Trivial Trivia

I played in a Trivia Contest this past Friday night. It was a fund-raiser for the South County YMCA. I can't say it was the worst one I've attended, but it was not very good. What makes a good Trivia contest? I've been thinking about that. First, there is an expectation of nominal...oh, I'll call it "professionalism." Things like having enough greeters/money handlers and tables outfitted with scratch paper and pencils. But by far the most important aspect of any Trivia contest is the questions themselves. There are specific difficulty-levels of questions and there are specific catagories of questions. A good mix of these two things make up a fun night of Trivia. Questions that are either too hard or too easy make for a frustrating evening. Likewise, questions in too narrow of a catagory are no fun at all. For example: "What is the date that Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan?" This is a nice general question as far as catagories are concerned, but it's too easy. Therefore, not a good question. If the questions was "What was the name of the Naval Officer in charge of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th, 1941?" That is too difficult, but more accuratley described as too specific. A creative mind can find the right mix of difficulty and specificity to balance it all out. "What was the name of the US Battleship that exploded during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the casualties?" And though this would be considered an "easy" question, it nonetheless qualifies as a good question. One way to gauge a question is your response after hearing the answer. If you hear the answer, "The USS Arizona," and say, "Oh, yeah...that's it" then it's probably a good question. If, on the other hand, you hear the answer and say, "whatever..." well, you get the idea. I've been thinking a long time about developing some Trivia Software. I'll be looking for some good questions. In the meantime, I may be throwing some questions your way, which you must answer WITHOUT using the Internet to look it up first! That would be cheating. Which of the following actors was NOT in the film "Kelly's Heroes?" a) Don Rickles b) Rod Steiger c) Harry Dean Stanton d) Gavin McCleod?