CAMPUS
University Daily Kansan, August 22, 1984
Page 5
Book collects local trivia
By MICHELE HINGER Staff Renorter
Mount Ourea is a rather majestic name for the hill the KU campus covers.
Hogback江 isn't quite as dinginguised but that the hill's original name when KU was established in 1866.
This and other little-known facts about KU and Lawrence are part of a new trivia quiz book due to hit Lawrence in the beginning of September.
"The KU-Lawrence Trivia Quiz Book" was produced by Pat Kehde, coordinator of the university information center, and Phil Minkin, a Lawrence resident with a passion for trivia.
"I've always been interested in trivia," Minkin said, who has lived in Lawrence for about 12 years. "I saw a book about Kansas City trivia in a bookstore last Christmas, and that started me thinking about a book
The book includes tidbits of information about the history of Lawrence, restaurants that used to exist, KU football and basketball stars and Rage, "when Lawrence was a hotbed of protest in the early 1970s.
The first stage in collecting information for the book, Kebbe said, was thinking of subjects that would appeal to a wide audience, and then finding questions — and answers
"There's always been people like me," Minkin said, who collect baseball trivia, or movie trivia or rock and roll.
Groups have always sat around trying to remember an actor's name in a movie, Kelbe said — the current trivia trend is only an organization of a tendency that already existed.
The baby boom in the 1940s is another reason for the recent trivia craze. Kehde said.
A blend of nostalgia and the way the brain accumulates useless information prompts people to crave trivia he said.
"It's a benign curse. I think about all the little stuff I can remember, but yet I failed chemistry three times — I couldn't remember the formulas."
"Now all those people are in their 30s or 40s," she said, "and they're starting to think about the good old
While the quest for trivia may be a passing fad, it is also educational because of the broad range of topics
1. What was Mount Oread originally called?
2. When were the "Days of Rage?"
trivia exposes.
3. What is the number on the train in Central Park?
4. Where was the Dine-a-mite?
"We hope it teaches people to look at things in a different way, and assimilate information," Minkin said. It shows how tools are used into the senses and how little we retain.
Answers: 1 — Hogwag Ridge, 2 — The early 1970s, 3 — 1026, 4 — 23rd Street.
A certain kind of town lends itself to a trivia quiz book, he said.
From January to May, Kehde and Minkin combed the town's libraries and consulted long-time residents to develop a new library.
"I have serious doubts about a Tonganoxia trivia quiz book," he said. "But I don't know, I live there."
The book is targeted toward those who have lived in Lawrence, Minkin said.
Then, during a kitchen-table conference, they graded the 700 questions they had compiled, chose about 500 of the best, and divided the questions into 47 quizzes in the book.
“It’s for those who’ve lived here all their lives, those who hung out here during the ‘Days of Rage,’ or those who just hold Lawrence in a special place,” he said.
"Lots of people gave us ideas for the book," said Koto. "The more people we talked to about it, the greater impact we had."
Some quizzes were submitted by locals, including Chuck Woodding, Lawrence Journal-World sports editor, Katy Armitage, co-author of "On the Hill." David Berkovitz, chairman of the Douglas County Democrats, and Tim Miller, KU lecture of religious studies and activist.
Because KU is located in Lawrence, Kehde said, and because of the character of Lawrence, the trivia quiz beats.
"It's a unique city with a certain charm," she said, "because it has an old hippie quality, an old abolitionist quality."
Pictures highlighting the book's pages include one of Wilt Chamberlain (tallest disc jockey at KLWN), the Opera House in its heyday, (then called the Dickinson Theatre), and the Dine-a-mite, a "Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney version of a college hangout," that was located on 23rd Street and torn down about 1960.
The two-color cover, designed by John Naughtin. University Relations publications designer, combines a downtown Lawrence skyline with the KU campus skyline on a bright blue background.
Phi rhv Tsa Ia', Kende said, 'is just a dish' in the pan. But in the meantime, questions such as 'What is the number of people who will drive Lawrence residents crazy — because they've probably driven past the train thousands of times.'
The latest craze? Take a guess
The trivia友, Kdehde said, is just a flash in the pan.
Staff Reporter
By MICHELE HINGER
The pursuit of trivia is for people who like to collect those little known facts that seem to stick in the memory.
It's also for those who want to have some fun and see if they can remember who played for the New York Rangers, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Knicks in a single season.
Students who've crammed volumes of history and political science into their brains can test their attention to detail with a few memory-ticklers from the board game Trivial Pursuit, produced by Sełchow & Righter.
The idea for the game, which includes about 6,000 questions on subjects divided into six categories, was created on a rainy Saturday afternoon in 1979 by two Canadian journalists. Chris Haney and Scott Abbott.
Nixing Scarable for the afternoon's entertainment, they decided to invent their own game, and spent the next two years combing almanacs, encyclopedias, and old newspapers for material.
NOW TRIVIAL PURSUIT CAN be found throughout
the United States, at toy stores and department stores. In Lawrence, the game is available at several stores.
Larry Cornelius, manager of Fun and Games, 1002 Massachusetts St., said that he received his first order of Trivial Pursuit more than a year ago and it has sold well.
"Extremely well," he said. "It's been quite steady. We're one of the few places in town that have kept it in stock fairly consistently. It seems that just when we're down to one game, another order comes in."
The game can be played by two to 24 players, using the board provided — or radio, as Dave Strout, KLZR with the TPC-C computer.
Strout incorporated Trivial Pursuit questions into his radio program, and every morning at 7:06, listeners tuned in to catch questions such as "What was the first American consumer product sold in Russia?"
Correct answers won listeners concert tickets, albums and T-shirts.
Real stumpers have kept the concert tickets and T-shirts in the KLZR office, Strout said. A prime example is "What is the fastest growing thing in the animal or plant kingdom?"
No one guessed the obvious — the blue whale.
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