QUIZ RECAP

A fond farewell for the next month and a half as I head off to hibernate in the East Coast for the summer. You'll all be greatly missed but I'm happy to say that you'll be in the very capable hands of Sarah, who has filled in graciously for me in the past, until I return. Thanks for the wonderful send-off and honestly, I'll be back before you know it - you can double down on that guarantee.

QUIZ RECAP

So many THE Oscar baits, so little time. While a lot of you thought THE Pianist and THE Reader were Oscar winners - no. They weren't. Oscar contenders, wanna be prizewinners, but no - not on THE rarefied list of THE winners of Best Picture. A lot of you kicking yourself having forgotten about THE English Patient - the most Oscar of Oscar movies. But, hey, you're not expected to remember everything. Besides, you can just blame it on the A-A-A-A-A-Ambien.

QUIZ RECAP

People always ask, "how do you know that a team isn't cheating?"

It's a great question. One with a myriad of answers. Most of the time? There's no way of knowing unless you flat out catch them with a phone in their hand - or under the table. But - there are some exceptions.

Your Spidey sense starts to go up when a team has bombed Rounds 1 and 2 pretty miserably and suddenly begins a doubling bonanza - successfully navigating their way up the board and yet always the last ones to turn in their answers. A team might refer to something as innocuous as a catfish as a "Wels catfish" - the official name that comes up when you Google. Or you might notice that a team member continuously uses the bathroom in between every round. Even when you don't think a Quizmaster is watching - they're watching. But the truth is - I'm not usually the one you catches cheaters. No, no. I may impose the rule at the beginning and warn people against disqualification and public shaming but let's be real - I can't be everywhere at once. No, no. It is you - lovely intelligent trivia player - who is the real hero.

You leave work, come home for a scant few minutes to freshen up, and then drive off to find a parking spot and a booth that can house you and all your friends for a two hour night of trivia in the middle of your week. You're here for fun, the competition, and the cheap beer. One of your teammates even follows along with the scores of other teams so you can best determine your place in the game and how important a double would be for your standing. You're the one who detects the cheaters right away. The team that skyrockets in points, the team sitting near you that keeps glancing under the table, the team that looks like they're way too plastered to be able to find any connections anywhere. You're the eyes and ears. You see something, you say something.

So, to answer the question I'm always asked: "how do you know when a team is cheating?"

I know - because you tell me.