Editor’s Notebook -- Danette Goulet

A measly 105 points, that was the “Independent Thinkers” score at the

conclusion of the 11th annual Trivia Challenge to support literacy Friday

night, 40 points behind the winners. And do you know why . . . “The

Honeymooners.”

In the opening scene of the first Honeymooners episode what 20th

century super hero was on TV? Captain Video.

Are you kidding me? Now that is obscure trivia. And what kind of super

hero name is Captain Video, anyway? Defender of videos. Or did he use

videos to entrance or bore villains?

OK so we had a few other problems too, but that question killed us.

Meanwhile there were questions about Linus from Peanuts. The business

association folks were asked the first names of male stars of the Friends

television show -- simple -- Chandler, Ross and Joey.

Taking first place in the contest were the CUMCers -- the Christian

United Methodist Church -- with 145 points. Not really fair I suppose,

they clearly had a higher power on their side.

Speaking of a higher power, Rainbow Disposal funded an odd little team

that sat right in front of the “Independent Thinkers” that consisted of

Mayor Debbie Cook, newly appointed Councilwoman Grace Winchell, and her

main opponent for the position and our former columnist Ron Davis. This

trio sat center stage and took its fair share of pot shots, along with

the rest of us, at contestants and our brave emcee Bill Workman.

In fact the whole evening was a series of wisecracks. It took all the

familiar faces from the community out of their usual serious and

dignified element and cast them as entertainers.

It pit planning commissioners against journalists and religious

leaders against librarians. Two rows of teams in alternating red, white

and blue T-shirts -- 15 teams total -- lined the stage in front of a very

respectable-sized audience. I was quite impressed with the turnout on a

Friday night.

There were scorekeepers and Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff acted as

judge, who, no offense to her, could not keep an incorrigible Workman

from cheating and dropping hints when it suited him.

The audience was kept busy picking up the slack for the teams when

answers eluded them. The honor of helping teams out cost a small donation

of course. Why we threw a few questions out there ourselves. Just to help

the program bring in more money, of course, not because we didn’t know

the answers.

With those 15 teams each paying $400 for the honor of the hot seat and

a generous crowd, the Literacy Volunteers of America raked in about

$10,000 for the nonprofit organization.

The Literacy Volunteers of America support Huntington Valley’s adult

literacy program, which helps adults improve their reading, writing and

spoken English. The program consists of one-on-one adult literacy

tutoring at the Central Library and small group tutoring with the Family

Literacy Program at the Oak View Elementary School library.

The trivia challenge is the organizations major annual fund-raiser and

pays its operating costs for the year.

* DANETTE GOULET is the assistant city editor. She can be reached at

(714) 965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 danette.goulet@latimes.comf7 .