Celebrating National Trivia Day in Northern Michigan

Quick trivia question for you ”What national day on January 4 celebrates those who store a wealth of (usually useless) knowledge in their brains and who like to spout it off at any given moment. . .  National Trivia Day of course!

According to nationaldaycalendar.com, “[this] holiday recognizes the collectors of unconnected, irrelevant data, facts, history, and quotes each year. They are the ones who usually proffer these sometimes astounding bits of history when friends and family least expect it.” 

Trivia was always important in our home.

When I was young, my dad would watch Jeopardy every evening at 7:30, and on most nights he would correctly answer 90% of the clues. He would then proceed to argue the validity of those 10% he answered incorrectly. My mom and brother and I would watch as well, waiting for the moment when we would know something that he would not so we could shout out the answer with satisfaction.

My parents would both do daily crossword puzzles, and frequently Friday night game night would involve “playing” Trivial Pursuit where whoever was on my dad’s team would be the winner. Any time I could stump either of them on a useless tidbit of knowledge, I was both proud and delighted.

As I have gotten older, I enjoy going to establishments around northern Michigan and trying my luck at the various formats of trivia that these places have to offer. I am a pretty decent teammate as long as the questions have nothing to do with most facets of history, geography, and the sciences. I love to learn new facts and figures, and I love to compete with other locals to see who has more random information stored in their brains.

Here are a few interesting pieces of trivia that you can use to impress your friends and coworkers:

• Teddy Roosevelt loved animals and had many pets, one of which was a hyena named Bill that he received as a gift from Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.
• The bumblebee bat is the world’s smallest mammal. Its average weight is just .06 ounces, and it has a head to body length of a little over 1 inch with a wingspan of just over 5 inches.
• Wally Amos of Famous Amos cookie fame discovered and signed Simon & Garfunkel.
• Dreamt is the only word in the English language that ends in mt.

Feeling pretty intelligent and/or lucky? Wonder how you would stack up against northern Michigan’s brainiacs? Below is a listing of local restaurants and bars who have trivia nights this winter:

Boyne City Tap Room– Mondays from 7:00-9:00

Bier’s Inwood Brewery– Tuesdays from 7:00 -9:00

City Park Grill– Tuesdays from 7:00-9:00

JAX Northside– Wednesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Noggin Room– Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m.

Foundry– Thursdays at 7:00 p.m.

Gypsy Distillery– Thursdays from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30Beard’s Root Cellar– Monday nights at 7:00 p.m. (could not verify if it would be every week