Start cold December with two hot new quizzes

Tuesday, December 4, 9pm
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar
1200 E. Passyunk Ave.
(near 9th & Federal Sts.)
Subject Round: CHILDREN'S TV

Wednesday, December 5, 9pm
Dirty Frank's
13th & Pine Sts.
Subject Round: CRIME & PUNISHMENT

Can you figure out this week's Secret Themes?

Each group of 10 otherwise unrelated questions has a theme running through their answers. Can you answer the questions and figure out the theme? Answers will be posted early next week.

Ray's Happy Birthday Bar:

1) Which US state is the Beaver State?
2) Johnny Roventini (1910-1998) had a catchphrase in a classic popular radio and TV ad from several decades ago. What product did he push?
3) The Oakland A's retired the number 9. Whose number was that?
4) In 1889 this became the 42nd US state. Which one is it?
5) For what 1994 Mike Nichols-directed movie was Jack Nicholson not nominated for any award?
6) Her 2000 album I Wanna Be with You, which went gold, was a remix of her 1999 album So Real. Who is it?
7) What English borough is home to 0 degrees longitude?
8) Who played new homeowner Delia Deetz in the 1988 movie Beetlejuice?
9) What American socialist journalist wrote Ten Days That Shook the World, his account of the Soviet Revolution, published in 1919? He's buried at the Kremlin.
10) What religious group was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the 19th century?

... and what theme links the 10 answers?

Dirty Frank's:

1) What 16th century English dramatist, considered the father of tragedy in the English language, was perhaps appropriately killed in a bar brawl at the age of 29?
2) What disease is caused by the toxins emitted by group A Streptococcus bacteria?
3) What unkind nickname has been given by tabloids to radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, based in his disability?
4) Who wrote the 17th century poem "To His Coy Mistress," which you likely read in high school?
5) In what Michigan city did most of the documentary "Roger & Me" take place?
6) What soft rock trio, two Americans and a Brit, had 11 Top 40 hits on the US pop charts 1972-1983, 7 of which went Top 10 and one of those #1?
7) What classic American TV show had a theme song based upon the 1891 music hall song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-Day"?
8) For what 2003 film did Renee Zellweger win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar?
9) What famous 5-word phrase was spoken by Richard Nixon in his address to the nation the night of November 17, 1973?
10) What 19th century British satirist wrote "Nightmare Abbey" and "Crotchet Castle"?

... and what theme links the 10 answers?

Doc Lee & Co. entertained splendidly at Ray's Happy Birthday Bar

Just a quick note to let you know that I caught the Doc Lee & Company show I wrote about last week. Doc is a great singer, covering a lot of standards of everyone from Marvin Gaye to Sinatra, and you can tell that keyboardist Sheffield Craig is having a darn good time when he plays out.

These guys will be gently rockin' Ray's again the evening of January 29th, so be sure and come on out to support the cause of great live music in Philadelphia.

"Supergroup" Gofa Wingdom attempts to break 200 barrier; fails but dominates field at Dirty Frank's

Move over, Blind Faith, CSNY, Cream and The Traveling Wilburys - there's a new supergroup in town! Quiz titans Sofa Kingdom and Group W activated their Wonder Twin powers in the shape of a superteam and the form of a series of correct answers. For the past few weeks there were rumors of an attempt to see how well humans could do on my quiz by combining the Unstoppable Force with the Immovable Object. It came to pass and took me by surprise, so I have to say I was relieved when they finally lost some points, in the third round, in a quiz I innocently prepared as a normal, non-supergroup-defeating Wednesday challenge.

Let's face it, someone scores a perfect score on your quiz, and you're toast as a quizmaster. No more respect, no more cred. Lost face. Mixed metaphors. That sort of thing.

The team is now on the Top Ten All-Time Scores list with a 181, out of an unusual 213 points. I asked people to name the Seven Sisters colleges for one point each and let people earn that extra point as a normally 6-point question lagniappe. I had no idea in writing a quiz with an extra point that the most earnest attempt yet to score the highest score possible was about to go down. Gofa Wingdom fell 6 points short of Group W's 187 high-water mark and well short of the 200+ I initially feared. They were the only team to figure out the Secret Theme.

The photo is a rare sighting of the W duo in the visible spectrum, although it'd be easier to get a clear shot of Howard Hughes giving Bigfoot a pedicure.

Beautiful Gold: Gofa Wingdom 181
So-So Silver: Psychobilly Freakout 151
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: Voice of Geddy Lee 134

Also-rans:

Kenya et al. 122
Amy Winehouse's Rehab Counselors 107
The Flaming Labias 106
Wolverines* 72
Jay 61
Salt and Pepper* 1

* indicates team started late &/or quit

Ass Belt come from behind, shatter the back-to-back win hopes of Kissez for Kittenz

For the umpteenth time I brought my camera to Ray's, then forgot to use it. You folks are going to have to remind me to take your pictures as I clearly find it challenging to remember on my own. Thus I present this week's Ray's Happy Birthday Bar champs Ass Belt, three guys and a gal, as the awesome old Dutch band Shocking Blue.

Kissez for Kittenz, who went with the zeds-spelling this time for street cred I suppose, led through three rounds and then it all fell apart. Ass Belt alone nailed the Secret Theme on their way to victory.

Beautiful Gold: Ass Belt 119
So-So Silver: Kissez for Kittenz 89
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: Edward James Almost 80

Also-rans:

Guys at the Bar 68
Jay 60

Everyone loses Democratic preferences poll; now it's the Republicans' turn

Slowly but surely, people are using the polling tool to the right of the blog. Great! I should've really included a "I don't like any of these choices" option as that way we could capture that sentiment; as it stands the people who read that item on the blog and had that opinion weren't counted at all, which is a flaw I intend to correct in future. It'd also give a higher participant count, not that any of this is scientific.

Over the past week I asked people to vote for the candidates you wouldn't mind seeing win the 2008 Democratic nomination. I asked you to vote for as many candidates as you wouldn't mind seeing get the nod, meaning you could vote for one on up to all eight.

Seven voted this time. Barack Obama came out on top as "comparatively least objectionable," with 3 positive votes. That means only a slight majority don't want him to win, which is more than can be said for the other candidates. Gravel and Richardson each earned two votes, and Biden, Edwards, Kucinich, Clinton and Dodd each only garnered one.

This week I'm asking you think will win the Republican nomination. Not who you'd prefer, but who will. That means one vote/IP address. The following week I'll post the same preferences poll I did last week, only of course this time for the GOP.

Qorporate quizzo on the move

As I wrote about last week, the homogenous quiz folks with the pre-fab questions - the ones who don't even recognize the central position of Philadelphia in the American history of the game on their site - are very much looking to worm their way into this city. There's a photo of the CEO at left. The creepy part is that it's a color photo...

Or, as I imagine they look at it, they want to move into this "market." As you can see in this new Craigslist ad, they are looking for people to "sell their concept," perhaps former cruise ship DJs. (Nothing says spontaneous fun like the phrase "sell our concept!") One thing not on their list of preferences for quiz hosts is having any interest in trivia, nor the organic culture surrounding it.

I find something distasteful about this whole way of doing business, the bicoastal franchising and quiz homogeny and so forth. Hopefully so will Philadelphia bar owners and patrons. I would optimistically predict failure for these people in Philadelphia, the only city I know of where McDonald's franchises close down while corner sandwich shops thrive. Part of me would like to think that it's hard to repackage something organic as a new homogenous standard, but I'm also aware of the history of the fast food joint and mall and how this has crushed Main Street USA. I've seen a creep of chain stores and franchises into Center City which has severely changed the face of the city I grew up in, making it look more and more like any generic American Nowheresville. I continue to be amazed that Chili's, Applebee's and the like are all over Center City now.

This could go either way. "Think Globally, Quiz Locally."

Mama Weer All Ded Now: Quiet Riot vocalist dies as first original creative act

Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin DuBrow died today at the age of 52. Somehow the article is CNN quoting TMZ, which tells us some disturbing things about the way news is now gathered and prioritized.

While many will recall the band as perhaps the first metal act to score a #1 charted album in the US, I remember the band as "the guys who copied Slade... twice."

Thus most unfortunately the first thing I had to do when I heard about the death was to see if the Slade (at left) vocalists are still alive, which they apparently are. At last, some original work from Quiet Riot!

Philadelphia's retirement leech jackasses: Krajewski, Tartaglione, Johnston, Brady, Street, Abraham

Philadelphia, as we know, has been run by a cabal of self-serving leeches for decades. This has come into sharp relief with recent news of the "one-day retirement" scam being pulled by Councilwoman Joan Krajewski and City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione.

The two will "retire" from city government for one day in January in order to collect a one-time "retirement" payment averaging $300,000 each. The next day each will be "rehired" at their $110,000+ jobs with their city cars and numerous other perks. That's a $600,000 transfer of wealth from the citizens of Philadelphia to two useless, slow-witted old women for staying away from work for one day.

Outgoing, equally inept Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnston has already collected a "retirement" package from the city of nearly $400,000 - only to be rehired at a six-figure annual salary without having to repay a penny. Mayor John Street will be collecting over $450,000 and District Attorney Lynne Abraham over $410,000 in "retirement" despite the fact that both would be ineligible for re-election owing to term limitations. All of this in a city where poverty is common. In other words, it's like paying Miss America "retirement" money, and making orphans pool the cash from their milk money.

Clearly none of these people give a flying crap about this city or its inhabitants, beyond what they can wring out of us. Keep in mind that the budget cuts that have been made to pay for these people's hubris have ended in death. We close libraries and firehouses so Joan Krajewski, a multiple-decade do-nothing machine legislator from a working class neighborhood who has primarily served the billboard industry instead of constituents, can buy muu muus and stuff her face with Malomars.

Don't expect the head of Philadelphia's Democratic Party to do jack shit about any of this; Congressman Bob Brady has collected almost $9,000/year in Philadelphia "retirement" money (over $180,000 and counting) from a largely ceremonial clerk position - itself a joke - he held for a handful of years a few decades ago. He's collected this money from a city which can't afford it while earning over $165,000/year as a US Congressman (a position to which he essentially appointed himself, facing no challengers in a few elections), and a comparable salary before that from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (to which he also named his son). If you're wondering why the city's Democratic machine works harder at getting reelected than they do at doing their jobs, look no further than scams like these.

These people are bloodsuckers, and should be treated as such.

Answers to last week's Secret Theme rounds

Ray's Happy Birthday Bar:

The theme was Beverly Hills 90210.

1) What comedian was born John Elroy Sanford in 1922? Redd Foxx / Fox network
2) What annual national competition has been sponsored by Scripps Newspapers since 1941? The National Spelling Bee / The Spelling family
3) According to the Bible/Torah, who was Moses' nabi, or spokesman? Aaron / Aaron Spelling
4) What American singer-songwriter, who has sold over 12 million albums, uses her birth surname but an adopted first name, her actual first and middle names being Myra Ellen? Tori Amos / Tori Spelling
5) What American country singer has sold several million albums since 2001 via an exclusive distribution deal with Wal-Mart? Garth Brooks (see & hear "Friends with Low Wages"!) / Jennie Garth
6) What early 20th century British tennis player's clothing line has supplied skinheads with their shirt of choice for decades? Fred Perry / Luke Perry
7) At 161 miles, what is the longest river in Ireland? The River Shannon / Shannen Doherty
8) What '90s sitcom took place at radio station WZUP in Detroit? Martin / Martin family
9) Who has hosted TV's America's Most Wanted since 1988? John Walsh / Walsh family
10) By what name did we know the American opera singer born Belle Miriam Silverman? Beverly Sills

Dirty Frank's: The theme was words used to describe cuts of meat.

1) What 1970 box office bomb by Michelangelo Antonioni depicted the American countercultural scene with a cast of unknown actors? Zabriskie Point / point

2) Depending on who you ask, what mid-'60s item was first designed by either Mary Quant or André Courrèges? The mini-skirt / skirt
3) In what 1998 movie did Kris Kristofferson play Abraham Whistler? Blade / blade
4) In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, what injury did the old fisherman have faith Joe DiMaggio could play through? Heel spurs / heel
5) In which Washington DC neighborhood will you find George Washington University and the Watergate complex? Foggy Bottom / bottom
6) What American painter, known for his giant photorealist portraits, continued painting following a stroke? Chuck Close / chuck
7) What 1992 song by Wreckx N Effect was kept out of the #1 position on the US pop charts by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"? "Rump Shaker" / rump

8) What British satirical magazine has been published every two weeks since 1961? Private Eye / eye
9) What oil giant was founded in 1907 by the merger of a Dutch and a British oil company? Royal Dutch Shell / shell
10) What building at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio is said to contain the wreckage of the 1947 Roswell UFO crash? The building's name is also the title of a 1990 song by Megadeth and a 1980 UFO conspiracy movie. Hangar 18 / hangar steak

Andy Can You Hear Me? are the new champs at Dirty Frank's

Andy... is named after an Andy Reid sighting at his daughter's high school musical performance. You can't make that sort of thing up. The coach was reportedly most congenial to hordes of autograph seekers.

You know what really makes the bar look attractive in this photo? The cardboard boxes. It says, "Sure, we sleep indoors now, but let's not forget our roots..." Just keepin' it real.

Scores were low and I'm happy to say that the predicted masses of Thanksgiving Eve mean drunks never materialized. Usual quiz bullies Group W missed a fifth-place finish by 2 points! Saw a lot of new faces, would love to see people make it back regularly. I always make it a priority to end in time so that people with 9-to-5's can show up in the morning in decent shape.

Beautiful Gold: Andy Can You Hear Me? 140
So-So Silver: Looking Through Crystal Spectacles 121
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: The Gizzards of Oz 115

Also-rans:

Group W 97
Vladivosscock 96
Tres Amigos 60
Jay 36
Gah-Milks (Go Team!)* 23
[two words no human could read, followed by] Stupid Drunk* 1

* team started late &/or quit

Kisses for Kittens wins low-scoring affair at Ray's

Two wins within a month?! Break up K4K! Give someone else a chance, why don't ya?

Beautiful Gold: Kisses for Kittens 125
So-So Silver: Artificial Energy 108
Shameful, Shameful Bronze: The Mops 96

Also-rans:

Speedo 76
It Burns, It Burns 73

Can you figure out this week's Secret Theme rounds? Hush up!

Each group of 10 otherwise unrelated questions has a theme running through their answers. Can you answer the questions and figure out the theme? Answers will be posted in a few days.

Ray's Happy Birthday Bar:

1) What comedian was born John Elroy Sanford in 1922?
2) What annual national competition has been sponsored by Scripps Newspapers since 1941?
3) According to the Bible/Torah, who was Moses' nabi, or spokesman?
4) What American singer-songwriter, who has sold over 12 million albums, uses her birth surname but an adopted first name, her actual first and middle names being Myra Ellen?
5) What American country singer has sold several million albums since 2001 via an exclusive distribution deal with Wal-Mart?
6) What early 20th century British tennis player's clothing line has supplied skinheads with their shirt of choice for decades?
7) At 161 miles, what is the longest river in Ireland?
8) What '90s sitcom took place at radio station WZUP in Detroit?
9) Who has hosted TV's America's Most Wanted since 1988?
10) By what name did we know the American opera singer born Belle Miriam Silverman?

... and what theme links the 10 answers?
Dirty Frank's:

1) What 1970 box office bomb by Michelangelo Antonioni depicted the American countercultural scene with a cast of unknown actors?
2) Depending on who you ask, what mid-'60s item was first designed by either Mary Quant or André Courrèges?
3) In what 1998 movie did Kris Kristofferson play Abraham Whistler?
4) In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, what injury did the old fisherman have faith Joe DiMaggio could play through?
5) In which Washington DC neighborhood will you find George Washington University and the Watergate complex?
6) What American painter, known for his giant photorealist portraits, continued painting following a stroke?
7) What 1992 song by Wreckx N Effect was kept out of the #1 position on the US pop charts by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"?
8) What British satirical magazine has been published every two weeks since 1961?
9) What oil giant was founded in 1907 by the merger of a Dutch and a British oil company?
10) What building at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio is said to contain the wreckage of the 1947 Roswell UFO crash? The building's name is also the title of a 1990 song by Megadeth and a 1980 UFO conspiracy movie.

Start your December with two all-new quizzes!

Tuesday, November 27, 9:15pm
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar
1200 E. Passyunk Ave.
(near 9th & Federal Sts.)
Subject Round: MYSTERIES

Wednesday, November 28, 9pm
Dirty Frank's
13th & Pine Sts.
Subject Round: BIOLOGY

Brainstormer looking to move into Philadelphia? Get ready for corporate homogeny! YAY!!!

Fresh on the heels of the National Trivia Association attack on the Wikipedia presence of many of this city's quiz hosts, I had a strange exchange yesterday with one Liam in San Francisco from Brainstormer which bodes ill.

I received an email from the fellow which said, "Nice blog, how many quizzes do you do/week?" and nothing else. If you're paying any attention whatever to the content of this blog it's evident I'm doing two right now. It's fairly hard not to notice that if you're actually interested and have basic reading comprehension. This lack of attention to what I do, yet still making the contact, raised a flag that the guy wanted something, and not necessarily to my advantage.

I replied with a brief answer and commented on a quiz I'd played in SF a number of years ago. In the next two-line email, Liam asked me how much I charge local bars for doing quizzes. Can a guy get a little more foreplay here at least? Naturally I'm not just going to share that kind of private info with a stranger who is likely looking to be competition.

Checking out the site, Brainstormer is a prepackaged quiz with pre-fab questions and unnecessarily complex laminated materials (pre-printed with advertising!) intended for pre-fab bar fun or "Corporate Teambuilding." The former sounds like Trivial Pursuit without the board, and the thought of playing a quiz with coworkers during the day and no alcohol in sight sounds about as much fun to me as what it actually is... a meeting. Worse, the Brainstormer "History of the Pub Quiz" completely writes Philadelphia out of the picture, as if it never happened here at all!

I have no idea what their questions are like, but I would have low expectations. The subject isn't even approached on the site. The quizproctors, as I'll call them, see the questions for the first time when you do. Good luck arguing a point in that format.

Brainstormer also provides a solitary SMS cell phone based game (with advertising!) in case you have no friends, and also hires people out to push bad beer and cheap booze promos. That graphic on this post is directly from their site. I doubt the yuppie model was in the room when the text was pasted into the phone.

In my final email to Liam, I said the following:

"... Are you looking to move into the Philadelphia area? It's not every day that someone who I can only size up as potential competition contacts me for personal business info & I say "Hey, sure, here it is! No questions asked!"

If you have additional work for me via a local venue who contacted you, that's great, ask me outright, we might work something out. If you're looking to expand here with a prepackaged quiz (which is a major mistake in this area as people have been writing their own quizzes here for 14 years, people are serious about playing, about their quizmasters, and wouldn't take to anything that comes off like a chain...), I'm disinclined to help you out.

It'd be nice if one aspect of American life could not be Starbucks or McDonald's. If you've been reading my blog then you already know I've had a bit of a battle with a Jersey-based tool passing himself off as the "National Trivia Association."

So there you have it. At this point Brainstormer is only in Erie in this state according to their site. That's still too close as far as I'm concerned. Really now, is it necessary to turn every aspect of American culture into homogenized corporate crap? Why do I post this stuff? Because this is a business and I think the people who support it with their time and money deserve some degree of transparency.

Democratic nominee poll results and new poll posted

The anemic results of my last poll are in. Two people thought Hillary Clinton would be the 2008 Democratic nominee, and one each voted for Edwards, Obama and, I assume either not understanding the question or as a joke, Gravel.

The poll I'm posting today is a bit more interesting. For the first time I'm going to let you vote for as many people as you like, once each. The question is who you would like to win the Democratic nomination. Vote for the the people you wouldn't mind seeing get the nod, regardless of how well you think they'll do. If you don't like someone, obviously don't vote for them. I'll do the Republicans next.

What does this button do?

You might recognize this icon from the right-hand column of my blog over the past week or so. It allows any blogger or site administrator who finds my content interesting to add my blog feed as a mini-blog on their website. Clicking that icon (the permanent one at right, not the one in this post, which is purely cosmetic) takes you to the Widgetbox site, which all but installs these things for you. I've done this myself with the great Philadelphia sports fan blog 700 Level at the lower right of this blog. As you can see, this tool is relatively unobtrusive, and clicking on any item in the mini-blog takes you directly to the full-sized story in that blog you'd like to read. Cool? I think so.

You should also look for a new permanent link to a new FAQ post in the Contact Info that always sits in the upper right-hand corner of the blog. This will answer the only real FAQ I get ("Where do you get the questions?") as well as fill in some other holes for potential clients or anyone just curious.

I also hope to switch to a new email client by day's end. Expect an email about that if you're on the mailing list. If you're not and would like to be, send me an email.