Week 12 of the $2,500 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

Has it been two weeks since the last time there was an Elbo Room trivia matchup?

Yeah, it kinda was.

But like clockwork, the teams returned to Elbo Room last night for another round of competitive bar and tavern trivia, with a big fat wad of $$$$ waiting for the winning team at the end of this tournament.  A tournament that is still about two months away from completion.

By the way, the finals will be held on February 17th.  So at least we know when the finals are scheduled – now we just have to keep playing to reach that date.

Last night, our Street Academy team had some successes early on – Jeremy knew the name of the toy from the 1940’s that could give 20 answers to simple questions (the Magic 8-Ball), while Erin knew the country that borders Germany and Ukraine (Poland), and Alexis knew the month of the Sundance Film Festival (January).

We skipped two of the first five questions, including the name of Anna Nicole Smith’s son who died just before she did – I couldn’t think of the kid’s name, all I could think of was that the kid shared the name with Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter – and it wasn’t until General James said that all the answers were in, that I suddenly remembered that Anna Nicole Smith’s son was named Daniel.

I did redeem myself by knowing the tabloid star whose brothers’ names are Conrad and Baron (Paris Hilton) and the only team to win two World Series championships in the 1980’s (the Dodgers).  At the final question, we had a slim two-point lead over Team Schooled.

The category was children’s literature.

No guts, no glory.  We bet the farm.

“When Dr. Seuss died, was he in his 70’s, 80’s, 90’s or did he live to be 100?”

Yikes.  Multiple choice.  The four of us huddled around the table and tried to source out the answer.  We knew that Dr. Seuss was active in the 1950’s, and I knew that one of the early Warner Bros. cartoons was based on Horton Hatches the Egg, which was in the 1940’s.  So if we could establish his early adulthood by when he first had creative success, we could – in theory – triangulate Dr. Seuss’ age when he died.  And the best we could come up with was that he either was in his late 70’s or early 80’s when he passed on.

We chose to err on the side of the 80’s and handed in our slip.

Most of the teams that said 80’s bet all their points.  Other teams bet a few points, and they thought Dr. Seuss was in his 90’s when he passed.

Well, apparently he ALMOST made it to his 90’s, he died at the age of 87.

STREET ACADEMY FOR THE WIN – AND A LOCK INTO THE TOURNAMENT FINALS!

Team Schooled took second place and three points; while the Sneaky Petes snagged a single playoff point.

So here’s the standings after twelve weeks. The top eight teams are listed above the “CUT LINE”; if the tournament ended today, those would be the eight teams that can play in the championship round. Any team with a star in the box marked “Finals” has mathematically qualified for the money round, no matter how they do for the rest of the tournament.

And only the top eight teams will make it into the final tournament round. Any team in ninth place or below will not make the cut. So teams now have to keep playing and avoid the dreaded cut line.

Twelve weeks down. Only eight more weeks to go.  And the finals are February 17th, 2011.