The Desk Set

Trivial Matters, Major Fun

Sep 03

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So, the second annual Library and Literature Trivia Night at Black Rabbit was just as silly, nerdy and controversial as the first. Unlike last year, we escaped without hatemail, but this year brought its own new and special challenges.

The competition was fierce, and librarians – to nobody’s surprise – are extremely competitive, and really, really into rules and regulations. After a tough fight, first place (and a $25 bar tab from Black Rabbit) was awarded to the clever bunch from team Dusty Discards who scored an incredible 22 out of 32 possible points! Congratulations to the winners:

• Susie Heimbach
• Andie Nicolay
• Andrew Collins
• Nancy Heimbach
• Jeff Gramm
• Ursula Murphy

If you see any of them on the street or behind the circulation desk, ask them anything you like about graphic novels, Spanish lit, or songs about librarians; they will almost certainly know the answer.

Huge thanks to MC Cadillac French for the commentary and for making the long trip from New Orleans, Kent at Black Rabbit for the bonus shots, Alex for her help with scoring and hosting, and to these smarty-pants librarians and book nerds for their help writing questions: Christian Zabriskie, Betsy Bird, Alex Crossier, Tom Forget, and Jen Yao.

Much to the chagrin of second place team Big Money Hustlaz, we didn’t need to use our tie-breaker round. So, for all of you who couldn’t make it on Thursday, here are those unused extra tough tie breaker questions. Think you know the answers? Leave a comment and prove how smart you are. And no fair googling. If you’re a true sport, you’ll play fair.

Good luck!

1) The Braille system consists of characters or cells consisting of how many dot positions?

2) Name any of the head librarians of the Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, active in the third or second centuries B.C.E. (Hint: In the Libraries early years, several of the head librarians were known in their own right as Homeric scholars.)

3) What popular DC Comics character and Television Superfriends member did artist Ramona Fradon make her reputation drawing?

4) These are the first lines of which novels? (receive one point for each correct title.)

a) It was a pleasure to burn.

b) Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.

c) It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

d) I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies.

5) Which of the following famous lines is NOT from Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

a) the play’s the thing

b) dog will have his day

c) upon a wheel of fire

d) what a piece of work is a man

e) words, words, words