Trivia Champions Once Again

Last night I was at Professor Thom's in Greenwich Village for their weekly Monday Trivia Night. It's a lot of fun, and it's run by a guy named Tim Byrnes, who runs the site www.pubquizny.com (cheap plug!). Tim does a great job running it (even though he's a Yankee fan; but we put up with him). The contest is a five sets of ten questions, on such topics as General Knowledge, Pop Culture, Movie Quotes and Current Events. I've been on the winning team twice in the last four weeks, so I was anxious to regain the crown I lost last week.

I was teamed with my friends Gareth, Alex and John. Every team has to pick a name, and the team with the most "interesting" name (aka, most crude) gets free shots. I decided to go back to a team name that we used when we first won four weeks ago: "Painful Rectal Itch." (For you oldtime Saturday Night Live fans, you may remember that from the famous "Fluckers" sketch, the takeoff on the old Smuckers commercial: "With a name like Smuckers it's got to be good!" "Here's a new brand we just put out. It's called 'Painful Rectal Itch.' You've got to go a long way to find a worse name for a jam. So with a name like 'Painful Rectal Itch', you gotta bet that it's great!")

Heck, why mess with a winner? (By the way, we didn't win the shots. I'm not at liberty to say that name of the winner, as decorum here prohibits me from saying it.)

We got off to a slow start on the first category, General Knowledge. Tim threw in some really tough ones, and we started in third place. But my buddies and I rolled through the next three categories, and we grabbed first place. The last category was movie songs, as we had to name the movie a particular song came from. We rolled through that category as well, getting nine correct, and winning the title yet again. We took it easily, and by eight points. As Tim announced us as champions ("In first place, with 39 points, tonight's trivia champions: Painful Rectal Itch!!"), I could hear a smattering of boos as we all tipped our caps to the rest of the bar. Jealousy rears its ugly head! Each of us got a gift certificate to Professor Thom's. My goal is eventually to win enough gift certificates to one day buy the bar!

And yes, Painful Rectal Itch will be back next week to defend their championship!!

Professor Thom's will be having the Red Sox Opening Day game in Texas on their big screens on Monday, April 3, at 2 PM. All other games played that day will also be shown on the TVs. And Saturday Night Live cast member and Red Sox fanatic Seth Meyers will be guest bartending. Good times as the 2006 season begins!!