From the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

No question too obscure for trivia marathon

Last Updated: April 17, 2000 at 9:30:12 a.m.

Thousands of contestants using the Internet and telephones submitted answers to trivia questions asked by a Stevens Point radio station that bills the annual contest as the world's largest.

Among the puzzlers during the 54-hour marathon that ended Sunday night: "One of Betty Crocker's biggest one-dish dinners was called Dutch Pantry Pie.

"It included four great American products. One was Gold Medal Flour, and another was Carnation Evaporated Milk. What were the other two ingredients?"

Only one out of 466 registered teams got the correct answers: Wesson oil and Spam.

An estimated 11,804 people took part in the 31st annual event, which this year was called "Trivia Y2K: The Bug Strikes."

WWSP-FM aired eight questions an hour. Teams provided answers when music resumed.

This year's winner, with 11,060 points, was a team called Being Bud Somerville. The runner-up, with 9,305 points was a team calling itself n-e-2-r-k.

News director Pramela Thiagesan, a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point senior, said the campus station did not immediately know the identities of the winning teams' members.

From 6 p.m. Friday to midnight Sunday, teams camped out at houses, community centers, even a curling club - just about anywhere in Stevens Point with access to a radio and telephone.

There is no limit on the number of people who can make up a team. There may be strength in numbers. As of Sunday afternoon, a team in the lead had 50 members, who were holed up in the wrestling room of a local high school.

A local trivia whiz, Jim Oliva, has been writing questions for the contest for 22 years. In the early years of the contest, he said, questions came off the top of his head. Now he has to dig a little, with inspiration sometimes coming from strange places.

"I was cleaning a toilet in my house when an old commercial popped into my head," he said. "I thought, "That would make a great trivia question."'

No topic is off limits, except questions involving gratuitous sex, he said.

No team has ever answered all of his questions correctly.

By the end of the contest Sunday, 432 questions were asked over 54 hours, including a local current events teaser: "What is the complete name of the tavern owner who ran as a write-in candidate for mayor of Phillips, Wis.?" The answer: Elvis Aron Presley.

Oliva, who runs a computer store when he's not asking questions, said he's been a trivia buff since his boyhood in Chicago in the 50s, when polio outbreaks forced him to stay inside and watch television.

Trivia is just a hobby, he said. He has never been tempted to compete on a TV quiz show like "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire."

But he spends a lot of time on the other side of the screen.

Only a dedicated TV fan could have asked - or answered - this question: "In the TV series 'Malcolm in the Middle,' the Parker boys live across the street from Malcolm. Malcolm's mother once said they look like a particular item. What was it?"

Answer: Boiled beets.