Return of the Blog!

It’s been a long time between blogs but we’ve been diligently putting in our trivia time – with disappointing results. It’s been a time of drought for the Gang of Green with nary a top 3 finish in a couple months. Fourth place appears to be our friend with a fifth place acquaintance having an all too constant presence. Despite a brief 2nd place finish by 2 Members of GG (Traci & Jon) with help from Jon’s sister Jennifer (playing as Zoinks!!) on 11/17, the entire team, playing  as Gobble Gobble Hey (in a T-Giving nod to the Ramones), fell again to fourth place on 11/24, despite breaking the vaunted 60 point mark. A crushing blow to the egos of all involved, made better only by continuous refills of beer or cider. As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, we say our thanks for the improved music rounds (the quizmaster using an iPod instead of skippy CDs or warbly cassettes? What a concept!) and for just having each other to laugh, joke, commiserate and utter petty disparaging remarks to the teams who defeat us. Sore losers? Maybe… but amusing!

But let’s look forward! Here’s to starting off December with a win! We’ve got two weeks to forget to prepare! Go Gang Green!

Gang Green 11/24/09

Traci “Would you like a chutney Squishee?” Bocci
Erin “Cloture… yes, cloture!” Ewart
Darin “x² x z² = y… wow that looks smart” Chong
Jon “I’m the go to Bible guy? oh that’s so wrong” Lehre
Nora “Death Cab for Cutie meets Miley Cyrus” Guy
Kate “I can name that Christopher Cross song in 3 notes” Kelly

3… is a magic number…

Hello one and all!

After a disappointing finish last week, Gang Green roared back and locked down a coveted 3rd Place win on Tuesday night! Credit goes to Michael “Truckin’ ” Myers for keeping us alive during the matching round (match the interstate number with the city-to-city route? jiminy christmas!) and an awesome group effort during the music round where we only missed one – but as it was Miley Cyrus, is that really something to be ashamed of? Normally the most mellow of teams, Gang Green got feisty this week as Erin “Oh I will say something” Ewart gently challenged trivia master Michael on one question — she was this close to getting her point across, but no doubt the calls of support from her enthusiastic (and libation-enhanced) teammates did nothing to help her cause. Sorry about that, Erin!

Look for another thrilling installment of the Gang Green Blog in two weeks, hopefully we’ll start August off with a bang!
Team Gang Green for 7/21/09

Traci “TB knows TJ” Bocci
Erin “You can only fold it in half once… once!” Ewart
Darin “I fish with MY trent stick all the time” Chong
Hamidah “For accuracy, it’s Ham!dah” Salzmann
Michael “Breaker One-Nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck” Myers
Jon “Supporting white blues artists” Lehre

The Agony of Defeat

Well, what can be said about Gang Green’s trivia nite experience on 7/14? Did it have any All-Star Game questions? No. Was it full of Bastille Day references? Non. Were there a lot of questions that befuddled us and left us scratching our heads? Oh lord yes. We’ve fared worse, but a 4th place finish is nothing to glory in. True, we got 12 out of 12 on the matching round (woohoo!) but it only illustrates how badly we did in the other rounds. Shake it off Gang Green! We’ll get ‘em next time!

Team Gang Green 7-14-09

Erin “Thank you, Peter Sagal ” Ewart
Traci “Hall of the Sock Puppet Mountain King” Bocci
Darin “I got your flying fortress right here” Chong
Hamidah “Shush? No YOU shush!” Salzmann
Nora “Pre-trivia screwdrivers help me focus” Guy
Jon “There’s no Ho in Hoboken” Lehre

The Comeback Kids

I’m no Jon Lehre, but since he’d prefer to go to Eel River than to provide you good folks with the much-anticipated Pub Quiz Update, I have no choice but to do it myself this week, since it’s a tale that needs to be told…

The Core Four was joined by special guests Jen & Brandon Chong (respectively, wife and brother of the infamous D. Chong) for what turned out to be one of the busier quiz nights in recent weeks, with 12 teams competing! After several heinous rounds of scoring in the bottom 6, your Gang Green team — fueled by yeasty Anglican beverages — managed to kick it up a notch and snag a 2nd place victory once again, bested only by the formidable SMOLT! (And leaving frequent victors Johnny Ringo in the dust). Yay, us!

Your June 29, 2009 Gang Green Team:

Jon “Younger Than Methuselah” Lehre

Erin “Hobbes is Not a Stuffed Tiger” Ewart

Traci “Uriah Heep and Jethro Tull Are Not Related” Bocci

Darin “I Got Your Jockey Right Here” Chong

Jen “What Happens in Dirty Vegas…” Chong

Brandon “Florida Trivia is a Lot Easier” Chong

If you missed last week’s update…

That’s because we’re posting it a week late!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… okay, maybe not the worst but it WAS a tad disheartening.

On Tuesday, June 23, your team Gang Green came in FIRST at pub trivia nite! For about 8 seconds. Then we had to point out that we had 8 people on our team, and after the 2 point forfeit (1 point off for every team member that put us over 6 people), we were in second place (again)! SO CLOSE! (Half a point close, to be specific.) To make things even worse, we lost to the dreaded Johnny Ringo. Horrors!

At least we got a nice round of applause for volunteering the point deduction information ourselves. There’s something to be said for ethics!

It’s just a reminder that if we’re going to bring more people, we need to step up our game!

Gang Green on 6/23/09

Darin “Even when we’re smart, we’re funny” Chong

Traci “My favorite farmer, Jethro Tull!” Bocci

Erin “Finally a dead presidents question” Ewart

Hamidah “Hey, Tom from MySpace is on MY friend list” Salzmann

Nora “A chandler makes chandles.. er.. candles! ” Guy
Jen “Can’t I just sit next to the team? “McAllister

Al “You can call me Al” Duncan

Jon “I swear that guy looked like Worf” Lehre

Trivial Update

Hello everyone! Another night of trivia, another round… or two… or three… of drinks, another 2nd place finish for YOUR trivia team, Gang Green!  The key word Tuesday night was definitely “solid” as we grabbed onto 2nd place by the 2nd round and never gave it up again. With consistent jabs of knowledge and nicely placed uppercut guessing, Gang Green managed to knock out most of the competition until our boxing analogy failed us and had to find a new one but we just didn’t have enough gas to speed past the evil team Johnny Ringo, the first place finishers. We’ll give it another shot in a couple of weeks to see if we can once again scale the heights to first place!

Team Gang Green 6-9-09:
Darin “Why do I even know NASCAR drivers?” Chong
Erin “I can name that song in TWO notes!” Ewart
Traci “Oh I KNOW Dylan Thomas” Bocci
Jen “Well have YOU seen a Road Runner?” McAllister
Al “The music round is NOT karaoke” Duncan
Jon “Um, why is the quiz master staring at me like that?” Lehre

Trivial Matters

“And like a rubber ball, I come bouncin’ back to you…Rubber ball, I come bouncin’ back to you…Ah-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh…(Bouncy, bouncy) (bouncy, bouncy)… eee-eee-eee.”

Yes, in the immortal words of Bobby Vee, Gang Green was like a rubber ball at Tuesday Trivia Nite as we bounced back from our not-so-good finish two weeks ago to an oh-so-good second place finish – and only 1/2 a point out of first! If it wasn’t for the horrendous matching round of matching the tv-offered drugs with the tv-implied symptoms, where we got exactly two right (some trivia favors the infirm, evidently) we might have been able to notch another first. But our heads were held up proudly, as were our drinks, as the rest of the teeming hordes were left in the dust by our reduced but mighty trivia squad.

Next week, the fun begins again as we adjust to a new every-other-week pattern and welcome back Traci Bocci, recently returned from her extensive tour of Europe.

Team Gang Green 6/2/09

Darin Chongital – for sufferers of severe ennui (caution: may cause sarcasm
Erin Ewartria – for vampire-related high cholesterol (caution: may cause obscure political awareness)
Hamidah Salzmannex – for dangerously low levels of couture awareness (caution: may cause shoe shopping)
Jon Lehreokia – for those afflicted with extreme maturity (caution: may cause hangovers)

From the heights… to the depths…

Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Maybe that helps explain how Gang Green went from first place at our previous Trivia Nite to a lowly 5th out of 8 teams last night. Oh how the mighty did fall. In fact the mighty pretty much belly-flopped into the trivia pool. With bad second-guessing and worse first-guessing, we wobbled through round after round like a drunken Weeble. We drowned our sorrows in delicious libations, which really didn’t help matters, to be honest. Without Traci Bocci to keep us a bit more focused, some of the more unlikely suggestion actually made their way onto the answer sheet. So chalk this one up to an unfortunate case of post-win letdown and let’s just move on, people!

Team Gang Green 5/19/09:

Darin “I Blame Myself” Chong
Erin “Please Rephrase the Question” Ewart
Nora “Just Happy to be Out” Guy
Jen “RCU Approved!” McAllister
Al “I Think I Said That” Duncan
Jon “I Be Stymied” Lehre

Victory, At Last!

When May 5th is remembered, no doubt it will be for the daring exploits of a small but plucky band of individuals, struggling mightily against an impressive array of imposing forces. I am, of course, referring to Gang Green’s VICTORY at Trivia Nite!

Let the bells ring out that Gang Green did rise up and finally get the “also-ran” monkey off our backs on Tuesday night, coming in FIRST in a field of 8 teams. Each person contributed immensely, and the near total lack of geography and food questions didn’t hurt. We won a pot of about $60 but the real treasure is coming out on top for the first time since this latest round of trivia nites started. The money doesn’t suck, though.

Will the group be able to match this success again? Will there be another victory in the future? Will the pressure of coming out on top create a group of prima donnas who insist on being called “Trivia Winner” everywhere they go? Who cares?! We finally won! Woohooo!!

Your Gang Green Team for 5/5/09

Erin “Lego Picnic Reenactment Specialist” Ewart
Traci “Rapidly Losing Brain Cells While I’m On Vacation” Bocci
Nora “Badass Music Knowledge” Guy
Jen “Can You Break a 50?” McAllister
Al “The Canada Tunnel King” Duncan
Jon “Wodens-day” Lehre

Do I Hear a Second? Yes.. Yes I Do!

Hello everyone!

In yet another come from behind near-victory, your Gang Green Team of trivia pseudo-experts squeaked into 2nd place (again!) with a solid final round last night at pub quiz trivia. Although there was a new, first-time quizmaster, we buckled down and drank heavily enough to often follow his rapid phrasing. Fortunately, the rest of the pub-goers were even more confused by his occasionally Byzantine sentence structure, so we were able to marshal our efforts for a solid second place.

Now begins our “uncertainty” period, where we waffle and dither over which nights to play for the rest of April and May. Most likely there will be a May 5th pub trivia night but all else is catawampus while I rudely miss the next two weeks because of Hawaii issues and Traci thoughtlessly goes to Europe in May. More updates from interested parties as we go forth!

Thank you for supporting YOUR trivia team near-supreme: Gang Green!

Team Gang Green for 04/14/09:

Erin “all my drinks sound elvish” Ewart
Traci “Tallulah freaking Bankhead?” Bocci
Darin “Jacque Cousteau lookalike” Chong
Nora “computerese spoken here” Guy
Jon “inappropriate comments a specialty” Lehre