...while A Pixie Stick and a Couple of Whirlygigs was only one point behind...

...and a brand new team, the Sick Bastards, was only one point behind them.

It was like Christmas in December for Team Chamo, as they finally made their life-long goal of placing seventh. To celebrate the holidays, they chose Dexter, a show about a serial killer.

The Smokies were in the boonies.

The ladies of Laffy Taffy made a return to Cafe Chuckles.

We Can Crush Your Head...With Tickets! are not fans of the Chicken Lady.

Christine wants more pictures of the servers on the blog, so here she is on her off night with Sasha of the Steelers.

The Braves needed a more exciting name, so they chose The Fighting Braves and struck terror in the hearts of their competitors.

VFW: Steve Knows Jack

Steve was a happy camper, since he got his coveted Jack Link's beef jerky. And his team almost got third place, falling one point behind Hot Rod Blagojevich. The Rods were only one question behind Trivia @ 8. But the night belonged to Chicks and Dicks, who got 9 out of 10 right in the last round. Room Two with Matt Squared placed fifth and D&M was sixth. I tolf the two teams that tied for seventh to please pick holiday themes for next week's Christmas show, so we're going with Twas the Night Before Christmas (Nix Lix) and White Christmas (the movie; The B52s).

Nerak and P.J. was a new team that did really well, despite missing the entire first round.

Bube's: Slap Attack

The Tony Danza Slap finally made it to the winners' circle tonight, but almost succumbed to the Cowtippers, who were only three points behind. Last Week I Lost 30 Million Dollars When My Gun Slipped Down My Sweat Pants and Shot Me in the Nutsack was third, one point ahead of Affleck was the Bomb in Phantoms, who was one point ahead of GoBias Industries. Not the Oil Lobbyists was late to arrive, but placed sixth and You Can't Fix Stupid Unless You Go to the Caribbean in the Middle of the Winter was seventh. They picked the vampire TV series True Blood as their theme for next week.

Rachel and Puck, the Cowtippers, proved that you can do well with a small team.

Quietly Making Noise was the mixmasters for the evening.

Randy and Bob, formerly of the Tesla Death Rays, changed their name to We Flew Private Jets to Dolla Beer Night. Bob depends on the Trashbag of Deelite for his wardrobe. This week he gort a Rod Stewart 2005 tour t-shirt.

GoBias Industries (as in GoBias a Drink) was only one question away from second place.

Christmas Card Address Correction

Trish of the Twin Roses told me that Walter Reed Hospital will not accept Christmas cards addressed to "A Recovering Soldier," so I checked it out at Snopes.com and it is unfortunately true:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/christmas/soldiercards.asp

The American Red Cross, however, has a similar program for cards for veterans and active soldiers, so please send them to:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

More info on their program is available here:
http://www.redcross.org/email/saf/

Chuckles: Roses in Bloom

Trish is desperately trying to fend off the attack of photobomber Alan as The Twin Roses celebrate their momentous victory tonight. It was a bizarre night of topsy-turvy trivia, as Sasha was behind the bar and Kirsten was in front. And the Roses moved to a suburban table. The change of venue did them good, since they leapt from fifth to first place, beating of Pixie Stix and Whirlygigs by three points and Skirtland by 8. Ubersmack was minus their Biblical scholar Paul and placed fourth. Haywood Jablome was fifth and Out of the Vortex sixth. In lucky seventh place was We Can Win ...With Tickets (Must Sing!) and their theme choice is...

...The Kids in the Hall.

After the show Deric and I enjoyed some Baconnaise from Smiller on chicken fingers as Lee and Charlie of Skirtland looked on in disgust.

St. James Christmas Party

Thanks to Frank for inviting me back to host the annual St. James Men's Club Christmas Party for the third year in a row. Many people braved the first blizzard of the season to attend a competitive night of trivia and fried cheese. Before we get to the winning teams , let's see the winner of Best Christmas Sweater: Amy!

The Board and Their Broads pulled an upset in the last round by getting nine out of ten and won by one point. They were awarded lottery six tickets and won 100 pennies! (which sounds more impressive than a dollar) Mick is also proudly displaying tomorrow night's dinner.

The St. James Elves also nearly aced the last round as they leapt from fourth to second.

The Honeys and Hunks had been leading through the first three rounds, but imploded in the fourth.

The Young Men's Club, AKA St. James: The Next Generation only missed third place by one question.

The Harrid Experiment managed to place fifth, despite having Pat on their team.

They were hard pressed to come up with a team with a funny name, so they called themselves "Funny Name." Now that's quick thinking!

The Breakfast Club tied for sixth with Team Funny Name.

The Bikers settled for some Chocolate Creme Cakesters.

VFW: It's Begionning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Santa Darla wishes everyone a Merry Christmas as the club was decked out in silver and gold. Props to Leroy and Laurie the prime decorators. It looked like Chicks and Dicks were going for their fourth win in a row, but a last minute comeback by Trivia @ 8 bopped them to second. Santa Darla's wish came true as her team took third, ten points ahead of Room Two. GnT stumbled in the last round and fell to sixth and the Honeymoon's Over got lucky seventh.

The honeymoon may be over, but Sue and Charlie were in the driver's seat since they get to pick next week's theme: A Christmas Carol.

TJ and Jaclyn were headed towards seventh place, but then had to bow out before the last round.

Miscellaneous Photos

I've had a bunch of unposted photos sitting on my desktop, so here we go with a little fall cleaning. First up: Kumiko and Craig of the Toxic Olives had a housewarming party that featured some Wii-action. When I tried bowling I got a little carried away with my follow-through and almost dented the ceiling.

Today I opened a small bag of Chex Mix from the snack machine and found this strangely shaped cheese cracker. I think it is a sign from above that I should go to California (or maybe New Jersey if you flip it over.)


I got together with some of my friends from my TV Guide days at Iron Hill over the Thanksgiving weekend. Here we see the editors of the Central Virginia, Boston and Springfield-Chicopee-Holyoke editions.


Little known fact: Mom likes to go Christmas shopping with antelopes.


My niece Rosalyn and Tony were married on the campus of the University of Virginia in early November. It was a beautiful wedding and a fantastic warm day. I posted a bunch of pictures in a web album.


Nephew James and I had the pleasure of meeting Elvis while in Charlottesville. Actually, he admitted to being an Elvis impersonator and was proud that he came in fourteenth place in an Elvis lookalike contest (there were 16 contestants).

Bube's: Let the Holidays Begin!

Ed of You Can't Fix Stupid is the first person I met that actually likes fruitcake. It was my new trade-in prize for December and I figured that it would go unchosen the entire holiday season. But Ed instructed his teammates that if anyone won a Trashbag of Deelite prize, they should trade it in. His team missed seventh place by one question and settled for sixth. Barack Obama Just became Our 44th Nutsack placed fifth, so they'll probably blame Marie again. The Stonecutters duo came in fourth, right behind the Toxic Olives. The Tony Danza Slap launched a major offensive in the last round to take second, but they couldn't catch tonight's winners, Quietly Making Noise.

Justin was so happy that his team won that he pooped himself.

The Tony Danza Slap had the biggest comeback of the night, leaping from sixth to second.

The Toxic Olives have been on a roll lately. They took home third place and a pound of lasagna noodles.

Josh and Ryan conduct an impromptu sex ed class, with balloons!

Jim and Wendy both have new jobs, so the Stonecutters will be back on a regular basis.

You can't tell from the glare but Houlihan is proudly showing his Bonanza, Volume 3 DVD that he picked from the Trashbag of Deelite. He'll have to return to get Volume 4.

Dana, Puck and Rachel are going with the movies of Kevin Smith as next week's theme.

Double Your Fun regretted that they couldn't stay past the second round.

D-Fam 2008!

Like a patient wildlife photographer, I kept taking shot after shot of this frantic game of spoons at the 16th annual D-Fam until I got the perfect pic. What the heck am I talking about? Glad you asked. Members of the Tony Danza Slap team have been getting together in Camp Hill for the past 16 years on the Saturday after Thanksgiving with many other friends and family. They traditionally play a game involving spoons, cards and elbows (similar to musical chairs, but with no walking). They also started a new tradition last year of having a trivia show with me hosting. Thanks to Sarah and family for having me back this year! And congrats to Patrick Swayze for upsetting the Twins.