Week 13 of the 2010 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

Before I begin this week’s recap of the trivia tournament at Elbo Room, I need to let all trivia teams in the Capital District know about an upcoming event.

A charity fundraising trivia competition, which will benefit the Relay for Life, will be held on Wednesday, May 26, at the American Legion North Albany Post 1610 (35 N. First Street in Albany).  First question is at 7pm, cost is $10 per person to play (maximum of five participants per team).  There will be a $150 cash prize, plus you can also participate in the 50/50 raffle and bid on donated items and services.

Last year there was a decent turnout to this event, and I actually nosed out another regular trivia team, A Few Cards Short of a Deck, to win the prize.  But this year, I want some more competition.  So I challenge every trivia team who plays at any of the Capital District’s local trivia hangouts, to come out to this event and play for a good cause – to help raise money and get us one step closer to finding a cure for cancer.

I hope you do come to this event.  Please post in the comments section if you’re going to be there, and if so, how many of your friends will you bring.  Let’s show the Relay for Life team the support that the Capital District team trivia community can provide!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled trivia recap.

It as going to be a solo effort for me tonight; Jeremy and Alexis could not make the game due to other commitments.  And with some of the questions coming down the pike, I’m probably glad they weren’t there – the questions Thursday night were brutal.  In fact, not knowing that Ralph Lauren’s daughter owns a series of high-quality candy stores, and not knowing the author of “The Cider House Rules”, meant I used up both my skips.  And I burned my double-chance option on naming the only country Adolf Hitler officially declared war upon (I said England and Poland, it was the United States), meant I had 54 points for the night and was looking up again at all the other teams.

I did nail a few questions that saved my bacon, including William Howard Taft’s job after completing his presidential term (Supreme Court Justice), knowing the star of which television show married country singer Brad Paisley (Kimberly Williams of “According to Jim”), and which NHL team just played their last game in their building (the Penguins, who will finally move into a new venue for the 2010-2011 season).

So I got pretty far into the game, but not far enough.

The final question was on stamps.

I had nothing to lose.  Threw all my chips in the pot.

“What was the price of the first postage stamp to honor Elvis Presley?”

Now if my wife Vicki was there, she would have leaped around going “Chuck, Chuck, I know, I know this!”  I say that because she’s a dedicated stamp collector (she also collects FDC’s, or “first day covers,” where one gets an envelope decorated with some artwork involving the first day of cancellation for a specific stamp, and mails it to a specific location for a commemorative cancellation).

I had to rely on my memory.  I saw those Elvis stamps advertised all over the place, and they came out before the commemorative 150-set “Celebrate the Century” series of stamps, think think Chuck, and the only number that came to me was 29 cents.

I wrote down 29 cents and handed it in.

Other teams wrote down anything from 23 cents (Con-Fear-Acy) to 34 cents (Skidmarks), while Da Bears, who had a monster lead at the time, used a safe bet so I couldn’t catch them.  Big Red Machine, who were also ahead of me, bet the farm and said 29 cents.  Stern Fans, who were also ahead of me, said 29 cents – but bet two points.

The answer was 29 cents.  I leapfrogged Stern Fans for third place, and picked up a playoff point.  Victory!!

Again, the attendance rule came into play.  Touched by an Uncle did not show up again this week – meaning that by missing five weeks in the tournament, they have failed the attendance requirement for the tournament and are now ineligible for the final money round.  Hey – less competition means better chance for the other seven teams, right??

So after thirteen weeks, here are the standings. Twelve black stars (one star for each attendance) earn you a green star, meaning you have fulfilled attendance requirements (to be in the finals, you must attend 75% of the qualifying weeks). If your team has a “red star” next to your name, you are in danger of being disqualified for not showing up for the requisite 12 out of 16 weeks to qualify for the tournament.

Elbo Room Trivia Standings – Week 13

	Trivia Team	Points	Totals	Attendance
T-1	Da Bears	3	23	★
T-1	Con-Fear-Acy		23	★
3	Skidmarks		18	★
4	Stern Fans		16	★★★★★★★★★★★
T-5	Woo Hoo a Go Go		14	★
T-5	Big Red Machine	5	14	★★★★★★★★★
7	Street Academy	1	4	★
8	Touched by an Uncle		3	DQ

Three weeks left to go, with the championship game on June 10th. Good luck to all.