Week 5 of the Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

Not that I would normally get nervous about such things – especially involving a money tournament like the trivia competition at Elbo Room – but I need to get some points so that I can make the top 8 and get in the final week of the money tournament, and hopefully win the $2,000 grand prize (or at least the $500 second place prize).

And when my weblog last week suddenly blows up with several posts from the Clay Aiken’s Skid Marks team, who finally won for the first time in a dog’s age, clowning me about them getting the five points and me still in the starting gate, well… I had to call in a favor.

That favor came in the form of Dan Smith, the captain of the trivia team known as Tres Hombres.

Tres Hombres was a team that I played against going back to the days when trivia was contested on Tuesday nights at the Crossgates Mall Hooters. When that establishment shut down in 2007, the only other time I saw Tres Hombres at any sort of trivia competitions was at the Saratoga Race Track trivia tournament, where they won the 2007 and 2008 titles (Street Academy placed second both times, but you don’t win money for “placing” unless you have four hooves, horseshoes and a small man with a whip on your back). Tres Hombres are a tough but fair team – they’ve beaten me, I’ve beaten them, it’s mutual respect.

Dan came over to the Elbo Room, and right off the bat we started hitting questions left and right. We knew the proper term for Chinese cabbage (bok choy), we knew where Mount Etna is located (Sicily), and how many college basketball teams were chosen to play in the NCAA tournament before 1950 (8 of ’em). By the third quarter, we had amassed a sizeable lead, our only blemish was to only get three of the four people featured in the painting “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” –

Yeah, we forgot Bogart was in it, and said Marlon Brando instead.  Sorry, I only remember the poster when it was called “Nighthawks” and looked like this –

By the way, has anyone noticed that none of these diners were built with doors that exit out to the street?  Sorry… just an observation.

We actually didn’t use a skip until the 19th question, which was “What football stadium will host the 2010 NBA All-Star Game,” although I did think that the Dallas stadium would host it (it did).

Not to worry, Street Academy was still comfortably in the lead, and the final question was “Questionable Nudity.”  We had 132 points going into the final round, with our closest competitors, a group of schoolteachers with the sobriquet The Brown Van Experience, ten points behind.  We put down a final bet of 111 points (the amount of points needed, if we won, to secure first place and lock out the next highest competitor).

Dan and I started to anticipate what the question in the category of “Questionable Nudity” might be, and tried to calculate in which Super Bowl Janet Jackson’s bustier got busted.  Final question, however, had nothing to do with Ms. Jackson.

“What 2002 motion picture featured a brief nude scene with Kathy Bates?”

I knew we had it and I started to write down “About Schmidt.”

And the answer was “About Schmidt.”

Street Academy on the board with five playoff points, RING THE BELL!

So, much thanks and props to Dan for coming over and helping Street Academy get on the board.  So did two other trivia teams, The Third Wheel and Dr. Occam’s Razor.

After five weeks, here are the standings, and remember – only the top eight squads get into the final round.

Elbo Room Trivia Standings – Week 5

	Trivia Team	Points	Totals
1	Stern Fans		8
T-2	Big Red Machine		6.3
T-2	Mayhem		6.3
T-4	Street Academy	5	5
T-4	Clay Aiken’s Skid Marks		5
6	Touched by an Uncle		4
T-7	The Third Wheel	3	3
T-7	Woo Hoo a Go Go		3
THE CUT LINE
9	Monkey Knife Fights		2.3
T-10	Dr. Occam’s Razor	1	1
T-10	Overqualified and Unemployed		1

Street Academy is now on the board. Let’s keep it that way!