Chain of Command

I blundered earlier this week! There are actually FOUR literary-themed quizzes coming up in Vancouver. The same folks who brought you Game of Thrones Night at the Ancient House of Biltmore (which was a blast - ed.) are now bringing you A Night In Middle Earth, full of Tolkein trivia. Expect to be quizzed about Tolkeins from J.R.A. to J.R.Z. Drinks, costumes, and burlesque is all in the offering, so light up some Old Toby, then head on down to the Prancing Pony! No word on whether or not Blind Guardian will show up.

Book Report

Alright bookworms, I've got some quiz announcements for you today. A literary-themed quiz? Nope! Two literary-themed quizzes? Nope! THREE literary-themed quizzes? Yup! Since I've wasted your time with this little guessing game, let's go straight to the good news: 

First up, we have another night of Harry Potter Trivia, this time at the Sunset Grill in Kitsilano on Wednesday, April 8th at 7:30. Five dollar entry fee, loads of prizes, and a costume contest! You can buy your tickets ahead of time through brown paper tickets. Who will win this Triwizard Cup?

Next up, The Friends of the Coquitlam Library are hosting their second annual quiz to raise money for the library on Friday, April 10th. Tickets are $25 dollars per person, and teams are of up to 8 people. I didn't get a chance to attend last year, so hopefully I can make it out this time around. The fun starts at 7:30PM at the City Centre branch. 

Finally, the North Shore Writers Festival's 3rd Annual Literary Quiz Night, hosted by CBC's Grant Lawrence, will take place a week later, on April 17th. The show starts at 8:30, and is located at the West Van Memorial Library this year. Last year's was a blast, so I highly recommend that you come down and try and wrest the trophy (really!) from the staff at Black Bond Books. Teams of up to six people.

So, if you like quizzes and books (and quizzes about books), you just might find your schedule quite packed next month. 

Smartside Trivia @ The Portside Pub

THE QUIZ AT THE PORTSIDE IS NOW ON MONDAYS AT SEVEN PM. Furthermore, it is being run by Katie of Quiz Night With Katie fame. The review below is kept as an archive, but is not accurate anymore. Look for an updated review sometime soon.

Where: The Portside Pub, 7 Alexander


When: 8 PM Wednesdays

Web Presence: It merits an occasional mention on the Portside's web page, but not much else

Team Info: Seems to be "bring 'em if you've got 'em"

Prizes: Gift certificates and beer to be had! It looks like they will sometimes give away Canucks tickets, but with the playoffs looming, that possibility is getting less and less likely.

Format: A beefy quiz, with three rounds divided into several sub-categories, probably around 60 questions in total.

Food and Drink: The nautically-themed bar features nautically-themed food, which makes sense. I had a pretty tasty lobster chowder, and everyone's favourite arthopod shows up more than a few times across the menu. There's a selection of fairly standard pub food, but vegetarians may have a tricky time finding something they actually want to eat for dinner. If you're feeling generous, you can even buy Save-On-Meats sandwich tokens to distribute on your way home. The bar is as you would expect, with a better than average tap list and $4 Jameson. You've been warned.

The quiz at the Portside is run by the former hosts at 131 Water, a nearby Gastown establishment whose quiz I quite enjoyed. I hadn't the chance to attend when they were hosting there, so this was my first experience with their quiz. If you are wondering why I keep using the plural third-person possessive, it is because I forgot their names. I'm sorry Vancouver, but you don't always get the pub quiz blog you deserve,

The confines of the Portside were cozy and pleasant, evoking the nautical air that one would expect of bar near the waterfront. Being found in the trendy locale of Gastown meant that you were more likely to find house music than sawdust, more chic clothes than salty dogs. It was a good thing that the tables weren't terrible either, since the quiz started an hour late. In their defense, it was one of the first nights there, and they apologized profusely for the delay.

The quiz itself was an immense one, easily one of the largest in town — if you are looking to maximize the number of questions you get asked, then look no further. There were three rounds, each containing between 20 and 30 questions. The rounds were subdivided into 2-5 categories. A sampler: Food & drink, matching a world leader to their country, movie scenes with actors replaced by cats, and a well-curated music round, evoking classics such as D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does It Feel)."  A nice, broad selection of questions.

However, there was one round which I feel compelled to say something about. The premise was as follows: Order these ten cities from warmest to coldest. The cities are: Hell (Norway), Yakutsk (Russia), Harbin (China), Fort Vermilion (Canada), Fort St John (Canada), Ulaan Baatar (Mongolia) and others. You get the point though. They are all improbably cold places. Is Siberia colder than Mongolia? Than Northern Alberta? Than Northwestern China? It is almost like asking if Seattle or Vancouver or Burnaby gets more rain. How do you even measure it? Coldest single point in time? Average chilliness? How cold it is right now?  We, like most teams, bombed it. It was the toughest matching round since "match the NASCAR driver to their sponsor," which I didn't mind so much. At least that had some facts backing it up.

The takeaway from all this complaining? First off, don't make "put these in order" round. They're awful, one mistake can ruin an entire round for a team. Secondly, if you have to, make the differences fairly obvious, or at least have a few sets that can be ordered in and of themselves. Finally, use a ranking that has an actual definition, or at least say but what metric you're measuring. This smells quite similar to the article Mike wrote on why you don't ask questions about city size.

I hate to end on a complaint, so here's a paragraph break leading into the final summary. Did you know the paragraph symbol (¶) is called a pilcrow? Now you do! Also, even though I didn't like that one round, I thought this was a really fun quiz with a lot of potential. I'll definitely be heading back there sometime soon!

The Cold Hard Facts: I just said it! A fun quiz with a great music round, and will hopefully only keep getting better.

It was cold here once

The Beat Goes On

Good Evening! Even more quiz updates. In standard point form:

• The Waldorf, current hosts of Woo Hoo! Simpsons trivia, is now hosting trivia nights the second and fourth Monday of every month. Mark that in your calendars, if your calendar apps support that level of specificity (and they should).
• IQ 2000 is now hosting at Colony in Kits on Mondays
• I hear there is a J.R.R. Tolkein trivia night coming up in March, but I won't say any more about it.