You would think that with all the questions librarians get as part of their chosen profession we'd be sick of coming up with answers and would abhor an evening of trying to recall trivia for funsies. Well, you'd be wrong. In some people the urge to answer questions and find solutions to problems is so strong it's what drew them to librarianship in the first place... and there's no turning it off (trust me, I've tried).
And so it was that I and my team mates launched forth into the WORD quiz last night with a sort of voracious nerdiness. I'll be honest. My literary trivia knowledge is probably better than the average person's but only fair to middling in the strata of librarian know-it-alls. But this never stops me from wanting to win and whispering answers like an overly competitive, stressed out phantom.
Last night's event at Tūranga featured a crowd full of librarians, booksellers, book clubs, writers and reading enthusiasts and with Tautoru/TSB Space decked out in blue and green mood lighting and tinsel there was a party atmosphere (admittedly of the bookish "everyone here wants to be at home in bed by 10pm" variety).
Ray Shipley, former library colleague, all around good sort, steered proceedings though in their charmingly anxious way, "is everyone having fun?" becoming the theme of the night. At various points tinsel decorations made dramatic overtures of falling down and some fairy lights actually did and it only added to the excitement (low level excitement being the most suitable kind for a crowd of book nerds).
I've done a lot of quizzes in my time and for me they should have the following key ingredients:
- Punny, funny team names (Prose before Hoes was my fave last night)
- Some easy questions to make you feel clever
- Some questions that you can get right but you have to work for it (can you list off the names of all 6 dogs from Hairy Mclary* without giving your memory a good jogging?)
- Some questions so niche the best you can do is make a random guess
- Some interesting facts that you didn't know (Did you know author Tessa Duder (nee Staveley) won a silver medal in swimming at the 1958 Commonwealth Games? I certainly didn't)
The Lost the Plot quiz had all of these but also spot prizes (my team mate won a copy of Barbara Else's memoir), and in the half-time break each team had to write an ode to a random object that had been placed on their table. My hat goes off to team "Complicated Trousers" whose ode to a jar of mayonnaise was terrific and managed to use the words "chaise" and "malaise" *poetry finger snaps*.
Indeed, a good time was had by all, especially team Biblio-technical Knockouts... because we WON!
The WORD Quiz night, Lost the plot!, has been won by Donna Robertson, Megan Clayton, Ned Matheson and Moata Tamaira - also known as the Bibliotechnical Knockouts. A great night was had by all, w thanks to Ray Shipley and Melanie Dixon, @ChristchurchLib @PegasusBayWine #wordchch pic.twitter.com/kuTFDzMark
— WORD Christchurch (@WORDChCh) August 23, 2023
Behold, this magnificent, whimsical trophy!
And so I can continue to hold my librarian head high.
Lost the plot? Not this time.
Find out more
- WORD Christchurch website and 2023 programme
- Follow @WORDChCh on Twitter
- Follow WORDchch on Instagram
- Like WORD Christchurch on Facebook
- Our WORD Christchurch 2023 page
Quizzical stuff
*Hairy Mclary, Bottomley Potts, Hercules Morse, Bitzer Maloney, Muffin McClay, Schnitzel Von Krumm.
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