Wait for it . . . wait for it

Origins

Where was the Fresh Prince from?

(West) Philadelphia

Who was the first actor to play James Bond?

Sean Connery

Employment

Who is the Senate Majority Leader?

Harry Reid

Where do these people work?

Gymnastics/the Olympics, NASA. These are both memes.

Lies/Advertising

This player said he would strip naked in his final game in the NBA. When he retired in 1999 he didn’t do so.

Dennis Rodman

What non-fictitious individual has appeared on more cereal boxes than any other?

Michael Jordan.  Both members of the Chicago Bulls

Nursing

Florence Nightingale served during which war?

The Crimean War. (Given the prompt that it started with C)

When is the Red Cross the Red Crescent?

In Islamic nations.

Vowels around the world

Of the 21 nations touching the Mediterranean Sea, only 3 don’t either start or end with a vowel. Name one.

Spain, Cyprus, Lebanon

Which states have the most vowels in their name?

Louisiana / South Carolina

Australian Airlines

What is the airline that crashes on Lost?

Oceanic

According to Rain Man, which airline is the safest?

Qantas (which has crashed, once, in WWII when it was shot down)

90s Hip Hop

Who performed “Jump Around?”

House of Pain (the song was playing during the question)

From which LA suburb was the home of the members of NWA?

Compton

1992

When was Robert Smith in love?

Friday

What is the name of the daughter in the Addams family?

Wednesday (Blue Monday was playing during these questions)

Today

On August 18^th 1958 Vladimir Nabokov published what controversial book in the United States?

Lolita

On August 18^th 1920 the 19^th Amendment was ratified. What effect did this have?

Women’s suffrage

Name the famous Christopher related to each of these prompts:

Superman-Reeves

Batman-Nolan

Cow bell-Walken

AA Milne-Robin

L&O:SVU-Meloni

Sound of Music-Plummer

A Mighty Wind-Guest

Saruman-Lee

Doc Brown-Lloyd

Art

Name the artist:

Jackson Pollock

What is the secret identity of Spaceman Spiff?

Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes

Solar

Which POTUS put solar panels on the White House?

Jimmy Carter

Before being classified as a dwarf planet, Ceres was the largest what in the solar system?

Asteroid

TGIF

Name another sitcom that the cast of Family Matters visited, excluding their own?

Parents were originally on Perfect Strangers, then got their own show. Urkel visited Full House, Step by Step and was penpals with Cory on Boy Meets World

Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream has had how many #1s, tying the world record?

5

Same Name

This Arrested Development character shares his name with a famous musician.

George Michael (Wham played during this question)

This Office Space character shares his name with a famous musician.

Michael Bolton

Largest

What is the largest valued currency currently produced by the United States mint?

$100

What is the largest blood vessel in the human body?

Aorta

Nerds

What is the name of Bart’s best friend on The Simpsons?

Milhouse

What US citizen holds the most patents?

Thomas Edison. An Australian currently inventing things has the world record with over 4000.

Shark Week

Place the following animals in order, from most US citizen’s killed per year to least:

Shark, Rattlesnake, Bee, Dog, Wolf

Bee - 53

Dog - 31

Rattlesnake – 5.5

Shark - 1

Wolf - 0.1

I feel like trivia tonight, like trivia tonight

I threw another trivia night the other night. See how you would’ve done.

Origins

Where was the Fresh Prince from?

Who was the first actor to play James Bond?

Employment

Who is the Senate Majority Leader?

Where do these people work?

Lies/Advertising

This player said he would strip naked in his final game in the NBA. When he retired in 1999 he didn’t do so.

What non-fictitious individual has appeared on more cereal boxes than any other?

Nursing

Florence Nightingale served during which war?

When is the Red Cross the Red Crescent?

Vowels around the world

Of the 21 nations touching the Mediterranean Sea, only 3 don’t either start or end with a vowel. Name one.

Which states have the most vowels in their name?

Australian Airlines

What is the airline that crashes on Lost?

According to Rain Man, which airline is the safest?

90s Hip Hop

Who performed “Jump Around?”

From which LA suburb was the home of the members of NWA?

1992

When was Robert Smith in love?

What is the name of the daughter in the Addams family?

Today

On August 18^th 1958 Vladimir Nabokov published what controversial book in the United States?

On August 18^th 1920 the 19^th Amendment was ratified. What effect did this have?

Name the famous Christopher related to each of these prompts:

Superman

Batman

Cow bell

AA Milne

L&O:SVU

Sound of Music

A Mighty Wind

Saruman

Doc Brown

Art

Name the artist:

What is the secret identity of Spaceman Spiff?

Solar

Which POTUS put solar panels on the White House?

Before being classified as a dwarf planet, Ceres was the largest what in the solar system?

TGIF

Name another sitcom that the cast of Family Matters visited, excluding their own?

Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream has had how many #1s, tying the world record?

Same Name

This Arrested Development character shares his name with a famous musician.

This Office Space character shares his name with a famous musician.

Largest

What is the largest valued currency currently produced by the United States mint?

What is the largest blood vessel in the human body?

Nerds

What is the name of Bart’s best friend on The Simpsons?

What US citizen holds the most patents?

Shark Week

Place the following animals in order, from most US citizen’s killed per year to least:

Shark, Rattlesnake, Bee, Dog, Wolf

Music Monday - Girly Music

I may have the opposite definition of girly music than most. This band consists of two men. And though I like them, I feel like I would like them more if I were female. I could be wrong.

Tales from the Dating Vault

I don’t enjoy dating. It’s a means to an end but it isn’t a recreational activity in and of itself for me. So when I date, I date for keeps; that is to say I only date when there’s some likelihood that it will lead to a relationship. And while I’m not strictly opposed to being in a relationship with someone that is not LDS, it would present significant difficulties. And because of this it sometimes doesn’t even occur to me that a non-LDS girl is someone I could be dating. LDS girls and non-LDS girls are totally different categories, and non-LDS girls may as well be men or nuns or robots. Nothing is going to happen.

So I was surprised when L asked me to Prom. Admittedly the biggest reason for the surprise was not that she was not Mormon. Nor was it that she was a girl asking a guy to Prom. But it was that she was a non-Mormon girl asking ME to Prom when I was a sophomore. It was junior Prom after all, and I was not a junior. Also, it was in Latin class and who expects to get a lucky in Latin class?

The fact that I’d just recently turned 16 was much less of a factor than the fact that I generally dislike dances, however both these factors made me apprehensive. But I didn’t want L to think that she herself caused apprehension in her male peers, so I said yes.

Because of the unforeseen nature of these events, I was not prepared. I didn’t know about corsages or tuxedos, but these were easy enough to figure out. I didn’t know how expensive tuxedos were, which is good because if I had I may well have said no. It didn’t occur to me that I was supposed to match my tuxedo to her dress, so I picked a green vest because that seemed (and seems) cool. It didn’t match what she wore, and let me tell you, was my face red. Luckily this complimented my green vest, if not her dress.

Although she asked me out, she did not make any arrangements for dinner or the tickets to the event. I would have been more indignant had I known better. So I got the tickets at the last minute and I picked us out a restaurant which was the finest I knew: The Olive Garden. This is partially my fault for being unrefined, but more my parents fault for having 10 kids and having it actually be the nicest restaurant I’d been to. But of course it was mostly her fault for leaving these things up to me, a non-dancing socially-naïve sophomore.

A bigger problem than my poor taste in restaurants was my lack of a drivers license, her lack of a car, and again, her lack of planning. The best solution we came up with, which was an entirely horrible solution, was to have my father act as our chauffeur. He drove us in his Jeep, which had leather seats so was clearly our fanciest car. I have no idea what he did during dinner, but I suspect it was go to Ruby Tuesday. Alternatively he may have wondered why his son would ask such a ridiculous thing of him. At the appointed time he picked us up and drove us to the Prom. This was the 90s, so no one had cell phones, other than Zach Morris. So as the Prom wound down, I had to call him from a pay phone to come pick us up.

I’m recounting this as an example of a bad date, but to be honest I can’t think of anything bad that happened at dinner or at the dance. Having my first doorstep scene with my father waiting in the driveway was less than ideal but I can’t say that it lessened my game in any way.  In that I had none. But dinner was entirely uneventful, though quite noticeably not magical. The dance was uneventful, though I did quickly learn that the church approved slow dance position was not useful in real life. But this was something I suspected all along. We spent the evening with her friends, as mine were not there because they were sophomores, and furthermore not there because Prom is lame.

L never asked me out again, and I didn’t ask her. After all, she might as well be a robot. One that is a bad planner. I’d say that the majority of our conversations before and after that night revolved around Latin, which is to say that we didn’t know what we were saying or doing. And since that largely describes our night at Prom, I guess it was appropriate. 

Music Monday: My Stomping Ground

When I'm looking for something new to listen to, Scandenavia rarely disappoints. Here's Non Tiq from Sweden. You could argue the song is deep, but I take it at face value. It's just good listening.

Music Monday: Just Good

I have no commentary for this track. It's by Marble Sounds, and I like it.