Polk County
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Polk County Itemizer-Observer • June 22, 2016 5A
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Thursday night, trivia players enjoy dinner while contemplating the answers to the first round of questions at Pressed Coffee & Wine Bar’s weekly event.
TRIVIA TIME!
Increasingly popular, Thursday ‘Trivia Night’ at Pressed in Dallas is celebrating its one year anniversary this week
By Jolene Guzman
Test your knowledge
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Do you know
which traditional, popular
Christmas song was origi-
nally written for Thanksgiv-
ing?
David Shein does and
now so does the entire
crowd that packed into
Pressed Coffee & Wine Bar’s
back room for the Thursday
Night Trivia contest.
Shein serves as the “trivia
master” for the weekly event
that is growing in popularity,
in part because of how
much fun he has emceeing
the game.
Shein gives the answer,
with a little pause for sus-
pense: “Jingle Bells.”
The room erupts in a
combination of cheers and
groans. That would happen
frequently during the night
as teams learned whether
their answers were correct.
Shein, once a contestant
on “Jeopardy!” and winner
on the trivia game show
“Win Ben Stein’s Money,”
now enjoys delivering the
questions more than an-
swering them.
“One of the most fun parts
of it is watching people’s re-
action when you read the an-
swer,” he said. “Invariably
someone somewhere is say-
ing ‘I told you that was it! I
told to you write that down!’
It’s very entertaining. For me,
it’s more fun than playing.”
Shein’s trivia skills aren’t
rusty by any means. Brian
Dalton, Dallas’ mayor and
frequent trivia player, said
he tested the host recently,
having him deliver the most
famous lines from a list of
100 movies.
“There were witnesses,
my wife, his wife,” Dalton
1. What American novelist is responsible for creating
Jurassic Park and the TV show “ER”?
2. What is the capital of New Zealand?
3. On average, how much does a baby elephant weigh:
150 pounds, 200 pounds or 250 pounds?
4. What four annual tennis events make up the Grand
Slam?
5. What Western leader used the expression “Trust, but
verify” when negotiating with the Soviet Union?
6. What common expression means all of the follow-
ing: to rob, to support, to delay and to display?
*See answers below
JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer
Trivia master David Shein asks a question during a round at Thursday trivia night.
Final Answer
What: Thursday Trivia
Night.
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Pressed Coffee
& Wine Bar, 788 Main St.,
Dallas.
For more informa-
tion: https://www.face-
book.com/PressedCoffee
or call 503-751-1666.
said. “Out of 100, he must
have gotten nine out of
(every) 10.”
“Yeah, but they are very
famous, all of them,” Shein
humbly proclaimed.
Dalton didn’t let him get
away with it.
“I made it hard for him. I
didn’t read the line and have
him tell what movie it’s
from,” he said. “Anybody
could do that. I gave him the
movie and asked him what’s
the famous line?”
Shein researches all the
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Teams are given cards to write answers on and keep score.
questions for trivia night —
using books, the Internet,
Trivial Pursuit games and
player suggestions — but
don’t be intimidated.
“It’s not a high-pressure
thing. It’s not like being on
Jeopardy!” Shein said. “I do
want to make the questions
hard enough that people
don’t just ace them. But my
overriding goal is to make it
fun. I think that is why peo-
ple keep come back.”
So far, that has been the
case. Thursday had 13
teams — around 100 peo-
ple — vying to be trivia
champs.
“This is one of our bigger
crowds, but it been like this
now four or five weeks run-
ning,” Shein said. “It seems
to be gaining in popularity.”
The rules are fairly simple.
Shein keeps a running score
for teams through the five
rounds of 10 questions. The
team with the most points
wins.
The questions are general
knowledge, ranging from
history to science, sports to
pop culture. Each event has
a theme, which one round’s
questions are dedicated to.
Thursday, the theme was
holidays, thus the question
about the origins of the song
“Jingle Bells.”
Sprinkled throughout are
puns or riddles Shein adds
to keep things light.
“Do you know what you
get if you drop a piano down
a mine shaft?” Shein asks,
and then delivers the cringe-
inducing punch line. “A flat
miner.”
“I used that one about a
month ago,” he said. “I have
a personal theory that the
louder someone groans at a
pun or any bad joke, the
more likely they are to run
out and tell the next five
people they see.”
Perhaps that explains the
growth of the tournament,
which will be marking its
first anniversary with a cele-
bration Thursday.
Pressed co-owner Rachel
Phelps said when trivia
night began, there were no
expectations.
It quickly grew into a hit,
and had to be moved to an-
other room because there
was no place for other cus-
tomers to sit, she said.
Now the back room is get-
ting crowded as more teams
come to test their knowl-
edge.
Next week’s theme is
“acronyms and abbrevia-
tions” and Shein can’t wait
to see the creative names
teams come up with based
on that.
Probably almost as much
as players look forward to
his questions.
“As long as we keep mak-
ing it fun, they will keep
coming back,” Shein said.
Answers
1. Michael Crichton
2. Wellington
3. 200
4. U.S. Open, French
Open, Australian Open
and Wimbledon.
5. Ronald Reagan
6. Hold up.
Women’s Club saves Indy building
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — The
Ash Creek Arts Center is no
longer in jeopardy of losing
its facility at the old Inde-
pendence library — a fact
that many were unaware
was even a possibility.
The Polk County Service
Club, also known as the
Women’s Club, granted the
city of Independence rights
to use the building, 311 S.
Monmouth St., as a library
in 1929. After the city built a
new library in 2003, the old
building was used for
Friends of the Library book
sales, and later as the head-
quarters for Ash Creek Arts
Center — not the original
purpose of a library.
The matter got more con-
fusing when members of the
Women’s Club and board
members from the arts cen-
ter began looking into the
old deed.
“We have found a won-
derful mystery recently,”
said Traci Weston, president
of the service club. “We are
here to celebrate. In 1929,
we attempted to dedicate
that building to the city. We
have found out that we have
not. We dedicated the land
this building (the club-
house) is on.”
With collaboration by
Margaret Tomlinson, director
of the Ash Creek Arts Center,
Nancy Lodge, Women’s Club
member and Independence
city councilor, Independence
City Manager David Clyne
and attorneys, the matter
was sorted out, Weston said.
She said it was the
Women’s Club’s inten-
tion — even in 1929 — for
the old library building to
benefit the public.
On Friday, it was rededi-
cated to be used for art, liter-
ature and education.
“ T h e Wo m e n’s C l u b
would have been within
their rights to take that
building back,” Tomlinson
said. “Because of the gen-
erosity of the Women’s Club
and their appreciation of
and realization of the impor-
tance of arts and literature
and education, now we have
a building that is secured for
community use for those
purposes.”
Clyne said the city would
be a great steward of the old
building.
“It’s a great building; it’s a
beautiful old building,” he
said. “I’m glad to give these
old buildings life so it can re-
main a beautiful old build-
ing. When they don’t get
used, they tend to fall apart.
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Members of the Women’s Club will help ensure the Ash Creek Arts Center is no longer
in jeopardy. The building was rededicated on Friday.
So give them all the life you
can to keep this beautiful,
historic downtown.”
The deed also was modi-
fied to include that if the
Polk County Service Club
should ever dissolve, the city
would gain permanent pos-
session of the building.
Now, the city will have to
work at a new name for the
building, rather than refer-
ring to it as “The Old Inde-
pendence Library,” Clyne
said with a laugh.