Paul Stephen Paquet (born January 24, 1965, in Montreal, Quebec) is a nationally syndicated trivia columnist and a trivia writer, based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
After graduating university, Paquet wrote trivia questions for the online service Prodigy [1] and Seth Godin. [2] In 1995, he and his wife Laura began Cornerstone Creative Communications (now known as Cornerstone World Company), which offered writing, editing and research services, and public and media relations. [3] He began running pub trivia in Ottawa in 1998, starting at the Barley Mow pub [1] on Bank Street in Old Ottawa South. [4] The Ottawa Trivia League, has been featured in a mini-documentary on TVOntario.
In 2002, Paquet began hosting World Trivia Night, the world's largest live non-radio annual trivia event. [2]
In December 2008, he took over the Trivia Bits column from Stanley Newman. It runs in 14 newspapers throughout the United States. [5] In 2015, he started writing a trivia column for Reader's Digest. In addition, he has written for Trivial Pursuit, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, the Canadian game show Instant Cash and many others.
In 2007, Paquet won the North American leg of the World Quizzing Championships. In 2008, he finished in second place. He has since retired as a player and writes questions for the event itself. [6]
A team he coached at Lisgar Collegiate also won the Ottawa championship for Reach for the Top. He has also hosted the game "Smartypants" at various Game Show Congress and Trivia Championships of North America events beginning in 2005 [7]
In 2023, Paquet celebrated 25 years of running trivia nights in Ottawa. [8]
Paquet attended Laval Catholic High School in Laval, Quebec [2] where he was a member of the Reach for the Top team. He has a public relations degree. [1]
Paquet is married to Laura Byrne Paquet, a former contestant on Jeopardy! [8] and a writer. [9] They live in Old Ottawa South. [2]
Quiz bowl is a family of quiz-based competitions that test players on a wide variety of academic subjects. Standardized quiz bowl formats are played by primary school, middle school, high school, and university students throughout North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and Africa.
A pub quiz is a quiz held in a pub or bar. These events are also called quiz nights, trivia nights, or bar trivia and may be held in other settings. The pub quiz is a modern example of a pub game, and often attempts to lure customers to the establishment on quieter days. The pub quiz has become part of British culture since its popularization in the UK in the 1970s by Burns and Porter, although the first mentions in print can be traced to 1959. It then became a staple in Irish pub culture, and its popularity has continued to spread internationally. Although different pub quizzes can cover a range of formats and topics, they have many features in common. Most quizzes have a limited number of team members, offer prizes for winning teams, and distinguish rounds by category or theme.
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Reach for the Top is a Canadian trivia based academic quiz competition for high school students. In the past, it has also been a game show nationally broadcast on the CBC. Matches are currently aired online through Reach for the Top's official YouTube channel. Teams qualify for national rounds through several stages of non-televised tournaments held at high schools throughout Canada during the year which are known as Schoolreach.
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Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value.
Mental Floss is an American online magazine and digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalfloss.com, which presents facts, puzzles, and trivia with a humorous tone, draws 20.5 million unique users a month. Its YouTube channel produces three weekly series and has 1.3 million subscribers. In October 2015, Mental Floss teamed with the National Geographic Channel for its first televised special, Brain Surgery Live with mental_floss, the first brain surgery ever broadcast live.
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World Trivia Night is one of North America's largest live trivia contests, held annually in Ottawa, Ontario since 1995. Originally organized by the Kiwanis Club of Orleans (Ottawa), the event is now organized by the Children's Aid Foundation of Ottawa, which uses it to fund educational and life enrichment opportunities for children and youth who are supported by the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa. 2024 marked the 30th anniversary of World Trivia Night. Each year, over 1,000 people play in teams of up to 10 people. The event was originally held at the Aberdeen Pavilion, moving to the EY Centre in 2012, and then, after being held virtually in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic, Rogers Centre Ottawa starting in 2022. Since 2002, the event has been hosted by Paul Paquet of the Trivia Hall of Fame and the Ottawa Trivia League. Paquet also prepares the questions. Many political and media luminaries attend. Former mayor Jacquelin Holzman once served as a judge, and in 2003, Ken Jennings read the first question via videotape. By tradition, the first answer is always Pierre Trudeau, as a tip of the hat to the long-running radio trivia contest in Stevens Point, which always begins with a question about Robert Redford. Since 2006, the winners have been awarded the Trong Nguyen Memorial Trophy, named after a member of wirecrats.com who died earlier that year.
Sporcle is a trivia and pub quiz website created by trivia enthusiast Matt Ramme. First launched on April 23, 2007, the website allows users to play and make quizzes on a wide range of subjects, with the option to earn badges by completing challenges. The name Sporcle is a portmanteau of sports and oracle.
The T-Room is a campus bar located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Barrington Street between Spring Garden Road and Morris Street. It was opened in 1937 by Fredrick H. Sexton on the campus of the Nova Scotia Technical College, which is today the Sexton Campus of Dalhousie University. Dr. Sexton served as the first principal, and later president, of NSTC from 1907 to 1947.
Championship Manager Quiz is a football trivia quiz video game released for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows in 2001, developed by King of the Jungle and published by Eidos Interactive. It is a spin-off from the Championship Manager series of games.
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Christopher Milo is a former professional Canadian football placekicker. He was drafted 30th overall by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the 2011 CFL Draft and signed with the team on June 1, 2011. He played CIS football for the Laval Rouge et Or. During his college career, Milo won the Vanier Cup twice and he has helped the Roughriders and Ottawa Redblacks both win a Grey Cup in the CFL.
The Laval Rouge et Or football team represents Laval University in Quebec City in the sport of Canadian football in U Sports. The program began its first regular season in 1996 and has quickly become one of the most successful programs in Canadian university football history. The Rouge et Or have won a record 11 Vanier Cup championships and their most recent victory occurred at the 57th Vanier Cup in 2022. They are also the only program to have played in four straight Vanier Cups and have a record of 11–2 in Vanier Cup games. The Rouge et Or have also won the Dunsmore Cup 16 times since 1999, demonstrating their historical dominance in their conference.
The Carleton Ravens football team represents Carleton University, which is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The Ravens play U Sports football in the Ontario University Athletics conference. The Ravens football program started in 1945 and was continuously in operation until 1998 when the program was disbanded. The football program was brought back to the university in 2011 and began play in 2013. The football team has won one conference championship, winning the Dunsmore Cup in 1985 while playing in the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference.
The 2017 U Sports football season began on August 25 with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men visiting the Saint Mary's Huskies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Montreal Carabins visiting the Concordia Stingers in Montreal, Quebec. The season concluded on November 25 with the 53rd Vanier Cup championship at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario. This season saw the first conference shift since 2001 with the Bishop's Gaiters moving from the Quebec Student Sport Federation to the Atlantic University Sport conference. 27 university teams in Canada participated in the newly re-branded U Sports football, the highest level of amateur Canadian football. The Western Mustangs defeated the Laval Rouge et Or, 39-17, to win their first Vanier Cup since 1994.
Charles Paquet is a Canadian triathlete. Paquet was born in Sept-Îles, Quebec and has represented Canada at multiple major events such as the Youth Olympics and Pan American Games.