How Much Do You Know? Last

 This is the last of these, as they don't seem to be garnering much response. Here are the answers from yesterday:

1. Douglas

2. Jordan

3. Randy Travis

4. Yahoo!

5. Crystal Palace

6. Murder

How Much Do You Know? 3

 Yesterday's answers:

1. Antigone

2. Muddy Waters

3. The Blair Witch Project

4. Good Neighbor Policy

5.  Belarus

6. LA Law

And today's questions:

1.   1. What was the last name of the Scottish botanist who introduced the popular Pseudotsuga menziesii into cultivation in 1827, and thus after whom the tree is commonly named (or mis-named, as it is actually a conifer in the pine family)?

2. The House of Hashim (a.k.a. Hashemites) is the ruling royal family of what country (as reflected in the country's full official name)?

3. Name the country artist who released the 1987 album Always and Forever, which spent 40 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country album chart and saw four of its songs (including "Forever and Ever, Amen") reach #1 on the Country Singles chart.

4. American businesswoman Marissa Mayer, who was an executive at Google for many years (where she was employee #20), served as president and CEO of what other company from July 2012 until its acquisition by Verizon in 2017?

5. What was the name of the building, made of prefabricated glass and iron, that was constructed in Hyde Park, London, to accommodate the Great Exhibition of 1851? It was the birthplace (after its move to South London) and namesake of a still-extant English Premiership side.

6. A best-selling series of young adult mysteries by British author Holly Jackson begins with the 2019 novel (and is collectively known as) A Good Girl's Guide to what?

Trivia Time

 My elder son and I both participate in an on-line trivia contest called Learned League. It's a competition held in "seasons" of 25 "matches," six questions a day on each weekday during that time. You compete directly against one other person in the league and you gain points by how difficult your opponent thinks the question will be for you, based on your past record on similar subjects.

The most recent season ended on Monday and my son and I competed in the same group of players for the first time. I wound up in fifth place within that group, and my son was 23d. In discussing that difference, I suggested that it was, in part, a question of age--that there are things I know because of events I have lived through which he has not.

For instance, a recent question asked us to identify the Aswan Dam in Egypt from a brief description: "Name the southern Egyptian city, and capital of its namesake Governorate, near which an embankment dam (at the time, the world's largest) was built in the 1960s?" I knew immediately what they were talking about, because the dam was controversial at the time, not least because it threatened to destroy an ancient temple complex which was relocated to the shores of Lake Nasser (created by the new dam) with international cooperation and donations.

My son had no idea, because the story of the dam and the temples was no longer news worthy and, unless you were studying ancient Egypt in school, not covered by the usual curriculum. 

This led to a discussion of whether the age of your opponent should be included in the available information about him or her. I believe it should be. What do you think?

Trivial Pursuits?

 I've enjoyed playing trivia since the earliest days of Jeopardy, back when it aired on NBC at noon and was hosted by Art Fleming. Over the years, I've realized that I have a wide range of knowledge that isn't particularly deep except in a few areas.

Those areas include most forms of pop culture, including film, television, comics, and theater. I'm also not bad in history and geography and language (as long as we're sticking with the Greek, Latin, and Germanic-related words). My science knowledge is OK at the high-school level, but weak if you get any more complicated than that, and I recognize a lot of mathematical terms, but would be hard pressed to apply them properly.

What I know of classical music comes from church, a little high school chorus, and a lot of animated cartoons. OTOH, I have a pretty good handle on a lot of fine art. I used to be good on pop music...but my knowledge and interest in most of what's been recorded in the past 20 years is very low. I'm not hopeless in sports, but my knowledge is a mile wide and inches deep.

I do well, usually, when playing in a bar or something like that. I'm currently participating in an on-line trivia league. Last year, when I first joined and was playing against other "rookies," I routinely won and came out among the top contestants. This year, having moved up to what might be called the "AAA" level, I'm struggling. Still having fun, but learning my limits.

Nothing Trivial

 I'm very disappointed. Last year, my son got me involved in an online trivia contest called Learned League. I enjoyed playing and did pretty well, coming in the top five (out of 26) in my section. I was looking forward to starting the new season today.

But the administrators (wisely, I think) decided to postpone the beginning of the season until next Monday, because of the wide-spread power outages around the country. Oh well, five more days to go then.