Here at Velsoft, we enjoy trivia. Account representative Cindy poses a daily question to staff on HipChat, and content creation manager Kevin regularly quizzes the sales staff with statistical trivia.

What is trivia? Dictionary definitions include:

  • matters or things that are very unimportant, inconsequential, or nonessential
  • details, considerations, or pieces of information of little importance or value
  • unimportant facts or details that are considered to be amusing rather than serious or useful
  • little-known, insignificant facts

But the definition I like best is from nationaldaycalendar.com: “obscure and arcane bits of dry knowledge as well as nostalgic remembrances of pop culture.” Why am I partial to that one? Because all of the other definitions imply that trivia is unimportant, and to most of us at Velsoft, it’s definitely important!

According to timeanddate.com, “The modern-day usage of the word trivia to mean something of little importance can be traced back to the publishing of the book – Trivialities, Bits of Information of Little Consequence – by British author Logan Pearsall Smith in 1902.”

However, trivia as a pastime didn’t become popular until much later. In the 1940s, a radio program called Take It Or Leave It involved players answering questions that increased in difficulty and prize money. It was a precursor to the TV show The $64,000 Question. In the 1960s, Columbia University students Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky wrote trivia columns for the Columbia Daily Spectator, created inter-collegiate trivia contests, and also wrote a New York Times bestselling book about trivia. The TV quiz show Jeopardy! debuted in 1964.

What most of us will remember is the appearance of the board game Trivial Pursuit, which arrived in the 1980s and further popularized trivia as a form of entertainment.

Because today is Trivia Day, I thought it would be fun to test everyone’s knowledge with trivia about trivia. And since we have the technology available, I made the quiz using Gameo, Velsoft’s interactions builder. I thought it would also be a chance for those of us who haven’t used Gameo before to have a look at it. As a result, each of the 10 questions is in multiple choice format.

See how many you can answer correctly, and don’t look up the answers on Google because that’s no fun. Good luck, and let me know how many you get right!

What’s in the Pipeline

  • Sydney is creating custom eLearning courses and working on custom projects.
  • Ben is working on custom projects.
  • Jan is working on CA course components and eLearning QA.
  • Carol is updating courses and writing blogs.
  • Dylan is creating graphics for custom and internal customers.

Course Count

Courses released this month:

Mobbing in the Workplace

Introduction to HTML and CSS Coding Part 2

Here is the official count of courses for both courseware and eLearning:

Computer SoftSkills Total Courses
Courseware 288 177 465
eLearning 937 175 1112

 

More trivia about trivia

  • The word trivia comes from the Latin term for the intersection of three paths. In the Middle Ages, the word came to refer to the subjects – rhetoric, grammar, and logic – studied by those who followed the Liberal Arts field.
  • In North America, the game Trivial Pursuit sold more than 20 million games in 1984, the highest number in a single year.
  • The first copies of Trivial Pursuit were sold at a loss. The manufacturing costs for the first copies were $75 per game, but it was sold to retailers for $15.
  • In December 1993, Trivial Pursuit was named to the “Games Hall of Fame” by Games Magazine.
  • Trivial Pursuit is sold in at least 26 countries and in 17 different languages.
  • Jeopardy! premiered in 1964 and was broadcast until 1975. The All New “Jeopardy!” aired from 1978 to 1979, and the current version of “Jeopardy!” premiered in 1984.
  • About 230 new episodes of Jeopardy! are produced each year, taping five episodes per day on 46 days.
  • Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek changes his suit five times a day for a different look for each episode that is taped.
  • The Jeopardy! theme song is called Think! and was written by show creator Merv Griffin as a lullaby for his son, called A Time for Tony.
  • Although it’s never happened, the maximum winnable sum in a single game of Jeopardy! is $566,400. A single contestant would have to sweep both boards, find all three Daily Doubles – in the top tier and at the end of each round – make them true Daily Doubles and then wager everything in Final Jeopardy!

Sources:

www.thisisinsider.com

www.thoughtco.com

www.timeanddate.com

https://considerable.com/jeopardy-trivia/