The trivia-crazed condo
These residents have made a tradition out of outsmarting their neighbours
Gloria Elston watches a lot of Coronation Street. Every so often, the Corrie Street gang play trivia at the local pub. A year ago, Elston was inspired. A trivia night was a perfect fit for her ongoing mission to bring community to Helliwell Place, her condo building near Broadview and Danforth. In the seven years since moving in, Elston had started a morning coffee club and a nighttime happy hour. Now, thanks to one soap opera and a bit of googling, she had a new idea: Let’s Get Quizzical. The monthly event takes place in the building’s rec room, usually with six teams of four players. One diehard group plays in team T-shirts reading, “The Beautiful Minds.” Popular categories include “double take” (Which word for a long pillow can also mean to reinforce? Bolster) and “factual oddities” (what is the main ingredient in Bombay duck? Fish). “I love the drama and theatre of people disagreeing over answers,” Elston says. “It’s my favourite part.”
