My Perspective - Trivial matters

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Published on Friday, February 6, 2015

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

The Neepawa Banner

Last weekend, a group of staff and families from the Neepawa Banner attended the Neepawa Kin Club’s annual Trivia Night.  We’ve been doing this for the last three of four years and as always, we had a great time and learned a few things.

The questions offered something for everyone– a mix of history and pop culture, sports, entertainment, natural history and geography. Having a diverse group, in both ages and interests, gave us an edge and for the first time, our team came out the winners. But even with our diverse group, there were some questions that really got us thinking and some that completely stumped us.

As a fan of trivia, I thought I’d share some of the more interesting questions that came up on Saturday night.

• What house is the queen of England not allowed to enter?  The answer is the House of Commons. Despite being the British head of state, no monarch has entered the House of Commons since Charles I entered in 1642 and tried to arrest five Members of Parliament for treason. While the queen does open each new session of Parliament, which includes both the House of Commons and  the House of Lords, the ceremony always takes place in the House of Lords. The 250 representatives of the House of Commons are summoned to the House of Lords by the Queen’s Messenger, Black Rod.

• Which popular fruit doesn’t actually grow on a tree, but on an herb? If you guessed strawberry, you were wrong.  If instead you guessed banana, you were right! While called a banana tree, the banana plant is technically a herb, because its stem contains no true woody tissue.

• Approximately how many acres is a baseball field, including the outfield? Despite doing some math on the back of our answer sheet, we still came up with the wrong answer.  It’s about three acres.

• What was the original name of the American presidential retreat, Camp David?  The retreat, located near Thurmont, Maryland, was initially called Shangri La. President Dwight Eisenhower changed the name of the retreat to Camp David in honour of his grandson, David Eisenhower. While used by presidents since 1942, Eisenhower hosted the first cabinet meeting ever to take place there and also hosted British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at Camp David.

We also failed to know Nicki Minaj’s real name, which is Onika Tanya Maraj. Our knowledge of groups of birds proved to be especially weak.  For example: we didn’t know that it was a bouquet of pheasants, a charm of hummingbirds, a congress of ravens or a parliament of owls.  We did know that it was a murder of crows.

As always, it was nice to see friends and families come together in a way that celebrates differences. We tend to stick within our own groups of friends. People who are about our age with similar jobs, goals, interests and life experiences. Events such as this one reinforce the value of diversity. Neither young, nor old, male, nor female had all of the answers, we would do well to remember this as we build our communities, businesses and organizations.

For those who knew the answers, we invite you to join our team next year– we’re hoping to make it two in a row.