No, really....
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The word arcane may mean known only to a few or mysterious.
In the way that I am about to use it, it means 'obscure'.
"I know a lot of arcane facts."
Obscure. Not prominent. Restricted. Minor.
Trivial, even.
So, yeah, I know a lot of arcane facts. A lot of trivia.
For instance, many people know that the symbol for lead is Pb. But did you know that Pb is an abbreviation of the Latin plumbus?
Yep, that is also the origin of the word plumbing--the connection being lead pipes used for water transport.
Or that the 10th President of the US, John Tyler, in office from 1841 until 1845, still had a living grandson until May of last year--Harrison Tyler, who was born in 1928 when his father was 75. HIs father, the son of President Tyler, was born in 1853 when his father was 63.
Arcane.
So, who was buried in Grant's Tomb? Well, this is a joke originally thrown out numerous times by Groucho Marx. The correct answer is "no one". General Grant and his wife Julia (another iteration of the joke) are not buried but rather entombed above ground in sarcophagi.
Pretty trivial, when you think about it.
Soooo...after this long buildup that is Dickensian in length if not in pathos, where am I going with this?
Simply that I have been putting my trivial knowledge to use recently. About a month ago, a fellow teacher mentioned that she had recently joined a group that competes in a trivia contest weekly, and asked if I would like to try it out as well.
And that is how I spend my Monday nights now. Huddled around a crowded table at a local entertainment megaplex, cudgeling my brains to name the Canadian peak which towers 19,551 feet above sea level--that would be Mount Logan--and scribbling down answers for my side rather than shouting them out. Don't want the other teams to overhear, of course, so we pass around memo pads for security.
Security?
Well, there are gift cards for the winning team each week. So there is that...
But more than the thrill of competition, of besting the opposition, there is the inestimable joy of just hanging out for a couple of hours with a group of people with a shared purpose.
Moving to Texas almost 15 years ago was difficult not because of the 800 miles pounded out with a UHaul in a day but because of the 12 hour distance from my friends and family. Living in the same area for so long, I had developed a close group of friends. It was wrenching to leave.
That is why I look forward to Monday nights at Home Run Dugout and the Evolution of Quiz.
It is not for the games but the company that I look forward. For the jokes and the exhilaration of getting one right and the agony of missing a gimme like Marie Antoinette's favorite pink flower. Ok, yeah, a rose, but that is so....predictable.....
And even a bustling town like Katy, with its 350,000 souls, seems a little smaller. I saw Richard in Costco a couple of weeks ago, Kevin last weekend in HEB. And although our 'hail fellow well mets' share little of substance beyond 'great game last week, see ya next Monday!', an unexpected encounter with a new friend is a treasure beyond accounting.
It makes the world a bit smaller.
Friendlier, even.
And that, my friends, is
NOT TRIVIAL.
