Your vote will decide. Voting ends Monday at 9 a.m.

The final night of our Kids and Geography quiz, and this is a good one. Study your US of A maps and know your cartoons. Action starts at Ugly American at 8 p.m. If you’re looking for a win in the Invitational, you’ll have a real good shot there. No elite teams at UA. On to the Bards at 10:15, where you can be a Quizzo immortal by knocking off a red hot Steak Em Up. A fun quiz this week. Hope to see ya tonight.

Alright, so I’ve let up on the reins a little this week after last week’s ridiculously hard quiz. This week’s quiz isn’t only easier, though. IT was also a lot more fun. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at taking the temperature of the room. It’s running a lot higher this week. Kids and geography have turned out to be a great combo.

Tonight we kick it off at Locust Rendezvous at 6:15 p.m. On to the Black Sheep at 8. Hope to see ya tonight!

Mike and John from Duane’s World were able to hold off Big Jim and the Triplets at the All-Philly quiz on Sunday. Philly music, food, and history were all celebrated with the quiz. Duane’s World got double the points for the Invitational, essentially guaranteeing a spot in the Invitational. Thanks to each and every person who came out Sunday night!

No quiz at O’Neals tonight, as I am only working one quiz tonight to honor the socialist holiday. I’M KIDDING. O’Neals will be showing the Flyers game, so we had to cancel the quiz. But we are most definitely on for City Tap House at 10:15. Geography and kids actually turned out to be a pretty great combination, and I’ll be honest, this quiz is a hell of a lot more fun than last week’s. $10 gets you a pizza and a beer and Sly Fox cans are $3. That’s tough to beat. Hope to see ya tonight!

Let’s not kid ourselves. That TV quiz was kind of a dud. Not my finest work. Too many 1980s questions. Live and learn. This week should be a lot more fun. Last Thursday at the Bards, a guy from a team that was struggling shouted out, “How about some geography questions?” So I said, “Next week,” and this week’s topic was born. At the end of the quiz, I asked “OK, not gonna do a whole round on geography. What else should we do? ” Somebody shouted out, “Children’s toys!” Toys is a little too specific, so I figured we’d just make it kids. That way we can include child stars, which are always fun, and children’s literature. So we’ll be covering everything from the Rocky mountains to Rock em Sock em Robots. See ya this week.

Reading a couple of awesome books, either of which I would highly recommend. One is “Pitching Around Fidel” by SL Price. After Ozzie Guillen’s comments a few weeks ago, I thought I’d research a bit more about Cuba, and about baseball in Cuba. Price made numerous trips to Cuba to write the book, and spoke with seemingly every great Cuban athlete past and present. Does a great job balancing the romance Americans have with Cuba with the cold reality. Very evenhanded look at Castro and Cuba. Terrific book. If you want to educate yourself more on Cuba, and do it while reading something that is highly entertaining, I highly recommend it.

The other book I’ve been enjoying lately is “Travels in Philadelphia“. This one was written by a great writer named Christopher Morley. It’s basically a series of essays he wrote for the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger in 1919. Basically, he just walked around the city and wrote about what he saw, the people he met, and the shops and taverns on the different blocks he walked down. And unlike a lot of old history books, this isn’t dry at all. He’s a master of words, and furthermore has a great sense of humor. It’s almost like a time machine. And here’s the really cool thing: you can read the whole thing online for free. He’s also the author of one of my favorite quotes:

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

And while we’re at it, why don’t you friend me on Goodreads?

It’s all television, all the time this week. From Philo Farnsworth to Milton Berle to Mike the Situation, this week we’ll find out how much you know about one of the silver screen. Going to be a fun quiz. We kick it off tonight at North Star at 7, where hummus is half-off and Kenzingers are $3. On to Sidecar, where all bitter beers are a buck off. Action starts at 9:15 p.m.  See ya tonight!

Kick it off at Ugly American at 8 p.m. A very nerdy science quiz tonight. If you are a science nerd, you do NOT want to miss this quiz. Usually, when I do a science quiz, I throw in some pop culture for balance, but this time I got pretty deep into science and technology. We move to Bards at 10:15 p.m. $2 Lagers at both. Hope to see you tonight!

Regularly, I come across funny or interesting stuff while researching my questions, and think I should share more of them on the site. Here’s a pretty good one. When John Logie Baird had succesfully created the first television, he went down to his local paper, the Daily Express, to try to drum up some publicity for his new machine. When he arrived and announced the reason for his visit, the news editor was horrified, and was heard to say, “For God’s sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there. He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless! Watch him, he may have a razor on him.”

Just goes to show the resistance you tend to get when you come up with a good idea.