On Competitive Edge

I play a lot of trivia.

It must have started with Knowledge Bowl in high school. Mullen did horribly at every meet we went to. We were never in the running for any trophy, but we did have a lot of fun. At that point in my life, I thought Knowledge Bowl was the greatest thing in the world. I still think that, actually.

I don't necessarily think I know a lot of stuff (although, shameless self-promotion: officially in the 90th percentile for MAT scores, so I must know some stuff. Or be really good at guessing).

I suck at sports questions. I suck at science questions. I suck at 80s hair metal and geography.

I rock at weird stuff.
Once, the question was something along the lines of "What does Kim Jong Il have the world's largest collection of?" And I knew it. Without even batting an eye I threw down the answer.

We played in Chicago at Hamilton's. That's where we met the first set of Irish. That's where we drank, and lost, and drank some more. The Battle of Hastings. 1066.

We played at O'Donovon's. Maddie and I were always Team We Put the "Rad" in Colorado. I still think it's cute, but you're welcome to disagree. Whenever I eat a miniature corn dog, I am immediately transported back to that bar. Miller Lite and corn dogs and mustard = my college heaven.

We played in Boston. "Frank Sinatra is not Daniel Craig." That was a great night. That's the night I learned never to yell anything about the Patriots coach. That's the night we put Mickey Avalon on for the entire bar to hear. That's the night we wandered around in the rain forever with no cab in sight.


We play weekly here.

I always save the answers I don't know for S, and then he tells me the answers immediately. (They're usually sports questions. Or questions about Australia or Chicago or history.) It's our Thursday night thing.

We usually do well. I think a lot of it is a result of the team spreading the age gap between 21 and 60 (give or take a few years on either end). A lot of it is that some people are history majors, others communications, others do computer programming, massage therapy, medical work. All of us have different life goals and are passionate about a wide array of different things. But that works to our advantage. And that's how we win.