Congrats to our good friend Trivia Art, whose popular blog Foobooz was just acquired by Philly Mag. Glad to see Trivia Art get his hard earned due. (Even though he’s got a girlfriend now and so I don’t get to go to any more cool parties.)
Finally, a Happy Birthday to one Mr. Junkyard Dog (above). He was born on this date in 1952, but sadly passed away in 1998 in a car accident.
Mike Minion is posting a sizable bounty tonight at the Westbury. Here’s a few words about the quiz.
Tonight is a long night of quizzo, as I kick off the evening at the Ugly American with the Tri-Quziard Tournament, mentioned below. Don’t forget to check out the rules as they will be enforced most strictly. Also, the quiz will start ON TIME, seeing as the fun continues immediately afterward at The Westbury with the regular Monday night quiz. The Harry Potter quiz is 5 rounds, so unless I get a Time-Turner, there won’t be time to dawdle. Might I suggest arriving early? The UA has a good selection of potions and their macaroni salad is my favorite anywhere. The chili and veggie pizza are pretty darn good as well. There will be some good specials for the quizzo crowd, so take advantage of them. It a great place to eat and there won’t be time for dinner beforehand, so why not?
Now, more on the quiz at the Westbury. Group W has had a strangle hold on the competition lately. I’m tired of it, and frankly I’m surprised none of the the teams on the circuit has had the guts to try and end the streak. L Ron, where are you? Oh that’s right, you guys only play when you’re sure you’ll win. The Champs? The quiz now starts at 10 so it’s not past your bedtime. The Jams (aka Phil)? The Westbury is only a few blocks from the ‘Vous- you won’t get lost if you leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Narcotyzing? You’re used to losing to these guys – at least losing at The Westbury will be something different. Dork Sided? Savage Ear? Missing Heads? O’Neals is a great place, but other bars serve beer as well.Other Westbury regulars like Duane’s World and the 4 C’s? Maybe if more teammates show up, it would help. I noticed your ranks have been a little thin lately. Best of all – a team from the rank and file shows up and kick ALL of your collective butts.
Come on out and demonstrate some team pride and take down Group W. And by the way, earn an extra $50 in the process.
As you may know, Mike Minion is crazy about Harry Potter (with the operative word being “crazy”.) Therefore, he is not only hosting the Harry Potter quiz tonight at the Ugly American at 7:30, he also took the time to put this write-up together. I don’t even have words. Entire spiel written posted after the break for those of you fluent in Potter-ese.
Several things to discuss as we head into the weekend. First of all, save the date: Quizzo Bowl VII will take place on Saturday, February 19th. More details to come in the near future.
Secondly, anybody that wants to go on the Denver Geek Bowl Trip let me know ASAP. Starting to make plans now. We’re headed out to Denver on the weekend of January 28th. So far we’ve got 8 guys representing Philadelphia. We’d love to round up 4 more and make two full teams (Their team max is 6).
Remember: Harry Potter Quiz is on Monday. Also, I am trying to put together a good team for the regular Monday night quiz at Westbury, where the bounty on Group W stands at $50. If anyone wants to play on Monday night let me know.
Congratulations are in order for The Missing Chums, who recorded a perfect 120 at the Black Sheep Wednesday night. In other news, Duane’s World for the 2nd straight week won by 1 year in our final numbers question. This week, the question was “What year was Ulysses S. Grant born?” They guessed 1825, the 2nd Place team guessed 1818, and the answer was 1822. It doesn’t get any closer than that. Finally, great to see Dork Sided back in the building. After a long hiatus, they not only returned to O’Neals, they brought hell with them, as they scored 110 points in a big win.
On Thursday, the wild card round was Freezing Cold Weather. One of our questions was, “The coldest inhabited place on earth is Oymyakon, where it once got to -90 F, the coldest any inhabited place has ever gotten. In what country will you find Oymyakon?” The answer is Russia, and the above video is about the small town in Siberia that is so unbelievably cold. Here is an article in National Geographic about it.
A couple of years ago, I started reviewing classic movies I had never seen as an inspiration to catch up on my movie viewing. I was going pretty good for a while but then fell off the tracks. Well, it’s time to get back in gear. I saw that Marty was gonna be on Turner Classics a few days ago, so I decided to watch. Here’s my review:
I think most people would agree, this is a very nice movie. Which strikes me as a bit strange, since most of the characters in this movie are anything but nice. In fact, most of them are incredibly selfish jerks. The brutal honesty of this film is somewhat astounding, and every character is absorbed with their own self interest. I’m not saying it isn’t real, but anyone who tells you that the world wasn’t a cruel place back in the “good ol’ days” should watch Marty.
Let’s start with Marty’s mother, who says she wants him to marry so she doesn’t look bad for having a bachelor son. Then, when Marty does find a girl, she tries to screw it up so her son won’t leave her lonely. She really wants her cake and eat it too. Then comes Marty’s best friend Ange, who refers to Marty’s girl as a dog and then, instead of being happy for his lonely buddy for finding a girl, gets mad because Marty blows him off for that girl. Some friend. Then there is Marty’s cousin Tommy, who ignores Marty’s pleas for advice so that he can carry on a fight with his wife Virginia (played by the impossibly gorgeous Karen Steele. Yowsas!) Then there is Tommy’s mother, who seems to exist to make everyone around her miserable.
And finally, there is Marty himself. Now before you get all riled up, I liked Marty a lot, and for the most part he was a stand up guy. But he was also quite passive aggressive and a bit immature. When Clara refuses to kiss him, he yells “Alright! Alright! I’ll take ya home!”, trying to make her feel bad for not kissing him. (Also, Marty, a quick piece of advice, never tell a girl you’ve considered suicide while on a first date.)
Now, you probably think that I’m being some sort of contrarian jerk who is trying to rip a great film. I’m not. In fact, just the opposite. I thought the darkness of the movie, and the selfishness and brusqueness of the characters, is in fact what made it so good. Yes, there were some very warm scenes, but they would not have been so poignant if they didn’t take place in an atmosphere of duplicity and shameless self interest. It goes without saying that we root for Marty throughout, not because he’s so sweet but because he’s so real. He is trying to balance his own self-interest with the interests of those around him, while at times getting so caught up in his own problems that he becomes a little selfish himself. We can all relate. If he had been more one dimensional (completely selfless and inscrutable at all times), this film would not have been nearly as good.
I am a big fan of good “Day in the Life” films, and this is one of those. Getting a peek at the Bronx in 1955 is a heck of a lot of fun. This was an excellent film, and I have no problem giving it a high mark. GRADE: B. (Grades are in comparison to other great films, not to all films in general.)
Nothing like a good old fashioned quizzo match without an Eagles game going on in the background. A “Return to Normalcy” tonight at the Ugly American and Bards. We start at the Ugly American at 8 p.m., home of the $1 corn dog and $3 Kenzinger. We then move to the Bards at 10:15 p.m. where Lagers are $3 and we’ve been rocking the past few weeks. Of course it is French Fry Thursday, so I will be giving away free fries tonight. As for the theme round, it seems to be what everyone is talking about, so it will be “Weather”. Hope to see ya tonight!
A couple of weeks ago, we spoke with Timaree about sex in my basement. This week we talk with Sarah Baicker of Comcast Sportsnet about being a woman in a men’s locker room, about who on the Flyers she likes interviewing, and which Phillie would be the best quizzo player. Enjoy!
