Tonight is the first night of the TRIVIA LEAGUE that B & I joined. Along with the likes of some Twitter friends & The Namby Pamby we will be vying for awesome prizes including $1 milliiion dollars & bragging rights for life. (Just kidding on the $1 million. I do think there are t-shirts involved at some point though.)

I’m hoping this goes well because B is super-uber competitive and sometimes, if he doesn’t win, he gets grouchy about things. I’m also super-uber competitive but I’m also easily distracted by good wine and/or a promise of cupcakes as a consolation prize so I tend to get over it as quickly as I got in an opposing team’s face declaring YOU ARE GOING DOWN! BEHOLD! TRIVIA QUEEN! KISS MY FEET! (Kidding. Kind of.)

I’m excited for a variety of reasons (friends! cocktails!) but the biggest one comes with a huge nerd alert- but I love trivia. I love it! And I’m fairly good at it. I excel at the “Random Crap No One Else Knows” category, as opposed to B who is very knowledgeable at sports & music, or our friend @DrPillai (as known on Twitter) who rocks at Smart Stuff. Or my Uncle who just knows Everything and when we play Trivial Pursuit and he is trying for a pie wedge he has to answer all the questions on the card, not just the question that corresponds to the color of pie he’s trying to win. And even with this handicap he still wins. The only person who knows more about Everything is my Grandma who has- and I’m not kidding here- letters from Milton Bradley thanking her for pointing out errors on Trivial Pursuit questions & answers.

Perhaps this gives you a sliver into my psyche, my family and why I’m the way I am. And why I loooooooove trivia. It has nothing to do with being supremely awesome at it.

Today I’ll be scouring news headlines and re-reading some of my favorite trivia questions which include but are not limited to the following questions. Feel free to proffer up answers in the comments & share your favorite trivia q & a. A prize to follow for anyone who answers all my questions correctly and/or provides a trivia question and answer that is part of our Reign of Awesome. (i.e. is asked in one of our seven weeks of trivia competitiveness) Prizes to be determined based on how many winners there are but I think I have good taste, so you know, enter away.

• Who was Harry Chiti?

• What is special about the colors of the rings on the Olympic flag?

• What is the largest singular (one company), non-military office building in
  the world?

• What is the last line of the movie Gone with the Wind?

• This state has no professional football or major league baseball
  teams in it, but its neighboring states have no less than 7 NFL
  franchises and 6 MLB franchises. Name this state.

• The eastern end of the Panama Canal empties into what body of water?

• Who said, “If you build it, he will come?”

• What two days of the calendar year have NO major (MLB, NBA, NFL,
  NHL) sports games scheduled?

• The most famous naval battle of the American Civil War, called the
  Battle of Hampton Roads, (a Confederate attempt to stop the Union
  blockade)  is more commonly referred to as?

• Who was the real life inspiration for the popular Harrison
  Ford movie “The Fugitive”?

• What auditing firm tabulates & delivers the outcome of votes for
  the Academy Awards?

• What is the world’s largest & oldest coral atoll which was
  re-discovered by James Cook in 1777?

• What is the first MLB team to not win its division, and win the
  World Series?

• Who were the only President & Vice President to run the nation that
  were not elected by the people?

• What does the “S” in Harry S. Truman stand for?

• What writer wrote the following musicals:  Phantom of the Opera,
  Cats, Starlight Express, & Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?