From: Amy
To: Megan
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 10:07:06 AM
Subject: Re: Pub Quiz
Let's see. . . We sucked in math and science. Mike D mocked us for being excited about the Mike D-created pub quiz, since it really wasn't any easier that the standard ones. However, we did somewhat ok in shopping (he gave us a founder's name and the date; we had to identify the store) and television (at least these questions were about shows from the last thirty years).
At some point in round 3 Mike D admonished me to use my "inside voice" because the team at the next table (the leper colony) was making smart remarks about being tired of overhearing the wrong answer, or something like that. Cathy and Christine defended me by saying I have no inside voice (true) and that I was using my beer voice (uhm, also true). Thanks, guys!
At halftime, we were in seventh place. (Did I mention that our team name was the Bitter Disappointments? This was after about a hourlong e-mail conversation where we threw around ideas like Mental Lapse, Mike D Stuffs His Stocking, Plan 9 from Westlake, The Middle of the Pack, The Spitting Llamas, and Christine's suggestion of resurrecting Team Fifth Place, since that's where we'll end up.)
I forget how many teams there were overall, but there were enough of us to be fairly loud when singing Happy Birthday to Mike D. (I guess his birthday is sometime between now and January, and since we won't have another quiz between now and then, we had to offer our best wishes last night.) His mom organized the group sing-a-long, which was the standard "Happy Birthday" song, except with "You suck!" tacked on at the end. Classy! I was informed later that he looked super-uncomfortable, so she was quite pleased.
The picture round was leaves. We only got 4, mostly because we identified aspen as birch and vice versa, etc. and so on. Drat! I knew that F on my leaf collection in 9th grade biology would come back to haunt me. Actually, if we had just written "oak" for every leaf, we would have had three points, because he had three different types of oak leaves on the page.
After that came geography (specifically: name the capital cities of each country he gives us), literature, and useless knowledge. I think the highest we got was 8 in literature. To be fair, I'm not sure you can call questions about James Patterson and Tom Clancy novels "literature," but they do involve words printed on a page, so . . .
Cathy was thrilled to win a raffle prize this week, because she's been coveting a Leatherman-like 12-in-1 tool for months, ever since he first started giving them away. Her number was finally called before round 5, and she immediately ripped it open and started playing with it.(Quote: What's an awl?)
My team deserted me immediately after the responses to useless knowledge were announced (Sample question: What's the number Mike D is thinking of, right now? Answer: 7.), so I was forced to go hang out with the Book Bags. My friend's friends are on that team, along with Mike D's mom. We were chatting about holiday plans, and I mentioned going down to Akron today, which is when I found out that once upon a time, before Mike D was born, Mike D's parents used to live in my neck of Akron. So, you know, that's . . . interesting?
At any rate, the Bitter Disappointments ended up tied for fifth place with the Book Bags. Of the four teams who finished in first place during the last ten weeks and were in contention for the grand prize, Team 11 took top honors. The grand prize turned out to be some gift cards to various fine establishments (including Claddagh) and a massive Bushmills bar mirror. I saw them lugging it to the car — the thing's like 3 feet by 2 feet, at least. I texted Cathy, Christine, and Missy about our final score, and Christine responded, "see we should have gone w fifth place again!"
Anyhow . . . I told Mike D I wasn't going to blog about this week's quiz (he did a good job of faking disappointment), but I may as well since I wrote this recap while half-watching the rerun of Reaper I taped last night (I watched Bones when I got home, and I'm tempted to watch it again. I can't believe how tall the kid from Freaks and Geeks has gotten.) and waiting for my laundry to finish drying so I can pack it and hit the road.
Later,
Amy
---- Original Message ----
From: Megan
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:07:57 PM
Subject: Re: Pub Quiz
Okay, cool. Tuesdays are marked on the 2008 calendar. I hope you all are doing well tonight!
Megan
On Nov 20, 2007 9:46 AM,
For future reference . . .
Pub quiz is every Tuesday night at 7 at Claddagh Irish Pub in Crocker Park. (It used to be at 8 on the first Wednesday of the month at Brendan O'Neill's in Westlake.) However, Mike D is taking December off. Pub quiz will start up again sometime in January.
I can understand if you don't come out every week (even Cathy and Christine don't come every week, and they live less than 2 miles from the place) but maybe once a month would be doable — depending on the weather, of course.
I'm excited because tonight's special bonus quiz is a Mike D quiz, not one created by the lame-brains at Claddagh Irish Pub corporate offices. In the meantime: I will read Ken Jennings's weekly trivia e-mail and browse the Mental_Floss Web site. Maybe something useful will stick.
----- Original Message ----
From: Megan
Subject: Pub Quiz
Ha! I was waiting to see what kind of a response I was going to get to Mrs. Mike D. I figured there had to be one!
We won't be making it out to the west side for Pub Quiz this week. Although, for future reference, is it on Tuesdays or Wednesdays? I was thinking Wednesdays, but I'm thrown off by your comment which made it sound like Tuesdays. December is going to be all over the place, but we'll have to try and make it out in 2008. It can be one of my New Year's Resolutions! ;)
On Nov 19, 2007 11:03 AM, Amy
Amy has left a new comment on your post "An Annoyance and a Friendly Reminder":
I'm going to chalk up your comment about Mrs. Mike D to temporary insanity brought on by illness.
What are the chances of you and Keith coming to the west side tomorrow night? Or do you have your writers' group again?
Posted by Amy to A Right Gapesnest at 11:03 AM
Oh, I forgot to mention that I pointed out the ceiling art to Christine, and she said it looks even freakier in person.
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