Maybe Martians Could Do Better Than We've Done?

Yet another one of those EBONY dispatches that isn't related to our EBONY mission. State, on Webster, by DePaul, by McGee's, off of Sheffield, off of Halsted, home of lots of college kids who think they know stuff. Tuesday nights, but not next Tuesday (they're remodeling), State hosts a very competitive Trivia night with an $800 prize for the first place team.

Rick had been there once before, and we had been working on finding a calendar day that would work for Team Silverado to compete again. Last time around they were told their finishing spot was "around 5th" or so. We were hungry to form a solid team that could compete again for a podium spot. What lineup did we field?

Rick, half of ebony, mathematical genius and local news wonk.
Kyle, other half of ebony, voracious consumer of worthless information.
Derek, wise learned Canadian from the north. Also a laywer.
Annie, accomplished musician, the quietly opinionated one.
Kyle's Dad, trivia pursuit master, devourer of historical nonfiction.

State is completely packed, there are 76 teams competing (each team is between 2-8 people). We are huddled into a small spot by the bar.

Round One: General Knowledge
We're feeling good about this one. Questions cover topics such as Pokeysticks, the cast of Saved by the Bell, and the land mass of New Mexico vs Nevada. Somehow we err on two of these questions and end up with 5/7. Not a great start if we want to contend for the title.

Round Two: Movies and Celebs
This one could be a toss-up. If it's tabloid-trivia we're doomed. If it's obscure indie movies we'll clean house. So the questions? Is Aaron Eckhart older than Ben Stiller? (no) What movie starred both Tommy Lee Jones & Cedric The Entertainer? (hell if I know). Who is Britney Spears engaged to? (dammit) What year did Anchorman come out? (we know this!)
Somehow we salvage a 5/8 from this round. 10 points after two rounds, not the start we were hoping for.

Up next? The LIGHTNING ROUND! "In 1:40, write down as many Matt Damon movies as you can"
Prior to the evening a few of us tried to memorize the filmography of several actors (Kathy Bates, Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts, Tom Selleck, Russell Crowe, Jim Carrey, George Clooney). Obviously we guessed wrong.
So we start writing, 10 are down in a hurry. 11, 12, 13 take a little longer. 14 comes, the clock is ticking. 15 and 16 stagger in before we have to run the paper up to the score keeper. 16? Not bad, we think. Later we realize we somehow forgot The Departed, but we did at least write down Eurotrip. The winning score is announced a couple of rounds later as 22. Not far off, but definitely not a winner.

Round 3: Sports
Okay, this one might be where we make up the ground we're missing. The two questions we miss -- An athlete in what professional sport is shown on the cover of the first Sports Illustrated? (it was baseball...i won't reveal our guess). What former Chicago Bull holds the record for most 3 pt-ers made in an NBA Finals game? We immediately gravitate to either MJ (the SHRUG game against Portland?) or Steve Kerr/John Paxson. Neither were right. Congrats to Scottie Pippen.
What did we get correct? I don't even remember at this point. The ones you get right don't leave a mark on your mental pride. 5/7 in this one, 15 points.

Round 4: Baby Names
We're screwed. The MC reads the name of a celebrity baby and you have write down the mother. Somehow we salvage three (children of Gwyneth, Angelina, Nicole Richie). We don't come anywhere close on Christina Aguilera, Tea Leoni, Kate Hudson and Courtney Cox.
Later in the week I would email my mother the baby names, and she immediately replies with "I read People every week and I know every one of these."
Four rounds done, we're sitting on 18 out of a possible 29. We're screwed.

Rather than ditch on the rest of competition we stuck around to see what categories we'd need help on next time we field another Team Silverado.
Round 5: The Visual Round
A sheet of paper is passed out with 7 pictures of cookie types. You have 4 minutes to write down the name of each and turn them into the score keepers. The easy ones? Oreo, Nutter Butter, Milanos, Chips Ahoy, Fig Newtons. The one that took us until 3:30?
"Vanilla Fudge?"
"EL Fudge?"
"Fudge Round?"
"Round Striped Fudge?"
"Striped Fudge?"
"Fudge Stripes!!! WRITE IT DOWN!"
The one we never got? Dunkers. No one knows what the hell a Dunker is.

Still, 6/7 on the visual round. Not bad, we're saving some face here.

Round 6: Music
We're a little worried the absence of Halljams will hinder our performance in this one, those worries were unfounded. The MC plays an 8-10 second snippet of the beginning of the song, you need to write down both the Artist & Song Title. Let me prepare you, dear reader, I'm going to brag a little bit. This was pretty damn easy. I'm going to guess my average time for each track was 1.5 seconds before I had both pieces of information.
1. Wallflowers, "One Headlight"
2. Ben Harper, "Steal My Kisses"
3. Pearl Jam, "Daughter"
4. Sister Hazel, "All For You"
5. Porno For Pyros, "Pets"
6. Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Freebird"
7. LL Cool J, "Round The Way Girl"

Finally, my time-honed ability to cycle through 18 radio stations in 10 seconds pays off. I don't think they could've pick a series of radio-friendly songs that were any more in my wheelhouse from late High School-era music consumption.
7/7, we get at least one perfect round on the evening. After 6 rounds, our total is 31 out of 43. So we're getting a little better, maybe the last round will get us somewhere close to the top 3.

Round 7: Ball Busters
General Knowledge again, this time they're supposed to be harder. This time they were harder. We completely bombed this category and produced a measly two points. The open wound of 5 incorrect answers still stings, I don't even want to get into it here. So we end up with a weak 33 out of 50. We've also had 3 pitchers of some crap beer like Bud Light, so the evening has been a dissapointment on several levels.

Inquiring as to our finish place, they tell us we were "around 10th or 12th". I suspect they give everyone a finish position about 10 spots higher than it actually is in order to entice a return trip. Well, they've enticed a return trip.

My dad won't be around for future rounds, but we've got a couple of ideas about who our best quality additions could be. Perhaps if we ever place I'll write another trivia recap. Otherwise you won't have to read about these mediocre performances again.

**PHOTOS added to the previous post.