Trivial Pursuits

Steve and I don’t frequent trivia nights in bars and restaurants. I maintain it’s because we want to give the rest of the world a chance to win once in a while. That reasoning might not hold water under further scrutiny, though. We’re pretty good at summoning up the names of every one of Hogan’s Heroes and the first female prime minister of England and the lyrical genius who penned ‘Mairzy Doats,” but during the last few decades we haven’t been paying sufficient attention to pop culture to triumph on the playing field at Gallihan’s Pub or wherever. So the truth is, we don’t play because we fear being trounced.

I personally fare far better playing Wait Wait—Don’t Tell Me! on NPR, and the classic Jeopardy! on TV. From home, that is, without actually entering the fray. I know that were I to ever phone in to the one, or appear in person on the other, I surely would fold like a cheap suit.

Still, I love collecting trivial bits of knowledge for my newsletter, and to sprinkle into my daily convos, and I’m proud to share that Aiden and Peter are following in Nana’s footsteps. The boys have become megafans of Zack D Films, a prodigious collection of 1.9 thousand YouTube videos, which solve mysteries, demonstrate cool stunts, and pose and answer quirky questions: Why Do Snowballs Stick Together? How Do You Break Down a Door? What if a Giant Oyster Ate You? Did the Pharoahs Die Alone? Is it Possible to Swap Brains?

Some of the videos are a bit gross, which cements them as must-viewing for the tween set, but my hat’s off to Zack D. He has created content that piques youthful curiosity about how the world works, and that’s a very good thing.

In fact, were I to design middle school curriculum (btw, call me, McGraw-Hill! I’m available!), I’d be adding Zack D stuff to the otherwise ho-hum factoids that appear on tests. Think of it: young Conor or Tessa or Zenith sits down to an exam that includes both “Who was President during the Civil War?” AND “if you fell from a plane onto a trampoline, would you bounce back up?”

Much funner, no?

But what strikes me the most, is the ever-shifting nature of trivia itself. I mean, when the Magna Carta was written back in 1215, it was considered pretty darned far from trivial, right? But now, the M.C. is just a tidbit (FAMOUS DOCUMENTS for $1000). And I’m sure that, in centuries to come, the people/places/things that are so paramount to us, will become little more than oddities for the trivia buffs of the future.

This perspective is both depressing, and rather comforting (stick with me). Sure, someday Alexander Hamilton might not be recalled as the clever Colonial rapper he actually was, but maybe, if we finally solve the climate crisis, “Global Warming” will be but a dim memory. A stumper trivia question. A Zack D film, even.

Here’s hoping.