Triva. THE Trivia. It's coming!

First article to appear in the lead up to Trivia in two weeks:

For 37 years, the self-proclaimed world's largest trivia contest has attracted thousands of fun-loving players to central Wisconsin. It will again _ thanks to some extra grit from the guru who writes the questions.

It goes into some personal information about Jim Oliva, the main contest writer, that he had alluded to in official communiques. Interesting to us long time players, I'm sure.

Less than two weeks now... it's getting busy here with preparations in full force.

The answer is: The all-time leading scorer on "Jeopardy!"

Q: Who is Ken Jennings?

The champion Jeopardy player has a book (Brainiac), a website, and his very own weekly Trivia Quiz. It's a 7 question quiz run by email, and you can sign up here (in the little red box on the left hand side below the navigation).

I recently signed up myself. It's a good quiz - some easy questions, some tough ones, and the 7th is always a "what do these things have in common" stumper that takes some time to figure out.

As the intro to the email says, you're supposed to be on the honor system and answer the quiz to the best of your ability sans Google. That's the way I've tried to play Ray Hamel's Trivia Question of the Day (also by email). With that, I'll reply with my best guess. If I don't know it, I may do some searching to find out the answer, but then I don't reply. That way, I feel good about the ones I get, and then I'm not AS tempted to spend time on researching if I don't have the time.

Of course, once Trivia comes around, the Google option is back on the table. The World's Largest Trivia Contest is a whole different animal.

I don't know what's involved with the supposed "leader board" on the Ken Jennings site or if high quiz scores earn you anything but bragging rights on his message board. If anyone wants to fill me in, please post a comment.

Happy Trivia, everyone!