Eastern Riddlers

Retaining knowledge in the information era

Nearly twenty years ago it must be now, I was home visiting Cincinnati when I went with my mom for an evening of trivia at a Knights of Columbus hall to play with a team she’d joined called The Riddlers. As I remember it, David was with me, and the team was excited about having two PhD students added to their roster, although we quickly dashed their hopes due to our lack of general knowledge. Still, we had fun, and since then, we’ve always tried to join up with The Riddlers for trivia nights whenever we’re in Cincinnati.

The composition of the team has changed over the years as people have moved or passed away and new folks have joined. Where the team plays has shifted from the Knights of Columbus hall to different restaurants around Cincinnati. During the pandemic, the team met online, and David and I were able to participate. Each week, some member would come up with the questions and we played against each other. Tom, my uncle, who has become the de facto team leader in recent years, won the majority of these online competitions.

Last week, Tom, David, and I were in Boston, and Tom suggested we play trivia one night at a bar near where we were staying in Cambridge (home of MIT and Harvard). A math friend joined us bringing our team number to four. I insisted our name should be the Eastern Riddlers because I liked how it sounded like a kind of snake. David wanted to be Riddlers East like an English soccer team. Tom sided with me, and so we were the Eastern Riddlers.

I believe there were twenty-two teams total, and while we lagged behind at first, in the final two rounds, we pulled ahead and ended up winning the night.

The Eastern Riddlers taking in the sunset over Boston’s waters.

A return trip

Our prize for being the top team included a free round of drinks, which we turned down because we were ready to go home, and a $25 gift certificate, which we used a couple of days later.

On our second visit, our server regarded us suspiciously when we presented the gift certificate, “I don’t remember you.”

I reminded him he’d seated us right next to the stage and that we’d come in during the afternoon and asked him how early we should arrive. This seemed to stir his memory, but then later, when I was coming back from the bathroom, he approached me and asked in a way that seemed accusatory, “Do you study? How did you win?”

I told him he needed to talk to Tom whose response was, “well, it helps that I’ve lived a long time.”

Spelling bees in Spain

I found out recently that they don’t have spelling bees in Spain because standardized ways of pronouncing vowels in Spanish make it much easier to determine how words are spelled just by hearing them.

While trivia nights with The Riddlers used to involve lots of little slips of paper being handed to the trivia host, now all the answers are submitted through a phone, a device that ironically holds all the answers to the questions.

David and I aren’t particularly good at trivia, but I know plenty of people our age who are. I’m not sure about younger generations, and I wonder if trivia will stay popular in the coming years. As answers become less costly to find, what’s the value of remembering?

One team, two victories

We played trivia in Cambridge on the same night as The Riddlers were competing in Cincinnati. It turns out, both teams won!

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