Smile of the Day Wednesday December 15, 2021: Trivial Pursuit

On this Day:

In 1979, Chris Haney and Scott Abbott developed the board game Trivial Pursuit.

Trivial Pursuit is a board game from Canada in which winning is determined by a player’s ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question they are asked from a card (from six categories including “history” and “science and nature”). Each correct answer allows the player’s turn to continue; a correct answer on one of the six “category headquarters” spaces earns a plastic wedge which is slotted into the answerer’s playing piece. The object of the game is to collect all six wedges from each “category headquarters” space, and then return to the center “hub” space to answer a question in a category selected by the other players.

Since the game’s first release in 1981, dozens of themed editions have been released. Some question sets have been designed for younger players, and others for a specific time period or as promotional tie-ins (such as Star Wars, Saturday Night Live, and The Lord of the Rings movies).

The game was created on December 15, 1979, in Montreal, Quebec, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal’s The Gazette, and Scott Abbott, a sports editor for The Canadian Press. After finding pieces of their Scrabble game missing, they decided to create their own game. With the help of John Haney and Ed Werner, they completed development of the game, which was released in 1981.

The rights to the game were initially licensed to Selchow and Righter in 1982, then to Parker Brothers (now part of Hasbro) in 1988, after initially being turned down by the Virgin Group; in 2008 Hasbro bought the full rights, for US$80 million. As of 2014, more than 100 million games had been sold in 26 countries and 17 languages. Northern Plastics of Elroy, Wisconsin produced 30,000,000 games between 1983 and 1985. In December 1993, Trivial Pursuit was named to the “Games Hall of Fame” by Games magazine. An online version of Trivial Pursuit was launched in September 2003.

Gameplay

The object of the game is to move around the board by correctly answering trivia questions. Questions are split into six categories, with each one having its own color to readily identify itself; in the classic version of Trivial Pursuit, the Geography category is blue, Entertainment is pink, History is yellow, Arts & Literature is originally brown, later purple, Science & Nature is green, and Sports & Leisure is orange. The game includes a board, playing pieces, question cards, a box, small plastic wedges to fit into the playing pieces, and a die.

Playing pieces used in Trivial Pursuit are round and divided into six sections like wedges of pie. A small plastic wedge, sometimes called cheese (like cheese triangles), can be placed into each of these sections to mark each player’s progress.

During the game, players move their playing pieces around a track which is shaped like a wheel with six spokes. This track is divided into spaces of different colors, and the center of the board is a hexagonal “hub” space. At the end of each spoke is a “category headquarters” space. When a player’s counter lands on a square, the player answers a question according to its color, which corresponds to one of the six categories. If the player answers the question correctly, their turn continues; a correct answer on a category headquarters space awards a wedge of that color if the player does not yet have one. Wedges are fitted into a player’s piece as they are earned. Some spaces say “roll again,” giving an extra roll of the die to the player. The hub is a “wild” space; a player landing here may answer a question in any chosen category. Questions must be answered without any outside assistance. Any number of playing pieces may occupy the same space at the same time. A variant rule ends a player’s turn on collecting a wedge, preventing a single knowledgeable player from running the board.

Once a player has collected one wedge of each color and filled up his playing piece, he must return to the hub and answer a question in a category selected by the other players. If this question is answered correctly, that player wins the game. Otherwise, the player must leave the center of the board and try again on the next turn.

The board game has received mixed reviews throughout those years as GameSpot has described the game as “fun because the formula tickles the inner trivia nut in everyone”, The Toy Insider mentioned that it can be “enjoyed by baby boomers, millennials, and everyone in between” and Board Games Land called it “The timeless classic and the godfather of trivia games” (per Wikipedia).

First, a Story:

The police quickly caught the thief who broke into a toy store and stole a board game.

It was a trivial pursuit…

Second, a Song:

The Age of Adaline is a 2015 American romantic fantasy film directed by Lee Toland Krieger and written by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz. The film stars Blake Lively in the title role, with Michiel Huisman, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew, Harrison Ford, and Ellen Burstyn in supporting roles. Narrated by Hugh Ross, the story follows Adaline Bowman, a young woman who stops aging after being brought back to life from death following an accident at the age of 29.

The film was co-produced by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Lakeshore Entertainment. In October 2013, Lively was cast as the title character, with Krieger attached to direct. Principal photography took place in Vancouver from March 5, 2014, to May 5.

The Age of Adaline premiered in New York City on April 19, 2015, was cinematically released on April 24 in the United States by Lionsgate. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many praising the performances of Lively and Ford, and was frequently cited as some of their best work in recent years. It was a modest box-office success, grossing $65.7 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. The film received two nominations at the 42nd Saturn Awards, one for Best Fantasy Film and one for Lively for Best Actress.

One afternoon in San Francisco, Adaline Bowman purchases fake IDs at an apartment before returning home to feed her dog. She then goes to work and opens a box of film reels, which highlight historical events and times. A voiceover ties together the film reels explaining the story of Adaline’s life so far. She was the first baby born in San Francisco on New Year’s Day of 1908, then later married and gave birth to a daughter, only to become a widow after her husband died in a tragic accident during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. Ten months later, Adaline crashed her car when she swerved into a ravine during a snowstorm and died in the freezing lake nearby, but a lightning strike suddenly revived her. From that moment on, Adaline has stayed physically 29 years old.

One night, two suspicious FBI agents attempt to force her onto an airplane for study, but she escapes captivity and realizes that she will have to spend the rest of her life on the run. Ever since, she has changed her identification and address according to the era, while her daughter Flemming to the point appears older than Adaline, ages normally.

On New Year’s Eve in the present year, she attends a party where she meets Ellis Jones, introducing herself as her current alias, Jennifer. He asks to see her again but she refuses, knowing she can never fall in love because she can never have a normal future with someone. The next day at work, Ellis arrives and again asks Adaline to go on a date with him. Finally she accepts.

In a flashback, Adaline is shown pulling up in a cab to a park where a man is waiting, holding an engagement ring. Scared, she asks the cab driver to keep going. Back in the present day, Adaline’s dog falls ill and she begins to ignore Ellis’ calls. He shows up at her apartment but she pushes him away, only to have a change of heart while looking through some old photographs and realizing she doesn’t want to live the same year a hundred times without having a natural life.

They later resolve their argument and Ellis asks Adaline to attend the party at his parents’ house celebrating his parents’ fortieth anniversary, and she says yes. Upon their arrival, Ellis introduces her to his father, William, who recognizes her instantly and calls her Adaline. She appears to recognize him, too, but lies, telling him that Adaline was her mother, who has since died. A flashback shows how they met and came to be in love, soon revealing that he was the man with the engagement ring she stood up that afternoon. One night, Ellis tells Adaline he is falling in love with her and she is irresolute.

The following day, Adaline talks with William outside and he notices a scar on her left hand, and becomes shaken. Another flashback reveals that Adaline cut her hand while she and William were hiking together decades ago and he had stitched it up himself. He realizes that she is truly Adaline and confronts her. She becomes upset, saying she used to be “normal” and doesn’t know what changed her. He begs her not to run, for Ellis’ sake, but she says she doesn’t know how to stay. She flees and returns to the house, writing a note to Ellis while he showers, then she packs her things and leaves. Moments later, Ellis finds the letter and confronts his father, who refuses to explain.

While driving home, Adaline thinks of all the times she has run and suddenly has a change of heart about the way she lives her life. She stops and calls her daughter to tell her she is going to stop running. As she turns the car around, a tow truck plows into her in a hit-and-run accident, causing her to crash in a ravine and being thrown to the ground outside. Freezing and helpless, Adaline dies again. An ambulance arrives and she is revived by the electricity of the defibrillator. Later in the hospital, she wakes up to Ellis, and the two profess their love for one another. Adaline then tells him of her 107 years of life, running and always afraid of her identity being caught.

One year later, Ellis and Adaline are going to a New Year’s Eve party. As she is leaving, she notices something strange in the hallway mirror: her first grey hair, proving she has begun to age naturally again. When Ellis asks if she is okay, she responds: “Yes… Perfect.” (per Wikipedia).

Here is the Trivial Pursuit scene from The Age of Adaline. I hope you enjoy this!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Em53e2p7HQ)

Thought for the Day:

“How does game playing help prevent Alzheimer’s?

Playing games keeps the mind stimulated, which helps your memory function and cognitive functions such as language, attention span, and spatial ability to continue to perform optimally.

Trivial Pursuit is a great game for stimulating memory. It involves answering general knowledge-related and pop culture questions to accumulate points. There are various versions of Trivial Pursuit including: a Baby Boomer Edition, The 80’s Edition, The TV edition, The Star Wars Edition, and The Junior Edition. It also comes in other languages such as French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Polish.” – ALZaids.com (Daily Living Aids for People with Alzheimers).

Have a great day!

Dave & Colleen

© 2021 David J. Bilinsky and Colleen E. Bilinsky