The Wide Saragasso Sea

Matty the Mainer visited us from his new home in Portland the other day.

"Yeah, we were at this bar that had a trivia night, only what they said were the right answers to some of the questions were wrong, like the Khmer Rouge invading Hanoi to end the Vietnam War."

"Actually," Mads, my Norwegian companion, said. "In Germany, that's what's taught to school children. I think it was a misprint in the text books a long time ago that hasn't been fixed."

"Interesting," I said. "So you're saying your general knowledge base was wasted on that night?"

"Yeah," Matty said. "I'm better at Trivial Pursuit."

Mads and I both gasped. Matty seemed curious, so we told him the deal. I found out later that Matty wasn't curious, he was looking behind me at the TV to an MSNBC report on the popularity of the new Harry Potter film, and he couldn't understand it.

Anyway, a few years back, Mads, me, and a few women we brought back were playing a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit. Mads and I were neck and neck, both trying for our last question. He was first. It went something like:

"Jean Rhys wrote this book as a prequel to Jane Eyre."

"Oh, that's easy, The Wide Saragasso Sea."

"Is that your final answer?"

"Of course, I've read it."

"Well your wrong. It's The Wide SARGASSO Sea, not SARAgasso."

Let's just say that didn't go over too well, especially when he found out I was serious in not giving him the game. We had a messy altercation. Though Mads is a well versed Jiu-Jitsu fighter, I'm a former high school wrestler and gymnast, so we were somewhat evenly matched. My apartment was destroyed, one of the girls' nose was broken, and an air conditioner from my room almost hit a man walking his dog below us. In order to avoid arrest and prosecution, we agreed to let the cops confiscate the game, and never play it again.