Quiz Kids

What one word means "the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth?" This is one of the few questions that stumped the current champions of the Asgard Brain Bowl, Dartmouth's home- grown trivia challenge. The event is the brainchild of Lisa Kahn 'OO, who suggested the idea during a brainstorming session (of course) at a 1998 meeting of Asgard, an organization devoted to providing students with non-alcoholic social options. Open to all students, the bowl drew 116 participants on 29 teams in February. Tearns—with names such as Tearn Smrt (that's not a typo) and Your Mom—competed in the afternoon-long contest by answering questions submitted by Asgard members and non-participating students.

"Anything about Dartmouth or trivia in general is fair game," says Kahn, though this year's questions showed a heavy bias toward Star Trek and X-Files esoterica. Teams from two coed houses—Alpha Theta and Amarna—battled to the final round, with Amarna eking out a three-point win. The spoils of victory? A doormat and $5 gift certificate. By the way, the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth is called arachibutyrophobia.