by Tim Rich
I recently caught up with Ted Van Houten who recently made TOTW in Week 9. It took me awhile to get through the busy Beltway traffic but I met him for a virtual lunch at Deli City in Washington DC. We talked about OQL-USA team of the week, trivia, and other fine subjects.
Rich: How did you first get into trivia as a hobby? What are your first memories of it?
Van Houten: I’ve always loved game shows, museums, and learning new things. One of my earliest memories was a spelling bee I competed in as a second grader at St. Bernardine’s Catholic School in Forest Park, Illinois. Each grade between first and fourth grades sent two students, and I made the final three with the two fourth graders. I got eliminated when I missed the word “priest”, which was a little embarrassing then but funny now. But I was ultimately proud I could hang with the older kids, and was my first indication I’d be good at stuff like that.
Rich: When did you first get into OQL? What team did you join and what has the experience been like?
Van Houten: First, I want to say that I’m fully supportive of any efforts to make OQL and quizzing in general more diverse, both in terms of content and participants. As a gay man, and a captain of an OQL team that is majority queer, it’s so important to have inclusive spaces where everyone feels welcome.
Also, I’m really excited for the OQL in person event on Saturday, March 23, and I hope OQL does more live events in the future.
One of my COQL teammates was doing an OQL friendly and I joined, not knowing anything about OQL gameplay or structure. I enjoyed it, so I signed up to do OQL at SporcleCon last year as a solo player. I met my SporcleCon teammates for the first time Sunday morning and we played until late Sunday afternoon, making the B Division finals which was the last event of the conference. I figured since I was so successful at SporcleCon that I should stick with it. My team now is a mix of people I met at SporcleCon and people who were looking to join a team and got assigned to us. I really like quizzing with my team and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them.
I’m also really proud of our team name, Quizzing To Be Clever, which I came up with. It’s a pun on the Culture Club album, but it also references why I (and I bet a lot of other people) like trivia so much - to show off how smart you are!
Rich: Have you ever been on a game show? Are you currently trying out for one?
Van Houten: I haven’t been on any game shows, and not currently auditioning for any. I should probably take the Jeopardy test again. I made the interview round once about a decade ago, but I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking when I did the buzzer test, and I’m sure I wasn’t cast because of that.
I’m open to being on any game show that will have me! I think People Puzzler would be fun, if only for the chance to befriend Leah Remini and hear her talk shit about Scientology.
Rich: Do you play live trivia at any bars in Washington DC? What is the scene there like?
Van Houten: I play live trivia at Trusty’s near the Potomac Avenue Metrorail station in DC. I’m a longtime member of the team Baby Juggalo Funeral. I wish the questions were more diverse, but I have a really good team, and Eli, the bartender upstairs, is awesome. I’m definitely down for checking out other trivia in the DC area, as long as I can get there by Metro. Also, if any OQLers want to swing by Trusty’s on a Tuesday, I welcome the competition.
Rich :Did you attend SporcleCon the past two years? If so, what was it like?
Van Houten: I attended SporcleCon for the first time last year. It was my first trivia conference and I had a great time! I met some of my COQL teammates for the first time in person, was competitive in the events I participated in, and met a lot of great people! I’ll be in Detroit in August and I’m very much looking forward to it. I already have a list of places I want to check out in the city, and I’m happy to share that with anyone.
Rich: What are your top five trivia/quiz highlights both as an individual and as part of a team?
In my first full season of OQL (Season 10), my team was one of two teams to not lose a match. It was just us and the Milves - definitely esteemed company!
I made the LearnedLeague championship for the first time last year due to getting lucky with questions and my opponents seemingly gifting me points. I narrowly stayed ahead of the person in 4th with only a +1 match point differential. I did well in the championship and survived the cut. Also, I’m one of the best defenders in LL, check the leaderboard on the history page if you don’t believe me. :)
Just this week, my pub trivia team became the winningest team in Trivia Kings history, which took us over 11 years to achieve. (Trivia Kings is one of the larger trivia companies in the DC area.) The first prize is a $30 gift card, so with 165 wins, my team has won almost $5000. And one of those wins was because I won the tiebreaker, which was a beer chug off!
In college, I spent a semester in Strasbourg, France and my classmates and I did trivia at an Irish pub there. We usually lost to a group of Scandanavians called The Nordic Team. A couple weeks before the semester ended, we finally won with a narrow victory over the Nordics! We walked into class the next day like hungover warriors!
I don’t know if this counts as a highlight, but I know all ten real life locations mentioned in the song Kokomo. I first saw it as a question on the World Series of Pop Culture, and it’s my favorite trivia question. People can usually get six or seven locations, but those last three are tough.
Rich: What is your favorite food and beverage? What is the dining scene like in our nation's capital?
Van Houten: It’s hard to beat a good Reuben. I was born in New York City, and it’s one of my mother’s favorite sandwiches. That’s her way of testing the quality of a restaurant - if they can make a good Reuben, it’s a safe bet that the rest of the menu will be good too.
If you couldn’t tell by now, I do enjoy an alcoholic beverage from time to time. I like lighter or maltier beers - lagers, marzens, stouts, porters. For wine, I love Cabernet Franc or a Lambrusco in the summer. For non-alcoholic drinks, I like the flavored sparkling waters - the crazier the flavor, the better. And despite the gay stereotypical preference for iced coffee, I almost always take my coffee hot.
DC has a really great food scene. I live in Capitol Hill, and we have great restaurants and food halls nearby. We’re really spoiled for choice, and it’s one of the best things about the neighborhood.
Rich: Besides trivia, what are your other hobbies and interests?
Van Houten: My day job is a transportation planner, so I’m interested in how we can make our urban places better, safer, and more sustainable and inclusive. I think cities are humanity’s greatest invention. If there are any OQLers in the transportation, urban planning, real estate development, architecture, or related fields, I’d love to connect with you!
Rich: If you could have dinner and play trivia with any five guests in history, who would you choose?
Van Houten: OK, I’m gonna cheat a bit and answer with more than five people, and I’m not going to name any historical figures. It might be cool to play trivia with Albert Einstein or Hypatia, but when Ice Spice comes on during the music round, they’re gonna be pretty useless as teammates.
I’d love the opportunity to play trivia in person with my COQL and OQL teams. In both cases, I’ve only met half of my teammates in real life, and it would be awesome to have the whole team in the same room.
My COQL team is the East Enders, made up of me, Ben Smith, Jason Sterlacci, Samantha Ross, and our former teammate Adam Francois Watkins. I really enjoy the camaraderie of my COQL team, and I couldn’t ask for better people to solve a grid with.
My OQL teammates are Bryce Meredig, George Scratcherd, Harley Andrew, Jomar Reyes, Jomy Alappattu, and Julio Trujillo. I’m still getting to know my OQL teammates, so dinner and trivia with them would be a really fun team bonding experience.
Rich: I've met Jomar. I invited him to Slattery's in NYC and we teamed up with other OQLers and dominated their Wednesday night trivia. Jomar just won the NYC Trivia King's Cup.
Van Houten: Lastly, I’d love to play pub trivia with Dan Blim. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve met in this community, and I’ve gotten to know some great people through him. Plus, he’d cover all the theatre and classical music questions I’d miss.
Rich: Dan has come to NYC and I've yet to play trivia with him or catch a show. What films did you watch in 2023 and which performances and films should have won the Oscars?
Van Houten: My partner and I went to the movies with a friend to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer the weekend they came out, and it was really cool to be part of that cultural moment. My favorite thing was seeing people wearing all pink watching Oppenheimer, and people in fedoras and trenchcoats watching Barbie.
I think the biggest snub of this year’s Oscars was Dance the Night not getting nominated for Best Original Song. It’s the superior song on the Barbie soundtrack, and Dua Lipa deserved to be an Oscar winner.
I saw all five of the Live Action Shorts, and my favorite was Knight of Fortune. They were all really good though!
Rich: What kind of music do you listen to and who are your top five artists?
Van Houten: I have a wide variety of stuff that I listen to, and I try to keep up with recent music. I’m a big Eurovision fan, so that will take up a significant portion of my music listening from now until May when they pick a winner. My favorite Eurovision songs this year are from Australia, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Spain, and Ukraine.
I like going to concerts, and the artists I’ve seen recently include Stromae, Tune-Yards, Cam, The Gaslight Anthem, Yelle, Slayyyter, Ra Ra Riot, and Hannah Diamond. The best concert I ever saw was The Very Best at a small venue in DC that’s no longer open. It was a small crowd, but everyone was very into the music.
Rich: What are the top international destinations you would choose to visit?
Van Houten: My cousin Kate lives in Yerevan, Armenia, where she’s a professor at a university. I really want to visit her while she’s still there, and have the benefit of her perspective as a resident. I’d want to combine that trip with a visit to Georgia or Istanbul. The history is fascinating, and the food from that part of the world is excellent - grilled meats, wine, strong coffee and tea, khachapuri.
I also want to do a big trip of Japan sometime. I want to see the big cities - Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka. I want to go north to Sapporo for ramen. I want to see the Kotoku-in, which is my favorite statue of Buddha. I want to buy a lot of Gudetama merch. And I’d have to go to Kumamoto because I’m obsessed with Kumamon, who’s the mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture. I know it’s weird for a guy in his early 40s to want to meet Kumamon, but I don’t care.
Rich: Do you follow sports? If so, what are your top five favorite moments as a fan?
Van Houten: I went to Syracuse University, so a lot of my sports memories revolve around that. My freshman year was when Syracuse won the NCAA men’s basketball championship, and that was an experience I’ll never forget. I was in the stadium when Syracuse beat Marquette in 2013 to make the Final Four, after my friend and I got tickets at the last minute. I was at my friend’s MargarEaster party (think Easter party plus margaritas and jello shots in plastic eggs) when Syracuse beat the #1 seed Virginia in 2016 to return to the Final Four.
I went to the Pinstripe Bowl in 2012 when Syracuse played West Virginia, and the game was played at the new Yankee Stadium. The game wasn’t that exciting after the first half, even though Syracuse had a slight lead. And it was snowing all day, so I was getting cold. I went for a walk around the stadium to warm up, and bought a watery hot chocolate for $6, which was the best $6 I ever spent. I was feeling better for the second half, which was much more exciting. Syracuse ran up the scoreboard in the third quarter, including a second safety late in the quarter. It was such a great game that I didn’t care that my shoes and socks were wet from the snow.
Rich: Thanks for the interview and I hope you continue to make team of the week.
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