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Days of Winer and Roses

I recently caught up with longtime OQL vet Steve Winer.  He is a 14 season vet of OQL and has written many friendlies and playtested even more. He recently got Team of the Week honors for Season 17/ Week 8. 


We stopped by Louie's Pizza in Woburn, Massachusetts, a city just outside of Boston. The linguica and hamburger pizza was delicious.



Rich: How did you first get into OQLUSA? What team were you on?

Steve: I saw a post in the LearnedLeague message board.  Started back in Season 3.  Initially was on Extraneous Abstract Thoughts - eventually wound up on Cooler Heads which is my current team.



Rich: How did you like playing in D1 last season? What was the experience like?


Steve: Definitely a challenge between no free guess and the quality of the opposition.  I did enjoy getting to play against so many great quizzers.



Rich: When did you first get into trivia as a hobby?



Steve: Played Quiz Bowl in High School in Burlington VT.  I also played a lot of Trivial Pursuit against my sister (who is also a quizzer) as a kid.



Rich: Besides OQL, what other leagues do you play in?



Steve: LearnedLeague, QuiP, and COQL.  



Rich: Do you play live trivia at any bars or restaurants in your city? What is the scene there 



Steve: No - bar trivia doesn’t really work with my schedule. That's part of what I like about things like OQL.  There definitely is some bar trivia in my area - would be fun to try if I could ever get the logistics to work out.


Rich: What is the dining scene like in your city? What is your favorite restaurant and cuisine?



Steve: There are quite a few restaurants around in the area.  There are some good Italian places my family likes.



Tim: What books did you read in 2025 and which was your favorite?




Steve: A lot of history and science fiction.  My favorite was Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold.



Tim: Have you ever attended SporcleCon, Trivia Nationals or Geek Bowl in the past? If so, what was it like?




Steve: I have been to SporcleCon in 2024 and 2024 and I really enjoyed it. I would like to get to Trivia Nationals at some point.



Tim: What are your top five trivia/quiz highlights both as an individual and as part of a team? 





Steve: 2nd place at Battle of the Brains SporleCon 2024.  Having confetti dumped on us was definitely surreal.  Winning the 1999 Vermont Quiz Bowl Championship without our best player who was unavailable because a class trip overlapped with the final matches.  

Being on Yogesh Raut’s Recreational Thinking Podcast for a chess themed episode.  

Getting to play in the 1997 and 1999 Panasonic Academic Challenge as part of Team Vermont.

Participating in LearningMan East (2023 edition).





Tim: Besides trivia, what are your other hobbies and interests?




Steve: Chess and numerous other card and board games (Bridge, Poker, Go, Magic: The Gathering and many others), Sports, History, Science Fiction


Tim: If you could have dinner and play trivia with any five guests in history, who would you choose?




Steve: Jane Austen, John von Neumann, Mikhail Tal, Emperor Trajan, and Olivia de Havilland.  A number of favorites there - Jane Austen favorite author, Mikhail Tal probably the most creative chess player of all time - John von Neumann made advances in so many fields - Emperor Trajan was dubbed by the Roman Senate to be the best one would be curious to get his thoughts - Olivia de Havilland one of my favorite movie stars and she lived to be over 100 so I’m sure she’d have many many stories to tell.



Tim:  What films did you watch in 2025/2026 and which of them do you want to win Oscars?



Steve: I am not too up on current films - like my taste in music, my tastes in movies runs towards the classics.  


Tim: I didn't not see any of the Academy Award nominted films for Best Picture in 2025-26.
What kind of music do you listen to and what are your favorite bands?




Steve: A lot of what I listen to is Classical and Opera, and even the bands that I like the most are from a long time ago like  The Beatles, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, and Talking Heads.  


Tim: Thank you for your time and I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.

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