to the minimum amount to stay at the Morrison Hotel. What is the total amount if you add the numbers together?" The total was derived by adding the $6 shown on the Spirit album Family That Plays Together and $2.50 shown on The Doors Morrison Hotel album for a total of $8.50 which was the answer to the question.

Speaking of The New Trivia Times, the pictures were published in an 8½" x 11" format for the first time. Picture #21, the one that showed Irv's Burgers, was the basis for a coincidence. Jon Miskowski sent an email to team member Dan Olson who was in Los Angeles on a business trip saying that Irv's was located in West Hollywood. Dan just happened to be staying down the street from Irv's (on Santa Monica Boulevard), so he went over there and talked with Sonia who runs the place. While Dan ate a wonderful burger in the outdoor restaurant, Sonia showed him the Linda Ronstadt album cover which was framed behind glass at the restaurant. She said she had received several calls and emails about the New Trivia Times picture. Dan explained the contest to her and why strange people are calling her. Sonia rewarded Dan with free french fries, an autographed "good luck" paper plate and a t-shirt. 

The Truckin' Questions were basically questions that were read as any other question, but you had several hours to research and phone in your answer. Eight questions were distributed throughout the contest and most were relatively difficult even with the extra time to find the answers. According to Oz, the Truckin' Questions may or may not be back in 2006. We'll have to wait and see.

Norm's Stool finished in 15^th place this year as a slow start kept us mired in the 20s for most of the contest. Our score of 6175 points included a 400-pointer that Doug Regan, our team Preakness expert, nailed in hour 52. Network easily won the contest with 11,070 points ahead of second-place Knights of Neek and third-place Tin Man. The contest theme of "The Odd Contest" had us thinking about the Odd Couple and other odd events.

The 37th place trophy was awarded this year to the Four Books and the Odd Finger team continuing the tradition of the place-of-the-year trophy.

Many trivia players had a chance to view the award-winning documentary Triviatown which sold out at the Wisconsin Film Festival the previous weekend. Nobody on our team has seen the finished product yet, but we will when we can.

We were well-fed again this year by Bonnie; we all ate like kings. We also welcomed some new members to the team: John, Jim, Justin, Jan and Ron—all are great additions to the team.

Whoa there were a lot of big point questions this year and we thought there were a lot last year. Hour 19 had two 500-point answers and a total of 1750 in available points. However one of the 500-pointers should have been tossed. Here's how the question read: "This brand of bread claims in a registered slogan that it 'makes sandwiches sing.' What is the name of this bread?" Well Sugardale was the answer, but Sugardale makes lunchmeat not bread. This question came from a commercial that aired on Nick at Night during period-appropriate programming.

Overall there were eleven 500-point questions in the contest.

The New Trivia Times, in a Trivia first, included a small sandwich bag containing breakfast cereal. This clue was the basis for two of the questions in this contest. An obvious question, what kind of cereal is it (Green Slime) and a less obvious one which required the cereal box to answer the final question of the contest: “On a box of Green Slime, there is a crossword puzzle on the back of the box. What is the answer to question number 8 on this crossword puzzle?” The question ended up being worth 70 points for the correct answer: Trivia.

The Truckin' Questions introduced in the 2005 contest were apparently retired as we did not have any this year. Adios to what might have become a nice tradition.

The music medley questions continued and seemed to be much more difficult as point values for individual snippets were higher. Just getting the medleys broken out into the eight different slots was difficult.

Hour 7 included ten questions all about the year 1946—a tip of the cap to Jim Oliva’s birth year and his 60^th birthday milestone in 2006.

At the end of hour 31, the Oz announced that “when he got back, a team would be disqualified.” We waited hours to find out that a team was DQ’d for calling in on multiple phone numbers which is against the rules. Calling in on multiple phone numbers would theoretically give you a second guess at an answer.

A new computer scoring system for the contest, announced by the Oz in the week prior to the contest, had its ups and downs. The new system replaced a DOS-based system that had been in use for the last 26 years. By the end of the contest many teams were dismayed to find out that they had been shorted 600 points or so with the new system the likely cause. It appears that all top teams lost similar points, so the scoring errors did not change the finish order.

Norm's Stool finished in 17^th place this year as, yet again, a slow start kept us out of the top ten the entire contest. After hour 9, we were in 37th place. Following hour 23, we were in 15th place. Our score of 6550 points was totaled the hard way: there were lots of big-pointers in this contest, but our biggest was a 250-pointer. Hour 27 was worth 1010 points and we nailed only 75 of those (which is about what most teams did). Tin Man won the contest with 11,285 points ahead of second-place Network and third-place Knights of Neek. The contest theme was "Trivia Returns" as the Oz returned from a challenging off-season to write the contest with John Eckendorf.

The 38th place trophy was awarded this year to Particle Truckers in 10th Gear continuing the tradition of giving a trophy to the team that lands in the spot that matches the contest number.

The Trivia Kickoff movie was Live Free or Die (2006) and this was the year that a couple of Team Thicko-ites got married atop their parade float prior to the contest.

This was the first year you could register to play the contest from anywhere in the country over the Internet. The running questions are out the window, but most other questions can be played just as if the team was local. Registration was $75 to play, but you get the New Trivia Times overnighted to you. Why not just email the NTT?

2007 was Melissa's first contest and Doug had a season-appropriate Mardi Gras King Cake flown in to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Austin found the baby in it after eating most of the cake. So I guess Austin will be getting the cake next year...

The much-maligned Wikipedia became a topic of discussion this year. Some teams would quickly edit a Wikipedia entry knowing full well that other teams would be looking there for answers. We got caught once on the Billy and Mandy question when the correct answer was modified in Wikipedia. You would think sabotaging other teams would be against the rules, but I guess not.

And finally, let's conclude with one more Crazy Becky moment. This was a real nail-biter as all teams knew that hour 54 would bring the Carl Yastrzemski question. And many people were thinking "that's a tough name to pronounce if you haven't heard of the guy." What would happen when Becky would read the answer to question five? Here is what happened (and here too).

Last updated April 16, 2008
Copyright © 1997-2008 Dan Olson. All rights reserved.
Webmaster