This past weekend found me in Philadelphia to give a talk at the Philadelphia Travel Show. I was excited about my talk on exploring Boston and New York, but I was really jazzed to finally meet Arthur Frommer of the famous Frommer’s guides. I wrote a book for the Frommer’s imprint a few years back (“24 Great Walks in Chicago”) and it was a delight to meet the Father of All Us Travel Writers.
I was a bit nervous about asking Mr. Frommer to sign a copy of my book, but he was most gracious and he came in close for a great photo as well. After I sent the photo to my friend in Boston via my phone, she commented that he had “spry and mischievous eyes”. I am going to guess that Mr. Frommer would find that to be a great compliment.
Mr. Frommer opened the show up on Saturday morning with some remarks on the world of travel and I was the closing act on Sunday afternoon. You never really know who will show up to a talk at these types of events, and I’ve had everyone from local politicians to journalism students come hear me talk about train travel in the United States, the history of cities, or the world of public art.
The set-up for this talk was fairly basic, but after several years of giving talks, I have basically come to understand that anything can happen. And sometimes you have to improvise an impromptu trivia contest. Before stepping up to the dais this time, event planner and conference impresario Jeremy Garrett told me that we had a three day, all-inclusive casino and resort package in New Jersey to give away as part of my talk. Jeremy had already planted the Magic Ticket under one of the chairs in advance of my talk. Now the Magic Ticket was in this case a sugar packet obtained from the convention cafe, and he had taped it to the underside of one of these chairs.
Midway through my talk, I made an announcement into my Britney Spears/Madonna/Magic Shiatsu Knife Chopper headset: “We have a bit of a surprise for you folks this afternoon. One of you has already been selected for a very special prize. You don’t know it, but we managed to select someone without even getting your Social Security number.” I thought the Social Security reference was a good one, but clearly I had missed my mark by a mile. Ah, if I had only heard crickets.
I went on to tell the audience that they should look underneath their seats for an item taped to the bottom. Now here’s the problem with this whole setup: “What if no one is sitting in the seat with the Magic Sugar Packet Ticket?” That’s a problem, pure and simple. And this time, no one was in the seat that hid said sugar packet. Another interesting thing happened as people began ripping off the seat instructions/federal warning/flammability notice from the underside of their chairs. It’s been many years since I got up and close to one of those notices but I imagine it says something like this:
THIS CHAIR IS ONLY TO BE USED IN A MANNER AND SETTING APPROPRIATE TO ITS BASIC FUNCTION AS A PLACE OF REST AND RELAXATION. IT SHOULD BE NOT USED IN A CIRQUE DU SOLEIL PRODUCTION, TO MAKE A MILITARY-ISSUE FORTRESS, OR FOR USE IN A SENIOR YEARBOOK PHOTOGRAPH. IF YOU HAVE AN UNOBSTRUCTED VIEW OF THIS NOTICE YOU HAVE NOT WON A THREE DAY, ALL-INCLUSIVE CASINO AND RESORT PACKAGE IN NEW JERSEY
Well, Jeremy had realized that the sugar packet was in fact on a chair between two women, so he walked up to me and informed me of this situation. Stepping into the audience, he told the two women that we would have a best-of-three trivia contest. I have been told since I was a young boy that I would be a fine game show host, so this idea was quite appealing. Jeremy gestured to me on the stage and asked for the first question.
Bam, this was a no-brainer. We were in Philadelphia, and one of my personal heroes is Benjamin Franklin. I called out “What year did Benjamin Franklin die?” Okay, it’s bit of an odd choice, but I felt that it was a good warm-up. Both women’s guesses were within a few years, but neither of them got it spot-on (NB: Franklin died in 1790)
O for one. What’s next? I dug deep into my roots from the Other Coast, and said without hesitation: “What’s the capital of Washington state?” I always feel the need to add “state” to such a question on the East Coast, because the default Washington in these parts is the one with all the lobbyists and Ben’s Chili Bowl. The first woman said “Olympia”. Now herein lies another problem with this trivia battle royale as I set it up at the Philadelphia Travel Show. What if one person gives the correct answer AND THE OTHER CONTESTANT SECONDS THE FIRST CONTESTANT’S ANSWER. That’s exactly what happened with my attempt to engage in a bit of geographical tricker-y. The second woman seconded with “Olympia” and we had a tie game on our hands. One and one.
Question Number Three was next. We needed to keep things fresh and lively, and my mind wandered to Maine, as it is wont to do. I remembered one of my favorite bits of Maine trivia; it gained its freedom from the oppressive yoke of Massachusetts in 1820 when it became its own state. So naturally I asked: “What year did Maine become a state?” The first woman answered also immediately with “1820”, and there was nary an iPhone or massive encyclopedia in sight. I was impressed. The second woman had started consulting with her husband and replied “1890”.
Maine did in fact become a state in 1820, and we had a winner. There was a round of rather mild applause, and the first woman was off to a fabulous visit to a casino and resort. While it was not the end of my talk, this event was the highlight of this particular talk and I was glad that I carry plenty of useful trivia around in my head.
