From the Stevens Point Journal April 20, 2007:

Newcomer to Point struggles to understand Trivia

Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series chronicling a reporter's first look at Trivia. Other columns will appear Saturday and Monday.

I wasn't getting it.

Mike Wiza was showing me his candy collection -- catalogued alphabetically and separated into subsections "normal" and "weird" -- and trying to explain to me the idea of Trivia.

Photo: Adam Beilke, left, and Matt Mleziva wheel in supplies for the Trivia weekend Thursday at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point radio station. THOMAS KUJAWSKI/STEVENS POINT JOURNAL

Granted, I am still a young man -- but I have lived in five different states, including New York; I have been to the Parthenon and to the Vatican; I have paid a rupee to an elephant while living in India so that he would touch his trunk to my head as a blessing -- but I have never seen anything quite like Trivia.

I thought about this fact as I gingerly returned a "Shaq Snak" candy bar, its banana-yellow wrapper stamped with a stern-looking picture of Shaquille O'Neal, into the "weird" bin and moved on to the next section of Mike's collection of Trivia-themed books, movies and assorted bric-a-brac. I have met Rhodes scholars with smaller libraries.

Photo: Nancy Stokosa purchases a shirt for the Trivia weekend. THOMAS KUJAWSKI/STEVENS POINT JOURNAL

This week, I have been modestly preparing for my first visit to the alien planet of Trivia. Not being a Stevens Point native, I have never played. I have seen basements and attics fortified with old TV Guides, stacks of cardboard boxes from unheard-of breakfast cereals -- I have even talked to a couple who will be married atop their Trivia float by a buddy in an Elvis costume.

"There's definitely a good geek factor to it," said Tim Kung, by way of explanation during a phone call from Whittier, Calif. Tim will arrive in Stevens Point today to meet his team, "Tin Man."

I asked the members of "Dad's Computers," the team that will adopt me for a few hours this weekend, if Trivia was the Super Bowl for Trivia buffs. They heartily agreed. The more I hear about it, however, the more it sounds like the geek's Iditarod -- 54-hours of grueling, unrelenting, sugar-fueled researching.

In other words, it sounds -- in its own madcap way -- fun.

I think I get it.

Mush mush.