What for which to look

Friends–

Just returned from my voyage to Colorado, where I had the most Christmasy Christmas of my life (not that difficult, considering that I'm a big ol' Jew). Here's me on Xmas morning with a lovingly abused cat named Sparky:

But getting away from NYC for a week—for the first time in 3.5 years—gave me some perspective about the Big Quiz Thing, and what's going to happen to it in 2009.

In a nutshell, probably not much that will directly impact you, the fans of the BQT. Two things, though:

—I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm going to post here more often. Even if it's a little personal thing here or there. For example, yes, DJ GB had her baby! This morning, in fact. Duncan Scott Sandford is doing fine, as is his mom, and his dad (who was easily among the silliest people I knew during my adolescence—I find it amusing that a cofounder of a group called the Magic Pumpernickel Crew is now someone's father). More details and perhaps photos later.

—I have to unload these damn T-shirts.An extremely large box of Big Quiz Thing logo shirts has been occupying a corner of my apartment for well on two years now (obscuring a very cool custom-made Spider-Man logo end table that a friend made for me many moons ago). I've long ago given up on selling them at a rapid clip (ONLY $10!), so I'll be giving them away, an effective way to market the quiz to your Chihuahuas, your one-night stands, and anyone else who sees you in the clothes you sleep in. Expect them as prizes, in other words.

And there will be more to come. The economy being what it now is, this holiday season was a challenging one for the BQT—lots of inquiries for private events, but not enough actual bookings—but we have much to look forward to in 2009. Be there and be square.

Recap from wherever I am

Sorry for the late recap post—I'm still recovering from a hellish, 24-hour, cross-country travel ordeal. It's proof of how spoiled we are that I define "hellish travel" as unexpectedly spending a night at a La Quinta Inn in Euless, Texas, and losing my iPod; a hundred years ago, "hellish travels" was spending months dragging your trade ship across the isthmus of Panama and dying of malaria along the way. I'm a complainer.

Monday's Big Quiz Thing was the final BQT pre–DJ GB popping out her kid, and we wished her a fond farewell with the audio round, "The Baby's Coming!" And the video round: In case any of you who didn't make it to the event are curious, "The Absolutely Greatest Video Round in the History of Mankind!!!" (or whatever I called it) was actually a series of rebuses of famous people who died in 2008: "Rebus in Peace," I called it.

I also announced the BQT's New Year's resolution: We're going paperless. Well, not really, and possibly not at all. It's just that I want to investigate the possibility of not dealing with the endless large volume of sheets of paper that our format entails. I've been searching online, but I need to make a voyage to Staples to truly investigate. Dry erase boards? Impossibly cheap computers? Lots of chalk? Feel free to make suggestions. There's a good chance I won't change anything—I care about the earth, but not at the expense of my little bar quiz game.

We're back in '09 on January 5—we'll be looking back on 2008 movies in the audio round, and songs from ten years ago in the audio round. GB returns in March.

And now, of course, this week's standings…

1. Fantastic Fournicators (Yes, again. They told me afterwards that they have won the BQT's pre-Christmas show four years running.)
2. Sugah Titz (valiant effort—perfect score the first two rounds. They're due a victory.)
3. Tattoos for the Elderly/Strippers for Stephen Hawking/Glass Menage a Trois (tie)

Happy whatever…2009 is going to be an extremely important year for the Big Quiz Thing, mark my words. See you then.

New, oddly familiar AMC quiz

This one you may recognize: Some time ago at the BQT, I presented a video round, "Major Motion Picture Mathematics." Very clever, but perhaps too challenging (anything with numbers can be a slog).

Now in the employ of amctv.com, I've adapted it (sans video), perhaps dumbed it down, for their purposes. Try it under its abbreviated name, "Movie Mathematics."

Hey, while we're at it, what should I do movie quizzes about in January? Give me a good idea and I'll do something nice for you.

And see that old video round below. YouTube rules!

Super Mega Ultra Hard Trivia Question of the Week

YES! It is back, indeed it is back. As always, answer first (and accurately) to get in free…

We have reached our limit

So…

Last night we tried out limiting team sizes, for the first time, to eight members. The idea was to give some of the more underdog teams a chance against the perennial winning (and perennially supersize) squads, the Fantastic Fournicators, Strippers for Stephen Hawking and (slightly less so) Gerard Depardouche.

Well, nothing changed. Strippers won, Fournicators came in second. Honestly, I don't believe the issue here is the size of these teams, it's simply their trivia prowess (to phrase it nicely). As far as I know, they play fair. To be the man you gotta beat the man.

Some would argue that what I should do here is impose a stricter team size—say, six. I considered that. But there are two reasons I'm not eager to do this, both of which are the reasons I've resisted limited team sizes for years now: (1) The more teams have to split in two, the more teams there are. Thus, the more answer sheets there are, and the longer the game gets. We're all having fun, friends, but no one needs that. (2) I always try to give the fun of the Big Quiz Thing precedence over the hardcore competition. So if seven friends show up wanting to play a little trivia together, I'd rather not feel pressure to split them up for the sake of "the rules."

So we're sticking with eight as the team limit. See how that goes. Adjust in the future if need be.

Otherwise (or perhaps in spite of, or maybe because of), last night was another wonderful, wonderful show. We learned that Gumby has jungle fever, I can't write a question about sports unless it relates to Gilligan's Island, candy bars are a little disturbing-looking close up, several of you remember reading Fu Manchu stories in the 1920s, mercilessly few of you have seen Trapped in the Closet, and men do not like to record songs written by Prince. See, entertaining and educational.

Now the standings. Our last show of the year is on December 22, when we bid DJ GB a temporary goodbye so that she can pump out that kid:

1. Strippers for Stephen Hawking
2. Fantastic Fournicators
3. Incontinental Congress (thanks to the night's best Smart-Ass Point: "Q: One tenth of a dollar is a dime. One hundredth of a dollar is a cent. Although it exists only abstractly and in accounting, what is the four-letter word for one thousandth of a dollar?" They said "GM stock.")
4. Meatwood Flack/The Quizz-Knows (tie)

Next time our video round is called "The Absolute Greatest Trivia Game Ever Invented in the History of Mankind!!!" Perhaps hyperbole—it's just that I don't want you all to be able to prepare. But maybe it will be the best thing ever, who knows…

Allow me to recommend…

One of the advantages of being in my position (you know, trivia king of New York City), is that I occasionally get the opportunity to see movies before the general public is exposed to them, either via screenings or screeners (industry lingo for advance DVDs sent to critics). For example, I saw The Dark Knight weeks before it exploded messily all over the pop-cultural landscape. Yes, I am blessed.

So I got just this type of lucky the other day, when a friend passed along a screener of the forthcoming film The Wrestler. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (trust me, that's good), it's an incredibly sad and well-done movie starring Mickey Rourke (above) as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a (fictional) pro-wrestling superstar of the 1980s who finds himself scraping rock bottom in the '00s. Tons of positive hype; I know two film critics who say it's among the best films of the year. Go see it.

But regular BQTers might recall that I have a bit of a fascination with the art of professional wrestling, and occasionally dig out the odd wrestling question (occasionally—I'm not that far gone). And it occured to me while watching this film that for someone not well versed in the wrestling business, some of the lingo might be hard to follow. So as a public service, behold, the BQT's official glossary to professional wrestling terminology:

face—A "good guy" in wrestling (short for "babyface"; in the U.K. they're called "blue-eyes"). Villains are known as heels. As you're no doubt aware, a staple of the wrestling artifice is that it usually pits heroes against villains, and behind the scenes, there's a definite effort to delineate one from the other (a wrestler who is particularly Method in his performance will refuse to even travel with colleagues from the opposite side of the divide). It is common for a wrestler to switch allegiances—to "turn heel" or "turn face"—in order to freshen his character or inspire a new storyline; very few successful wrestlers stick to only one side throughout their career. Even Hulk Hogan—who was the mainstream epitome of the pro-wrestling hero in the 1980s:… turned heel in the '90s:

job—To lose. A perennial loser is a jobber (usually no-name guys who aren't even expected to be competitive). Pro wrestling, of course, is not a competitive sport, and match outcomes are determined beforehand, so there is generally little shame in losing. When you're starting out, you pay your dues to more established performers by jobbing to them; likewise, a wrestler whose best days are behind him is expected to job to up-and-coming stars, to put them over.

gas—Steroids. A wrestler on the gas is using steroids. It is not uncommon—wrestling is a difficult profession, and wrestlers are expected to put their body through extreme punishment on a near nightly basis, and look like Greek gods while doing it. Steroids help, both in building muscle mass and speeding recover time. In the early 1990s, there was a major crackdown on rampant drug abuse in the pro-wrestling business, nearly shutting down the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wresling Entertainment), then as now the dominant promotion in the business.

blade—To purposely cut oneself in order to add blood (or juice) to a wrestling match. Very dangerous, but very common, even in the era of AIDS. A great moment in The Wrestler shows, in detail, Mickey Rourke's character breaking off a razor blade and hiding it in his wrist tape, to use on his forehead during the match. This is some rough shit.

kayfabe—The code of pro wrestling, its own omerta. To keep kayfabe is to pretend—to fans, journalists and all other outsiders—that wrestling is indeed "real": the performers are their characters, the rivalries are genuine, the match outcomes are not predetermined. Kayfabe has broken down greatly in the past ten or fifteen years, partly due to the rise of the Internet (it's harder to keep secrets) and partly because the WWE has looked to become more mainstream and less secretive (hence the label "sports entertainment"). I'm not sure where this word comes from, but I think I read that it grew out of some old carny lingo thing.

fake—A pretty easy label for pro wrestling, which misses the point. Yeah, it's "fake." So is theater, so are TV shows. William Shatner didn't really captain a starship either, and the guy playing Hamlet is still alive after Shakespeare in the Park closes.

BTW, the Super Mega Ultra Hard Question of the Week will be back next weekend. See you tomorrow night at Crash Mansion…