Anecdotally, people who get asked lots of questions are those who've raised a red flag somewhere in their questionnaire or other files pulled up by CBP. Often, it's minor inconsistencies. The same sort of thing which causes people to occasionally be pulled over to a secondary. The entire purpose is to eliminate those inconsistencies. And once in a while there's a random in-depth interview for analysis purposes.

Smart alec comments can seem like fun at the time, but say them to the wrong Officer and it's just as easy for him to put your application on hold or deny it.

If you've got a DL with a name change, why not bring a printout of the name change form and copy of a utility bill at your new address? Since you submitted a list of countries visited, why not have that list with you?