Skip to main content

10 Questions and tea with Dan Blim

 TALKING TRIVIA and SHOP 


By Tim Rich


I recently caught up with Smarter How’s Dan Blim and he not only made D2 team of the week, but TOTW Overall in all of OQL USA Season 11 Week 1. It just so happens he wrote the Week 3 Friendly set. 


Dan is an original member of Smarter How and began their Season 1 in Division 3 of OQLUSA along with my team The Orphans Have a Real Heavy Rep. We lost a nail biter in Week 8 45-43. Their Captain Fred Bush scored an amazing 24(7) against us.


Time is precious but I was able to ask 10 major questions so you all will get to know Dan the trivia player a little better.



RICH:  How did you like the week one set and have you ever made OQL TOTW OVERALL for the highest score of any seat in the league?


BLIM: As always I enjoy the questions—interesting things to learn, the pleasure in recalling something. I’ve only made TOTW on a couple occasions, and never the overall TOTW, so it feels a bit bizarre still to be in that position. Just the right questions at the right time, really.


RICH:  How did you first get into OQL? Did you know your teammates?


BLIM: My trivia hobby really started during the pandemic. I’d done it in high school and college, but never knew it existed beyond that except Learned League, which my friend Nick introduced me to. So that was a nice surprise. It was also a nice surprise to discover I’m a stronger player than I was in college. Most of our team are Swarthmore alums, so I did know them through that; the fifth player is a new friend I made through friendlies, and am very glad I did.


RICH: Do you play bar trivia and if so, which is your favorite spot where you live?


BLIM: At SporcleCon, I wisely put that I live in Columbus on my name badge, then ran into Lauren Manton on my way out of the bathroom, so she and Ryan invited me to join their team. I’ve also gotten to play bar trivia in Denver and NYC with other OQL friends, which has been a really lovely way to feel connected to the community.


RICH:  Have you ever been on a game show?


BLIM: Never! I keep trying, so maybe one day. I did get cast as a dancer in the movie The Village, so that’s my sole screen credit (actually, I am not credited, so “appearance,” really).


RICH:  Of all the online competitions, which is your favorite and why?


BLIM: I love the puzzling aspect of Connections, the collaborative aspect of Quiz Nations, and the many clever quads of pop solos. I also have enjoyed writing sets and hosting Zoom trivia (it’s coming back I promise!).


RICH:  In week 1, on your way to TOTW, I heard your Bon Jovied a pair that you had written for the Week 3 Friendly?


BLIM: Ha! Yeah, the day before we played my team playtested it, and then what should come up but the pair about Catalonian pooping Christmas traditions I’d written. My aunt and uncle got a caganer when they were in Spain, so that’s where the seed to write a pair on it was planted. I’m still mad I had to replace it, but TOTW is a pretty great consolation.


RICH:  If you could have dinner and play trivia with any five people, who would they be? Dead or Alive.


BLIM: I’m definitely picking 5 of my closest friends in OQL, and I’d prefer them alive. But there’s more than five contenders, so they’d have to be lotteried so I didn’t have to actually choose.


RICH:  What is your favorite trivia team name?


BLIM: As a classical music fan, Las Triviatas is pretty great. Of the ones I’ve come up with, still pretty proud of Now Is the Winter of Our Discotheque this past SporcleCon.


TIM:  Besides trivia, what are a few of your favorite things?


I will happily geek out with anyone here about board games, film, Great British Bake Off (or baking in general), 21st century classical music, and Broadway.


BLIM:  Which role in a Broadway musical would you want to perform?


I do not love performing, but some characters I love most are Paul in A Chorus Line, Louise in Gypsy, Amalia in She Loves Me, and Bobby in Company. 


RICH: Thank you for chatting, good luck in Division 2, and I’m sure I’ll see you in a future Friendly and most likely TOTW.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Breaking down the Full Houses

In OQL USA Season 16 Week 4, nine players got full houses, a high number indeed.  I caught up with Smarter How’s Dan Blim after he achieved a 21(8) full house against Sunday in the Park With George Costanza.  Tim: Is this the greatest individual performance in your Trivia career? Dan: It’s definitely up there, particularly in terms of individual performance! There’ve been some memorable wild guesses, like randomly picking the name Kevin as a given member of the Pentatonix (just seemed like the name of a kid in the 90s who’d join an a capella group?), some deep cut knowledge I’m really proud of pulling, but on a larger scale it’s pretty high. But I also like the team aspects of OQL, and my Smarter How? colleagues have all had amazing games, impressive pulls, and as the 3rd member to get a full house, I’m now pulling for the other two! Tim: During the game, did it cross your mind that you were headed towards perfection? How much pressure were you feeling during round 8? Dan: It ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spilling the sweet tea with Greg Fanoe

 I recently ventured down to Tampa to interview Greg Fanoe who made TOTW in Season 17 week 8 of OQL USA. This is his fifth time making team of the week and he was the only one to get a full house on the set.  He also got a full house in OQL UK on 3/18, making TOTW. I met up with him at one of Tampa's first Michelin starred restaurants, Rocca in Tampa Heights. Their tableside mozzarella cart was fascinating and  I tried the Agnolotti, a stuffed pasta that I had never had before. For such a nice place, it was very affordable. Tim:  How did you first get into trivia as a hobby? What are your first memories of it? Greg: I’ve always been interested in trivia. My family was big on Jeopardy! & Trivial Pursuit from when I was a kid. In high school I was part of my quiz bowl team at Walton High in Marietta, GA which was reliably a top level team until our longtime coach retired not long after I left (my team got top 5 at both of the first two NAQT nationals in 1999 and 20...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pho with Scott Blish

  By Tim Rich I recently caught up with Scott Blish of Taco Belly Rubs. He is The Man in the quizzing world, having led OQLUSA in scoring on seven occasions. I’ve played in friendlies and league matches against his team and it's astounding how many facts the man knows. In Week 5, he posted a 25(7) although I would’ve settled for the eye pleasing 24(7). I caught up with him in Ybor city recently and we had virtual pho while chatting about trivia. Rich: When did you first get into trivia?  Blish : When I was in seventh grade, the school librarian at Thomas Edison Junior-Senior HS in Elmira Heights, NY, who doubled as the school academic team coach, came and grabbed me out of a classroom and bundled me onto a bus with a bunch of seniors to attend our local televised regional academic tournament. I was very surprised when he designated me as a starter, and even more surprised when I answered half the questions in the game and we defeated a school five times our size for our first...
1 comment
Read more