A few news items about O'Briens Pub Quiz -
1) If you watched 1 vs. 100 on Friday, February 9 and thought you saw familiar Pub Quiz players, you were right! Six regular players were in the Mob in the Trivia Champions section. Congratulations to Beth, Marty, Mark H, Harmony, Regina and Alex. I think each of you got some screen time (even if you did not win the $250,000 prize).
2) The Pub Quiz photo gallery (http://www.obrienspubquiz.com/gallery.html) now goes back to the beginning of 2005 (kudos to Alex for scanning in the polaroids)
3) Be sure to mark your calendar for February 21st for the annual Oscar quiz. Please come and bring your movie savant friends.
4) As of now, we are still planning to have a quiz on Valentine's Day, February 14th. We expect a smaller crowd (less competition). The quizmasters are Tom's Neighbors who always feature a lot of pop culture. Read this week's People and Us magazines to be well prepared.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Thursday, December 14, 2006
The O'Briens Pub Quiz players who did NOT make it to the quiz on December 13th missed a treat - literally! Quizmaster Alan asked the first question ever that involved tasting something. Alan baked a sweet treat, offered the players samples and then asked them to identify its two ingredients. The correct answer - Oreo cookies and cream cheese. Mmm. They were scrum-dilly-icious. Ask Alan if you want the recipe.
Aside from that, Alan wrote a fine quiz with an excellent balance of topics and level of difficulty. He also offered some helpful and very welcome clues (like telling us that the largest public inscription of the Koran is not in the Middle East). I would classify it as comparable to a Beth quiz - you may not know the answer to a question right off the bat, but if you think about it logically you can work out a reasonable guess.
Congratulations to the winners, Nicole Ritchie's Driving School and Open Bar. Also kudos to the team name Britney Spears' Taco, Hold The Lettuce.
Aside from that, Alan wrote a fine quiz with an excellent balance of topics and level of difficulty. He also offered some helpful and very welcome clues (like telling us that the largest public inscription of the Koran is not in the Middle East). I would classify it as comparable to a Beth quiz - you may not know the answer to a question right off the bat, but if you think about it logically you can work out a reasonable guess.
Congratulations to the winners, Nicole Ritchie's Driving School and Open Bar. Also kudos to the team name Britney Spears' Taco, Hold The Lettuce.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Quiz Schedule Notes
This week's host is Alan Bailey. I encourage all O'Briens Pub Quiz players to attend. Beside the fact that Alan writes excellent quizzes, he has brought treats for the players the last two times he hosted (Krispy Kremes and Eskimo Pies, respectively). Call it the Homer Simpson dinner - beer and doughnuts.
Also please note that we WILL have a quiz on December 27th between Xmas and New Years. Please come out and enjoy the last quiz of 2006!
Finally note that the quizmaster schedule on the website is now posted through mid-February.
This week's host is Alan Bailey. I encourage all O'Briens Pub Quiz players to attend. Beside the fact that Alan writes excellent quizzes, he has brought treats for the players the last two times he hosted (Krispy Kremes and Eskimo Pies, respectively). Call it the Homer Simpson dinner - beer and doughnuts.
Also please note that we WILL have a quiz on December 27th between Xmas and New Years. Please come out and enjoy the last quiz of 2006!
Finally note that the quizmaster schedule on the website is now posted through mid-February.
On December 6th, Miracle On Ice (MOI) hosted a very enjoyable quiz. I thought that the subject matter and level of difficulty were right down the middle. Sample question - list the letters of the alphabet that you can write as homophones that do NOT include the letter itself. One of the correct answers was C - which you can write as "see." Appropriately, MOI also included a figure skating question.
I especially liked the handouts. First round was match the beer carried by O'Briens to the most appropriate clue from a list. Second round was a list of 12 very rude foreign insults (and their translations). Match the insult to the appropriate language from a list. Both were very imaginative. Well done to MOI and well done to the winners, Topical Team Name - Do Not Ingest.
I especially liked the handouts. First round was match the beer carried by O'Briens to the most appropriate clue from a list. Second round was a list of 12 very rude foreign insults (and their translations). Match the insult to the appropriate language from a list. Both were very imaginative. Well done to MOI and well done to the winners, Topical Team Name - Do Not Ingest.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Dileep hosted a very full house last night. 11 teams, over 50 players and no room for any more tables in the back room. In fact, one team had to play on the shelf.
The teams were challenged by a quiz that included Dileep's usual array of topics - plenty of literature, writers, words, science and current music; and a smattering of sports, current events, history, etc. Of course, he had a Simpsons question too. I always learn new things at Dileep's quizzes. Did you know that the plural of the word "opus" is "opera"? Or that "wiki" is derived from a shuttle bus service at the Honolulu airport? Or that a CIA director once explained to Ali G that there was no danger of a train attack on the White House because there are no train tracks leading there? Or that the daughter of Crystal Cathedral preacher Robert Schuller is one of the stars of the tv show, "Laguna Beach, The Real OC"? Well, now I do too.
Of course, current events inspired a lot of team names including that of the winner The Drapes Have Been Measured. Dileep was kind not to dock them points for expressing their team name in the passive voice. He also tolerated the team Prisoner of Dileepistan. My favorite was Suck Macaca but Britney Takes Ownership of the House was also pretty good.
The teams were challenged by a quiz that included Dileep's usual array of topics - plenty of literature, writers, words, science and current music; and a smattering of sports, current events, history, etc. Of course, he had a Simpsons question too. I always learn new things at Dileep's quizzes. Did you know that the plural of the word "opus" is "opera"? Or that "wiki" is derived from a shuttle bus service at the Honolulu airport? Or that a CIA director once explained to Ali G that there was no danger of a train attack on the White House because there are no train tracks leading there? Or that the daughter of Crystal Cathedral preacher Robert Schuller is one of the stars of the tv show, "Laguna Beach, The Real OC"? Well, now I do too.
Of course, current events inspired a lot of team names including that of the winner The Drapes Have Been Measured. Dileep was kind not to dock them points for expressing their team name in the passive voice. He also tolerated the team Prisoner of Dileepistan. My favorite was Suck Macaca but Britney Takes Ownership of the House was also pretty good.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
The first powerpoint pub quiz was presented this past Wednesday. Unfortunately, some tech troubles prevented projection of full scoresheet onto the TV for halftime--this should be fixed by next quiz. Response of the crowd to the new medium seemed quite positive. Any comments, suggestions for improvements...?
Thursday, October 19, 2006
DNR hosted last night's quiz. Previously, this team did a quiz inspired by "red states" - all questions related to the color red in one form or another. Last night, they again offered a themed quiz - on Scotland. Rather than the fez, all answers were put in a tam o' shanter.
I wish that they had negotiated a marketing tie-in with the bar so that scotch whiskey was offered at a discount. Or maybe haggis could have been a special item on the menu (or maybe not). All in all, it was a fun evening. One thing for sure - everyone learned some things about Scotland.
The main inspiration for team names this week was the Hawaii earthquake. One team was Hawaii 6.0 and another was Hawaii 7.0.
The quizmasters for next week are Lance and Gordon (http://www.obrienspubquiz.com/lancegordon.html) with a special Halloween quiz.
I wish that they had negotiated a marketing tie-in with the bar so that scotch whiskey was offered at a discount. Or maybe haggis could have been a special item on the menu (or maybe not). All in all, it was a fun evening. One thing for sure - everyone learned some things about Scotland.
The main inspiration for team names this week was the Hawaii earthquake. One team was Hawaii 6.0 and another was Hawaii 7.0.
The quizmasters for next week are Lance and Gordon (http://www.obrienspubquiz.com/lancegordon.html) with a special Halloween quiz.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Thanks to Beth for a fun quiz last night. We were subjected to such questions as "What is the largest country (in terms of area) that starts with an 'H'?" and "What common English word changes from plural to singular, and masculine to feminine, when an 'S' is added to the end?" Her handout was of the "Dingbats" variety -- what I call rebuses. For example,
i.e. purpose
corresponds to "That is beside the point", and
preist
was "Clerical error", though I still think our answer of "Sprite Remix" was pretty darn good.
As for team names, there were some good ones. The winning team went with "Welcome to the Jong-il", and there was also "License to Kim Jong-il", "How to Dismantle an Atomic Treaty" and "I Voted for Gore and All I Got Was 650,000 Dead Iraqis". Well done, everyone!
Join us this coming week for DNR's quiz.
corresponds to "That is beside the point", and
was "Clerical error", though I still think our answer of "Sprite Remix" was pretty darn good.
As for team names, there were some good ones. The winning team went with "Welcome to the Jong-il", and there was also "License to Kim Jong-il", "How to Dismantle an Atomic Treaty" and "I Voted for Gore and All I Got Was 650,000 Dead Iraqis". Well done, everyone!
Join us this coming week for DNR's quiz.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
I hosted the quiz last night with a full house of 11 teams. For the first time, I wrote a quiz with a theme - food. Except for the sports questions, all questions and the handouts were related to, inspired by or had some connection with food. Examples - What military weapon derives its name from the word 'pomegranate'? What fast food chain is operated by a Connecticut company named Doctor's Associates? In August, 2006 what company changed its stock ticker symbol to HOG?
People seemed to enjoy it. I also gave away a copy of the 2006 Zagat restaurant guide for LA as a prize.
A note about the team names - with this crowd, no subject is off limits when it comes to inspiration for team names. Mark Foley is deserving of scorn and ridicule and he certainly received it. We had 1-900-GOP-PAGE; "Page Me," Foley; Le Cage Aux Foley; and There's Nothing Funny About Sexual Predators. The murders in the Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, PA this past week informed the team In No Condition to Churn Butter. I think the winning team Badlands of Ohio was thinking of this event too. They just mis-located the Amish community in which the murders occurred.
People seemed to enjoy it. I also gave away a copy of the 2006 Zagat restaurant guide for LA as a prize.
A note about the team names - with this crowd, no subject is off limits when it comes to inspiration for team names. Mark Foley is deserving of scorn and ridicule and he certainly received it. We had 1-900-GOP-PAGE; "Page Me," Foley; Le Cage Aux Foley; and There's Nothing Funny About Sexual Predators. The murders in the Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, PA this past week informed the team In No Condition to Churn Butter. I think the winning team Badlands of Ohio was thinking of this event too. They just mis-located the Amish community in which the murders occurred.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Kudos to Alan on his quiz last night. The Eskimo pie question followed by ice cream sandwiches for all attendees was a nice touch. I also quite enjoyed the Dana Plato's grave and fossilized feces questions. Irreverent and certainly not the type of thing one would hear on Jeopardy. My personal favorite though were the Roman numeral postal codes. Very clever.
The teams also owe a debt of thanks to Terrell Owens. His troubles inspired three team names, including that of the winner. That's the Pub Quiz spirit!
The teams also owe a debt of thanks to Terrell Owens. His troubles inspired three team names, including that of the winner. That's the Pub Quiz spirit!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Beth wrote a really nice quiz last night. Though many of the questions seemed hard, if you thought logically about them you could at least narrow down to a couple of alternatives and guess. She also included her traditional handout - dingbats. I would characterize it as a good quiz for wordsmiths and people who like puzzles.
The teams at the top were very tightly bunched. A team from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences won in a playoff (led by original quiz player and former quizmaster Andrew). Quizmaster Emeritus Steve also made a special guest appearance.
Teams drew inspiration for their names from recent events - Hugo Chavez's speech ("Still Smell the Sulfur") and the spinach contamination ("Why Is Popeye Pooping").
The teams at the top were very tightly bunched. A team from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences won in a playoff (led by original quiz player and former quizmaster Andrew). Quizmaster Emeritus Steve also made a special guest appearance.
Teams drew inspiration for their names from recent events - Hugo Chavez's speech ("Still Smell the Sulfur") and the spinach contamination ("Why Is Popeye Pooping").
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Ben and Michael delivered another fun quiz last night. A highlight - following in the style of their famous Congressman or Porn Star question, they provided a list of seven Swedish names. The teams had to identify if that word was the last name of a member of ABBA or the name of a model of furniture at IKEA. Very clever. Round 2 was hard (I believe that the high score was 8 of 15). But everyone seemed to have a good time. Next week - Darrel. He promises an overweighting of sports. Woo hoo!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
I heartily recommend this week's quiz to anyone who's interested. Marty, while not a regular quizmaster, has done a few and his quizzes are well-written and enjoyable. I can't make it this week because I'll be in Germany, but if you are free, check it out!
As usual, let me know about the good questions I missed.
As usual, let me know about the good questions I missed.
