Monday, August 3, 2009

Trivial pursuit

The niece's  somewhat random question on Beethoven's life brought forth some happy memories from a past life in the quizzing circuit way back in school and college. When knowing and spouting trivia was considered cool. Nerds that we were! But there was many a cute trivia that I got to know only because of quizzing. The one about the Asimov/Clarke treaty. The one about Newton being a member of the British parliament and the only words he said during his term were 'Close the window'. That the BMW insignia actually depicts the white nose of an airplane against a blue sky. That Persis Khambatta was a Miss.India turned super-model turned Trekkie. That Jughead had a cousin called Souphead. That Playboy's first issue was undated because Heffner thought there wouldn't be a second issue and that he had wanted to call the mag 'Stag Party' (yikes!). That Wassim Akram's wife never watched cricket although she counseled many of the players in the Pak team. That Baywatch was at one time the series that was dubbed into the most number of languages. That Heisenberg's epitaph read 'He lies here somewhere'. Right now I'm lying here thinking about all the juicy questions that I liked or nailed all those years ago. Do you have a favorite trivia piece that you like to spout given half a chance?

6 comments:

  1. there used to be. all that trivia got erased by that one complicated equation that i put together:
    a.k.a
    which dal for making what dish
    MiM

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  2. This one stuck in my head from somewhere recent...

    Ida Rosenthal was the inventor of the brassiere, who also brought in the concept of cup sizes. What was the name of the company she founded?

    Maidenform

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  3. Once in 4th std, we had a General Knowledge test, and we were asked "Who is geet sethi"?

    And I wrote, "SHE is a billiards world champion..."

    Yes, guess who royally sucked in GK?
    (Hey in my defence, I *did* get everything else right. Just mixed up the gender! :P)

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  4. MiM: True piece of trivia that! :) Since we are on the topic, there's that piece on Jockey as well. They churned out some special stuff for NASA to suit the weightlessness. ;)

    Miss M: Why do you think I hide my face when speaking Hindi? Gender confusion happens all the time. :)

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  5. My favorite is from the Bournvita Quiz Contest.

    Q: What is common between Goutham Buddha, Rajiv Gandhi and Vinod Khanna

    A: They all had sons named Rahul

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  6. cluelessness: Good one. Your comment makes me write a whole post on Rahuls. ;)

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