NORTH STAR

First Place: Inkspot 100

2nd Place: Clark Griswold 83

3rd Place: Always Finish 4th 79

SIDECAR

First Place: Tempura House 103

2nd Place: In the Lead 86

3rd Place: Sidecardigans 80

O’NEALS

First Place: Encyclopedophiles 113

2nd Place: Alias Pseudonym Undercover 103

3rd Place: Savage Ear 81

CITY TAP HOUSE

First Place: Jesters of Tortuga 123

2nd Place: Underground Bard 100

3rd Place; COme Below Deck 66

LOCUST RENDEZVOUS

First Place: The Jams 116

2nd Place: #1 Government Team Competitor 113

3rd Place: The Hawk is Dead 111

MYSTERY BAR (Black Sheep cancelled because electricity went out)

First Place: Duane’s World 111

2nd Place: Grumpy Cat #1 79

3rd Place: Go Blue Baby! 69

INDUSTRY

First Place: The Missing Heads 98

2nd Place: Why Can’t Us 89

3rd Place: Clown Question Bro 86

THE BARDS

First Place: Jesters of Tortuga 117

2nd Place: Ruby Tuesday 116

3rd Place: Putin on the Ritz 112

This week at quizzo, we had a round on founding fathers, and almost no-one knew that Al-Jazari was the father of robotics (no judgement here. I wouldn’t have known it either. The people who didn’t know Jerry Lee Lewis’s music, on the other hand…). Well, Al-Jazari was a fascinating dude, one well worth further study.

He was a Muslim who lived in what is now south-eastern Turkey in the 12th century and early 13th. He was an engineer who invented tons of awesome stuff, including the modern crankshaft, the combination lock, the automatic gate, and a highly advanced water supply system that supplied fresh water to the hospitals and mosques of Damascus.

But it was his friggin’ robots that make him so incredible. He made a drink-serving waitress, who could serve water or tea. The water would drip into a cup for 7 1/2 minutes, then a door would open, the robot would come out of the door, full drink in hand, and serve it to you like Rosie from the Jetsons. He also created the original Chuck E. Cheese band (almost 800 years before the father of video games Nolan Bushnell founded Chuck E Cheese!) From history-computer.com:

Al-Jazari described also a musical automaton (see the image below), which was a boat with four automatic musicians, that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. The mechanism featured a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams), that bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. The automata were a robot band, which performed more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection.

Hard to believe there could be anything cooler than that, but the elephant clock certainly gives it a run for it’s money. This short video will tell you all about it. Well worth a watch (get it? Clock? Watch? Nevermind.). The first thing I thought of when I saw it was that breakfast contraption in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. And let’s face it, any dude that brings to mind Jetsons, Chuck E. Cheese, and Pee Wee Herman must be pretty daggone cool. Here’s his wiki page if you wanna learn more.

RELATED: Leonardo da Vinci: Scatterbrained Procrastinator

Here are your scores after 7 weeks. Time is of the essence, and there are several teams on the bubble who need to get their act right. I am also offering a bonus prize drawing to teams that finish in the Top 10 at the Invitational, so those teams are now colored orange. Teams in Yellow would still earn an invite, and teams in blue need to step their games up. Your best odds to get a win? They are tonight, at North Star at 7 and Sidecar at 9:30.

Want to give a hearty congratulations to John, who won our annual Bracket-tacular. He’s won a $75 gift certificate to Shibe Vintage Sports and a $25 gift cert to Kermit’s Bake Shoppe. In 2nd, only one point out, was Matt B, and Charles Cliver finished 3rd, only two points out. Not surprisingly, no-one in the pool had either Kentucky or UConn in the championship game. Congrats also to Total Ownage, who finished in 50th place and thus won a $25 gift cert to Indsutry. Just shoot me a line at johnny (at) johnnygoodtimes.com to claim your prizes.

I am disappointed to say, I finished 86th out of 89. And a quick shoutout to Go Temple! Wait, What? who finished last. Despite making fairly reasonable picks, they only had 4 teams reach the Sweet 16 and zero make the Final 8, finishing an astounding 27 points behind next to last. I don’t think anyone could do that poorly if they tried. (Here’s that remarkable bracket).

Howdy, y’all! Time for a little country quiz. We’ll have questions on Southern rock, Southern cuisine, Southern literature, etc. So get your boots on and let’s boot, scoot, boogie, and answer a few trivia questions while we’re at it.