Queenie's trivia breakthrough

W-e-e-e a-a-r-e the cha-a-a-m-pion-n-n-ns, my fri-e-e-e-nd….

Queenie entered the Nova Scotia world of the trivia quiz and stormed to the top of the tree immediately by winning the Crimestoppers Inc. third annual Battle of the Wits Trivia Quiz.

She has the plaque to prove it. Bottles of booze not being considered suitable prizes for Crimestoppers apparently.

Queenie of course was ably aided by her team, which included a politician, a political activist, a psychologist, and a Canadian military pilot. Who was very calm, knew a lot of stuff, and had a preternatural talent for reading upside down, which is what won it for us really, of which more anon.

OHMYGOD it was the most insanity she’s ever had to spend twenty-five bucks on in an evening. As she said to one of her teammates during the break after round two ‘I’m still trying to get over the fact that this is supposed to be fun.’ Queenie is going to have a pub quiz forthwith and show these people how to do it.

Definitely. She just needs to find a fundraising idea. But of course, there’s going to be another election soon, so there’s no shortage of candidates to fundraise for. Queenie was thinking she would do one around St. Patrick’s week sometime, and have an Irish round, to sort out the men from the boys.

Anyone fancy coming over to be Quiz Master??

The event was held in the Halifax Forum, which is where all the hockey games are held, and the bingo hall is located, so the room was a big barn, and consequently was freezing. Which was not good as Queenie had a sore throat and a fever, due to being worn out with elections and the crap that’s going on at work at the moment. So she was in a right mood from the get go.

There were 36 teams with five members on each team. As normal in Canadian public events, there was an initial, interminable reading out of the rules and thanking of everyone who contributed in any way to the event.

When Queenie has hers, she is so going to thank the parish priest for the use of the hall, and then not explain why.

Anyways, there were twelve rounds, with between twelve and twenty questions in each round. Each round was timed – four minutes, three minutes, one was a whopping six minutes.

But here’s the thing. They don’t read out the questions. They give you a sheet of paper with the questions on it. One sheet of paper. For five people.

Hence the need for at least one team member who can read upside down writing. The Queen Mother would have done very well, as this is one of her talents. Actually Queenie is not too bad at it either. Also, being left-handed meant she could write the answers down without putting her hand on the questions.

But how stupid is it? Where’s the fun in fighting over a piece of paper? What’s the point in having a time limit if it means that not everyone gets to have a look at the questions?

Apparently, the pub quiz is not unknown in Nova Scotia, as everyone I talked to was very excited at the thought of having a proper Irish one.

Maybe Queenie could do her idea of a blind dating pub quiz night here??

Anyways, we came from behind and ass-wiped the Daily News team that had led from the start, which was particularly gratifying, and beat various other teams comprising RCMPs, firefighters, radio stations and other stalwarts of the community. As the Halifax televisual celebrity compere put it, proving that not all politicians are stupid. Gee thanks, Fiona or whatever bland tv presenter’s name you had. Should I point out that we scored more on the news round than the goddam news hounds?