QUIZ RECAP

Thank you again to everyone you came out to quiz with us. (And to those wondering why do I start every blog with “thank you”, it’s because without our amazing quizzers I’d be reading questions to an empty room….so basically like every other day of the week in my dining room as I eat dinner alone. <womp womp> But seriously, for me it’s just common courtesy during these uncommon times to express thanks and appreciation for all y’all [sic]. Even in my previous life as a QM I always thanked everyone personally for coming out when I took their photos, but I don’t think I did that enough during my blog….but if losing quiz, and worse, quizzers, to COVID taught me anything, it’s to never underestimate the privilege & blessing that being with and having fun with you guys & gals is.)

Anyway, even of the sappy stuff….but speaking “sic”, our quiz was. #SeeWhatIDidThere?

For starters, we had a great mix of teams. A couple of teams from Week 1 but were absent for Week 2 came back for Week 3. One team that came out for Week 2 also return. One team has been there all three weeks. And quite frankly the best part was that we got two brand new teams. (Now I don’t want my regulars to think I love them any less….it’s just it’s always great when we get fresh blood because it allows us, especially me, to make new friends, and it’s the only way we are going to grow our quiz - which of course we most definitely want to do. I’ve been lucky enough to have grown an brand new venue from a few teams to a packed house and that’s aways a special experience for the venue, the quizzers, and me.)

Quite frankly, there weren’t too many wrong answers (at least not as much as in past weeks). I know the scores might not necessarily reflect that, but frankly it’s because one team tried to double-or-nothing our round about princesses, brides, and The Princess Bride and they got “nothing” because they forgot that Padmé Amidala was a) a queen and not a princess; and 2) she was from Naboo and not Alderaan.

Another team knew that code name of “The Bride” in “Kill Bill” was “Black Mamba”, but didn’t know her first name was “Beatrix” (which is what I asked for). Frankly that’s a more forgivable mistake than confusing Queen Padmé Amidala with her daughter Princess Leia Organa (I mean, really people, we’re talking about everyone’s favourite space western by one of our most forward thinking & moralist filmmakers and not everyone’s favourite revenge westerns by one of our most self-indulgent & violent filmmakers).

Fewer wrong answers also means fewer opportunities for comedy, both on stage or here in the blog (and as always, when I tease about a wrong answer, I never call out any teams by name because the point isn’t to shame anyone, but to just have a collective laugh, including from the team that gave the funny wrong answer). But our funniest wrong answer of the night needs a little context. Since we’ve gone to a contactless/digital format for teams to provide their answers, there has been a challenge to correct typos (I don’t know if it’s a bug or a feature of the interface). In our picture round titled “Stay Frosty”, we asked quizzers to identify the headshots of Steve McQueen (aka, The King of Cool) and Ice Cube (aka, O’Shea Jackson). One team mistakenly type Ice Cube for the picture Steve McQueen…given the prowess of this team, I knew it was probably a slip of the finger (also given both how Steve McQueen & Ice Cube, shall we say, look NOTHING alike, it had to be a simple mistake)….however they also typed Ice Cube for the picture of Ice Cube. This left me perplexed. But after I gave out scores, they question when I had them with one less point than they expected. I told them it was because they gave Ice Cube as the answer for Steve McQueen. This team acknowledged their mistake and said they couldn’t correct it in the app, so that gave Steve McQueen as the answer for the picture of Ice Cube. Now as I’ve said from the beginning of this digital scoring error, if I can easily discern the intent of a team’s answer to be correct, even if they are grossly misspelled, I will count it correct….and if this team did in fact flip their answers for the two racially different celebrities, I would have counted both answers as correct. However the did not answer Steve McQueen for Ice Cube’s picture….I’m sure they wanted to, but instead they answered Ice Cube for Ice Cube’s picture (so yes, they had Ice Cube as the answer for two successive questions and thus I could not give them credit for their Steve McQueen mistake). 

Geez, that was a long walk just to say that this same team did not know that William Goldman wrote both the novel & the screenplay for The Princess Bride, so they instead gave the cute answer of “Steve McQueen featuring Ice Cube”. I chuckle and declared it as my fave wrong answer of the night and how I appreciate it when quizzers have a sense of humor about their mistakes (seriously, some quizzers take our friendly little bar trivia a little too seriously :-/ ).

As far as things I think we all learned from quiz (or at least I learned), there were a couple of them. First, when one team said that Ebony wood comes from Ebony trees, I chose to look it up to be sure we were right and that they were not. Interestingly, Ebony wood come from various varieties of trees, not a single type of tree….thus I could not accept “tree” as a correct answer (but at least now we know, right?). Also there are hills in the Bohol province of the Philippines that turn brown during the dry season and are called the Chocolate Hills because of that. #TheMoreYouKnow

Being someone who loves to travel the world to see things that are unique, I’ve placed the Chocolate Hills of the Philippines as one of the places in the world to check out. And speaking of other cool places in the world to visit, our matching round gave us 10 such places that must be seen before we die. I’m happy to say I’ve been Machu Picchu in Peru and the Colosseum in Italy (and I’ve been to Teotihuacan in Mexico, so Chichen Itza isn’t high on my priority list give I need to see Christ the Redeemer in Brazi, the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, the Taj Mahal in India, the Great Pyramid of Giza (which I plan to see when I go to Egypt for the 2027 total solar eclipse), the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. So all you ducking anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers/COVID-denials, get your chite together so that we can all start traveling the world again!!!!!

Standings were tight for most of quiz, but frankly that was only because no one had successfully doubled-or-nothing’d a round. However I knew (and predicted over the mic) that I expected one team to double at least one round toward the end of quiz because I have learned that’s what they are want to do….and sure enough, they successfully double the last three rounds to pull away from the pack like Lance Armstrong used to do in the Alps during this reign of terror over the peloton in the Tour de France. #TIOOYK (Now I’m not saying this teams is using PED to dominate quiz….I’m just saying they do tend to dominate quiz….I’ve leave it to someone else to collect their urine as I don’t get paid nearly enough to do that. #JustSaying)

But I am most happy to report is that The donkeys have move up from being below the Mendoza Line their first two weeks to coming in second place. This is just so awesome and I couldn’t be more proud that them for sticking with it. 

Sadly, on a personal note, I have to leave for Colorado for a couple of months to deal with some personal business. But don’t cry for me The End on Calle Mayor as I will never leave you. However there will be a sub coming in for the next 8 weeks….and if we’ve learned anything from recent events in Afghanistan, anyone leaving on a place for a “change of scenery” is running the risk of a coup where a substitute leader might take over. #TooSoon?

I do hope to be back with all you wonderful people, if not at The End, then someplace else in the South Bay.

Take care, Be well, and as always….

Stay curious, my friends!

Love,

~shadan “the long winded Persian”