Splash No. 186 - Knowable Things
Knowable Things
I’ve written in the past about and trivia in general. I grew up watching Jeopardy! and loved to collect random facts to share with people. With my nose always buried in a book, I got pretty good at learning tidbits here and there, keeping them ready to share at any time. As I grew older, I had the goal of knowing a little bit about everything, so that I would be able to talk to anyone about anything, a way to get over my shyness. And to some degree it worked, as my extensive football and music knowledge keeps me in conversation with most people, and as a last resort, I could always return to my encyclopedic knowledge of how nice or bad the weather is today.
For the last few weeks, Jeopardy! has been dominated by champion Amy Schneider, who has won 26-straight games in a dominant way. For those unfamiliar with the show, contestants have two rounds of questions in which they earn or lose varying amounts of money based on correct or incorrect responses. After those two rounds, all contestants with positive totals can wager as much money as they have on the final question. Except, most of the time, Amy hasn’t needed to worry about Final Jeopardy!, since she has usually had such a big lead that no one could catch her. It’s a delight to watch her play, completely in the zone, an endless well of knowledge that never seems to falter. It’s comforting in a way, to be able to watch the entire episode without having to really invest in winners and losers, knowing that Amy will win easily. I throw guesses out here and there, validated when I have the same answer as her.
Outside of the normal Jeopardy! airtimes, I’ve started using a trivia site called Sporcle, which has thousands of user-created trivia games covering any and every topic under the sun. I used to play around on it back in middle school, and the site has barely changed since. Whenever I get overwhelmed or stressed, I play random quizzes, often just guessing about things I know nothing about and learning a few tidbits here and there.
I think more than anything, the world of trivia has become a source of comfort and simplicity, where there are obvious right and wrong answers. Nuance and higher orders of thought are unnecessary when you’re just trying to remember if Birdman won Best Picture or not (it did), or which QB had the most touchdowns in 2013 (Peyton Manning). I can feel like I’m a kid again, where the most pressing issues in my life are whether I can remember some straightforward facts about rocks or clouds in school. None of the information truly matters, and that’s the best part. The word trivial refers to unimportant things for a reason, yet trivia reminds me that even when the future seems overwhelming and scary, there are some things that I can know without a doubt — that the sky is blue, and the grass is green, and ciabatta is Italian for “carpet slipper.”
Drops of the Week
PLAYLIST - december 21 - my songs from december, truly all over the place as usual
ARTICLE - "The Fantasy of Healing" by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal - beautiful piece about healing through video games and fantasy
POEM - "The Decision" by Jane Hirshfield - "There is a moment before a shape / hardens, a color sets."
With each day, we can move closer to a more equitable world. Reminders:
Donate to the family of a victim of police violence Mutual Aid Networks
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Knowingly,
Nikhil