Feeling Like a Loser

OK, I'll admit it: I'm not very good at Trivial Pursuit. Never have been. Probably never will be, either, unless they come out with a special Gienna edition with questions that are all about me. I can usually answer other people's questions just fine. But when it's my turn my mind just goes blank. It doesn't help when people are sighing and tsking and saying, "Oh, this is so easy!"

Another thing about me is that I'm not very competitive. I like to play games, and I don't mind doing well or even winning once and a while, but I'm just not all cut-throat about it. I go in thinking it's going to be a friendly game and I go out with my feelings hurt. I swear, it happens every time.

Last night I played the 90s edition of Trivial Pursuit with two of the most competitive people I know. There was a lot of tsking and sighing. A lot of screaming WRONG and shrieking with laughter when I would answer, for example, Bill Crosby. When what I meant, obviously, was Bill Cosby.

Then there was the shouting out of clues if I took even half a second too long to answer. "C'mon--she was really ugly and she owned a lot of big hotels!" Do you see what is happening, there? It makes the answer so obvious that you have to say Leona Helmsly whether or not that's what you would have come up with on your own. But you don't get credit for getting it right, because you were given such an obvious clue. Never mind that you didn't ask for the clue.

It's a way of letting you win while making you feel like a total loser.

Maybe I'm being too sensitive. People have been telling me I'm too sensitive my entire life (which, by the way, hurts my feelings, too). But, still. There must be a way to play a board game without making the loser feel like a loser.

Right?