Quiz recap: The great MTA crisis of mid-August 2012

 

I think last night proved that the Big Quiz Thing is, indeed, like the Duke of Earl: Nothing can stop it. The MTA had one of its thrice-weekly meltdowns (yeah, sure, they should raise the fares), and trains into Brooklyn were hard to come by; I myself required six lines and 105 minutes to make it from midtown to Littlefield. (Oddly, this all occurred on the ninth anniversary of the big blackout. Note to self: Move to an ashram before next August 14.)

Thus, the crowd was lightish—a paltry ten teams—but with enthusiasm worth many, many more, and oodles and oodles of fun. We would not be deterred; after all, we had one of the all-time greatest prize hauls in BQT history to give away, thanks to  the Bronx Zoo, the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Brewery, Silence! The Musical, and Desert Island (home of "books, comics, prints, stuff"). And $300, oh yes.

 

As I predicted, "The Baby Name Countdown" was semi-challenging: Teams kicked booty guessing the baby names based on the video clips (yes, some people actually call their kid "Princeton"), but had more trouble ranking them by popularity; I, too, find it startling that "Mason" is the second-most-popular boy name in the land, must be those sinister Freemasons. (The baby-name website of which I spoke is here; prepare for hours of time-wasting fun.)

And hey, thanks for the appreciation for the audio round, "Never Break the Rhyming Chain." One of those that took a hella amount of effort to put together—No. 1's artist name rhymed with No. 2's song title, No. 2's artist name rhymed with No. 3's song title, and so forth—but you know I love it (and you know you do, too). Keeping the details hush-hush, since we'll definitely unleash this one on the folks in L.A. and Boston in the very near future.

We also had fun with Gossip Mag A-Go-Go (no one knew the cover slogan of OK! Magazine? for shame, American educational system!) and the Olympian Spelling Bee (McKayla would not have been impressed, of course), and we tested your knowledge of both Sanskrit and Irish Gaelic, though one team scored big in the Smart-Ass Point department by guessing that Gaelic for "Ireland forever" is "Viva potatoes!" Speaking of Smart-Assness, props to the Fantastic Fournicators for attempting a SAP during the Text Message Challenge: the country's bestselling brand of slider bags is White Castle (took me a minute…).

Speaking of the FF, they came into the show as returning champs, and managed to finagle their way into the Three-Way Finale, alongside a supergroup (Incontinental Titz—classy) and a spankin'-new team, the Real Houseflies of New Jersey. And would you believe it, at the start of the finale, all three gentlemen on stage went by the name Matt (Matthew: 12th most popular boy name in 2011; even higher in the '70s and '80s when these guys were born). So hey, "Go Matt!"

There were some unanswered questions—no one knew the word in the titles of all of the Game of Thrones books, or the winning presidential ticket that consisted of politicians from different parties, or the double-superlative quote from Julius Caesar—but eventually, the Fournicators prevailed, managing to two-peat. Well done.

The standings:
1. The Fantastic Fournicators
2. Incontinental Titz
3. The Real Houseflies of New Jersey: Expect great things from this team
4. Cash Cab for Cutie
5. Strippers for Stephen Hawking
6. Taking the Mulligan's Island
7. Kill Jeff Vol. 1/Snakes on the Run (It's Funny Because Snakes Don't Run) (tie)
9. Romping Trollops
10. The Tillary Gang

Next: We're at Littlefield every month: September 11, October 9, etc., etc. Plus Boston and L.A. every month (calendar here), and yes, we're headed back to Manhattan soon, or at least soonish. Stay tuned, travel happy.