A Post Few of My Readers Are Likely to Understand

A graph G is strongly asteroidal if it contains three vertices a, b, c such that there is a path between any two of these vertices that

1. Does not contain the third vertex, nor any neighbor of the third vertex.
2. Does not contain two consecutive vertices that are adjacent to every neighbor of the third vertex.

This? Is my job.

Fun Fact: There's only one Stephentown on Earth

Okay, so last week really was my last trivia night. Maybe. I'll have to spend some time in Clemson next semester, and the w is convinced I'll be arranging things so that I'm there on Thursday nights. We'll see. For now, savor the misses from last week's victory.

1. In what southeastern state might you find the towns of Frog Jump, Only, and Sweetlips?
2. In what southwestern state would you find the town of Ding Dong?
3. What freshwater mollusk produces red or pink pearls?
4. Which family of trees includes both the largest and fastest-growing living thing on earth?
5. What is the more common name of herpes zoster?

Where have all the tan M&M's gone?

Because I ran across this while I was cleaning out my bookbag: trivia returns!

1. What original Lifesavers flavor was nearly removed from the roll in 1999, after Nabisco announced that it was "not Y2K compliant?"

2. How many times did Marshal Mathers, a.k.a. Eminem, flunk the ninth grade?

3. What country's first nuclear weapons research facility is now a tourist attraction known as "Nuclear City?"

4. What film, starring Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson, was banned from the Cineplex Odeon Universal City in Los Angeles, out of fears that it might cause trouble in the trendy City Walk complex nearby?

5. What part of the Britney Spears doll's anatomy do you push to get her to sing?

Tomorrow will likely be my last trivia night in this town. Goodness knows what direction this blog will take afterwards. Will I find a new trivia night in Winston-Salem? Start writing my own? Reprint all the Ken Jennings questions I miss? Stay tuned.

Been a Long, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely Time

Okay, so, Fall Break has stretched into an extended hiatus, as wedding and honeymoon time have been supplanted by research time and job-application time and write-the-dissertation-already time. I have a brief moment of blogging time tonight, though, so I return with a question:

Curriculum Vita or Curriculum Vitae? Or does it matter? My understanding was that "Vitae" was plural, but still acceptable usage (similar to "criteria").

Se Habla Ingles!

In case you haven't noticed, the Preschool has been on Fall Break. There was no trivia last week, and there probably won't be any this week. I am pleased to report, however, that on October 18, the f officially became the w. In the next few days, there will be a recap of our honeymoon in Mexico, or at least a recipe for fried bananas.

I thought it was Jimmy Durante!

Trivia night got off to a rocky start, when I arrived to find that the rest of my team was absent. A couple of early misses had me thinking about leaving at halftime, but, ninety minutes and a couple of lucky guesses later, an improbable victory gave a much-needed infusion of cash to the Preschool's coffers.

The difficulty level of trivia has been a lot higher lately, but I feel like the ones I missed were actually pretty easy. Judge for yourself.

1. What singer was the subject of the Hello Gorgeous Museum in San Francisco, which gave out wigs and fake noses to visitors wishing to impersonate her?
2. What multi-faceted character did comic Don Rickles voice in the movie Toy Story?
3. What medical procedure, applied to humans, did the World Health Organization decry as "against human integrity and morality?"
4. What clothing line, a spin-off of Phat Farm, is designed for urban women?
5. Who was the first athlete to be named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year twice?
6. Final: What Steven Spielberg movie did Senator Tom Coburn bash NBC for airing, citing its "full-frontal nudity, violence, and profanity?"

Buckaroo Banzai is not the answer to any question

We missed a lot of questions this week, and many of them were good questions. Unfortunately, I misplaced the question list somewhere between the bar and the car, and I can only remember one of our misses. Such is the risk of bar trivia. Happily, it turns out I did back up my extra trivia document after all, so I'll add a couple extras of my own.

1. What Grammy-winning singer made tabloid headlines in 1996 when it was reported (erroneously) that he had asked his wife for a divorce via fax?

2. Who is the only driver to complete the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day?

3. What dubious achievement did the Philadelphia Phillies accomplish on July 15, 2008, against the St. Louis Cardinals?

4. Which amendment to the Constitution provided for separate election of the President and Vice-President?

You Enjoy Themselves

Phish is touring.

You Shall Never Be Hungry Again!

Fantastic week at trivia this week. Not because we won - we didn't - but because trivia was actually hard. At least, we thought it was hard. We have a veritable smorgasbord of missed questions for you, my trivia-hungry readers. Dig in!

1. Who won ESPN's award for "Wide Receiver of the '80s?"
2. What was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture?
3. What was the title of Alexandra Ripley's much-anticipated sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind?
4. What superstar lamely told Madonna that her show was "neat," during the documentary Truth or Dare?
5. Which hip-hop heroes collaborated with heavy metal band Anthrax to remake the hit "Bring the Noise?"
6. What fast food chain has begun selling Brazil nut chocolate chip cookies, in an effort to benefit rainforest communities?
7. What self-described "Architect of Rock and Roll" helped cut the ribbon at the opening ceremonies of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Note - we actually missed eight questions, but I am unable to verify the answer to the eighth, or even to find a reference to the incident the question is about. So, out it goes.

Where'd you go?

Three reasons for last week's lack of posts:

1. My laptop died, thus depriving me of my usual entry to the Internets.
2. We missed zero questions at trivia. I could have taken some from the stash I save for just such an occasion, but those were on my laptop, in a folder I don't usually back up - see reason #1.
3. Heroes premiere + no TiVo = no more watching OTH on Mondays.

I hereby promise to miss trivia questions this week.

Trivia: Still More Fun Than Studying

This week did not go nearly as well for us as last week. But, as usual, our loss is your gain, because more misses for us is more questions for you. I know there's a subset of my tiny tiny readership that will have no trouble with the halftime question...

1. What does the "W" stand for on a WAP phone?
2. Who was the first African-American to grace the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue?
3. Halftime: Name the last seven films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
4. In what year was the original Playstation released?
5. Which Peanuts character was dressed in clothes designed by over three hundred fashion designers in a 1990 retrospective at the Louvre?
Final:
6. Which English-speaking nation stopped minting one- and two-cent coins in 1991, when the cost to produce them exceeded their value?

Is "Oedipal" the word I'm looking for here?

Okay, so going into episode two, let's recap where everyone is:
Lucas is married... to Brooke! No wait, it's Peyton! Um, it's Lindsey? No, it's a dream sequence, and he's in the airport, waiting for... Peyton, which is exactly what we expected all along. They're in Vegas, getting married, or maybe they're not, I'm not entirely sure, because I spent a lot of the episode watching on mute because I was on the phone with the f.
Dan is not dead after he was hit by a car... but he's in the hospital. No, wait, he's in a room made up to look like a hospital room, and his fake nurse is - wait for it - Fran, the Nutjob Nanny! This is her elaborate revenge scheme to get Jamie back. I get the feeling that this week, she will make Dan re-write his last book so that her favorite character doesn't die.
Nathan's back hurts.
Haley is doing something.
Skills is sleeping with Nathan's mom. Yeah.
Mouth is leaving for Omaha, and wants Millie to go with him. Millie decides to go, but changes her mind, because Brooke is going to war with her mom for control of the company. How exciting! Brooke, ever the martyr, tells Millie to go, and the show's two "unattractive" people ride off into the sunset. Even more exciting, Brooke is attacked by a masked man as she locks up the store for the night. Is it an Oedipal plot? Find out in two minutes!

You Can Do What You Want to Do

I'm disappointed in the difficulty level of the trivia lately. It's one thing when a team gets a ridiculously high score for the week; any given set of questions could be right in one team's wheelhouse. But, and I know I've harped on this before, when the top three teams are within two points of a perfect score, that's just no leeway for teams to get anything outside their areas of expertise.
Anyway, on to a story of our only miss: Each round, we're given the categories for each question in advance. This, in theory, helps us decide how many points to bid on the first two questions. To pass the time between questions, our team usually tries to come up with possible questions for the later categories. On occasion, we have been able to come up with the exact question - last week, I correctly predicted that the Just Shoot Me question would ask for the name of the magazine (sadly, this clairvoyance did not help us correctly answer the question). On rarer occasions, the category is so obvious that we have come up with the correct answer without a question. Tonight, the category was "backup dancers," and we figured the answer simply had to be K-Fed. When it wasn't, we were so stuck that we were unable to come up with anything. So that's question one, question two is the only other question we really had to think about, and then there's two I made up. Please to enjoy.

1. What future superstar was a backup dancer in Janet Jackson's video for "That's the Way Love Goes?"
2. What rap star suavely blamed his teammates after he was cut from a tryout for the Toronto Raptors?
3. What is the oldest continuously used auto raceway in the U.S.?
4. In Calvin and Hobbes, what are Calvin's parents' names?

Or, you could watch the RNC

We're just over an hour from the premiere of One Tree Hill, and when we last saw the gang, Lucas was sitting in the airport with two tickets to Vegas, proposing to his phone. We also saw Brooke, Peyton, and Lindsey on their respective phones. Who is on the receiving end of the proposal? Well, if it's Brooke, that would just be weird. As for Lindsey, she just got done telling Lucas that, when she told him she was seeing someone else - thus causing him to flip out and assault a high-schooler, possibly costing him his coaching job - she was lying. "Hey, sorry I f%$@ed with your mind and screwed up your life" doesn't strike me as the sort of thing that would lead to a proposal. Seriously, if it's Lindsey, this is going to be a short season of recaps.
Also to be answered: Will Mouth really quit his job and move to Omaha? Will Millie the Absurdly Gorgeous Frumpy Girl go with him? Is Dan finally dead? Will everything this season be Nathan's fault? Will Skills have a meaningful plot line? Tune in tonight and see!

It's all right, 'cause there's no Saved By The Bell!

This week was "90's sitcom trivia," and, despite having watched a great deal of television in that decade, I learned just how much I don't know about 90's sitcoms. For example, I did not know that JAG, Melrose Place, Dawson's Creek, and Beverly Hills, 90210 were sitcoms. I'm on the record as being against "theme nights," and the inability of the organizers to stay inside their announced themes is one reason. Having to type "On [show], [question]" over and over is another.

1. On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, what is Will's father's occupation?
2. And where did Will and Carlton attend college?
3. On Full House, what was Jesse's original last name?
4. On Everybody Loves Raymond, what unusual quirk does Raymond's brother Robert have when he eats?
5. What is the name of the magazine where the cast of Just Shoot Me works?
Final:
6. On Seinfeld, what food caused Jerry to end his fourteen-year non-vomit streak?

Like the Ken Jennings Trivia Email, only easier. And not in email form.

The trivia team got the term off to a solid start, cruising to an easy victory at an easy trivia night. We only missed two questions (well, more, because we could only name six of the eight events that Michael Phelps won last week), so I picked out two extras.

1. Whose last words were reported as "I love you, Jesus," by a nun, and, "I can't breathe," by a doctor?
2. Which newspaper first received the tip that led to the man who admitted to killing Bill Cosby's son?
3. Which U.S. presidential candidate said, "The Internet is a great way to get on the 'Net?"
Final:
4. What international event prompted USA Today's first weekend edition, in 1996?

60 is the new 55

I'd like to take this opportunity to assure my mother that I did, indeed, send her a card for her birthday, and to thank her for making this all possible.

Back To School

School is back in session, and with it, new trivia. We only missed three this week, but missing three questions was enough to keep us out of the money. Especially galling was the fact that we probably would have gotten the first question if we had heard it correctly - it wasn't a question about the Pharaohs.

1. In what ancient Egyptian city did the Pharos reside?
2. What is the average lifespan of a human red blood cell?
3. Which automaker purchased Land Rover (at the time, the last major British-owned car company) in 1994?

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

Including get in a fight at a basketball game, apparently.
The truly brilliant part of this? Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn as the voices of reason.

Summertime, and the Livin's Lazy

We're on Summer Break again at the Preschool, so I'm spacing things out. We didn't go to trivia last week, and probably won't go next week, so this will have to tide you over for a while.

1. What product's advertising first used the catchphrase "Good to the Last Drop," in 1907?
2. Who was the first Playboy centerfold, in 1953?
3. What is the name of Smokey the Bear's mate?
4. What organization's motto is "Blood and Fire?"
5. How many days did the 1968 march from Selma to Montgomery take?
6. Which country is the world's largest producer of soybeans?
7. What breed of dog was Winston Churchill's favorite dog, Rufus?
Final:
8. How many grooves are on the edge of a quarter?

Link it up!

Today is Wine Library TV's 499th episode, and host Gary Vay...Ner...Chuk promises that this episode will "rock your face off." Tomorrow will be a "live" (they're taping it live, but it's happening today) broadcast from their 500th episode celebration in San Francisco.
Vaynerchuk's almost-daily podcast discusses wines from around the globe. Most days there's a theme - only 100% Petit Verdot, wines from Oklahoma (go find that one in the archives, it's worth it), even a two-buck-Chuck tasting. He tastes a few wines every show, and gives tasting notes and a score for each wine, but he stresses that these things - the score, in particular - are just his feelings about a wine, and that you need to trust your own palate. That, I think, is the reason for the popularity of the show - Vaynerchuk brings in varietals and regions that most casual wine drinkers have never heard of, and urges you to expand your tasting experience, because there's a lot of good wine out there, at all different price points, and it's a shame to always spend $12 on Yellow Tail just because you already know what it tastes like*.
Anyway, check out today's show, either at the link above, or by grabbing the podcast at the iTunes Store.

A Not-Necessarily-Musical Question

Pretend, for the moment, that you are a musical artist. Someone compares your work - at this point, you are free to imagine whether it is the song you just sang, your latest album, your entire ouvre - with someone else's work. Are you upset that someone has just suggested your work is derivative, or do you welcome the comparison to other artists? Discuss.

I'm thinking of a number between 20 and 50. What is it?

There actually was trivia this week, and it was actually good, except for what is now disturbing trend of "guess a number" final questions. It's one thing to ask about some obscure fact - that's trivia, after all - but I really feel like there should be some way to come up with an educated guess when you don't know the answer to a question, and in this case, I just don't see how one could reason out the answer.
Anywho:

1. What is Scarlett O'Hara's actual first name?
2. In which state was the Confederate flag first designed and flown?
3. What legendary baseball player was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1934?
4. What university counts the greatest number of U.S. Presidents among its alumni?
5. How many laps in the Daytona 500?
Final:
6. How many restrooms are in the White House?

It doesn't pay to be a Gentile at trivia night

Thursday trivia was no fun - we didn't miss anything that made an interesting trivia question, and the final was another "guess a number and we'll tell you if you're close" question - so you get Saturday trivia, which I continue to insist is better anyway. There is a significant probability that there will not be trivia this week, in which case, I'll just make something up.

1. In which EU nation is the primary National Language spoken fluently by less than 10% of the population?
2. What is the only stadium to host consecutive Super Bowls?
3. Street lingo: What is "Adam's Ale?"
4. What are the capitals of a) Somalia b) Australia?
5. A Jewish boy has his Bar Mitzvah at 13. At what age does a girl have her Bat Mitzvah?
6. In the iconic photo, how many soldiers are raising the American flag at Iwo Jima?
7. What African nation is home to the militia known as the Janjaweed?

Back in the saddle again

The nasty throat/chest virus seems to be gone, so I was back at trivia this week. Things looked bad when we started blowing our five-pointers in the middle rounds, but then we wound up winning the thing at the end, by being the only team to correctly guess how many tons of jellybeans the White House purchased during the Reagan Administration. Seriously, I can't stand that type of question. They said to get within two, so we figured it couldn't be very high, but unless you happen to have just read 101 Completely Random Facts about Ronald Reagan, there's no further reasoning that can get you any closer to the correct answer; the question might just as well have been, "I'm thinking of a number between 2 and 30, what is it?"

The rest of our misses:
1. What television personality claimed that he was fired as a local weatherman after joking that a storm had hail stones "the size of canned hams?"
2. What is the name of Felix the Cat's girlfriend?
3. What was the name of Melissa Etheridge's first album after announcing her homosexuality?
4. Which country had a record turnout of 315 million voters during its 1991 elections?
5. Who wore a suit, instead of his standard military fatigues, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations?

Why there was no trivia this week

I have spent the last week waylaid by a virus, which started in my throat, moved to my chest once I started taking prednisone for the throat, then moved back into my throat once I ran out of prednisone and started taking cough syrup. Today, I feel well enough to move around, and can even talk for several minutes without straining my voice. But, obviously, I had to skip both Thursday and Saturday trivia this week. Maybe I'll get to alternate content (I do have a nice onion spaghetti recipe I could share), maybe not.

Why I prefer Saturday Trivia

As I have mentioned before, the hard-and-fast rule of Thursday trivia is, "Don't miss your five-point questions." So when we managed to blow a five-pointer on the very first question (mis-counting the number of molars in the human mouth - incidentally, I only have 25 teeth in my mouth, which is somewhat disconcerting), and then missed another five-pointer in the second round, we knew this would not be our night. We were dead last at halftime, made a big comeback in the second half, but would not have placed even if we had gotten the final question right. That's okay, because, as is too often the case, the trivia writers asked an ambiguous question with a difficult-to-verify answer, which a brief Google search would indicate they got wrong.

1. What is the more common name for the chemical compound epinephrine?
2. Which planet takes 84 Earth years to complete its orbit?
3. Which golfer bid a tearful farewell to fans after playing his last U.S. Open in 1994?
4. To whom did Herman Melville dedicate Moby Dick?
5. For which Biblical figure did the Sun and Moon stand still? (sorry if this one is worded badly)
6. Which country is home to the oldest active brewery (which has been running since 1040 A.D.)?
Final:
7. What is the average length of an African elephant's trunk?

Good luck.

Back from hiatus!

Like most schools, DPP has been taking a short break before starting summer classes. I was planning to go elsewhere with content today, but, due to a minor incident with the food processor, it's a little hard to type. As a result, you're just getting this week's trivia. Again. I hate being so one-note, but it turns out being a full-time researcher is significantly more time-consuming than taking classes ever was.

1. What is the hardest (on the Mohs scale, I assume) part of the human body?
2. Which successful pop duo was originally known as "Caesar and Cleo?"
3. Before Tokyo, which city was the capital of Japan?
4. Who was the oldest actress on The Golden Girls: Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, Rue McLanahan, or Betty White?
Final:
5. How many different shapes are currently in the Barnum's Animals (TM) cracker menagerie?

Theme Night!

I have to make up questions on the fly this week, so here goes:

1. What song's copyright is held by the estates of Mildred J. Smith and Patty Hill Smith until 2030?
2. What is the street address of NBC's headquarters in Manhattan?
3. What 90s television show was the debut of twins Tia and Tamera Mowry?
4. What card game is usually begun by removing one queen from a 52-card deck, then dealing all the remaining cards to the players?

Trick Question! Tupac faked his death!

All of the calculus classes have their exams on Thursday night of exam week, so we missed Thursday trivia. However, rather than leave my readers in the lurch, I made the journey to Saturday trivia. Things did not look good early, when I could not convince anyone that a Reuben is made with pastrami (possibly because it is actually made with corned beef), and I was not up to snuff on my celebrity death locations. I placed by bidding zero points on the final question, and letting the other teams fall back to me.

1. Which actor played the Dark Knight for the only time in Batman Forever?
2. Which of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) was written by a former tax collector?
3. Where were the following people killed?
a) Tupac Shakur
b) Martin Luther King, Jr.
4. What 1990 dance craze gave The Digital Underground its biggest hit?
5. Place the following movies in order of their 2005 DVD rentals, from most to least:
a) Meet The Fockers b) Hitch c) National Treasure d) The Notebook

My mom loves your shows, Shonda!

It's a good 24-hour period for me. We won trivia last night, I'll be receiving a Major University Award this afternoon, and when I snarked on Grey's Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes snarked right back. Plus, it's the last day of classes, which is always good.
Speaking of the last day of classes, non-trivia content has been light (to say the least), but I expect that to change now that my days are a little more free. In particular, OTH recaps should be back soon.

1. What country produces 2/3 of the world's vanilla?
2. What mollusk shares its name with the first waterproof watch?
3. Which Spaniard won two Masters titles in the 1980's?
4. What nation has the world's second-highest level of gold production, behind South Africa?
Final:
5. Which novel contains the longest sentence in literature?

What if it was a hiphopopotamus?

Thursday was Sports Trivia, and I didn't bother to write down our misses; if I remember any, I'll add them. Instead, you get Saturday's trivia, which has consistently been of higher quality than the Thursday night version this semester (and easier to win, as fewer teams show up). The downside, of course, is that it requires me to spend my Saturday night in this particular bar, which means the f has to be visiting me (as opposed to the other way around) and feel like going out for trivia (which usually is the case, as she is a fan of trivia, but sometimes we have Flight of the Conchords on DVD and don't feel like going out).
The f actually had to leave town early yesterday, so I was planning to go stag, but I ran into some friends, and our victory enabled us to pay most of our crippling bar tab. The misses:

1. On Scrubs, where did J.D. and Turk attend college?
2. Name the Major League pitchers with the five highest career strikeout totals.
3. Kevin Spacey has won Academy Awards for his work in which two films?
4. What is added to a martini to make it a gimlet?
5. Place the following animals in order of average life expectancy in the wild, from longest to shortest:
Kangaroo, hippopotamus, deer, rat.

No, I don't understand why the baseball questions were twelve years old

Last night was a great night for everyone as far as trivia is concerned. It was great for us, because we won. It's great for you, dear readers, because we still managed to miss a solid selection of questions. As usual, I cannot vouch for the veracity of the answers given to us, but we believed them.

1) What Arab nation has the highest percentage of Christian citizens?
2) Who hit a line-drive single in his first at-bat of the 1996 season, becoming the first Red Sox pitcher to get a base hit in 24 years?
3) Who was the winningest manager in Major League Baseball history winningest active manager in baseball when he retired in 1996?
4) What recording artist was the top-selling artist of the 1970's, according to Billboard?
5) Of flyweight, bantamweight, or featherweight, which is the heaviest weight class?
Final:
6) What mythical beast has the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail and feet of a dragon?

I took "Potpourri" for $100, and then my head started to spin

Last night's final question was: What is the maximum number of "answers" that can be read during a game of Jeopardy!?
I think a better question is this: What is the maximum number of possible "questions" (i.e., responses) during a game of Jeopardy!?


Apologies for any confusion caused by the awkward punctuation.

I doubt they actually said "adieu"

When trivia night pays three places, fourth is the most annoying place to be. The new question-writers are still finding their legs as far as difficulty, so it was another night where close to a dozen teams finished with over 70 points (the maximum is 78). The final question, about the number of answers on Jeopardy!, became more difficult when the announcer tried to clarify the difference between an "answer" and a "question." This led to great confusion, but apparently not enough confusion to slip us into the money.

1. Which country bid adieu to the United Kingdom in 1921?
2. How many days can an ant survive underwater?

This week only: no Saved By The Bell questions!

It seems that I have, once again, mislaid last night's trivia misses. We had quite a few, so I'll see what I can reconstruct from my memory - which, incidentally, is greatly improved since I switched from scotch & soda to just plain soda.

1) What U.S. coin has a standard weight of five grams?
2) Name the three most commonly occuring chemical elements in the universe!
3) What is the most-consumed fish in the world?
4) Which part of the eye is obscured by cataracts?
5) Which fruit is present in Da Vinci's The Last Supper, despite the fact that it was not introduced to the Holy Land until long after Jesus's death?

Just Like Ross and Rachel

And It All Goes To Hell.
It's all a little hard to follow, actually, what with flashbacks and flash-forwards and dream sequences, but everything definitely goes wrong. Maybe.
Nathan comes home, but not really. Moira Kelly comes home, really. Then there's a wedding, but not really. Peyton speaks instead of holding her peace, but not really. Lucas says "I do," but he doesn't really mean it. Suddenly, two things happen:
1) Jamie goes to the bathroom. This seems unimportant when you read it here, but there are actually two more things that make this important:
a) Dan is parked outside.
b) Fran the Nutjob Nanny is hanging out upstairs.
This looks bad, doesn't it? But we'll leave that subplot for a second, because the second thing is:
2) Lindsey says, "I don't." Presumably, she does mean it.
See, Lindsey was reading Lucas's book, too - the one that Haley was reading last week - and she's figured out that, like the previous book, it's about Peyton. Lucas denies it, but what else is he going to do? She's already in the dress, for Pete's sake. Lindsey leaves, and she won't likely be back, leaving Lucas and Peyton to be this show's Pam & Jim, or Sam & Diane, or those two kids on that show about the six friends, what was it called again?
We have no time for awkward relationships, though, because we have to get back to thing one: Jamie is missing. Everybody panics, which, admittedly, is exactly what everybody should do. Haley mentions seeing Dan, and everybody panics again. Nathan jumps in front of a police car, and manages to avoid getting tasered long enough to get an APB out. Unfortunately, it's on the wrong person, because the Nanny-not-named-Fran has Jamie in a hotel room. Her plan to usurp the role of Mommy has hit a snag, though: she has forgotten hair dye. She runs out to get some, and when she gets back, Jamie is hiding. Fran seeks, and finds - Dan. Dan constructively expresses his displeasure with Fran. Okay, he actually pins her to a wall by the throat, but maybe he feels bad about using violence to solve his problems. Okay, probably not, but at least Jamie is waiting in the car. I think. He doesn't appear to be in the room.
Back at the Scott household, everybody blames themselves. I think everybody also blames Nathan, because this season has been about how everything that goes wrong is subtly Nathan's fault. There are a lot of police, but they must all have poor eyesight or keep turning their backs at exactly the right moments, because everybody misses Jamie walking right into the middle of the room. Not only that, Dan must be one heck of an evasive driver, because every cruiser in Tree Hill is looking specifically for him, and he managed to drive across town without being spotted. Anyway, he waits long enough for Jamie to be received, then makes his own dramatic entrance. We fade out before he is tackled by every officer in the room. New episodes start in a month.

Pain. Suffering. Johnny Carson

I know you've been missing the trivia. Well, Spring Break is over, the f was in town for the weekend, and we celebrated Easter Eve by rocking the Saturday night trivia. It was a tough one, and I'll skip a couple of our misses, because it was tough to follow the wording on some of them. Here's what I wrote down. Happy Easter.

1. What is the surgical knife known as an izmel used for?
2. What element is added to rubber to vulcanize it?
3. Which Christian feast celebrates tongues of fire descending on the apostles?
4. Who was the first female comic called to the couch by Johnny Carson?

Happy Hangover Day!

When I was in my 20's, the nice thing about having a birthday right after St. Patrick's Day was that, when midnight rolled around, we were already drinking. Nowadays, I usually stay away from the green beer, so today is just like any other day, except people give me presents. What did you get me?

Jaw, Floor. Floor, Jaw.

It's stag party day in Tree Hill, and the fact that Nathan and Haley haven't spoken in over a week is on everybody's mind. No, seriously, that's all anyone talks about for the first five minutes. Lucas and Lindsey have a plan, though; they're going to secretly hold both of their parties in the same place. Those scamps!
Brooke sets Peyton up on with Woody's friend, so she won't have to go to this party alone. But wait! The friend turns out to be Chase, the former male leader of the Clean Teens, who lost his virginity to Brooke last season. The female head of the Clean Teens, by the way, slept with Mouth, which makes me think I'd have been more popular with the ladies in high school had I simply declared my virginity. Anyway, the situation is awkward for everyone, especially the writers, who have to explain how Woody and Chase have not put together that they both know a 22-year-old named Brooke from Tree Hill with a world famous clothing line.
Rachel plays the part of the Recovering Addict In A Television Show to a T. She looks healthy, has no needle marks whatsoever, and whiles away the hours at Brooke's house, happily discussing how she's sure she's done this time, and not trying to contact anyone, despite the fact that her phone is sitting right there on the table the whole episode. She even wants to go back to work! But then 1) Brooke won't let her be a model rightnowthisinstant, 2) Mouth won't sleep with her rightnowthisinstant, and 3) Brooke's mom tells her she sucks. Rachel skips town with a a conveniently placed envelope full of cash.
Nathan arrives at the party, which is at his own house, and Haley answers the door, and they both pretend to be surprised to see each other. "Pretend," because they both had a guess as to what Lucas and Lindsey were up to, because they've seen this show, too. They spend the evening having thirty-second awkward conversations, and resolve absolutely nothing, although by all indications Haley has backed way off the divorce talk.
Jamie spends the entire episode being disappointed that his parents won't play Rock Band with him. Jamie is an annoying child, though admittedly he'd be more annoying if he reacted to the various little disappointments of his day the way most four-year-olds react: with screaming tantrums. Instead, Jamie looks adorably sad. Fortunately, everyone in Tree Hill knows him, and they take turns feeding him cheery platitudes, especially Skills, who seems to like the kid a little too much, if you get my drift.
Oh yeah, Dan got his parole, and immediately manages to bed the cashier at a sporting-goods store. She is unfazed when he tells her, post-coitus, that he has recently been paroled and that he killed his brother. One would guess this is not the most shocking thing she has been told in bed.
Brooke finishes her evening by going to the store to... do something. She finds her mother, who has driven Rachel away and rescheduled some meeting and generally been a condescending pain in the ass. This is no different than her behavior for the past six episodes, and presumably the past two decades, but this is apparently the final straw. In our first surprise of the evening, Brooke fires her mother. Not as Mom, as president or CEO or whatever-she-was of the clothing company.
Okay, that was only mildly surprising, but we're just being setup for the big one. Haley is reading Lucas's latest book, and he's VO-ing something about Camus, and she picks up the phone. Lucas answers, and Haley says, "I needed to talk to-"
Nathan, right? She's ready for him to come home?
Nope- "you."
I might mention here that Haley is basically Lindsey's best friend in Town, and has been ready to smack both Lucas and Peyton for anything that might jeopardize Lucas's relationship with Lindsey. Why do I mention this? Well-
"You can't marry Lindsey."
OH SNAP!

Coming Tuesday: The wedding day! Will he? Will she? Will anyone hold their peace? Will Dan crash the party? It's the best birthday present EVER!

I'm not a day late for this one

Happy Pi Day!

Here's to 60 more!

I spent much of yesterday on the road, but I did want to take time out to wish my father a happy 60th birthday. I hope that someday, I am half the father he was - and is.

There isn't a literal connection

I lived in another country during the summer of 1998, and I was not particularly good with the language, so when a subtitled version of an English movie came to the local cinema, I saw it. I watched four movies that summer - Jackie Brown, Swingers, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Big Lebowski - and, ten years later, I still feel some connection with all four. It helps, I think, that they were all very good movies, but to me, there's a nostalgia factor. When I watch them, I get to remember my summer abroad, and the good times I had, and the fact that those films kept me from feeling completely out of place in a foreign land.
So, what movies stick with you, not because they're necessarily great movies, but because of the place and time you saw them?

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Remember last week, when I said it would be two weeks before the Nanny went Hand That Rocks the Cradle on us? Well, I was off by a week. Nathan gets home from the basketball game we weren't shown last week, and hops in the shower. Fran, however, has been waiting naked around the corner, and hops in the shower with him. Nathan, unsurprisingly, freaks out, and kicks Fran out of the shower. Unfortunately, Haley chooses this exact moment to get home. Nathan tries to explain, but, really, what's the point? You're naked with the nanny, dude. Haley, unsurprisingly, freaks out, and kicks Fran out of the house. Then, she comes back and gives Nathan the heave-ho, too.
Peyton walks into her office to find her former boss. I'm gonna call him John, because that's actually his name. John wants to sign Mia away from Peyton, because small artists can't survive without a major label. Is this 1995? Seth Cohen could name you a couple of bands that made it on a small label. But because this show is, in so many ways, an anachronism, Mia will die without a large corporate machine behind her. Peyton and John repeat this conversation the next day, and Peyton caves in. Unfortunately, Mia chooses this exact moment to walk into the room. Mia, unsurprisingly, freaks out, and storms off, because that's what she does. This, in turn, causes John to freak out, and he offers Mia some ridonkulous deal that allows her to still be distributed on Peyton's label, and lets her retain control of her songs. In fact, it's quite similar to the deal that Death Cab allegedly has with Atlantic. Of course, they got that deal after releasing four successful albums on a small label, not after one YouTube clip of a one-song performance in a North Carolina nightclub. But I digress, because now we find out that Mia and Peyton were in cahoots! It turns out that Mia's latest nutty was staged, so that they could get the deal they wanted. Everyone is happy, and Mia goes home to pack her bags, because she's opening for Ryan Adams the next day. All over the country, high schoolers decide their homework is no longer necessary, because they can sign with a major record label if they can get one good song on the internets.
Meanwhile, it's 9:00 in the morning, and Brooke is at the bar, indulging her weird obsession with Woody. Somehow, the flirting results in both of them flying to New York for the day, which turns out to be an excuse to re-introduce us to Rachel, the hot redhead from last season. Rachel has become a heroin addict. That's bad! But Woody beats up her dealer and gives Brooke the number for a rehab clinic in New York. That's good! It turns out, though, Woody is a recovering addict himself. That's bad! But he knew someone who helped him out. That's good! Brooke ignores the number for the clinic, and brings Rachel back to Tree Hill with her. I'm not sure, but I'm going with "that's bad." By the way, I'm guessing the guy who helped Woody turns out to be Dan, because that would be totally inexplicable.
Speaking of Dan, he's up for parole! Lucas and Nathan drive to the hearing, Dan tells us all why he should get out of jail, and Lucas tells us why he shouldn't. Then, because this episode is all about secrets and lies and people walking in at the wrong time, we find out that Nathan has visited Dan at the prison. This is made out to be a big deal, because this episode is also about people overreacting to things that Nathan does. The entire parole hearing seems to be a plot device to get Nathan and Lucas to talk about what it means to be a good husband and father, and for Lucas to tell Nathan that he just needs to suck it up and apologize for Fran being a nutjob. After all, it was his fault Haley hired a nanny after a ninety-second interview without checking any references.
Anywho, Nathan goes home and apologizes. This fails miserably, because Fran has told Haley about the kissing and the skinny-dipping and that Nathan knew about all of it, and did not tell his wife. This, admittedly, is Nathan's fault. It is also his fault that he sends his son out to play by the pool at night while he argues with his wife. Jamie falls in the pool, Nathan saves him, Haley freaks out and asks for a divorce. Tune in next week, when nothing will be resolved, except possibly the reason that a bartender from North Carolina knows how to contact a clinic in Manhattan.

"Tommy John" was not correct

Another local watering hole has trivia night on Saturdays. It's a slightly different experience from the Thursday version. I think the questions are harder, but the scoring differences make it easier to come from behind. The main difference is in the final question: like the Thursday trivia night, the final question is worth up to 15 points, but you're allowed to bid fewer points, instead of simply choosing between submitting an answer you're not confident in (and risking losing 15) or submitting nothing at all (and getting nothing). I've won several times with judicious use of points on the final question, although I've also cost myself a place once or twice with poor bids. My misses:

1. Which famous singer was born in a town called Butcher Hollow?
2. What is the most common surgical procedure performed in U.S. hospitals?
3. Who was the first athlete featured on the front of a Wheaties box (this was in 1934, five years before his retirement)?
4. What country is the world's #1 exporter of coffee?
Final:
5. Place the following movies in order of budget, from largest to smallest:
a) Titanic b) King Kong (2005) c) The Polar Express d) Spiderman 3

Questions about Self-Dual Codes won't cut it

I'm at a conference this week, so I'm missing trivia. I'll come up with replacement questions during the twelve-hour drive home tomorrow. New trivia and the OTH recap should be up Saturday.

ETA: Or Sunday. As a bonus, however, I did go to a trivia night on Saturday, so I'll have legitimate questions.

If you ever happen to be running a trivia night somewhere, and for a couple of your questions, you'd like your contestants to translate foreign phrases, here's a tip: make sure your caller can actually pronounce said phrases, or at least spell them for the audience. Amour and mort sound a bit alike in French, but there's quite a bit of difference in meaning there.

1. Which U.S. President actually named the White House "The White House?"
2. What is the tallest mountain in Europe?
3. What is the most common element in the human body?
4. Within 100 lbs., how big was the largest measured pumpkin in the world?

Kitten Fight. Kitten Fight.

Previously, on One Tree Hill: Lots of things happened. People got shot, people made out, I don't recognize much of it, but apparently someone named Jimmy died.
It's the morning of the first Tree Hill basketball game, and Nathan is feeling guilty. He tries to tell Haley that Fran is a first-class nutjob, but Fran, shockingly, pops up at this exact moment to announce that she's been accepted into grad school. She's giving her two weeks notice, which means we've got two weeks until she goes Peyton Flanders on us.
Speaking of women named Peyton, the one on this show is taking Mia to the basketball game, and takes her on a tour of the school, because Mia has never been inside a high school, I guess. Several minutes later, Brooke and Haley take Lindsey on a tour of the school as well. "And over here is the White Room! That used to be my locker! Isn't this thrilling?" Anywho, the ladies all run into each other in the library, and Peyton and Lindsey start the verbal gymnastics. When the groups try to separate, they discover that there is a work order to fix the door handles on Monday morning, and the doors cannot be opened from the inside. The absurdity of this fact, and the fact that there is no other means of exiting the school library, is not discussed.
Despite the fact that this is 2008, only one person has a cell phone, and it is not charged. The library computer has an internet connection, so of course the ladies go with the obvious plan: order a pizza so that the delivery guy can get them out. That was the plan you thought of, right?
Lindsey and Peyton continue their verbal sparring. I sit on the edge of the couch, slugging down bourbon and yelling, "hit her! Hit her!" They do not come to blows. Mia tries to bring everyone together with song, because there happens to be a guitar in the library, and she's had this riff in her head all week. Of course, the whole time she's playing it, I keep expecting her to suddenly announce that she's sleeping with Matt Damon (link NSFW, as if you didn't know). Mia, honey, that tune's been in everyone's head all week.
There's more arguing, more drinking (did I mention they found a bottle of booze in the library? Of course they did), and finally Peyton makes fun of Lindsey's dad, which is the last straw, because you know her dad's dead. Well, you probably didn't, but now you do, and so do the rest of us, and Lindsey cries, and Peyton feels bad because her mom is dead, and they have a big weepy make-up dialogue. I sit on the edge of the couch, yelling, "kiss her! Kiss her!" Lindsey and Peyton do not make out. I throw my bourbon at the television.

Next week: Lucas's and Nathan's father is up for parole, after serving over four years for murdering his brother. Will he get out? Will Jamie be forced to meet his grandfather? Will any of us care? Tune in next week, or you'll miss the excitement!

Missed It by THAT Much

Heartbreak this week at trivia, as we were only one point out of first at halftime and going into the final question, but our guess on the final was just outside the acceptable range. The new trivia crew still hasn't made it to an decent level of difficulty; we missed just four questions total. And while, as mentioned, we were just a point out of first place after the first half, we were tied with nine(!) teams, and three teams were ahead of us. You, the blog-reading public, couldn't care less about whether or not my team wins week in and week out, but easy trivia means fewer questions for you, so I feel like our loss is your loss. Try and keep a brave face as you ponder our misses.

1) In what month did Abraham Lincoln write the Gettysburg Address?
2) Which was the last of the Confederate States of America to re-join the Union following the Civil War?
3) Name the three largest cities in South Carolina by population. (Remember that we live in South Carolina, so this isn't considered an impossible question here.)
4) Within five, how many episodes of Friends were aired?

I'll Send All My Lovin' to You

Let's catch up with the denizens of Tree Hill, NC, shall we?
We begin with Lucas proposing to Lindsey in order to keep her from leaving. Literally; she tells him goodbye, she's walking out the door, he grabs her hand and proposes, she melts. If this move actually worked, I'd be marrying my last girlfriend. Fortunately for all concerned, it only works on television. Lucas suggests getting married as soon as possible, presumably so that we can get to the episode where Lindsey leaves him at the altar before the end of this season. Incidentally, while Lindsey isn't an unlikeable character, we've been given absolutely no reason to care about her, which is why I'm fairly certain she won't actually be Mrs. Scott (at least, not for long).
Peyton, of course, is devastated, but when she goes to the high school to confront Lucas, she runs into a girl who lives in her closet, or something like that. Anyway, this girl comes out of the closet long enough to give Peyton the strength to tell Lucas she's letting him go. At least for this week.
The recently-fired Mouth arrives at work and packs his desk. But wait! The crew member in charge of exposition stops by and informs him that Alice, in fact, has been fired. Unfortunately, she's been fired for sleeping with a subordinate. Mouth continues packing. But wait! It seems the subordinate in question was the evening anchor. In fact, Alice has nailed most of the staff (including the Exposition Grip), and many staff members knew about her affairs with many other staff members. This raises two questions:
1) Where did she find the time?
2) How are the higher-ups just now finding out about this?
With Alice out of the picture, Mouth is free to pursue Millicent. Unfortunately, the weirdness at the club causes her to reject him -- for about thirty seconds. They go on a date at the TV station, and there's some philosophy about the similarities between sports and ballet, and then Millicent tells Mouth to close his eyes so she can kiss him. Aw.
Nathan continues to not avoid the nanny named Fran. This week, he tells Fran bluntly to stop flirting with him. Fran, of course, interprets this as, "step up your efforts to seduce me," and faithfully obeys, finally getting Nathan to close his eyes so she can kiss him. Can we get to the episode where she tries to kill Haley already? We all know it's coming.
Haley is still mad at everybody. It's good to have the girl who was married at 17 and gave birth on Prom Night as the moral center of your show.
Finally, Brooke is still trying to date the bartender, who I'm just gonna call Woody. To his credit, he's having none of it, though he does have some fun messing with her head. However, he isn't prepared for Brooke's secret weapon: she shows up naked in his back seat. Woody relents, and agrees to sleep with her, at which point Brooke informs him that she's not that easy, and leaves (fully dressed, it would appear). In my head, Jens Lekman's "Get Away From Me, Psycho Girl" plays.
Next week: women are inexplicably locked in a classroom or library or somewhere else where there's no good reason for them to a) be b) not be able to easily exit. Catfight ensues.

Days of Auld Lang Syne

One year ago today, BOAD flared into existence, the result of my embarrassment at the public outing of my nearly blank University homepage - which, now that I think about it, I have the power to update. Maybe I should get on that.
At any rate, I've gone through a lot of content ideas, but the weekly trivia questions have stuck, and it's kept people coming back. I want to thank all eight of you for giving me a reason to keep this thing going. This week's One Tree Hill recap will be up later tonight.

Also, their mint juleps are lousy

1. Which "holiday" do I detest more than ever after the local hotel bar cancelled trivia night in an attempt to get couples to consume their subpar comestibles?
2. What is the emotion that I experienced upon observing that said hotel bar was nearly empty at 7:30 p.m. on said "holiday?"

Two Girls For Every Boy

Conclusions I reached last night:

1) The existence of mint juleps is a strong argument in favor of a Benevolent Creator.
2) This week's episode of One Tree Hill is gold. Pure gold!

This season of OTH has kind of sucked. I mean, even relative to the bar set by previous seasons. But last night was a truly Spelling-esque effort, a sudsy masterwork to rival the best drama The O.C. ever gave us. Oh, the subplots! Let's recap:
1) Peyton loves Lucas. Lindsey loves Lucas. Lucas probably loves Peyton, but claims he loves Lindsey. This leads to both women getting in arguments with Lucas, and avoiding each other. Fortunately, the cool-headed Lucas ends both arguments by making out with Peyton, then immediately driving home and proposing to Lindsey. Hilarity will, no doubt, ensue.
2) Meanwhile, Peyton asks Mia, the one act currently signed to her fledgling record label, to play one song to open for tonight's band. Mia, because she has been browbeaten by her ex-bandleader (played by the one and only Kevin Federline, in what will no doubt be his magnum opus) into believing she is untalented, freaks out. After Peyton and Haley convince Mia to go on stage anyway, she freezes (shocking!), until (wait for it!) K-Fed begins heckling her from the audience, at which point she belts out an awesome song, because she is Kate Voegele, our musical version of Laney Boggs.
3) Speaking of Laney Boggs, Brooke has set her assistant Millicent up with Mouth. Millicent is an absurdly gorgeous woman, who the OTH brain trust makes us believe is actually mousy and unattractive, by a) having her wear square-framed glasses b) dressing her in last season's designer clothes (thus making her "frumpy") c) standing her next to Sophia Bush as often as possible (admittedly, this is effective). What Mouth doesn't know is that this is a date. What Millicent and Brooke don't know is that Mouth is sleeping with his boss, Alice. What no one knows is that Alice has followed Mouth to the club, and gives him the "get away from that mousy girl and keep sleeping with me or you're fired" speech over the course of the evening. After awkwardly driving Millicent away, Mouth finds his testicles (apparently, Brooke has had them for years) and tells Alice he's fired.
4) Nathan, having been promised a major sexing-up after the gang's bar trip, proceeds to not drink. He also proceeds to not avoid the increasingly slutty nanny, whom I will henceforth refer to as Fran, because I cannot remember her name. At one point, Fran hands Nathan a typed memo which reads, "Dear Sir: I am trying to seduce you and replace your wife." Nathan responds by telegram, "I do find you attractive stop however I am married and think of you mainly as an employee stop." Both parties miss the subtext, and Nathan's polite, strained conversation is somehow interpreted as flirting. The evening ends with Nathan almost getting in a fight with K-Fed, and with us being unsubtly reminded that Nathan's last bar fight cost him his NBA career and left him in a wheelchair for months. Also, the high school basketball star who has been drinking in the bar all night in front of his coaches clocks K-Fed; this results in absolutely no consequences for anyone but Federline, who is hauled out of the club by security. Fran inexplicably comes home with Nathan and Haley despite the fact that the kid is staying overnight somewhere else, gets Nathan another copy of that memo, and goes skinny dipping. Nathan is left to ponder Fran's incredible subtlety after Haley denies him the previously promised sexing-up.
5) Haley is mad at everybody. Fortunately, she's a high school teacher, so she'll be able to take out her frustrations on her students all week.
6) Brooke sits in the middle of everything and tries to fix everyone's problems. As a result, Peyton is heartbroken, Lucas has proposed marriage as a means of ending an argument, and Mouth is out of a job. Well done, Brooke. But Miss Davis has problems of her own, you see. Her domineering mother (remember when Daphne Zuniga was taking cross-country trips with John Cusack? It shocks me that she's the "middle-aged mom" character now) is at the club, in full cougar mode, and it's a little embarrassing. There's something about their fashion company, too, but this isn't a show about business; toss in a line about scheduling a conference call, and no one will care too much about the fact that no one seems to spend any time actually working. Also, she's trying to date the bartender, who is actually fixing everyone's problems. Granted, with mind-numbing intoxicants, but sometimes alcohol is the answer, yes?

Will Lucas and Lindsey get married? Will Nathan be able to resist Fran's advances? Will Millicent remove her glasses and make everyone realize she's a princess? Will Skills get any screen time? Tune in next week for more drama!

Oops!

Sorry for the delay in posting; I've had a busy weekend.
At any rate, this week marked the return of actual trivia; questions about relatively obscure topics, things that you might reasonably expect someone to know, but you wouldn't expect everyone to know. It beats question after question about 90's sitcoms. The misses:

1. What unit of measure is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius?
2. Who was introduced as "The Killer of Custer" at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show?
3. To what 200-block section of Miami would you go if you wanted to dance the merengue or dine on roast goat?
4. What nation's holidays include Discovery Day, Natal Day, and Fête Nationale?
5. What civilization, after noticing spring holidays were being celebrated in winter, became the first to develop the solar calendar?

Endut! Hoch Hech!

Last night was Cartoon Trivia. Unsurprisingly, we didn't miss many questions. Then again, nobody missed many questions; we finished fourth, based on the fact that we could only get three of the nine possible "halftime" points. The questions were a bit disappointing, actually - theme nights usually stink because the subject matter is so narrow that it forces the questions to be overly specific, but in this case, the narrowness seemed self-inflicted. All but three of the questions were about half-hour shows that began sometime in the 80s, and two of those were about Scooby-Doo.
In keeping with the trend of the last few weeks, then, I present gussied-up questions. The first one is the halftime question, the second is the final (but harder), the third is the only difficult question they asked all night, the rest are mine.

1. Name the six alter egos of Doug (Doug Funny is his name, not an alter ego).
2. Give the names (first AND last) of the members of Mystery, Inc. You need not include Scrappy.
3. Who is Olive Oyl's brother?
4. Name the first female Autobot.
5. In which decade did Walt Disney's first feature-length animated movie premiere?
6. In what year does the bulk of the anime movie Akira take place?

Fortunately, they didn't ask for five

Well, I'm a little embarrassed, because I don't have any trivia misses to give you. The reason is... we didn't miss a single question last night. Not one. Not even the final. Obviously, we won. So instead of the misses, I'll give you a few that I can remember, and make up a few more.

1. Which war began the same year that the U.S. government began printing paper money?
2. Name at least four of the seven Noble Gases.
3. What New Orleans dish gets its name from the Bantu word for okra?
4. What was in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
5. Who has more 300-strikeout seasons: Pedro Martinez or Roger Clemens?

Hey, Remember the 90's?

It turns out there's a new crew writing trivia nights, and they're still working on coming up with ideas, so they built on last week's "90's sitcom trivia" with the slightly-more-general "90's trivia" night last night. The bad news for you: that stuff is pretty much right in our wheelhouse, so we didn't miss a question the whole night until the final. The bad news for us: it's right in everybody's wheelhouse, so the three teams that actually did answer the final question passed us. The first question is last night's final; the next three are bonus questions I came up with.

1. On April 1, 1990, minimum wage was raised from $3.35/hr to what new rate?
2. What venue hosted the first indoor game in FIFA World Cup history?
3. What talk show debuted on WLWT-TV in Cincinnati in September of 1991 as a replacement for The Phil Donahue Show?
4. Which Spice Girl announced her departure from the band on May 31, 1998?

Time's fun when you're having flies

Yesterday, we had a "winter event," or at least what passes for one in South Carolina. Five inches of snow fell at my house, more than last year at this time, which was more than, well, apparently any day in the eight years previous. As a result, the area bus line suspended service until 10:00 in the morning. No way am I taking my own car out in a mess like that, so I spent my morning at home.
The most jarring upset to my morning schedule was walking the dog. Ginny generally wants to get out the door as soon as she gets up, which is around 6:00 these days. Yesterday, however, she slept until almost 7:00. I got bundled up, got her downstairs, got the leash on, opened the door... and she took one look at the Great Outdoors and decided she didn't want to go for a walk after all.
I know that the walk takes up a good chunk of my morning schedule (30-40 minutes, if we get a full walk in), but I hadn't really appreciated that time until we didn't do it. I ate a leisurely breakfast (usually it takes about three bites), did the readings that I had planned to do at school, washed the dishes that I normally save for when I got home, started a load of laundry... and it still wasn't 7:30.
There was a point to this story, but it has slipped my mind.

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

After denying us our right to answer random questions for nearly a month, trivia night finally returned last night. Upon arrival, we were informed that it was "90s sitcom trivia night," which was all well and good, until they started asking questions about shows that were not sitcoms. Alternatively, maybe I need to start viewing 90210 in a whole new light. TV trivia also means a fresh glut of questions about Saved By the Bell, which invariably are passed on to you, the reader.

1. Who was the youngest child on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air?
2. What is A.C. Slater's full name (i.e., what does "A.C." stand for)?
3. We all know what ZIP code Brandon and Brenda Walsh lived in, but what city were they Walshes originally from?
4. What is the street number of the Melrose Place apartments?
5. What town did Pete & Pete live in?
Final:
6. What score did Zack Morris get on the SAT?

Better Late Than Never

With the New Year over a week old, it seems like time to list this year's Resolutions:

• Get the PhD.
• Brown-bag it more. I'm spending close to $40 a week going out to lunch.
• Less red meat. Less butter. Less sugar. Sigh.
• Way less pizza. In particular, I will avoid the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet at Todaro's, in deference to my long-suffering arteries.
  
• Stop using sponges to clean the dishes, as they are, apparently, nothing more than slightly soapy bacteria farms.
• Make it to 400 on the 1001 Movies You Must See list. That will require just under 140 movies. I think I can do it.
• Ride the bus more. I've already paid a hefty "transportation fee" to fund the bus system, I might as well get what I've paid for. As a bonus, half-hour bus ride + Google Video + iPod touch = 1-2 movies a week.
  

More resolutions (maybe) if I think of them.

Happy New Week!

Here we are, nearly a week into the new year, and the Preschool is ready to open back up.
While some corners of the blogosphere take an intentional holiday break, mine is due mostly to the fact that I visit my parents around Christmastime, and the internet connections up there are... well, let's just say that this post would likely take several hours to finish, and I have better things to do (for example, walking the dog through the huge cornfields behind Mom's house). And yes, Christmas was now two weeks ago, but I've been playing with my presents.

Anyway, content should start up again any day now. Expect trivia on Thursday (or Friday, depending). Perhaps a list of New Years Resolutions. I have an idea for the cooking posts that I might try. It is, as usual, very exciting. Stay tuned, people.