Trivia night , Claysburg
Feb. 24th, 2019 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWe went to Trivia Night at Claysburg (supports the fire department, small games of chance, comes with a turkey dinner, drink their cheap beer or BYOB, yadda yadda yadda) last night. It is a wonderful wintertime outing in rural Pennsylvania.
First off, for twenty dollars, you get...
A firehall turkey dinner (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, salad, ham/green beans/potatoes, rolls, dessert table) that is a PRETTY DARNED GOOD firehall turkey dinner and I say that as someone who has eaten a few.
Beer (yuengling in cans, plus whatever is in the keg), soda, water, chips, salsa, pretzels.
Forty-eight carefully chosen and challenging trivia questions, and about three and a half hours of fun with your team.
There are ALSO small games of chance (we do not, as a matter of principle, play small games of chance) delightfully called "rip off tickets" because you rip off the top part to see if you've won and not, mind, because they are a ripoff. I am probably the only person who thinks this is funny.
So I went with Brother-the-younger, my cousin Heather, and my aunt Jackie (Heather's mom). This was our third trip to Claysburg for Trivia Night. We keep taking more people with us.
The first year we went, Heather and I went by ourselves. We were by far the smallest team there. (Most teams have six or eight people. We did not know this going in because we were not sure what to expect of the Claysburg Trivia Night experience.)
That year, Heather and I placed fifth. We were horrified at having done so badly, but damn it the questions were seriously hard. The money prizes for trivia stop at fourth place and that was an additional little twinge of sorrow for us because we do like to win money. A lot.
So, we recruited Brother-the-younger to come with us last year. He's reasonably clever and also reasonably clever in ways that I am not and that Heather is not. (One among us knows which congressman gave the "cross of gold" speech in 1896 at the DNC and it was not me or Heather.) Last year we were also fifth at Claysburg Trivia Night. I know this makes us sound like a bunch of weak trivia players but we are honestly not weak. It's fucking hard trivia. After our second year of finishing out of the money, we decided we needed more than three people. And that's when we pulled in Jackie. (Actual name Jacqueline, okay? We would not name someone Jackie on purpose.)
So, armed for bear we went with our mighty team of four to the Claysburg Trivia Night. (Everyone else had teams of six or eight. But, as Heather pointed out, if you have a bigger team, you have to split the winnings more. It's a nice excuse and also a better way of explaining why our team is so small than "We don't have any other friends whom we think would be useful in pursuit of winning.")
We are Dead Parrots. That's our team name. Once, we let Brother-the-younger pick the team name and we were Lack Blithe Chatter which is arguably the worst team name ever. It's not even a noun. It's a description of terseness. I mean, what the fuck, Brother-the-younger? He does not get to pick the names anymore. Dead Parrots is from a Python sketch and that's our Nom de Trivia. Not going to be Lack Blithe Chatter ever again, you betcha.
Heather brought her own beer because the Claysburg P.A.S.T. (sponsor of the event) does not provide Guiness in bottles. The stuff has a fucking toucan on the bottle. Makes no sense to me, I didn't think toucans were even invented when they started making Guiness. She does not drink it ironically or to impress other people. (She is not that person. At all.) She drinks it because she enjoys beer that bears a striking similarity in both looks and taste to used motor oil.
I brought Redd's Apple Ale (two) because they're drinkable and I like them. I was not the only person in the audience who brought Redd's to the party, as I saw several other bottles of it scattered around the place.
You have to get to Trivia early because they don't have a lot of parking. We had to get to Trivia early beacause my cousin Heather worries a lot if we are late. It's just better to be early. Also, then you can get a parking space. When we got there, the only people there were the folks setting it up. And the parking was fantastic. So, we were early enough. (Last year we'd been 'on time' and I had to wedge my Honda Fit into not-a-parking-space wherein I dislodged all passengers before parking because they could not possibly exit the vehicle after it was parked.)
Our goal was to Not Be Fifth Again. Seriously, that was the goal. And (spoiler alert) we were not fifth again. Yay!
We were fourth. (It's fucking brutally hard trivia.) No cellphones, no google, etc.
Round 1 Questions. Worth 1 pt. each.
1. According to song "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" in what body of water is Michael rowing?
2. On what did the US government make three billion dollars by releasing five times a year between January 1999 and November 2008?
3. What month's birthstone tests highest on the Mohs scale?
4. Who did the Chicago Bears fire in 1992 just four years after he was named NFL Coach of the Year?
5. Who is pictured on the US Purple Heart medal?
6. In what city is Ebenezer Baptist Church where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his father were both pastors?
7. What color is the one ball in traditional pocket-ball billiards?
8. What's the first name of the head elf in charge of baking Keebler cookies?
9. Hoa Lo Prison, which means firey furnace in Vietnamese, was more commonly called what by American POWs?
10. The word for pub originated in England. What is it short for?
11. What company marketed the canned meat product known as Spam?
12. Who reveals "the man behind the curtain" in The Wizard of Oz?
In Round 1, we got 10 points. We missed #6 and #8.
Round 2 questions, worth 2 points each.
1. What city had the first underground subway system?
2. What's the name of Mario's girlfriend, kidnapped by the giant ape in Donkey Kong?
3. What does the letter Q stand for in the acronym NASDAQ?
4. Who was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
5. If you ate pain perdu for breakfast, what did you have?
6. Murder victim Elizabeth Short became known by what colorful nickname?
7. What is the only college football stadium bigger than Penn State's Beaver Stadium?
8. In Newton's second law of motion f=ma, the F stands for force. What do the M and A stand for?
9. Who receives 554 red roses the first Saturday in May?
10. Name one of the two Republican presidents who also served a full eight years as vice president.
11. What were the last names of fishermen David and Ezra who opened their first store to sell sporting goods in New York in 1892?
12. In the Archie comics, where did Betty and Veronica go to high school?
In round 2, we missed #2, #4, #5, #6, and #11. It was not a good round for us.
Round 3, questions worth 2 pts. each.
1. Who are the Night Visitors in Menotti's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors?
2. What title charactor's adventures take place on the fictional island of Sodor?
3. Which stroke is swum first in an individual medley swimming event?
4. What famous Congressman delivered the "Cross of Gold" speech to the DNC in 1896?
5. Defenestration is the act of being thrown out of what?
6. What song plays during Tom Cruise's iconic underwear dance in the film Risky Business?
7. What city is home to the Big Bat, a 120 foot tall steel replica of Babe Ruth's baseball bat?
8. According to a popular tongue twister, what problem does the sixth sheik have?
9. What army was founded by "General" William Booth?
10. Wht popular restaurant chain was the brain child of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell?
11. What children's story written by Ian Fleming was used as the basis for a 1968 movie starring Dick Van Dyke?
12. Johannes Kepler is best known for establishing the scientific laws describing the motion of what?
Here, we missed #1, #3, and #10.
And Round 4, where the questions are 3 points each.
1. Three US Presidents have won Grammy awards for their spoken word albums. Name two.
2. Whose execution in 1587 caused the famed Spanish Armada to sail against England?
3. What Asian dog breed is notable for its blue tongue?
4. What MLB wild card team has won the World Series twice?
5. What 1982 successor to the VIC-20 is still the best-selling personal computer of all time?
6. What former NFL QB who spend most of his career with the Washington DC team has been a guest speaker at the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame Dinner?
7. The 2017 Broadway musical "War Paint" tells of the rivalry between two female cosmetic giants in the first part of the 20th century. Name one of the two.
8. What is the name given to dolfin fish on menus to make it sound more palatable?
9. What country was called the Gold Coast before its 1957 independence?
10. Chopin's Minute Waltz was his attempt to musically describe a puppy doing what?
11. Who christened Hawaii the Sandwich Islands in 1788?
12 Gregor Mendel, founder of modern science of genetics, experimented with what plants to establish many of the rules of heredity?
We missed #1, #4, #6, #7, #8, #9, and #10
And at that point we were tied for fourth place. So they had a tiebreaker set of questions.
1. What is the only nation that borders both Israel and Libya?
2. In what city could you see the Seagull Monument at Temple Square?
3. In the 1990's TV show Doogie Houser, what was Doogie's real first name?
4. What was Crash Davis's number in Bull Durham?
5. What is the name of the Jolly Green Giant's diminutive sidekick?
We missed #4, but they missed #2 and #4, so we got fourth and the $75.00 that came with being fourth.
Also, Joe won a tin of cookies, Jackie won a $20 door prize (cash), and Heather won a $75 door prize. And we won $25.00 for being the high scoring team in round 3. So... we did not do badly for our $80 outlay with the Claysburg Trivia Night.
Next week is the Everett Trivia Night, wherein we may continue our reign as champions. Here's hoping! We're going for a threepeat.
First off, for twenty dollars, you get...
A firehall turkey dinner (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, salad, ham/green beans/potatoes, rolls, dessert table) that is a PRETTY DARNED GOOD firehall turkey dinner and I say that as someone who has eaten a few.
Beer (yuengling in cans, plus whatever is in the keg), soda, water, chips, salsa, pretzels.
Forty-eight carefully chosen and challenging trivia questions, and about three and a half hours of fun with your team.
There are ALSO small games of chance (we do not, as a matter of principle, play small games of chance) delightfully called "rip off tickets" because you rip off the top part to see if you've won and not, mind, because they are a ripoff. I am probably the only person who thinks this is funny.
So I went with Brother-the-younger, my cousin Heather, and my aunt Jackie (Heather's mom). This was our third trip to Claysburg for Trivia Night. We keep taking more people with us.
The first year we went, Heather and I went by ourselves. We were by far the smallest team there. (Most teams have six or eight people. We did not know this going in because we were not sure what to expect of the Claysburg Trivia Night experience.)
That year, Heather and I placed fifth. We were horrified at having done so badly, but damn it the questions were seriously hard. The money prizes for trivia stop at fourth place and that was an additional little twinge of sorrow for us because we do like to win money. A lot.
So, we recruited Brother-the-younger to come with us last year. He's reasonably clever and also reasonably clever in ways that I am not and that Heather is not. (One among us knows which congressman gave the "cross of gold" speech in 1896 at the DNC and it was not me or Heather.) Last year we were also fifth at Claysburg Trivia Night. I know this makes us sound like a bunch of weak trivia players but we are honestly not weak. It's fucking hard trivia. After our second year of finishing out of the money, we decided we needed more than three people. And that's when we pulled in Jackie. (Actual name Jacqueline, okay? We would not name someone Jackie on purpose.)
So, armed for bear we went with our mighty team of four to the Claysburg Trivia Night. (Everyone else had teams of six or eight. But, as Heather pointed out, if you have a bigger team, you have to split the winnings more. It's a nice excuse and also a better way of explaining why our team is so small than "We don't have any other friends whom we think would be useful in pursuit of winning.")
We are Dead Parrots. That's our team name. Once, we let Brother-the-younger pick the team name and we were Lack Blithe Chatter which is arguably the worst team name ever. It's not even a noun. It's a description of terseness. I mean, what the fuck, Brother-the-younger? He does not get to pick the names anymore. Dead Parrots is from a Python sketch and that's our Nom de Trivia. Not going to be Lack Blithe Chatter ever again, you betcha.
Heather brought her own beer because the Claysburg P.A.S.T. (sponsor of the event) does not provide Guiness in bottles. The stuff has a fucking toucan on the bottle. Makes no sense to me, I didn't think toucans were even invented when they started making Guiness. She does not drink it ironically or to impress other people. (She is not that person. At all.) She drinks it because she enjoys beer that bears a striking similarity in both looks and taste to used motor oil.
I brought Redd's Apple Ale (two) because they're drinkable and I like them. I was not the only person in the audience who brought Redd's to the party, as I saw several other bottles of it scattered around the place.
You have to get to Trivia early because they don't have a lot of parking. We had to get to Trivia early beacause my cousin Heather worries a lot if we are late. It's just better to be early. Also, then you can get a parking space. When we got there, the only people there were the folks setting it up. And the parking was fantastic. So, we were early enough. (Last year we'd been 'on time' and I had to wedge my Honda Fit into not-a-parking-space wherein I dislodged all passengers before parking because they could not possibly exit the vehicle after it was parked.)
Our goal was to Not Be Fifth Again. Seriously, that was the goal. And (spoiler alert) we were not fifth again. Yay!
We were fourth. (It's fucking brutally hard trivia.) No cellphones, no google, etc.
Round 1 Questions. Worth 1 pt. each.
1. According to song "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" in what body of water is Michael rowing?
2. On what did the US government make three billion dollars by releasing five times a year between January 1999 and November 2008?
3. What month's birthstone tests highest on the Mohs scale?
4. Who did the Chicago Bears fire in 1992 just four years after he was named NFL Coach of the Year?
5. Who is pictured on the US Purple Heart medal?
6. In what city is Ebenezer Baptist Church where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his father were both pastors?
7. What color is the one ball in traditional pocket-ball billiards?
8. What's the first name of the head elf in charge of baking Keebler cookies?
9. Hoa Lo Prison, which means firey furnace in Vietnamese, was more commonly called what by American POWs?
10. The word for pub originated in England. What is it short for?
11. What company marketed the canned meat product known as Spam?
12. Who reveals "the man behind the curtain" in The Wizard of Oz?
In Round 1, we got 10 points. We missed #6 and #8.
Round 2 questions, worth 2 points each.
1. What city had the first underground subway system?
2. What's the name of Mario's girlfriend, kidnapped by the giant ape in Donkey Kong?
3. What does the letter Q stand for in the acronym NASDAQ?
4. Who was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
5. If you ate pain perdu for breakfast, what did you have?
6. Murder victim Elizabeth Short became known by what colorful nickname?
7. What is the only college football stadium bigger than Penn State's Beaver Stadium?
8. In Newton's second law of motion f=ma, the F stands for force. What do the M and A stand for?
9. Who receives 554 red roses the first Saturday in May?
10. Name one of the two Republican presidents who also served a full eight years as vice president.
11. What were the last names of fishermen David and Ezra who opened their first store to sell sporting goods in New York in 1892?
12. In the Archie comics, where did Betty and Veronica go to high school?
In round 2, we missed #2, #4, #5, #6, and #11. It was not a good round for us.
Round 3, questions worth 2 pts. each.
1. Who are the Night Visitors in Menotti's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors?
2. What title charactor's adventures take place on the fictional island of Sodor?
3. Which stroke is swum first in an individual medley swimming event?
4. What famous Congressman delivered the "Cross of Gold" speech to the DNC in 1896?
5. Defenestration is the act of being thrown out of what?
6. What song plays during Tom Cruise's iconic underwear dance in the film Risky Business?
7. What city is home to the Big Bat, a 120 foot tall steel replica of Babe Ruth's baseball bat?
8. According to a popular tongue twister, what problem does the sixth sheik have?
9. What army was founded by "General" William Booth?
10. Wht popular restaurant chain was the brain child of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell?
11. What children's story written by Ian Fleming was used as the basis for a 1968 movie starring Dick Van Dyke?
12. Johannes Kepler is best known for establishing the scientific laws describing the motion of what?
Here, we missed #1, #3, and #10.
And Round 4, where the questions are 3 points each.
1. Three US Presidents have won Grammy awards for their spoken word albums. Name two.
2. Whose execution in 1587 caused the famed Spanish Armada to sail against England?
3. What Asian dog breed is notable for its blue tongue?
4. What MLB wild card team has won the World Series twice?
5. What 1982 successor to the VIC-20 is still the best-selling personal computer of all time?
6. What former NFL QB who spend most of his career with the Washington DC team has been a guest speaker at the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame Dinner?
7. The 2017 Broadway musical "War Paint" tells of the rivalry between two female cosmetic giants in the first part of the 20th century. Name one of the two.
8. What is the name given to dolfin fish on menus to make it sound more palatable?
9. What country was called the Gold Coast before its 1957 independence?
10. Chopin's Minute Waltz was his attempt to musically describe a puppy doing what?
11. Who christened Hawaii the Sandwich Islands in 1788?
12 Gregor Mendel, founder of modern science of genetics, experimented with what plants to establish many of the rules of heredity?
We missed #1, #4, #6, #7, #8, #9, and #10
And at that point we were tied for fourth place. So they had a tiebreaker set of questions.
1. What is the only nation that borders both Israel and Libya?
2. In what city could you see the Seagull Monument at Temple Square?
3. In the 1990's TV show Doogie Houser, what was Doogie's real first name?
4. What was Crash Davis's number in Bull Durham?
5. What is the name of the Jolly Green Giant's diminutive sidekick?
We missed #4, but they missed #2 and #4, so we got fourth and the $75.00 that came with being fourth.
Also, Joe won a tin of cookies, Jackie won a $20 door prize (cash), and Heather won a $75 door prize. And we won $25.00 for being the high scoring team in round 3. So... we did not do badly for our $80 outlay with the Claysburg Trivia Night.
Next week is the Everett Trivia Night, wherein we may continue our reign as champions. Here's hoping! We're going for a threepeat.
