Lititz VFW Thanksgiving Eve

JJ of the Posse, who was easily our youngest trivia player tonight, was a good luck charm for his team as they took first place. It was wall-to-wall people as everyone came out to enjoy Nita's Thanksgiving buffet. Chix and Dix and Room 2 took second and third as the We're Here for the Beer, Too! team took fourth and chose baseball and Planet of the Apes movies as next week's themes. Later, people stayed around to hear the Terry Mullens Trio.

Tom and Nick and their bodiless pilgrim friend wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Bube's Brewery, November 22nd

It was the strangest beginning to a trivia night ever. When I pulled up to Bube's at 7:30, there wasn't a single car in the parking lot! When I walked into the Bottling Works, there were only eight people there, watching "High Fidelity" on the movie screen. Then I realized that the eight were all Bube's staffers! J threatened to play with his laptop and cellphone while blurting. But then, like some Thanksgiving miracle, people kept piling in and the place was full. Truly a wonder.


Thanks to the Nutsacks for taking tonight's pix.

Steve was so excited by tonight's game that he couldn't control himself. (Actually his Trashbag of Deelite prize was a plastic rat and a fake booger...)

...which he promptly used to terrorize his teammmate.

The Nutsacks were missing their Mamma Sack, but still did well.

Another wacky prize was a pair of flashing eyeglasses, which Derek is sporting in this pic.

Sometimes the whole picking of the themes thing works: last week's fourth-placers, Team Discovery Channel, became this week's champions.

The Tesla Death Rays, like the spot they were sitting at, ran hot and cold all evening.

Fourth place team The Toxic Olives chose cosmetics and Christmas trees (yes, it's officially that time of year) as next week's themes.

These folks are always troopers.

Struggling over the picture sheet.

Doug and his wife are shocked they did so well.

Look at me, I'm Koppenhafer, E! (That's for you Grease fans out there).

Dave is stylin' with the Shirt of the Week: a Shawn Michaels Heartbreak Kid wrasslin' shirt.

Pay No Attention to the Woman Behind the Curtain

The Grand Exalted Vizier of Trivia (AKA Janey Dzubinski) tried to work her magic on the team, to no avail as We're Here for the Beer took first place for the second week in a row. We welcomed back, for one week only, Don the original Dick and the Foreplayers, who were confused by the warm weather into thinking that winter was over. A new team, the Smarties did well for their inaugural visit. And G-Man was a one-man tour de force. The B-52s settled once again for fourth and chose gemstones and cats as next week's themes.

Better Red than Dead

The Grateful Red team took Bube's by storm tonight. They had one simple request. The questions should be about:
Nothing after 1980
No geography
No history
No politics
No artsy fartsy stuff
No music (unless it's oldies between 1969 and 1971)
No social studies stuff
No religion

So, we had basically just stared at each other for 2 hours. Just kidding. It was a great night of trivia and trashbags. Crabby Dicks had a record-breaking fourth round. Ubersmack continued their slump. J and Tim and Dave had a fantastic run. Dead Bear Baby in a Jar made a big comeback in the 4th to take tird. And a new team from parts unknown almost won.FYI: TDC got to pick next week's themes: 90s grunge and recent politics.

This is Dan's Fans team, a group from out of town (rumored to come from Kansas). They were tied with Bite Fiona Apple's Red Cheeks (Fiona is J's favorite film star) all night, but lost the Captain Jack Off. Unfortunately for fans of Dan, his head is totally blocked in this shot.

Dixon is seen here modeling the Shirt of the Week: It shows a stick figure of a horse on its back and reads "Help Me! I've Fallen and I Can't Giddy-Up!" (Well, it was funny when I saw it at the Salvation Army store).

Mama, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be...

...Giant Mutant Cowboy Statues. This big guy can be found at Cowtown in New Jersey somewhere near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. It was always a big deal during family beach trips to see him on the way to Stone Harbor. I don't remember him ever holding a lasso, though.

New Design

As regular visitors here might notice, I've changed the template of the blog. Hopefully I can tweak it a little so that it blends in with our home page. But that might be a while. in the mean time, enjoy the blinding whiteness!

This is a caricature by an artist named Emily that I had done at Millersville's homecoming recently. (Have fun making sense of that badly written sentence!) Props to Steve DiGuiseppe for hiring the talented Emily.

Lititz VFW

The dynamic duo of Cindy and Sheila were awarded the Point Per Persons (or the Pee Pee-Pee) award of a box of peanut butter tandy cakes for their stellar performance. They also placed fourth and chose their old standbys of cars and medicine as next week's themes. Sheila also won a beanie baby vampire teddy bear (which only goes to show that beanie babies were getting despearte for ideas). We welcomed back Mayor Theodore and we learned, despite Tom and Dennis' more colorful suggestion, what the state pie of Massachusetts is. And I forgot to wish Nikk a happy birthday, so we'll make that the first order of business for next week (of course, I'll forget again).

Program note: the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 23rd), trivia will be an hour earlier, beginnning at 7 P.M.

Bube's Brewery, Nov. 8th

It was a wild, see-sawing night as teams rose and fell like crashing waves. Leigh was sure that the Tesla Death Rays were doomed, but they got 8 out of 10 right in the last round and claimed the crown. TDC was second and Terrell Owens Is Not Worthy to Lick the Salt from My Nutsack got third. The Axis of Evil (AKA Dead Bear Baby in a Jar) got to pick next week's themes: the TV show Arrested Development and superhero hangouts.

The Fool Monkey was joined by stuffed animal fancier Tim.

A compact version of Dead Bear Baby in a Jar debuted their new moniker: The Axis of Evil.

The appropriately named Two Guys at the Bar had an early lead.

Half of Team Discovery Channel wonders where the other half went.

The Outsiders had a friendly rivalry all night long with the Birthday Bitches.

The photogenic Nutsacks.

B is for Brian the Birthday Boy, who celebrated his 36th at BuBe's Brewery.

Mixmaster Marshall.

Laura and I practice our Guinness commercial.

Derek attempts to play an extremely tiny version of that game that Junior Achievement is always trying to get you to buy.

A premature Victory sign by Dixon and Dana, as the Olives burned out on the last round.

Themes for this week

Okay, once again I've dropped the ball. Here, at last, are this week's themes:

Bube's: Prohibition and the board game Trivial Pursuit.
VFW: TV westerns and sports movies.