“Yes”…Spelling Counts

If you are looking for trivia, you have plenty of choices. You can literally throw a dart in the darkness and hit a trivia site on the Internet. Some can be fun. Some can be boring. The truth be known: few offer any real challenge.

Go to any bookstore and select from the array (usually a disappointing and small array) of trivia titles. You may find the Fred Worth approach (which is reverently recognized as that created by the “godfather of modern trivia”) to the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, and all manner of variations on the theme. There aren’t any real demographics to support the following theory. But, please give this a try. There is an abundance of factoids, a fair amount of which are “interesting” and will produce some periodic “oh my” responses, but they lack an abundance of what could be called “graduate-school-level” questions.

Guerrilla Trivia has recognized this void and has created a means to bring together the best of the GE College Bowl, Jeopardy, Mr. Van Horn’s social studies classes, and all the quiz shows that gave you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. When combined with your individual and/or team knowledge and computer skills, Guerrilla Trivia (GT) should produce one great trivia experience.

Since GT is NOT a gambling site (it is a skilled contest site), participants will not have any opportunity to take advantage of “chance.” There are no “True-False” questions. There are no “Multiple Choice” questions. GT offers challenging questions for thinkers, that require written answers, spelled correctly, returned within a specific time limit. Lowest score, as with golf, wins.

Here are two examples of what Guerrilla Trivia is all about. Give these sample questions a try.

Can you provide the answer within 30 seconds or less? Keep in mind: Spelling counts.    

QUESTION: What do the following have in common? (a) The only word in the English language that, if you take the first letter and move it to the end of the word, will spell the past tense of that original word; and (b) Elizabeth Gilbert? (Hint: the answer is a single word.)


 QUESTION:  TIME magazine once selected three men as their “Men of the Year.” The three had been to the moon and back. What were, in alphabetical order, the last names of those 3 astronauts? 


Answers below the Ape...

ANSWER:  Eat

NOTE:  “Eat,” is the only word in the English language, that when the first letter is moved to the position of last letter, it creates its own past tense. Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of the best selling novel, Eat Pray Love. The one-word connection is “eat.”

ANSWER:     The crew of Apollo 8 crew was selected for Time magazines’ "Men of the Year" for 1968. Their names were Frank Borman, James Lovell & William Anders. If the last names of these astronauts were placed in alphabetical order, the acceptable answer is: Anders, Borman and Lovell (which for the purpose of the tournament, would appear as “Anders Borman Lovell.”

NOTES:  In an actual Guerrilla Trivia tournament, the question (above) would appear just as you see it (in RED). The answer would be typed on your keyboard and sent back to the tournament host. The correct answer received in the shortest amount of time – with all words spelled correctly – will receive recognition as being “first” – and receive the lowest score. If any of the names are misspelled, the answer will be judged as completely incorrect and the participant will receive the highest possible score for that question (if 30 seconds were allotted, the score would be 30). In GT, capitalization is not required. Punctuation is only applicable and counts if it is part of a proper name (such as in Hugh O’Brien or Chris Evert-Lloyd). Failure to properly include such punctuation will result in the answer being judged incorrect. If five answers are “sent” back from different geographical locations at the same time (“perceived” to be the same time), the GT proprietary clock will ascertain which of the five was received first – within 1/1000^th of a second. This is how “first” is determined from “second” and “third.”

Trivia competition is moving into a new era. Participants will no longer get by with merely knowing that Huey, Dewey and Louie are Donald Duck’s nephews. That won’t cut it. But, knowing this fact may work in combination with another question or clue to produce a winning answer in Guerrilla Trivia. The old stuff still has a place – but that place has been redefined.

If you are interested in testing yourself in trivial combat, keep checking out www.guerrillatrivia.com and see when the first tournament is being offered. Read the rules, find out what requirements are needed to participate, find out how the registration process works, and discover how you can win cash prizes. Sign up for notifications, daily questions, and learn how you can participate in “LIVE – REAL TIME TRIVIA.”

This will be “the trivia competition for the strong of heart and the hard of head!”

Guerrilla Trivia is being created for “Those who KNOW they know it all.”

For Those Who KNOW They Know It All…

What if the majority (if not the entire lot) of trivia buffs (total novices created through the genetic inbreeding of families in deep hollows throughout scattered countries and states that crawled out of the primordial ooze and found their way to the hallowed halls of print, TV and the Internet) are far from near extinction? What if there could be a few survivors in the event of an ultimate natural holocaust – such as cockroaches (for sure), that mold that grows on roofs in Florida, and real and true trivia buffs. These three will surely survive.

These are truly strong adversaries. Even cockroaches and roof mold can be eradicated – even if not completely at any one time. But trivia buffs have a unique DNA structure that cannot be replicated – even through the likes of cloning. Natural selection can’t explain the preponderance of trivia in cultures so diverse that missionaries can’t locate them with ease – but they exist nevertheless. One can only imagine the trivia questions conjured up around campfires built by the Yanamamo in Venezuela and Brazil.

Trivial knowledge has been shared and spotlighted since before spotlights existed. Bragging rights have always been held in high respect. It hasn’t just been for bowlers (thousands of whom belong to organizations and clubs) or winners of Rock-Paper-Scissors (for which there is a World PRS Society). No way! Those with abundance of minutia banging around inside their skulls, also have a need to feel the burn and endorphins that come with bragging. That’s part of the motivation that drives people to quiz bowl competitions on school campuses, in pubs and bars to win a drink or an order of fried calamari, to sign up for Jeopardy or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – or even attend boring cocktail parties – an opportunity to shine…to show one’s trivial abundance.

But, in light of an illustrious history – sometimes smudged and spotted over the years by the likes of Twenty-One – and the popularity of the much-revered and almost-holy Jeopardy, there remains a tremendous need for the vast numbers of followers of this near-religion to offer its minions an outlet to do trivial combat in real time, with real life competitors, for real rewards. And so the question has come up, time-and-time again: What can be done to fulfill the need for live trivia combat, with participants in varied geographical locations, that provides the means for determining in real time, which answer actually arrives first or second or tenth or one hundredth?

Is it possible that something can be created to offer a true challenge, requiring real skills, in an enjoyable environment, for real rewards? There is an answer.

The answer is pure and simple: “YES!!”