Trivia Night

Thursday night I pinch-hit for Joel at the “Land of a Thousand Hills” Coffee House Trivia Night. Will and Joel had been “competing” for a month or two. Their best finish was third. This time Joel was off at “some concert” so Will especially needed my help. Matthew tagged along, primarily for the hot chocolate. Staging a late comeback, we placed second.

Since I’m not a coffee drinker, at first I figured I’d also get hot chocolate. But at the last second I changed to an orange Italian Soda, mixed per order. Then sitting among everyone with their steaming mugs, I realized how out-of-place my brightly-colored beverage looked. Next time I’ll get another flavor, or something else.

Including us, there were five “teams.” Will recognized most as regulars. The first question was “Who was the Greek God of the Sea?” Matthew saved us, knowing it was Poseidon. I knew the first satellite launched into space was Sputnik. Later Will correctly guessed that Calcium Carbonate was caulk (it’s also antacid). We thought too hard on some questions, missing on the capital of Colorado (Denver, not Boulder). We were correct on Texas, Georgia, and Wisconsin, but missed Oregon (Salem).

At “halftime” we were mired in fourth place, losing 26-18 to the first-place team. I figured their lead was insurmountable, particularly when we started out slowly in the second half. In 1962 the British and French agreed to join forces to manufacture the Concorde (not the Chunnel). Insects most often bite feet (we were close, answering “legs”). The animals featured in Watership Down were rabbits (Will said Mice). In chess, Bishops can only move diagonally (we guessed Rooks). We had no idea which Benedictine Monk has created champagne (Dom Perignon). Robocop was set in Detroit (not LA). Russia suffered the most casualties in WWII (not Japan). Who Skelator was the nemesis of (He-Man).

I got lucky a few times, guessing that bi-chromatic vision is color blindness. Males are more likely to contract leprosy. In the 1970’s, grocery stores began using Bar Codes. Some questions were easy. Where the last 20th Century Olympics in the US were held (hello!).

After nineteen questions we were still fourth, just one point out of last. We trailed the first place team by twenty, and the second place team led us by fourteen. The most we could “bet” was fifteen points. Of course, that’s what go-for-broke Will wagered.

The final question was about music, a category at which I’m a novice. We had to put four legendary albums in chronological order. As the oldest person in the competition, I embarrassingly had to ask the MC to repeat what group made one of the albums (The Rolling Stones). My “educated” guess:

Abbey Road: The Beatles (69)

Exile on Main Street: The Rolling Stones (72)

Dark Side of the Moon: Pink Floyd (73)

Kiss: by Kiss (74)

Frampton Comes Alive: Peter Frampton (76)

Remarkably, I was the only one to get the question right. The fifteen points vaulted us into second place. The first place team wisely wagered nothing.

Joel would’ve known several questions that we missed. But to be really good, we need Kevin.