Puzzle Notes

Dear Friends:

Last week we talked about easy questions, and left off wondering what makes an easy question enjoyable. An easy question can help a solver discover the theme of a trivia puzzle, but what else should it do? Ideally, it should be enjoyable. Clear and well-written with some some zip, maybe a playful tone or unexpected voice, perhaps a pun. But if it can't be that, it should at least try to educate.

Consider Question A: What instrument has 88 black and white keys? Not a whole lot of educating going on.

Consider Question B: Alicia Keys was born as Alicia Cook, but her professional name makes a lot of sense because of her proclivity for tickling the ivories on what 88-key instrument? We'd expect most people to know the answer is piano, but this question offers a few other nuggets to stash in your trivia treasure bag. Maybe you didn't know Alicia Keys' real name. Or, maybe you never quite connected "Keys" to piano. Or, maybe proclivity is a new vocab word for you.

So that's our basic formula for easy questions. Take a well-known fact, spice up the style, mix in another trivia tidbit, and serve.

AQCAG

Our All Questions Correct Answer Getter from our April 19 puzzle is Dan Katz. Be proud of yourself, Dan.

Trivia Puzzle #8

Today's puzzle is from Forest Walker Davis. Forest lives in Eugene, Oregon where he runs several live pub quizzes as FWD Trivia and serves as the quizmaster of The Conundrum, a weekly quiz show on NPR's KLCC. He is unreasonably fond of homegrown tomato sandwiches and people who are passionate about esoteric things.

This is Forest's first puzzle for AVCX. It's seven questions and includes coffee, a trip to the library, and a beer. Sounds like a lovely Saturday to us. We hope you enjoy, and Forest, we'd love to have you back!

Until next time,

T.J., Karen & The AVCX Spiders from Mars

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