Two More Things.

I've set up a public Flickr group for you guys to add your pictures to. (I should have done this months ago.)

If I don't have your email or Flickr nickname, go to the DSO flickr set and join the group, and I'll hook you up with ... something, I don't know what yet.

But yeah, please, share your pics. My camera died partway through last night and I didn't get pics of everyone.

Oh, and do us this favor: tell someone. Tell people about the night, tell people about this blog, and if there's something you wanna tell us, well, that's what the comments are for. Suggestions, ideas, gripes, epiphanies, recipes, team name ideas, predictions for the coming hockey season, Project Runway spoilers, whatever you got. Hit me.

7/26 Recap: See You In September

Well, that was the way to wrap up a party. The six-month anniversary party was blindingly hot, there were very few flat surfaces to even write on, and apparently not everyone got food. We grossly underestimated how hungry people were, which won't happen the next time we do this.

In good news, we so totally will be doing this again. Last night's DSO was the biggest ever, and the level of commitment some of you had was a little disconcerting. I'd have had this recap up this morning, but I've been kind of dazed whenever I sit down to say something about it. Thank you guys so much for giving a shit about this stuff. Janet's an agent who reads a lot of books, and I'm some dork who writes trivia questions in his bedroom for kicks. Speaking personally, I always figured if I was ever going to wind up being a rock star, even for a night, there'd be actual performing of music involved.

Anyway. On to the details. The rounds this week:

• On This Day - in which New York became the 11th state in the union, and new nations were formed in Iberia and Liberia. (That wasn't planned.)
  
• Audio Round: Sweets For My Sweet II: Even Sweeterer - This week, featuring a mess of songs that all had the phrase "Pour a little sugar on me," as well as "Sweet Lovin' Woman" and "Sweet Lovin' Man." No one misses out on love here. Or getting sugar poured on them, for that matter.
  
• My Favorite Things - Where Janet ran through the lyrics of the song and told us about how great her shoes were.
  
• Stuff That Didn't Fit In Other Rounds Over The Last Six Months - I don't usually like doing these rounds, but I have so many leftover questions from other rounds that didn't need them, it seemed like a good time to bleed some off.
  
• True Or False
  

The winning team, Queens Of The Dark Age, also got the Scrabble Solution correct (someone read the Wall Street Journal piece about the number of pennies minted this year), so their winning margin was kind of high. But honestly, everyone did fairly well. Second place went to From This, You're Bragging?, and third place went to Human Rights Watch Snatched Djibouti... Arrrr! (our most excellently attired piratical friends).

In other news, there were, in no order (deep breath):

• Vinderschmongers
  
• Slingers
  
• We're Screwed, Mate
  
• Milk Us Till We Moo!
  
• Fuzzy Wuzzy Wants To Win
  
• Rotterdam, We're Good!
  
• Team B
  
• The Dragon Star Porn Brigade
  
• The Team Formerly Known As...
  
• Bloody Nipples
  
• Fashion Victim
  
• Alimony Schmalimony, We Ain't Payin!
  
• Robert Goulet's Secret Moustache
  
• Peter Cook's 8 Simple Rules For Schtupping My Teenage Daughter
  
• If You Can't Join 'em, Beat 'em
  
• The Bush Foreign Policy (A No Brainer)
  
• Go Hang A Salami, I'm A Lasagna Hog! (<---a palindrome!)
  
• Lance Bass-O-Matic
  
• Juan Wannabes
  
• Saigon Cheesesteak
  
• Boroughers
  
• and (last but far, far from least) Dead Grandma's Titties When You're Fucking Her From Behind

Anyway, Janet & I can't thank you enough for making this thing a success. We'll be back in action on Wednesday, September 6th, same as usual (with hopefully another new sponsor!), but this blog will continue through August, hopefully being updated a little more regularly than even now.

Finally, I want to make sure Amy, your waitress, and Colin, your barhunk, get some recognition for the crap we put them through every week. We are not your average bar crowd, and we can be occasionally demanding little freaks, and they both handle the weird stuff with great aplomb and grace. It makes doing this so much easier. And Tom, the owner of Dempsey's, who thought enough of this thing to keep it going when there was eight people a week showing up: thanks for sticking with us.

Now, relax this summer. Go catch a musical or something!

7/19 Recap: Birthmarks, Sweetness and Perfection

Our penultimate DSO before next week's great getaway party was another decent success. I'm starting to think we're getting the hang of this. Ah, who are we kidding. Pride before the fall. Still, it was a fairly upbeat night, and that's even filtered through a serious hangover after a few of us went to Punk Metal Karaoke afterward and, um, got kind of blasted.

Thanks to everyone who came, and who come (more or less) every week. It's a lot of work to put these questions & audio rounds together, but I for one (and Janet for two) are grateful that you guys seem to like how the night has grown into itself a little bit. We're always (always, always) open to suggestions. I'm not going too far afield next month, so email me personally or just leave a comment below. You can even do it anonymously if you feel self-conscious, I don't care. We have a chance to improve things for our big comeback on Wednesday, September 6 (mark your calendars; there will be a kickoff party to rival those of ancient Rome, or at least the one we're throwing next week).


Rounds were as follows:

• On This Day: In which we celebrated the birthdays of Anthony Edwards, Ilie Nastase, George McGovern and the great Max Fleischer.
  
  
• Audio Round: Sweets for my Sweet. All the songs were sweet ones, because who wants hate? Not even me. Not all the time, anyway. (Spoiler: We may do this round again next week!)
  
  
• Perfect 10s: I understand there is a pornographic magazine with this title, but I didn't have any questions about that. (Maybe next time; we're certainly not afraid of occasionally "working blue.") There were, however, questions about the board game Perfection, the cruddy John Travolta/Rolling Stone magazine movie vehicle, Nadia Comeneci's current husband, and the present perfect tense of the phrase "I rock the house."
  
  
• States of Mind: Janet brought up the Ohio Players, the two senators from Illinois, and a few places Billy Joel isn't allowed to drive to anymore.
  
  
• True or False: I think I may have to correct something from last night. I mentioned that Mark Twain had a birthmark he called "Mr. Cantankerous." I checked it in a couple of places, and decided to go with it. But I'm looking at those sites again today in writing this recap, and it's starting to look like this was a prank item dropped into Wikipedia and picked up by a few other sites. Nowhere else, in different language, is any birthmark at all mentioned. I'm guessing Mister Cantankerous does not and did not exist.
  
  I'm not changing the results from last night or anything, but don't ever say we don't follow through on our research.

The first Scrabble Solution Question involved the number of asteroids officially logged and registered (129,436; a couple of teams tanked this question, including our returning championship team. (Have you people no shame?)

The second tie-breaker question decided second place: How many states does Bruce Springsteen mention by name in all the songs of his recorded catalogue? This is not something you can google easily, so I'll let that one sit for those who weren't there last night.


The top three teams were: Rabinowitz, Rabionowitz & Rabinowitz (a two-person team, but I'm sure there's some explanation), You Would Totally Love This Drawing Of A Duck If You Could See It But You Cannot, who made that name longer and longer over the course of the evening, and Human Rights Watch Rocks My Socks, who took valuable time out from helping the planet and watching "Project Runway" to finish in the money for the first time under their new name. Good on youse!

The other teams were: Milk Us Till We Moo; Tonight's Winner; May The Sri Be With Us; 'Cause Pussy Too Tasty!, and The Drunken Inquisition (welcome back, you bastards!).

There was something else I mentioned I was going to post here, but I've forgotten what it was. But this recap is already too long by half, so I'm not too concerned. If anyone remembers what it was, I'll up it later.

Did I miss anything important?

7/12 Recap

It was kind of a hot room (in every conceivable way) on 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Fridge Magnet Night, but it felt like a pretty good night. Nine big teams, a lot of new faces, and everything seems to be rolling as we near the six-month anniversary (and a one-month break) from the DSO. (We took some great pictures of some steamy people, and they're up in the official DSO Flickr Stream.)

Rounds were as follows:

• On This Day: In which we celebrated the 27th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, the 55th birthday of Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor, and the ascension to the throne one year ago of Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi.
  
  
• Audio Round: A Quick Quiet Quiz: A series of samples featuring artists who have nothing in common except for the seventeenth letter of the alphabet. There was one exception, but it makes sense to be on this list as well once you figure it out. Listen and see how many of these artists you know.
  
  
• Grab Bag: A list of classic trivia questions from the previous incarnation of the DSO, back when Janet did this whole thing more or less by herself with the occasional guest host.
  
  
• Movies Featuring a Color: Which was a lovely round, if I may say so myself, except for the final question, which dealt with the prequel to Vin Diesel's The Chronicles of Riddick, entitled (ahem) Pitch Black. (It's now available on DVD, and it seems to have gotten decent reviews in a wide USA release, even.) If some people forgot this film existed (and forgot the title of the round), that's trivia for you. Apologies can be offered in the form of the beverage of your choice.
  
  
• True or False, which had to be shouted as the PA system went down. We promise this will be fixed by next week. Janet is a woman of many talents, but shouting is, alas, not one of them.
  

Team names included Team Head Butt, Aunt Anteater's Aunts Aren't Ants, Norfolk & Chance, Don't Insult My French Mother, Zid Vicious' Bald Faced Lie, The 12th Step's A Charm (who changed their name to The Dartboard Is Still In Sight), By The Way I Had Sex With Your Mom & All I Got Was The Herp & This Lousy Pub Quiz, See Emily's Dad Blow Up The Town House, and Breakin' Knowledge II: Electric Boogaloo, who were formerly the Armless Ninjas and are now looking for a new name to run with for a while.

It was a feisty night, but I had a ball. I hope you guys did, too. Remember, in two weeks there's the Summer Cotillion Ball and Hoedown Cabaret Jamboree, with food supplied by Dempsey's, a special game setup, and more than the usual amount of the usual silliness.