Find the word or words that fit the category and clue.

Category: Metals, minerals and gems

Question: Rings for Fists of Fury

“Close your eyes and think of the category,” emcee Lawrence Pecora said. He also designed the categories and questions.

For more than an hour, 15 residents of Del Webb-Dove Mountain wracked their brains for the answers to 60 sometimes-slippery questions. Since many of the trivia regulars are also snowbirds, the room was quieter than usual. 

The questions are tricky but designed with a purpose.

“When you’re surrounded by people our age who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, I observed how their cognitive skills were declining,” he said. “I would see them exercising every day, using the steppers, lifting weights and swimming in the pool, yet they were doing nothing to exercise their brains.”

That’s when he got the idea to do Trivia for Seniors, where every question is a kind of puzzle. He wants players to take his clues and figure out the answer using mental gymnastics.

Here are a few examples:

The category is car makes and models. None of the questions are specific to cars; however, all answers will have a car make or model in them.

1.Peninsula province located on Canada’s East Coast?

2.Inspired by the purchase of a new Ford automobile, Wilson Pickett described the wild ride of (blank) Sally.

3.California National Park located in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, it is known for its huge trees and Crystal Cave.

Pecora also benefits from the game. He has to exercise his brain, too. First, he thinks up the categories, then the clues, which are mostly drawn from his shared life experiences, the experiences many of us remember. They come to him while he is in the shower.

“Once I come up with a concept, what I try to do is come up with six or seven questions that I know the answer to without having to research,” he said. “Then I’ll research two or three other questions just to verify what I think the answer would be. It’s just common stuff that we’ve shared.”

At least common stuff for people 55 and older. 

“We’re all baby boomers,” he said, “so we’ve shared the same politics growing up, the same politicians, history.”

Pecora remembers sporting dynasties like that of the Yankees and the Packers. His questions are based on these events and others from his lifetime. Then he assumes that people who are a similar age have had the same experiences.

Last,  he “hopes and prays that in some way I’m delaying any dementia or memory loss that would naturally take place,” he said.

Pecora is available to visit other 55+ communities with Trivia for Seniors. He charges $50 an hour and with that people get him and his questions, of course, but also a score-keeping slip of paper and pencils to write with. His wife Wendy tallies the scores so winners can be determined.

Meanwhile, at Del Web’s trivia night, teammates Catherine Janik, Linda Yanez and a third player put their heads together to confer quietly after each question. It was Janik who came up with the answer to the fists of fury question and when she did, she lit up like a Christmas tree.  

Answer:
brass knuckles. 
Get it?
Her team still lost.

Answers to the numbered questions:

Nova Scotia
Mustang
Sequoia

Lawrence P. Pecora
COST: $50 an hour
INFO: triviaforseniors@gmailcom