Trivia World
More Mental Flossing with Sandy
Wood
"I'm from rural Georgia, so I didn't have much of an
education to begin with," says Sandy Wood. Not that you'd
ever know it now.
Now based in a suburb of Detroit, Wood and his wife, Kara
Kovalchik, are the primary research editors for
Mental
Floss magazine, whose
co-founder
we interviewed as well. They also write the back page
quiz that appears in the magazine, as well the daily facts
and quizzes that appear on the Web site.
"When we approached them, at first they were saying,
'This is great, but let's start slow,'" recalls Wood. "But
soon there was one thing they wanted us to do, and then
another, and pretty soon we were working full time, sixty
hours a week!"
The pair approached Mental Floss when it was still
practically a start-up, having tried to flog a book based on
their years hosting a chatroom-based game on AOL. "The
research we did for the book was a solid foundation for us
to approach other people," says Wood, who says he and
Kovalchik wrote 25,000 questions in the eight years they
hosted their AOL game.
Working with AOL also honed the pair's question writing
skills, particularly since the text-based format allowed for
an instant, and often vehement, feedback. "You learn how to
write for all types of people and put them on an equal
basis," says Wood. "For example, you can't have a question
about White Castle hamburgers, because White Castle is only
in the midwest and northeast. Somebody in California will
have no idea what you're talking about.
For Wood, a good question makes you say one of three
things. "It's either, 'Wow, I didn't know that.' Or, 'I used
to know that, but I forgot it.' Or, 'I never did know that,
but I'm glad I do now."
Wood and Kovalchik have adopted a style that is fully in
keeping with the Mental Floss philosophy of making
learning fun. Three sample quizzes produced by the pair are
found below. Next up is a plan to add audio, and perhaps
even video, to the online quizzes. "On AOL, we once had
everybody start watching Airplane at the same time,
and then we asked questions about the movie or threw in
facts. It was a bit like Pop-Up Video."
Wood is always on the lookup for potential quiz ideas. He
wears a portable recorder around his neck and even sleeps
with it beside his bed. The quizzes themselves often follow
tight thematic themes. Wood and Kovalchik brainstorm to come
up with ideas for possible quizzes, then free-associate for
question ideas, followed by a trip to Microsoft Bookshelf,
on which he does keyword searches.
Indeed, the hunt for the perfect question can be as much
fun as answering them. "I find you learn more from the
questions you miss than the ones you get."
It also goes to show that even if you don't "have much of
an education to begin with," you can always learn. And learn
prodigiously.
Correct answers:
Question 1
Jane Pauley;
Question 2
Jane Wyatt;
Question 3 Jane
Russell;
Question 4 Jane
Seymour (Joyce Penelope Wilhemina Frankenberg is
her real name);
Question 5
Jane Curtin. (Prymatt
was Curtin's character in the SNL sketch and subsequent
movie, 'Coneheads').
Copyright 2002-2004 Mental Floss,
LLC, Reprinted with permission
Correct answers:
Question 1
pitchfork is different
(it should have three tines, not four);
Question 2
painting missing (should be on the wall, near the center of
the image);
Question 3
sword in hand (should be
holding a hat instead);
Question 4
hands different (reversed
from their real positions);
Question 5 entire
painting reversed
Copyright 2002-2004 Mental Floss,
LLC, Reprinted by permission
Correct answers:
Question 1
Nitrogen;
Question 2
Monty Python and the Holy
Grail;
Question 3 zero;
Question 4
Mediterranean Sea;
Question 5
William McKinley
(the other three were all born elsewhere in Ohio, as were
Ulysses Grant, James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison).
Copyright 2002-2004 Mental Floss,
LLC, Reprinted by permission
September 2004
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