It was an off night at the trivia contest for me tonight. Actually, let’s start off with the positives. I played for free tonight because I did prove in writing that the character singing The Lumberjack Song is in fact, a barber. Or at least he is in the original episode and in the original script, which I do own a copy of. Yes, I am a geek there is no way for me to argue that point. So, at least I went into this with no money down.
But the first half of the trivia night was the worst that I have ever performed at trivia. One category was Guitar (see Erik, you really need to move to KC to help me out) and I was missing questions in that like “Who invented prog rock?” and “Who was the first to utilize distortion?” Heck, I even missed a question on Sarah Vowell and I had read the story that it was referring to. (Actually, the category was on This American Life, the NPR series that I have listened to but which my main memory of is having a very long conversation about the show with a girl in New Orleans and since that night may or may not have actually happened (trust me, if it was real than my understanding of reality must be altered) it probably wasn’t a good choice for me to pick that category) The only bright spot was that I knew that the Swedish scientist who created the common system for classification was Linnaeus. Don’t ask me how I knew that.
But I still had other teams knowing that I am a second half player and was dangerous even as a team of one. The second round categories still weren’t to my liking. Other than Grab Bag we had: Computer Anagrams (which I’m ok at), Anthro 101 (never took the course), Fish (not the jam band) and School of Rock (the movie that I hate to admit that I’ve never seen). I somehow fought my way to a good middle of the pack finish, got the final Jeopardy question in literature right this time and had a respectable finish.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Because I need to make a request to my KC readership (or those of you willing to travel). Playing as a team of one is kind of silly so if anyone is interested in playing trivia on either a Thursday or Friday night let me know. You don’t need to know anything, that’s my job, just be willing to sit around, drink and crack jokes for a couple of hours. Otherwise, a few teams are willing to pick me up as a free agent. But I like the fact that there is actual competition in this thing and let’s face it, my ego needs some stroking right about now.
Otherwise I am just waiting in anticipation for the fat man to make his way to my part of town in the coming days. I swear to God, if I don’t get that fire truck this year someone is going to pay. How much more gooder does one have to be? Seriously, I put it on my list over twenty years ago and the elves still haven’t gotten around to making it? Dude, Santa really needs to outsource.
Ok, all kidding aside, I’d like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Enjoy the time with your loved ones and remember all of the things that are important in life. And if you will let me get a little spiritual here (which has been a surprisingly popular topic in the past few months), try to remember the most amazing part of the story. That when God decided to make himself known amongst men he did not do it as a king or as a warrior or as a conquering hero but as a defenseless, helpless child. There is a real power to that image, of God as truly one of us. I know that amidst the flashing lights and sales all of this is lost but try, just for a moment, late on Saturday night to think about what that means. Have a great holidays everyone.
1 comment:
Merry Christmas to you too. one wouldnt expect a geek like you to come up with /remember a very nice line about God showing himself as a child, but I guess we all have a softer and deeper side that may not come across during a beer talk. we all should keep that side little more alive in this hectic and materialistic lives of ours.
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