Every summer, myself and a group of university pals  go up to my old roommate Natalie ”Ruby” Rubino’s cottage for a weekend of fun: food, drinking, swimming, more food and drinking, and games (this particular group of friends, which includes myself, my sister Kris, Ruby, her boyfriend Dan, and his old roommates, is generally referred to as The Gang). While at Ruby’s cottage, The Gang often combines these elements of fun (eg swimming and “Who Would You Rather…?”; drinking and TABOO; eating and EVERYTHING), and a good time is had by all. My favorite game that The Gang plays at Ruby’s cottage is, hands down, TRIVIAL PURSUIT.

I have been playing this game since I was a very young Jenna. We would play the ORIGINAL Trivial Pursuit at my Nana’s house, and before I was old enough to know any of the answers, it would be my job to secure the teeny tiny little slices of “pie” as they were won. Later, when the 90s version of the game came out,  I was old enough to really play, and I LOVED IT. The purple-haired, black-nail polished, and orthodontia-sporting me had a blast competing against the grownups. On the occasions when I knew something that my Nana didn’t (eg What grunge rocker infamously committed suicide in 1994), she would get very irritated and announce her disgust with the new version of her beloved Trivial Pursuit. Her reaction to the new version of the game wasn’t so different from her reactions to other new things. I recall one memorable evening when she tried to watch the futuristic thriller ‘Minority Report’ with Kris and I: (”What is this crap? What happened to ‘The Wizard of Oz’? ‘Gone With the Wind’? THOSE were movies!”). However, despite Nana’s annoyance with me and the evolution of her favorite game, she quickly learned that it was a good idea to get herself on MY team.

At Nat’s cottage, The Gang feels the same way. They all clamour to be on my team, but we usually play boys against girls. Then the girls always win every pie except for the sports one, and we wait and wait until the boys catch up with us and answer the crucial question about some quarterback or pitcher or whatever and then win.

As you have probably gathered by now, I like trivia and am very good at it. So when I picked up THE BIG BOOK OF CANADIAN TRIVIA, I thought I would for sure know most of the content already. I mean, a) I’m Canadian b) I’m really good at trivia and c) I have a degree in history.

Did I know most of the information in the book? Not so much! It turns out that I am far more ignorant about all things Canadiana than I ever would have expected. Sure, I know the names of the Group of Seven,  I remember that Roberta Bondar was the first Canadian woman in space. But the origin of the name ‘Canada’? Why Canadians say ‘zed’ instead of ‘zee’? The fact that LM Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ (first published in 1908) is still the best-selling Canadian book of ALL TIME? That the Jolly Jumper and the Bloody Caesar are both Canadian inventions?  I had no clue! And that’s only the tip of my ignorance iceberg. You better believe I’m memorizing the whole thing before I introduce The Big Book of Canadian Trivia to The Gang this summer!

To everyone who is reading this that plans to visit a cottage this summer, I suggest you pick up this book to bring along as a host or hostess gift. I plan to! After all,  flowers die and food and booze tend to disappear at a cottage, but your host/hostess AND their future guests can enjoy THE BIG BOOK OF CANADIAN TRIVIA forever!