Trivial Matters
Every Monday night, Mellow Mushroom hosts Trivia Night.
Every Monday night, the first place trivia team receives a $50 gift card.
Monday, December 2nd, was like every other Monday night.
Except for the fact that I, along with some factoid-loving friends, were going to Trivia Night. You see, earlier in the day, my friends and I had run into some trash-talking but also trivia-loving rivals who liked to gloat about how many times they had won Trivia Night. Of course this sort of bragging couldn’t be tolerated, so we gathered the most knowledgable people we knew and decided to beat them once and for all.
We made the trek (not at all far from campus) to Mellow Mushroom around 8 to grab our seats and sling some za. You could definitely feel the tension in the air from all warring teams. Team members huddled around their pizza and flashed glances of warning to all those who dared to look their way. The competition was fierce; the stakes were high.
Trivia Night ran about like what you’d expect. The host would ask a question, you’d have until the end of a song to consult, write down your answer, and turn it in.
After some heated early questions like what country van Gogh is from (obviously The Netherlands!) and what branch the Green Beret is in (army, or course!), we were at half-time. At half-time, our team was tied at second place, and the trash-talkers were comfortable at first.
But we had two more rounds left, and the last round doubled the stakes! We put on our thinking caps, vowed to work together, and let the questions begin. After some pivotal and dramatic questions about the cast of American Horror Story and the year in which Johnny Cash died, the dust settled…
There was a tie.
As if there wasn’t enough stress and tension already, we had tied with a team (Not the trash-talkers! Ha!). We had come this far, we had to win now.
The final question: How many counties are in Texas?
While this is an odd question, and none of us were from Texas, we could only give our best guess: 113 (Note: This is a really bad guess. There was a lot of confusion and controversy at that moment. Give us a break, okay.)
Well, there are 254 counties in Texas, but luckily for us, the other team only guessed 86.
This meant our bad guess had just WON US A $50 GIFT CARD!
AND ALSO BRAGGING RIGHTS!
The gift card and a pencil (causality of war)!
We high-fived, shook the hands of our competitors (with smug smiles), and made our way back to campus with good vibes.
I couldn’t be happier about Trivia Night results, but now it’s time to gear all of that motivation and energy towards studying for finals. Wish me luck, guys!