Trivia King

It has become a Christmas Day tradition at my in-law's house to play Trivial Pursuit. We usually divide up into two large teams and battle it out. It's all good natured fun and these games have produced some fun moments over the years. In years past the family has made sure my brother Kerry and I were on separate teams. By THEIR estimation (not ours), the Meyer brothers are the two strongest players and it would be unfair to put us on the same team. This year Kerry had to work at the fire department, so it was somehow decided that whatever team I ended up on would have an unfair advantage. Please understand I do not think that highly of myself, but the rest of the family thinks I'm smart because I'm a teacher. The real story is I know a little bit about a lot of topics. In addition to that, I have a good memory for seemingly unimportant details and this makes me a good Trivial Pursuit player. By no means does this make me smart, but if the rest of the family thinks so, well...

Anyway, because of Kerry's absence and the potential for a lopsided team, it was somehow decided that I would be a one man team. That's right. It was me against the whole family. I labeled it "Mick -vs- The Mob". I liked this set up for several reasons. First, I got to decide the category for every question I had to answer. When you're on a team with others you have to sometimes choose a category that other team members prefer. Second, when playing alone there is no possibility of other people talking you out of an answer that you are fairly confident in. This happened countless times. It is so frustrating to know the correct answer only to be overruled by your teammates. Finally, playing alone was something I had always wanted to do. Thanks to the family for playing along.

The game began and to put it simply... "The game was ON!"

The mob jumped out to a quick lead, but I was not worried. I went on a little streak of my own and before long took the lead. Fortunately it was a lead that was never relinquished and I won the game. I'll leave it at that. I won't be gloating over my victory or claiming any intellectual superiority. The game was played in fun and yes, I would have said the same thing even if I had lost.