Week in review

Group W handed the rest of the Frank's crowd an Ike Turner-level beating this week, and Alkie Bartokemous had to squeak out a win at the inaugural Ray's Happy B-Day Bar event in a tiebreaker, my first ever for first place in this format. Quite a week!

Above is a representative photo of the mighty Group W, whose win I've had to symbolize with another treasure-bearing W as my camera equipment continues to be foiled in my feeble attempts to photograph them. It's uncanny and mysterious. You'll just have to come to Frank's yourself on a Wednesday night to see them in action in person.

The formidable W slapped around their opponents like a killer whale bashing a line of seal pups, and cruised to the largest margin of victory I've ever had in this format, missing the All-Time Top Ten list by 1 point. This is even more incredible considering that they were completely blanked in the Speed Round, in which I asked for the names of 10 USFL franchises.

Coming in a distant second were rookies Shithawks!, who played a much better game than their name would suggest. Here we see the group enjoying their winnings at a cozy booth at Frank's:

Lil Roy Screamed used the Spinal Tap-inspired nom de guerre Tonight We're Gonna Rock You Tonight and finished 2 points out of second, or if you see it their way tied for second. Hopefully they and you will return next week and try to fend off Group W.

I gave away a last place prize to a deserving team this week, Pot Luck Dinner scored an honest 41, stayed through the whole game and were good sports about it. That earned them not one but two copies of the soundtrack to Black Spring Break. This fine piece of cinematic delight was a vehicle for the mellow sounds of Tupac and the always positive 2 Live Crew among many others. The team asked me if I was going to make fun of them, and I'm not. The idea of the last place prize is that there should be a reward, however odd and cheap, for anyone willing to stick it out and learn something. Here the kids are, preparing to get as nasty as 2 Live Crew wants 'em to be:
"Word up!"

Frank's scores:

Champs: Group W 156
So-So Silver: Shithawks! 94
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: Tonight We're Gonna Rock You Tonight 92

Also-rans:

Neo-Falafelites 86
Piece of Piss Conspiracy 72
Too Dirty Teen Hunger Force 60
Pot Luck Dinner 41

I'll also note that these scores are out of 212 for the first time as the crowd was extremely cooperative and for the first time no questions were scratched owing to shouted answers. Thanks for that, it makes the night 100% better.

Over at the inaugural Ray's event on Tuesday we had a great turn-out despite the last minute notice. For the first time in my format it came down to a tiebreaker question for first place (I'm going to score that as 1 additional potential point out of 213 for both teams), and Alkie Bartokemous edged out a team who kept changing their name but started as Others Not 40 Yet. My tiebreaker was to guess closest to the number of chapters in the Old and New Testaments combined. The answer is 1,189, and Alkie guessed about 600 chapters closer for the victory. Congrats, guys!

Others Not Yet 40, who appended their team name to note that they had all original body parts, finished second with a very respectable 150. Here we see them with the prizes I cobbled together at the last minute, not knowing what to expect at the hastily prepared Ray's quiz (next week there will be a bar tab at stake). Note that the swag included a Coke magnet, a paperback copy of Growing Up Brady and two watch-battery-driven oddities called the "Eros Keychain."

















The Engrish packaging on the keychains promises "ROMANTIC APPETANCE!" and "EROTICISM LAXWHOOP!" I have no idea what that means; a Google search turns up nothing. I found these things in a dollar store in Camden (best not to ask how or why.) Insert 3 watch batteries, push any button - any one, they all do the same thing - and you get the high-pitched Asian vocalist-style sound of a woman having an orgasm. I have no idea why they have MAD printed upon them either.

Your scores:

Champs: Alkie Bartokemous 151
So-So Silver: Others Not Yet 40 150
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: Cosine of 4 (-2) 147

Also-rans:

No Violence at Quizzo, or Pub Quiz or Whatever 146
... [team called themselves "ellipses"]* 65
Shakes 43

* indicates team arrived late &/or quit

Hope to see everyone again next week!