We Won!

We won the trivia contest again. This year the format was adjusted a bit and the questions were divided into nine categories. The categories were:

• General Knowledge
  
• Music
  
• Geography
  
• Literature
  
• Sports & Leisure
  
• Movies
  
• History
  
• TV
  
• Science
  

We did well in most categories and were perfect in Literature, Movies, and Science. TV came close to smoking our posteriors. Nothing like none of us having a clue. The team this year was the same as last year, so we had a CPA, a lawyer, a surgeon, a retired librarian, the young guy, and myself. Not a one of us watches TV other than for some sports or old movies. So when one of the questions was "What was the name of the coffee shop the characters in Friends often visited?", we shared the blank look. We couldn't even think of a good crowd pleaser for an answer. (The answer was "Central Perk".)

It was a close battle this year. A new team (The Cracker Jacks) from a small town about 40 miles to south of here was in the competition for the first time and they came on strong to tie us at the end of regulation. It was the first tie in the history of the event at the end of regulation. So the moderator finally got a chance to ask his tie breaking questions. He had had them sealed in his Funk and Wagonall's Mayo jar for at least 8 years. Our team and the other team both got the first three tie breakers correct. The tie breaking questions included such tidbits as:

• What is the shortest verse in the King James translation of the Bible? ("Jesus wept")
  
• What are the colors of the three rooms on the first floor of the White House? (Red, Blue, Green)
  
• If a plane travels 300 yds in 10 seconds, how many feet will it travel in 1/5 of a second? (18)
  
• What were the names of the seven original Mercury Astronauts? (Glenn, Grissom, Shepard, Carpenter, Slayton, Schirra, and Cooper)
  

When the final tie breaking question "What were the names of all seven original Mercury program astronauts?" was asked, we scribbled like mad on our answer pad. We came up with all but Schirra . We could not for the life of us think of who the seventh astronaut was. We finally guessed Young, but that was wrong as he was a Gemini and later astronaut. Fortunately for us, the other team could only come up with 5 names to our 6, so we won! Yea us!

On the "crowd pleasing" side, one of the better answers was given to the question "Who is Angelina Jolie's Oscar winning father?" (Jon Voight) One of the teams who was stumped supplied the answer "Shrek".

On the "stump people" side, the best question was "What is the name of the one state whose name does not appear in the name of a university? I.e. there is the University of Colorado and the University of Hawaii and ... Which state isn't in that list?" I don't think anyone got that one correct. (New Jersey - Rutgers is the State University of New Jersey)

All in all a fun evening. This year there were several new teams, including one organized by my grand-niece composed of seventh graders. I say grand-niece because she refers to me as uncle XXX, but the real relationship is that her mother is my cousin. It made me glad to see the new blood participating this year - there were 19 or 20 teams and all the entry fees go towards supporting Community Caring Hands.

By the way, just in case you wondered, CCH was originally founded to be a part of Habitat for Humanity, but we were too short on population out here to qualify for a chapter. Thus CCH was born to carry on the work out here in the rural boonies.

So once more our names will be engraved on the trophy and we'll be able to show it off for the next year. Well maybe rub it in people's faces, but you didn't hear that here ...