When I was a kid, I used to love playing with pinball machines. Over time, I learned how to use each flipper independently, learned how to access high scores without having to shake the machine into TILT-land, and eventually found the best and most satisfying goal of pinball – to be able to set as high a score as possible, so that one can leave the game with replay credits still on the machine.
That happened last night. The Elbo Room currently possesses a Doctor Who pinball machine – yes, the machine makes noises for Daleks and other Doctor Who characters, although the machine only references the first seven Doctors in the game. Normally, I can put a respectable score on the machine. Last night, I finished with a high score of 431 million. That’s right, 431 million. That actually got my initials on the pinball machine’s “high score” list, and gave me two credits toward future games. Not really feeling like playing pinball all night, I let Matt from the Woo Hoo a Go Go team play one of the credits. I think he finished with 750,000 on the game. Good thing this isn’t a pinball tournament, eh?
No, we’re playing trivia, and the Street Academy team were doing okay – not perfect, but okay. When asked who the two stars were in the film Prizzi’s Honor, we said Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. Well, Ms. Huston was in the film, but they were looking for Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner. Eight points instead of sixteen.
When we heard the quadruple bonus regarding the last four Adam Sandler movies, we thought that the host said, “Not counting the movie coming out next week.” Well, apparently we heard the “Not” but host General James didn’t say “not.” So we missed out on snagging another eight points by writing down “Jack and Jill,” but we did get points for knowing some of his other films.
And General James was strict about the points. At one point, the question involved the George Clooney film about the early years of pro football. We knew the film as “Leatherheads,” but Jennifer from Team Schooled argued for a few minutes that the film was named “Leathernecks.” No, General James didn’t cut her any slack on that one.
As the nineteen questions wound down, we were in fourth place with 78 points. Get That Poison Out was behind us, and three teams – Woo Hoo a Go Go, Team Schooled and Team Fist – were ahead.
The category was “Retail.”
I looked at my teammates. Alexis held up one finger. I knew what that meant. Bet one point. I didn’t do that last week and it cost us.
Jeremy, Alexis and I confirmed what we needed to do. We bet two points.
“What clothing retailer got its name from a French restaurant?”
The only retailer I knew with any French name was Aeropostale. We wrote it down. So did two other teams. Team Fist went with Anthropologie – is that even a store? – while Team Schooled wrote down Old Navy. Everybody laughed. Old Navy, oh that’s so funny –
It’s not so funny. Old Navy was correct.
However, our strategy of betting conservatively paid off, as Woo Hoo and Fist bet considerable amounts and had the answer wrong. While Schooled pulled off the win, we took second place and Get That Poison Out – who bet eight points of their 70 – took third place. Not a bad way to turn chicken feathers into chicken salad, eh?
So here’s the standings after nine 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.
| Trivia Team | Points | Totals | FINALS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team Schooled | 5 | 33 | ★ |
| 2 | Street Academy | 3 | 16 | |
| 3 | Woo Hoo a Go Go | 14 | ||
| 4 | Team Fist | 10 | ||
| 5 | Get That Poison Out | 1 | 7 | |
| 6 | The Polanskis | 3 | ||
| 7 | Skidmarks | 1 |
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.
Nine weeks down. Eleven weeks left to go.
Chuck The Writer 
http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/index.jsp
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