Last night marked the end of the line for a local quizzo luminary, as Dark Horse John decided to call it quits after four years of quizzing. John, who was once part of a solid team at the Bards called Stupid Sexy Flanders, ran a good quiz, and more importantly, had a good quizmaster personality. He seemed to know when the occasion called for being bombastic and smug, and when it called for being a bit more sensitive. The questions themselves were a good mix, and he ended with quite honestly his best questions ever last night. And in the true essence of nerdom, he ended his run with a post on his blog about science fiction. I realized yesterday that I started this gig around the same time that Battlestar Galactica came on, so ending it the same time the show goes off is a nice sort of symmetry reminiscent of a classic Greek drama or, well, Battlestar Galactica. One of Dark Horse John’s questions last night was about Sophocles, who once said, “Always desire to learn something useful.” Screw useful. Us quizzo nerds desire to learn things that are useless, and DHJ did a damn fine job of preaching the word of useless trivia to the thirsty masses. Kudos, DHJ. And in saying goodbye in the nerdiest way possible, I simply propose that you live long and prosper.
