Trivia for Relay for Life

Last night, several of the top trivia teams in the Capital District met up at the American Legion post in North Albany for a competitive trivia game – with the proceeds going toward the Relay for Life.

I got there early, as I usually do for trivia games.  Eventually other teams showed up – Dan and Bill from Tres Hombres; Ed and his crew from A Few Cards Short of a Deck; Wayne and Lindsay from Blue Mooned; the team who play at Junior’s as Champions of Chestertown – although last night they played under the nickname of Osama’s Optometrist.  Classy.  There were a few other teams whose name I didn’t recognize – Team Bacon, Tiger Blood, the Muttonchops – but no matter what, they were all in the building to raise money for cancer research.  Each team paid $10 admission; there were raffles and 50/50 drawings, and door prizes were handed out – I received a coffee mug with the Relay for Life logo.  Nice.

As for the game, it started out strong – I was able to recall the TV show with a theme song by The Refreshments (King of the Hill), the city in which the Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XL (Detroit), and the decade in which Diet Coke was first introduced (the 1980’s, just after I got out of college).  I even nailed a quadruple bonus question that involved the first four members of the 1992 Olympic basketball “Dream Team,” when listed alphabetically – Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler and Patrick Ewing, in case you were wondering.

Everything was going smoothly.  I was only ten points off the lead, held by A Few Cards Short of a Deck.

Everything was going smoothly.

Then came the triple bonus question.

“What three South American countries are the southernmost and border Brazil?”

Really?  South America?  Another South American question?  Are you kidding me?

I wrote down three countries.  They were not the three correct countries.  That cost me eight points – while teams that hit all three got 24 points.  A 32-point swing, and not in my favor.  Crap.  I swear on the soul of Jose Carioca, this continent is going to be the death of me some day.

Still, after 19 questions, I was tied for third place with the Muttonchops, and there was still a chance to win.

The final category was “U.S. Presidents.”

Hey, if I want to win, I gotta throw all my chips in the pot.  And in they went.

“Who was the only 20th century President to take the oath of office from his father?”

Whaa???

Okay, Chuck, go down the list of Presidents, no not him, no not him.  I had no answer for this one.  I seem to recall that Taft became a Chief Justice, perhaps there were judges in his family, so I wrote down Taft.  So did Blue Mooned.  Other teams wrote down Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson.

The correct answer – was Calvin Coolidge.  And NOBODY got it right.

So by saving a few points, A Few Cards Short of a Deck – who led wire to wire – won the Relay for Life trivia event, and received several gift certificates for local restaurants as their prize.  Congratulations.  They even won the 50/50 raffle, how’s that for good luck?

And congratulations to the organizers of the event, because over $600 was raised – that means we’re $600 closer to finding a cure for cancer.

And that’s more important than winning or losing in trivia.