The irony is not lost on me that a Trivia Bee benefiting the education of our district's students (Tower Theatre, February 20, 2010) should be rife with errors of all kinds: procedural, factual and typographical. Here are some suggestions for next year's Trivia Bee organizers to ponder.
* Ask fewer multiple-choice questions and more free-form answer questions. This will reduce the opportunity to misspell answers such as "Vic Atiyeh" and "Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec." It will also eliminate some of the "gimme" questions. (Is that a picture of Wolverine, Superman, or Spiderman? Is that Gary Larson's signature in the corner of the Far Side cartoon?)* If the rules say audio clues will be played twice, then do it. Don't include the length of the audio clue as part of the 20 seconds to write down the answer. Speaking of audio, play music during every answering interval so the contestants can't overhear the other teams or the audience. ("Dueling Banjos" is not suitable because it has only sporadic notes of music in the first 20 seconds of the song.)
* Edit the questions more closely. The B&B Complex fire was never in the Ochoco Forest.
* Position the announcer at the front of the stage facing the contestants, so he can see their answers and taunt/praise them appropriately.
On the positive side, the food from Zydeco was fantastic and the band was superb. I liked the addition of the "buy an apple" mulligan, and I'm sure the Education Foundation for the Bend-La Pine Schools will do great things with the funds raised. Congratulations to the Skyline Dental Spit Suckers on the win!
