eCache

Pub Quiz

July 31st, 2008 | Posted in » Entertainment, GPS Games, New Jersey, TerraCaching

39.8037 -75.029983

This was an educational hunt! I am unfamiliar with these pub quizzes. It’s been a few years since I’ve been active in the bar scene.

I did some research and this stuff seems to be rather popular. Of course, I live in a black hole of an area where little of the cutting edge stuff happens. So, I took off to the closest spot I could find that hosted a pub quiz. It turned out to be an hour away. According to The Stone Grille’s web site the gig began at 7:00. I got there just a minute or two before as I had several stops to make along the way. When I walked in it was obvious nothing was going on. Sigh . . . the restaurant people thought the guy would be in around 8:00. Ah, I remember this kind of thing from having worked in the industry. The quiz guy was an outside source and the restaurant (really a bar) knew little about it. Grrr . . .

So I perched myself at the bar. I figured I’d eat while I waited. I ordered a Yuengling. I needed to wait for the keg to be changed. Nope, no more Yuengling draught. I took a bottle. I asked for a menu. All the pages stuck together. It was a bigger menu than I expected. Entrees ran $25. WTF? This is a bar. As a matter of fact, all the tables in this joint were booths. There was not a real table anywhere. On top of that this place had 20 flat screen televisions showing sports. Where do they get off charging $25 for their food? I found the sandwiches in the back and ordered a Cuban sandwich. I suspect sandwiches is all anyone eats here.

The food was served some time later. The request for ketchup for the french fries took half the meal. After a couple earlier frustrating things in the day, I was working really hard to remain calm.

I kept scouting the area where they said the quizmaster would set up. There were some booths there, but it didn’t seem like a lot of people were present and it seemed unlikely we were going to migrate back there. I wondered how forming teams was going to work. Eventually the quizmaster arrived. I asked how all this worked when he came around. He explained it and said I would be fine as a one-player team. I explained to him and the bartender my presence. They both thought it interesting. Later when the quizmaster came around to collect the team names he suggested On the Hunt for me. That worked.

We got started with a random round.

Round One Questions:

What season do the cherry blossoms bloom in D.C.?
What was J.J. Walker’s catch phrase in the show Good Times?
What is the third largest national park? It also is the wettest.
What actress played Thelma in the movie Thelma and Louise?
What does IBM stand for?
What do you call a number that is divisible only by one and itself?
What’s another name for a book called a lexicon?
Of the tin man, scarecrow, and the lion, the character Dorothy met first in The Wizard of Oz?
What is the only organic birthstone?
What song was popularized by the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

I thought I had done pretty well with these answers. I kept thinking the cherry blossom question was a trick but kept it to spring. Of course, I picked the wrong answer for Thelma. After I turned in my card I realized I was wrong. I do not agree with the answer to the birthstone question. While pearl is a fine answer, so is diamond. Diamonds are made from organic material. And all of a sudden I was transported back to school where the expected answers rarely included my take on things and thus I had to argue my case. I kept quiet tonight for it wasn’t worth the trouble. The spectacle of College Bowl popped into my head. And had you been there 20 years ago arguing over Joules you would have understood the flashback that was occurring.

The second round was a picture round. All pictures from various Batman movies and television shows. Most of those here were young. I am certain I and the old folks sitting behind me were the only ones to get Cesar Romero. Of course, I didn’t know Aaron Eckhart.

And so it went. I did well on the sports round. I was in third place after the third round. We had I think nine teams. I was the only solo player so I thought that was pretty good.

Then came music in a Name That Tune style. I suck at that and true to form, I sucked. Sure, Mr.. Tambourine Man and You Can’t Always Get What You Want were easy. I recognized the Blind Melon song but couldn’t put a name to it. The rest I hadn’t a clue. The bartender came over and asked how it was going. I explained I had never heard this song before. Someone named Fergie she told me and actually mentioned the song name. I didn’t write it for I knew I didn’t know. I am old.

I rebounded in the geography/history round only to stumble again in entertainment. I guess I just don’t follow these things. Another Batman question: What were the last two words spoken in the current movie? You’re dead was not correct. Do you know the answer?

The final round was a general knowledge round. The final question was to name the 10 movies AFI listed as the top gangster movies of all time. I did not do as well with that as I thought I would have.

In the end team On the Hunt came in third. For my efforts I was given a Captain Morgan T-shirt and drink cooler.

Thanks for the fun.