The Travails of Tattoo McGillicuddy*

Overview

I would like to rationalize our disappointing evening by saying that these were some seriously random questions this week. We were lucky to get half of them right. I mean, when Team 11 comes in third, you know it's hard core.

I think part of our problem was that we weren't picking up on what he was laying down, in terms of paying attention to some key words in the clues. Plus, we were a little irritated about the way the waiter showed up in the middle of the first round when we were trying to listen to questions and then essentially ignored us for the rest of the night.

On the bright side, the second-place team offloaded some of their prize pack on us, so now I have a metal napkin & swizzle stick dispenser, a bar mat, and some kind of business card holder (?) — all promoting some kind of vodka I've never heard of. I do have an extensive napkin collection** in my supply cabinet at work, so I was kind of stoked to set up the napkin holder. It's next to my computer monitor right now, but I may move it into the cabinet next to my coffee creamer and Nutri-Grain bars. Can't wait for the midmorning coffee break!


Scores & Standings

Round 1: Glorious Movie Shows — 4 points
Round 2: Records, CDs, Tapes, MP3s, and the People Who Make Them — 5 points
Round 3: The Flavor of the Week — 6 points
Round 4: What's on the Boob Tube? — 7 points
Round 5: Famous Buzz — 8 points
Round 6: Sports and Games — 3 points

The crowd had a lot of fun with fake answers for his fake categories, like "Oprah" for "Things That Go Moo!" and "Strawberry" for "Flavor of the Week." I kind of wish that he had actually done the categories of "Shapes," "55 State Capitals," and "Irish or Dead?" because we might have done better on those.

We were tied for fifth at halftime with Weird Science, two points behind Team I Got Nothin' and Team 11 in a tie for third (!!! — I know! </Craig Ferguson>), four points behind Knife Fight in second, and six points behind the Flying Monkeys in first place.

After a nail-biter of a tie-breaker between Team 11 and the Flying Monkeys, we were still in fifth place at the end, beating out Weird Science by two points and missing fourth place (Team I Got Nothin') by one point. Team 11 had seven more points to finish third, the Flying Monkeys edged them by .1 point to come in second, and Knife Fight came from behind to take first place with 43 points.


Quotable Quotes & Notable Notes

• The leper colony was MIA again — Mike D even mentioned it during the quiz. Well, they won't know that there is no west side quiz next week, because Mike D will be out of town. Christine says that he’s going to be cheating on us with another Pub Quiz. So, if we want to lose next week, we'll have to go to the Claddagh in Legacy Village. (Mike D: "Yes, Mom, that's on the other side of the river.")
  
  
• Mike D announced a bonus point for the team sitting at the lucky barrel. Since when do we get extra points for our location? We should have gotten a bonus point a few months ago for being near the skeevy horse orgy. Or wait: Is that move called a lucky barrel?
  
  
• Every week Mike D announces the rules, and finishes with, "My word is law. Especially when I am . . . " and this week Christine bust in with "Naked!"***
  
  
• Mike D announced that this might be the last time some of us see that particular striped shirt. (The same one he has been wearing during the quiz for pretty much as long as it has existed.) The admission that it has succumbed to some damage was met with mild cheers and applause.
  
  
• My favorite Mike D line of the night: “I have to start over. I already dorked up that question.”
  
  
• One question during the Flavor of the Week category was about the name that the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company finally made official in 2002. I had my mouth full, so I tried to sign "3" and "M" to Christine with my right hand. She thought I was throwing gang signs: West siiiiiide!
  
  
• After it was revealed that Legoland was the first amusement park chain to allow parents to track their kids by cell phone and RFID bracelets, Cathy's all, "What? Where's Legoland?" Christine: "Mike D's bedroom."
  
  
• One of the Sports and Games questions was, “Who got fired from the Notre Dame football booth for saying that Notre Dame should lower its academic standards to recruit African-American athletes?” Cathy said, “Lou Paterno.” I had to explain that those were two separate people: Lou Holtz and Joe Paterno. Christine did a little Conan shout-out with her helpful suggestion: “If they mated!” She also came up with Pope John Paul II after we already traded score sheets with another team. Sadly, like many of our responses that evening, that too was wrong.
  

* This was a snarky nickname for Carly Smithson-Hennessy that I spotted somewhere in TWOP's American Idol forums. Since two-thirds of the usual crew has a tattoo, and since we're at an Irish pub, I thought it would be a good fit.

** New, not used.

*** For the record, the usual end to that sentence is "wrong."