Trivia Recap: 11/16

The Players: Hannah (English teacher), Mary (English teacher), Darren (math professor), Ben (not a firefighter), Danielle (bartender)

Opening Category: Ned Flanders

Hint of the Day: Madeline

The most important thing to occur at trivia last night actually occurred just before the opening round. We were all discussing the holidays and being annoyed that Adam the DJ was playing Christmas music. Mary loves Christmas but even she felt like the music choice last night was less than stellar. Personally, I believed it to be atrocious. In fact, I may stop attending trivia for the month of December because it was seriously NOTHING but Christmas music. And it mostly wasn't good Christmas music. Adam played that stupid donkey song, and then he played some other horrible songs, and then he decided to play a Thanksgiving song and the one he played was that terrible one by Adam Sandler. And then the bad music just kept coming... and coming... and coming... And my ears hurt.

I have a penpal named James and I was actually telling him about my ears when I got home from trivia. Sometimes when I'm at my house I'll get a ringing in my left ear. It only happens at my house and it only happens in my left ear. I told James about it and he thinks it's probably because I have gone from a loud place (i.e., trivia) to a quiet place (i.e., my house). I think this makes sense because sometimes my left ear also rings after a loud day at school.

Anyway, we were talking about the holidays and how Christmas is rushed into by pretty much everyone and I made the comment that I only just threw away my jack-o-lantern cabbage that Victoria had carved for me and Ben said, "I would've ate it." Obviously, Mary and I both stared at him as if he had fifteen eyeballs or something. We said, possibly in unison, "What?" And Ben repeated himself with a shake of his head, "I would've ate it." At that point, I corrected his grammar. Then Mary pointed out that if he'd eaten it, he'd probably be sick because it sat on my front stoop for weeks and was in the sun and the rain and was all dried out... but Ben insisted that he "would've ate it." So my PSA to you is this: If inviting Ben to a potluck dinner... be wary about indulging in his contribution.

Round One:

This was fine. I struggled with math, as per usual, but ultimately did okay. The categories were Ned Flanders (obviously), European Geography (we missed the bonus, but got the points), Food Fit for a "Man" (this was fun; all the foods began with MAN), Human Organs (speaking of ears... that was the answer!), and Animated TV (Darren came up with Thundercats and that was the right answer!).

Round Two:

"Good Music" was good. Every song had the word "good" in the title and these were the answers: "Honey, I'm Good," "Only the Good Die Young," and "It Was a Good Day" (which Danielle knew). Other categories included Name That Actor (Mary did), College Basketball Legends (Ben and Darren figured this out), Political History (several people knew this; it was an oxymoronic title in that the answer was Democratic-Republican), and Old School Tech (Darren knew half of this).

Halftime:

On the top, we had to identify comedians. On the bottom, we had to match stock codes (I think that's how one would describe it?) with the companies they represent. We got 17/20.

Round Three:

Mary and I knew the answer to Children's Literature was going to be Madeline because of the hint of the day... and it was. Historic Titles was fine (Kaiser; it's also bread); Song Characters sucked. Once again, Adam had that stupid Christmas music playing and it messed up the lyrics in my head. We had to name the occupation of the people in the songs and I love Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer," but Adam was playing his stupid holiday trash when I got to the part about Gina working the diner all day and so we mixed her up with Johnny (Ben did too; this was not just on me) and listed dockworker instead. And I'm still bitter about it. Where is this Statue? was the next category and we missed it. Tennis Time we got half right.

6-4-2:

The answer was Vermont and we got it for four points.

Round Four:

Classic TV was kind of hard and Darren got Maverick but we didn't get the other one which was, I think, The Rockford Files. The next two categories were good for me, though, because of Pip. I'm not someone who watches a lot of movies, but he once made me watch Warm Bodies and that was the answer to the Romantic Comedies category. Then the next category was Video Games and the answer was MarioKart but there was a bonus question about which console was the original console for MarioKart and Mary and I both thought it was Super Nintendo but Ben thought it was N64 because he didn't think SuperNES had games that went forward and not just left to right. But Mary remembered how the game fitted into the console (from the top) and I remembered the controller used to play the game. I even drew a picture:

Needless to say, Mary and I were right and we got us the bonus. Ben redeemed himself in the field of Botany though, knowing much about rubber plants. Ben in fact owns a rubber plant that he's had for seven years now. He keeps it on the windowsill in his bedroom and tells it goodnight before climbing under the covers each night. The rubber plant's name is Christopher Bedford Williamson Jeffers. The last category was We Share a Last Name! and the answer was Black but we got bonus points for knowing the first names that went with that last name: Jack and Hugo and Rebecca.

Final:

We got this right. The clue had something to do with the first picture being a doctor slapping a baby's bum and we needed to name the magazine. The magazine, in case you don't know, is Life. (My mom and her family were once in a publication of Life, just so you know.)

We got third place, which isn't too shabby, and next week's opening category is That 70s Show.