Hey gang, you are now able to sign up for this weeks quizzes. Pretty simple: go to this sign up sheet, put your team name, captain’s name, and email in the time slot you want your team to play. It’s a $25 entry fee per team, and the money can go to @jgtquizzo on venmo or johnny@johnnygoodtimes dot com on Paypal. Once you’re paid, your team is locked in for that time.

Each quiz lasts about 30 minutes. They are all done through Zoom, so your team does NOT need to be in the same location to play. You don’t have to even be in Philly to play…we had a player last week in Oregon. We did it last week and it was a ton of fun and a great way for teams to hang out…several of the teams that played last week have already signed up for this week’s quiz. Team size that I highly recommend is 5 players (though you can go up to 8). There are spaces open for both Carl and myself, so plenty of chances to play this week.

Hope to see ya this week!

UPDATE: Slots filled up extremely quickly, so I’ve added Philly comedian Chip Chantry to the team, opening up 9 more slots if your team is still trying to join in. He’s on the spreadsheet!

Hey gang, we had a lot of fun with virtual quizzo last week. We’ll be doing it again this week (sign ups coming soon). Here are the final scores of the 9 teams that played last week. Congrats to Boyz II Menehune, who pulled off the win.

• Boyz II Menehune 46
• Specific Jawns 41
• Sofa Kingdom 41
• Not Last Place 34
• Social Distance Warriors 34
• The Sandmen 32
• Jawn of the Dead 24
• Jerry’s on the Mat 24
• Testes Factory 15

We’ve gone from a twice a month podcast to a three times a week live show on Facebook. We hope you’ll join us. On Wednesday, we sat down with legendary rocker Kenn Kweder. Friday night we spoke with Philly Mag’s Victor Fiorillo. Fascinating to hear various Philadelphias talk about how they’re dealing in these extraordinary times. Hope you’ll check them out.

Hey guys, did another round of quizzo last night, and we had a lot of fun once again. Had three new teams, giving up a total of 6 so far. The Specific Jawns (Boots Boccuti’s team) had a chance to take the lead but missed the final question despite kicking the right answer around. Ouch! Here’s our scores after two days:

• Boyz II Menehune 46
• Specific Jawns 41
• Social Distance Warriors 34
• Jawn of the Dead 24
• Jerry’s on the Mat 24
• Testes Factory 15

I have three more set up for tonight, and may try to add a 4th. Trying to get as many teams in as possible who signed up (ones I can’t get in this week I’ll definitely get in next week).

Still determining how to set up a schedule for next week. Probably going to have something up and running by the weekend. Really been awesome to do this so far. Great to see everybody, and it’s really cool to see friends seeing each other for the first time since our world’s got turned upside down, even if it is virtually. Talk soon! -JGT

We tried the new online quizzo last night, and I think we may have changed the game…forever. It was a really cool experience. A bit of background: on Monday, Trivia Art, Boots Boccuti and a couple of other friends beta tested a bunch of concepts on Zoom. We were gonna do a head to head game, but Carl pushed really hard to keep it a team game, and it was ABSOLUTELY the right call. It was not only fun to host last night, it was already really nice to be a part of friends seeing each other and interacting with each other live on screen. It was also really amusing for me to see the process of teams answering the questions. We had three teams play last night. After making a few adjustments for point totals, here were the scores:

• Boyz II Menehune 46
• Social Distance Warriors 34
• Jerry’s on the Mat 24
• Testes Factory 15

We have three teams lined up for tonight. Same quiz, and we’ll add their scores to the mix, and tomorrow night’s teams, to determine a “champion” by the end of the week.

As far as sign-ups: I took the previous post down because I got a lot of sign ups and I need to get all of those folks locked in on the schedule before we add more. I will come back with a better layout for next week’s sign ups. I think next week, we’ll do 3 quizzes a night, Monday-Thursday, and I’ll have a calendar where you can sign up. I should have that up and operational by Friday.

I am also working on a Jeopardy style head to head game that I hope to be unveiling for next week. Gonna work on it over the weekend. I’ll keep you updated.

In the meantime, if anybody wants to just virtually hang out, we’re doing a nightly talk show now on The Philly Blunt on Facebook. Tonight we’ll be interviewing rock legend Kenn Kweder. We’ll be going live around 10 pm. Join us!

Thanks for everybody’s patience! I know this is a crazy time for everybody, myself included. And I’m making it up as I go. But let’s stick together, and do our best to take care of each other. Talk soon-JGT

Wanted to give you an update on Quizzo. All of our regular quizzes are cancelled for this coming week. However, I am working hard on putting together a trivia game that we’ll do online each night at 8 PM. I am HOPING to have it launch on Tuesday night. I am playing with a few different programs to determine which one will work best. Stay tuned for updates!

I know a lot of your anxiety levels are spiking through the roof right now. Mine certainly are. The combination of the unknown of this disease, the radical altering of our day to day lives, the stock market plunging, and a dysfunctional federal government has us all nervous and concerned. And rightfully so! But believe it or not there are a few silver linings here:

1. All Hands on Deck. We have the smartest people on the planet working on this not just here but all over the world, sharing their information with each other, working nonstop to find a cure. And they’re making progress. “I’m very hopeful and very positive. We’ll get through this,” said Robert Kruse, a doctor in the Department of Pathology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In December of 2019, we first found out about this disease. By January 9th, the genome had been sequenced. The first vaccines are being tested today, just two months later. The disease is moving fast. So is human ingenuity.
2. Look for the Helpers. Mr. Rogers famously said something that will forever stay with me: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” There are no doctors or nurses who are going to stand down in the face of this. None! We’re seeing doctors, young doctors, die in other countries while treating this virus. And yet our doctors and nurses, the ones we see regularly in our bars and restaurants without a second glance, are preparing to face a challenge unlike any they’ve ever faced. These heroes (real heroes, not the ones we’ve so lazily attached that tag to) are about to go into battle, with the goal of helping their fellow man. They won’t care what race their patients are, what age they are, what politics they are. They are going to risk their lives to save them. Period. The coronavirus is coming. So are the helpers.
3. Ordinary People Will Become Extraordinary. Ulysses S. Grant was working at a leather store, trying to pay off family debt, when the Civil War broke out. Rosa Parks was a seamstress at a department store when a bus driver told her to give up her seat. Martin Luther King was a little known minister when, in response, he organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Those people didn’t become heroes because they did convenient things during easy times. They are our heroes because they made hard decisions during very dark times. New heroes will emerge here. From this situation we will see people who will fulfill a great destiny they would not have fulfilled otherwise.
4. Economy Can (Hopefully) Handle It. A few days ago, I googled to see what Warren Buffett was saying in the light of this pandemic. He said that the 2008 financial crisis “was much more scary, by far, than anything that happened [this week].” I have very little money in the stock market, but I realize its importance to our economy, and what it’s health says about business in America in the long term. Even with things plunging, I have to admit that hearing Buffett not too shaken up made me feel better. It’s like looking at the flight attendants when the plane hits turbulence. If they’re calm, I will be too.
5. The Law of Familiarity. We did a podcast episode a while back with a man who was just absolutely fascinating. His name was Maleek Jackson, he had spent hard time in prison, gotten out, and dedicated himself to being a physical trainer. He talked about a concept I’ve been thinking about a lot every since: “The law of familiarity. It states that you appreciate something when you first get it, and then it becomes old to you. So, you only re-appreciate it when you lose it…you don’t appreciate good health until you get sick.” Without taking “good health until you get sick” too literally, I think about it more like this: How much more will we appreciate Opening Day whenever it finally gets here? How much more will we appreciate our next concert? How much will we appreciate just hanging out with our friends without this crippling anxiety coursing through our minds? We are going to experience all of those things all over again for the first time. It’s going to be amazing.
6. We’re Finally Sacrificing for the Greater Good. I’m 45 years old. I’ve never sacrificed anything for my country. I hate to say that but it’s true. Now I will have no choice. I will be sacrificing my livelihood, and to some extent my freedom, for at least the next few weeks to help out fellow countrymen that I’ll never meet. It is a hell of a sacrifice we’re all making, and it’s one that we should honor, respect, and give ourselves credit for.
7. We’re Going to Recalibrate Our Lives. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m thinking about things on a much different scale than I was two weeks ago. I’m thinking about my priorities: my family, my work, my friends. Politics means a lot less than it did two weeks ago. Friendship means a lot more. I’ve had several friends check in on me in the past few days because they know if I don’t work I don’t get paid (I think I’m going to be OK, but I can’t overstate how much I appreciate the gesture). That’s love, and it’s not attached to a paycheck or to social status or anything other nonsense. I’d encourage anyone reading this to do the following: get out of your own head for a few moments and think about a friend of yours that’s got reason to be stressing out even more than you are. “Where do I take the kids when schools close and I have to work? What am I going to do without a paycheck? How am I going to communicate with my mother, who’s in a nursing home?” Shoot them a line on social media. A simple “How you holding up?” is going to make the both of you feel worlds better.

My goal here is not to give anyone false hope or paint a rosy picture. I know there are a lot of people who are suffering already, and that will only increase with each day this goes on. We are going to go through a very tough time here. This is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, and is truly beyond our comprehension. My only goal is to remind you that not all of it a disaster. Let’s not forget that even in a time of darkness, there are still a few rays of light.

I’m seeing several senior citizens on my Facebook timeline pass around this meme. It’s amazing: they’re the most at risk, and they’re also the people most convinced that this is all a hoax to make Trump look bad. It’s a great example of just how gaslit these folks have been over the past 5 years. Anyways, if you don’t know already, here’s why there’s so much concern about coronavirus as compared to H1N1: the stat that is left off of this meme (conveniently) is fatality rate. H1N1 had a fatality rate of 0.02%, which is extremely low (the regular flu is 0.01%). Estimates of Coronavirus’s fatality rate are somewhere between 1% and 3.5%, which is extremely high. Let’s take that conservatively: if 1% of the people who catch Coronavirus die, and 61 million people catch coronavirus, how many people will die? Not 12,000, but about 610,000. That’s scary enough, but you know what’s scarier? CV is FAR more contagious than H1N1. 61 million Americans catching it would be an extremely low number…predictions are that it will be closer to 150 million. If that’s the case, then we’re looking at 1.5 million deaths.

So here’s why we’re all currently on lockdown: not because of “the media manipulating your life”, but because if 50 million people catch it at the same time, our healthcare system will be destroyed. Thanks to the CDC botching rollout of tests, the 1,329 number is a joke. We’re probably closer to a million people with it than a thousand. Does that mean panic? No. Does it mean that sports leagues shutting down and cities shutting down is all part of some “media conspiracy to make Trump look bad”? That’s so insane I don’t even know how to react to it. The fact that things are shutting down isn’t part of some grand conspiracy. It’s part of an effort to prevent our country from completely melting down in the next 6 months. Posting this nonsense is not only reckless, it’s dangerous. Please stop.

Hard to believe that a week ago today I was getting on an airplane. Today I’m basically sequestering myself to my house, just to keep my social distancing. Things are moving so fast right now that I’m not sure that I can give you any clarity about what’s going on next week. What I will say is this: I think things are getting ready to change pretty dramatically in the entertainment field. Last night, my buddy and legendary guitarist Kenn Kweder went live on Facebook. It was nothing groundbreaking, he’s been videoing his shows live for awhile now. But I think it was a good window into where things are headed. He told people if they wanted to tip him they could, through venmo and Paypal. I won’t be at all surprised if this is how we do quizzes for the next couple of weeks. I am trying to learn the technology now…one of those things I should have been doing all along, really, but better late than never. Stay tuned. Hope to have some updates soon, and may be running an online quiz as soon as Saturday. I need to work on something fun to keep my mind occupied. In the meantime, I highly encourage you to read this and if at all possible WORK FROM HOME.

Hey gang, just a quick update. As of now, we are still on for the Bards and Birra tonight. We are canceling the Pop a Shot Tourney on Sunday. We are postponing Bowlizzo until things become a bit more stable. There are no cancellations of quizzo for next week as of yet but I won’t be surprised if that changes. I think social distancing is going to be pretty big (and pretty important) over the next week.

I know this is scary for many of you. It is for me too. It is new and bizarre to have so many things shutting down at once. But keep in mind that it’s a good thing. By not having huge numbers of people congregate in small spaces, we are slowing the transmission of the virus. We are buying time for our health system to prepare for this. We are buying time for the extremely smart people working TIRELESSLY to get out ahead of this thing. Keep in mind also that those of us who are lucky enough to not have pre-exiting conditions or who are not elderly are almost certainly going to be fine, even if we catch it. This ain’t the Spanish flu, so even if you get it, don’t panic. But let’s also do our best to convince our older friends and relatives to stay home, no matter what.

After a really bad breakup, I had a buddy say to me: “You just gotta accept that things are going to suck for awhile. Don’t try to pretend that they’re better than they are, don’t try to trick yourself into thinking you’re having a great day when you’re not. You just have to accept that it’s going to suck.” I think we all need to do that. Let’s do our best to accept that it’s going to suck for awhile. But let’s also not give into panic, not give into fearmongering, and not drive ourselves crazy on twitter.

Bonus: I read this earlier today and thought it was terrific. Highly recommend it.