By Bill Rea

I love trivia, and I always have.

There are a few stipulations though. For example, I don't have a whole lot of use for specialized trivia. Like most school kids, when I was going through the grades, there were some subjects I was better at than others, but the system judged me on the whole package. So while I might have done well in one area, my marks in another course might have stunk the joint out (truth is they usually did), but I was judged on the totality.

The common definition of trivia, as I have always understood it, deals with one's grasp of general knowledge. Obviously, one can't know everything. If that were possible, then we would be able to find some way to make this a perfect world, and that would mean people like me and most of you would be out of work.

A group of my friends get together fairly regularly to play Trivial Pursuits. Since there's usually a large group of us, we have to divide ourselves into teams, usually according to gender, if only to keep things as simple as possible. In such situations, my group looks to me when history questions come up, because by now they well know my interest in the topic. I have also become something of an oracle when it comes to sports and leisure. That's more a matter of lack of interest among this particular circle of friends than particular knowledge on my part.

Thus I was very interested last Sunday night, when the latest edition of Test the Nation was on TV. Demands of work, alas, kept me from watching it at the time, but I figure some smart guy invented the VCR for a reason. In fact, it wasn't until Friday evening that I found the time to sit down, paper and pen in hand, to figure out if I'm as smart as I like to think I am.

I assume some, if not most of you watched this program and actually took the test. In that case, you know there was a lot of activity going on in the studio with various celebrities (some of whom I have actually heard of) taking part, along with various teams, such as one composed of Canadian Forces personnel, or alumni from Reach for the Top.

How did I do? To be honest, I was a little disappointed in myself. I didn't seriously think I'd be able to ace all 50 of the questions, but I was hoping for at least an A grade, meaning at least 40 right or 80 per cent. I didn't quite make it.

I had 37 right, good for 74 per cent, or solid B territory (I base the grading system on what was in effect the last time I was in school. If it has changed in the last 30 years, I cheerfully stand corrected.)

And as they announced various results in the studio, I was feeling a little better. The top score was 46 out of 50, or 92 per cent, but the best team score was 73.5 per cent, meaning I bested all the teams. Bully for me!

Frankly, I thought a lot of the antics that went on between the questions was a bit annoying, as it took away from what I understood was the object of the exercise; namely to give brainiacs like me a chance to shine.

"Enough of this nonsensical hype and let me show off how smart I am," I shouted at the TV at one point, much to the amusement of my wife, who was not taking the test, but was helping me (I did try to be as honest as I could, dutifully marking my self wrong in cases when she blurted out correct answers to questions I probably would have got wrong. I'll be in big trouble when she reads this).

Things actually did not get off to a great start. I got the first question wrong, thinking there were seven time zones in Canada when there are only six, at least according to the people on the TV. It later occurred to me there would be a lot of explaining in order if they got something wrong. In fact, there was one occasion when I questioned the accuracy of the information being presented. In involved what was said in a confrontation between Lyndon Johnson and Lester Pearson. I have read some accounts of the incident, and I'm pretty sure the quote presented, while close and conveying the same basic message, was not completely accurate. It was also unprintable, at least in the pages of a community newspaper.

There was also a question involving the most common nick name applied to a Blackberry. I got that one wrong, and wondered who it was who established something like that as fact. It sounded a little too subjective to me

Since there were no penalties for getting answers wrong (apart from diminished bragging rights), we were encouraged to guess if we didn't know the answers. I resorted to that method more times than I would like to admit, with success about half the time. There were other times when I used a bit of deduction, which is a fancy way for say some of the multiple choices didn't make a lot of sense. I used that method to correctly state a Canadian had invented the caulking gun. But that strategy failed me a couple of times. I didn't know there was any such thing as a Canadian Barbie doll. Owing to my gender and the fact that I don't have a daughter, I would have no real reason to be familiar with such information anyway.

The very essence of involves one's own general knowledge, along with their ability to memorize relatively unimportant pieces of information. That, I believe, is why they call it "trivia."

It did help on the quiz. The question on how Canada got its name was right out of Grade 7 history, with all due credit to my teacher at the time, J.J. Worfolk.

I was also able to remember reading once that it was Paul Anka who composed the theme for the Tonight Show.

This is a knack I have had for as long as I can remember. I couldn't tell you what was said on a particular item at the last council meeting I covered without consulting my notes, but there are lots of other things I could rattle off for you from the top of my head.

In early August of 2005, a local woman casually mentioned to me that she and her husband would be celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary the ninth day of that month. Without missing a beat, I commented that they had a Friday wedding. Look it up. Aug. 9, 1974 was a Friday.

I've had people ask me how I remember such things. Does it really matter? It all seems so trivial to me.