VFW: Say Hello to My Little Questions

It was Al Pacino night at the VFW, with Room Two saying "Hoo-hah!" at the end, with a three-question lead, stopping D and M + 3's quest for a three-peat. We welcomed back We're Here for the Beer. Since they were well-rested, they took third. In fourth were Nix Lix, followed by just plain Biscuits and the B52s. The Foreplayers, who were hoping to score some cash to make up for Bert's trip, took seventh and chose "card games" for July 11th's game. (There will be no show on the Fourth of July).

Bube's: Pickle Power!

It was a happy day in Chubville as the Chubby Stubbies finally were the victors! They thought it was due to the pickle power of the Shirt of the Week. Second place went to Once You Nutsack, You Never Go Back, who returned after a month's hiatus. (The Sacks had been "slumming in the minor leagues" - see below). There was a tie for third between TDC and The Tesla Death Rays, with Karen victorious over Seth. Close behind were the Jelly Roll Mortons and the Pomegrams. The coveted seventh place went to early round leaders Beaker's Back, who, appropriately enough, chose the Muppets as next week's theme.

For those of you wondering where Josiah and the Nutsacks (not to be confused with Josie and the Pussycats) have been the last month, they've been playing trivia at another venue that shall remain nameless. Although they won considerably more money, they have decided to go back to their humble roots and play once again at Bube's.

The Pomegrams display their 27 and a half pound bag of Tootsie Rolls that they won as a consolation prize. They also took home the can of Tomato Mozzerella Low-Fat Pringles that no one wanted after tasting. What's not to like about extruded potato flakes dusted with powdered tomato soup?

Noah Recommends

Noah Horn recommends Boudreaux's Butt Paste, the diaper rash cure for discriminating babies.

Chuckles: No So Stupit

This is a pic of Team Stupit, tonight's second-place team. The gentleman to the left took credit for their win, so I included him, too. It's always good to see a new team in the top three. Third place was a tie between Skirtland and Linuscratchitt, with the Skirts falling once again. Alan thought it was their fourth time losing a tie-breaker. Since they had so many bad experiences with the Captain Jack alligator, we tried the Wheel of Life, but their bad luck once again doomed them.

The comeback of the night was the Talent Scouts, who steadily improved during the four rounds. Their kickass 8 out of 10 last round propelled them to the top spot. KCC almost got 7th once again, but that honor went to The Price Is Right, who chose the soap Guiding Light (post 1990) as their theme for next week. Clueless in Lancaster was a new table and tried a little surveillance on their mother team, to no avail.

Watt the Heck?

It's a mere shell of what it used to be. For those of you who do not make it into downtown Lancaster, this currently what's left of Watt and Shand.

ChrisIvey.com Redesigned!

Just finished the redesign of fellow trivia host Chris Ivey's juggling website, the appropriately named chrisivey.com. Not only is he a world-champion juggler, but he's a pretty good graphics designer, too. (He did all the images, I just assembled the site and did the layouts and coding).

VFW: Sketchy Details

Not to be confused with Cafe Chuckles, where we had "non-Harley motorcycles" as a theme, the VFW went whole hog and picked Harleys (yes, I know it's a bad pun, but you get what you pay for). I recall that D & M + 2 were the victors for the second week in a row and that Nix Lix was one of the 7th-place theme-pickers. They chose "Al Pacino movies." Room Two chose "World War II." And I also remember that the B52s were all sugared up from too many Tastykake donuts. But the rest of the details will have to wait for later, assuming I can find my notes.

Bube's: Darned Cell Phone!

Sometimes you can take a good cell phone picture, sometimes not. Guess which time this is. It's supposed to be a pic of The Fraternity of I Felta Thigh, tonight's champions. It looked like the scary thunderstorms would keep the crowds down, but we had a great night of competition. There were three teams celebrating Dave's birthday, one of which, Han Solo, managed to score 7th place. They chose their namesake as next week's theme. The Jon Shober Gang Minus Jon (AKA JSGMJ) took sixth, the Riverrats fourth and Miss Maine and CPP fourth. The money winners were Team Discovery Channel (third), the Jelly Roll Mortons (second place for the second week!) and those blurry orange guys (and gal) above.

and here's a bad pic of the Birthday Boy himself, proudly displaying his jar of pickled cactus.

And we mean NO bagels!

Chuckles: Beary Good Trivia

Cathy's Clueless in Lancaster team has adopted their Trashbag prize as their official team mascot (appropriately named Clueless). He helped them beat their originating team, KC, who came in seventh (they chose the card game bridge as their theme for next week). Ubersmack was in fifth, the Lethal Amoebas in fourth and the Price Is Right in third. Then it was a dramatic tie-breaker between Out of the Vortex and those come-from-behind kids Skirtland. Unfortunately, Skirtland and the alligator have a history of losses, and the Vortex were victors for the second week in a row. The Tard Kart Heroes, meanwhile, are patiently waiting for their moment to strike.

Our Newest Trivia Player

Is super-nephew Noah. He has already played several games in utero at Bube's with his parents, James and Missy of Superfriends. I think he's the perfect secret weapon to catapult them into the winner's circle.

That creature deserves to be behind bars.

VFW: Digest Blurbage

The Magnificent Four of Dennis, Melanie, Rob and Louise conquered the VFW this week, just ahead of the Titanic Two of Tom and Nick. The B52s were only one question behind in third, followed by We're No Biscuits and the Foreplayers. Farther back were Room Two and the seventh place Alice in Wonderland, who got to pick next week's theme: Harleys.

Relay: Broadway, Here We Come!

Here's my team's award-winning skit at this year's Relay for Life, which was held this past Saturday. The Lancaster Relay made a whopping $1,052,884.33! for the American Cancer Society's fight against cancer!

You might recall that we came in second two years ago and took last year off. So this victory was particularly sweet. Special thanks to my cousin Leanne, who took the video.

Bube's: Tonight, the role of Mike will be played by...

... Chris Ivey! Thanks to Chris, who filled in for an ailing me. Here's a pic of Chris and his wife Julie, taken Saturday at the Relay for Life. Chris put on an amazing one-hour show for the crowd, getting a standing ovation.

As far as tonight's action, it was the Tesla Death Rays in first, followed by the Jelly Roll Mortons and the no-longer AWOL Chubby Stubbies. The Jon Shober Gang once again captured seventh and chose NHL Hockey as next week's theme.

Shank's Tavern: Episode I: A New Hope

I attended the kickoff show of new host Justin Shiffer at Shank's Tavern in Marietta on Monday night. Great energy and great food at one of Marietta's nicest bars. I highly recommend you check out this show next Monday. Here we see the Ta-tas winning their first rock, scissors, paper tie-breaker.

The dynamic duo(s) known as The Ta-Tas celebrate their victory.

Too Much Thinking, Not Enough Drinking won both games, thanks to Becky's word jumble skills. The guy on the left insisted on giving the gift certificates to the second place teams, causing great rejoicing in the land.

Justin hard at work interpreting people's handwriting.

The second game also had a tie-breaker. Either that, or they're just bumping fists.

Marietta's own Kathy Stone with her new team, The 100. Kathy was a founding member of the Goombahs and played for years at Curtis' show at Doc Holliday's. Welcome back, Kathy!

New Show tonight at 8 P.M.!

Come to Shank's Tavern in marietta tonight to welcome Justin aboard the Earth Trivia Express!

The Week Begins

This was the scene this morning at 6:30 A.M. at the American Cancer Society office on Good Drive. In order to get a prime tent site for the June 2008 Relay, you needed to be in line before the office opened at 8:30 A.M. We managed to be the 22nd team to pick. Woo-hoo! Now, can I get some sleep?

Chuckles: Back for More

The Losers had such a good time last week that they came back to defend their title. It didn't happen, but they still placed a very respectable fourth place. First place went to the newly rested Bill and Marge, who were saved by some good guesses on the picture round. Second went to the non-Harley-riding Lethal Amoebas; third went to the also well-rested Ubersmack team (half the team had been on a cruise). The Talent Scouts and the Price Is Right had to settle for fifth and sixth, respectively. The seventh-place Clueless in Lancaster chose what was called by one team a "girly theme:" cooking. Lori, behind the bar, meantime, was doing another girly thing: having contractions!

Relay for Life Trivia Show

Dave Morrison, representing the Rowdy Rankins, once again played trivia at the Lancaster Relay for Life show and this year, he won! He was up against some fierce competition, including teams six times his size. Carin, a two-woman team, came in second, followed by Combing for a Cure, Alpha Sigma Tau and Scotty T (of the Talent Scouts), The Marticville Marathoners, A-Nita Cure, Breast Friends and the Covenant Crusaders. Thanks, gang, for exercising your trivia muscles at such a tough time of day (7:30 A.M.!)

For the first time ever I had my own Vanna White in the appropriately named Deb Goodhart. Thanks, Deb for making it a smooth affair.

Last year's champs, Combing for a Cure, had to settle for third. They were saving their brain power for the non-existent fourth round.

Don't Make Them Mad!

Curtis and Justin will be upset if you don't check out the debut of Justin's Earth Trivia show at Shank's Tavern in Marietta this Monday (June 11th) at 8 P.M. His second show starts around 10ish, so you have two chances that night to see him.

Random Pix

I'm trying to keep my work computer's desktop clean, so I'm posting some random pix. Here's a sign at the Tilted Kilt, where I recently subbed for J. The small print underneath the Free Beer Here sign says "tomorrow."

Tom of Team Discovery Channel entertained the folks of Lancaster 505 at McCleary's during our St. Patty's Day Marietta bar crawl.

Tim of Ubersmack attempts to get Captain Jack drunk at Chuckles.

Here's a pic of Curtis with the podium sculptor extraordinaire Stacy Norwood. Thanks again, Stacy. It's still getting rave reviews.

Congrats to Adam and Leigh!

Here's a pic of shy Adam and Leigh of famed Bube's team Dead Bear Baby in a Jar. They're getting married this Saturday.

VFW: Trivia With Cheese

It was Pulp Fiction night at the VFW, as chosen by Tom and Nic. And it was a good choice for them, since they tied for third. It was then a tie-breaker between Tom and Jeanette, with Room Two getting chomped twice. Second place went to D&M, who got 8 out of 10 right in the last round. They almost caught up to Shitz and Giggles and Friends, who managed nine. Steve of Me Here for the Beer played solo for most of the night and managed seventh place. We're doing another movie next week (Steve's favorite): The Magnificent Seven. Mention also must be made of C.C. Rider, who placed sixth and the Studmen, who brought along their own cheering section.

Bube's: Thumbs Up!

The Fraternity of I Felt A Thigh approved tonight's competition, even if they didn't win. That honor went to a slimmed down Team Discovery Channel, featuring Tom and Tim. Tom was even thinking of skipping tonight, but it was a good thing he showed up. The rabid Tesla Death Rays were one question behind, and one more behind was A Dirty Shame, aka Justin and the directionally-challenged Janelle. We Like Big Nutsacks and We Cannot Lie were exiled in the back room and took fourth, followed by the Jon Shober Gang, who bolted before they were announced as this week's theme-pickers. Luckily they had given me their theme before leaving: The World of Warcraft. The Toxic Olives drowned their misery in a sea of Pixie Stix, while the Jelly Roll Mortons had to settle for Marissa's pick from the Trashbag of Dee-lite: The Bad Girl's Guide to Good Sex.

This image from Lancaster505.com cracks me up.

Barn Door: Belly Replacement

Now, that's a truly disturbing image. Billy "Buddha Belly" Warmth was in New Hampshire attending his nephew's high school graduation, so I subbed for him as host at his Barn Door Show. Gary and Tammy and Kathy and Betty always make me feel welcome there, so it was a fun (and fast) time. And I also saw the friendly faces of two of the Sunday night teams, KCC and Laffy Taffy. Laffy Taffy placed third, right behind the Road Kill Chefs and Out of the Vortex. KCC had to settle for a tailor-made mah jongg question. There was also a lot of prize trading going on by the prune-loving Vortex.

New Venue for Earth Trivia!

Earth Trivia welcomes our newest host, Justin Shiffer! Justin and trivia go waaaaay back to the early 90s, when he was co-deejaying with founding father Curtis Earth at the Holiday Inn in Greenfield. After years of playing, he has decided to add another hat to his bag of tricks (how's that for mixing metaphors?). So, in addition to being a dad, a baker, a deejay and a Pampered Chef, Justin is now a bona fide Earth trivia host!

Justin's debut is next Monday, June 11th at Shank's Tavern in Marietta. He'll be doing two shows from 8 P.M. to 11 P.M., so we have two chances to welcome him aboard.

Chuckles: Trivia Fit Club

Ok, so Mr. T was never on a VH-1 reality show (this week's theme). This picture still makes me laugh, so I'm using it. Besides, don't you think he is a prime candidate for The Surreal Life?

Jason and Kristi of Flavor of Dead Bear Baby in a Jar You Know What Time It Is had chosen the theme, but to no avail. The night belonged to the inappropriately named Losers team, who scored a whopping 99 out of 110 possible points! They used to be regulars at Chuckles and followed the previous host to his new digs. Perhaps we'll see them again some time.

In second was the titanic trio known as Skirtland, followed by last week's champs the Price Is Right. Fourth place went to the Talent Scouts, who claimed that their specialty is Events That Happened Two Days Ago. Fifth place went to KC as C spun off her own team back in the suburbs. Poor Charlie placed sixth and we had a tie between the Original Lethal Amoebas and Marianne's Wildcats for the coveted seventh slot. Since the Wildcats can't make it next week, they forfeited their theme choice, so we'll only have one: non-Harley motorcycles (please make note of the "non").

Appel Farms 2007

This weekend I went to the Appel Farms Art and Music Festival in Elmer, New Jersey. This event is always a good time (dependent on the weather, of course). I think this might be the fifth year in a row I attended with friends Sue, Ann and Jean. Headliners this year included Joan Armatrading, Amos Lee, The North Mississippi Allstars and Robert Randolph. A highlight for me was the immortal Leon Redbone, who managed to repeat two songs in the space of a twenty minute set. And he repeated a story three times. Not sure if that was part of his shtick, but he amused the crowd nonetheless.

The view from Sue's vehicle. She named her hula guy Matt, after her co-worker. (Based on the way he looks, not the way he dances).

The festival began on a hazy, hot and humid note. Sweltering patrons were allowed to have complimentary shavings.

Jean hadn't eaten in quite a long time.