This week was another exciting week at the pub quiz. Inexplicably, two of the quizmasters were playing rather than hosting. That seems to have been a counting error we won't make. Or, maybe it wasn't a mistake at all. Maybe the quizmasters strategically placed themselves around the cafe to see what life is like among the common non-masters.

The floor was given to Geoff the Hammer. Trivia questions look like nails to him. Hammer away he did. He brought the head down early and often. He kicked things off with a pint on us about astronaut urine. Then he asked about popularity...the most popular college, the person with the most twitter followers, the most popular quizmaster at the IRCPQ. That one got dicey.

That was followed by a round on Death and Taxes. Did you know Benjamin Franklin was writing a letter to a Frenchman when he said "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes"?

The Hammer seized the mic again for a round about Legal words that start with E. Think entrapment, executor, eavesdropping, esquire.

OJ was back in the second half with some info about Thomas Alva Edison's fondness for Mary Had a Little Lamb. Then there was a round on Lemons. Who doesn't love Liz Lemon? Or Jack Lemmon? Or a Lemondrop?

The always spectacular fifth round had a lot about seconds and thirds, like the third most popular name is Williams.

That brought us to the common bond, in which nine questions somehow had answers that related to the Goonies. Surprisingly, the Goonies is not the second highest grossing movie domestically. Ah well.

Congratulations to Inwood Nation who won for the night and are well positioned to take home the title for the month. Also, thanks to Inwood Nation for fixing up the Bonus Machine.

See you all next Wednesday.

If you're anything like me, then you probably find yourself answering a lot of fan mail on Thursday mornings...*

For those of you that are still reading, let me tell you about this week's pub quiz. It went very well, and may have been our best pub quiz of the entire week. This week was something of a homecoming. We had University of Inwood in session (even though all the other local schools were on break), the unwittingly ironic-named Triumphant Return of Ron Mexico, and finally the long anticipated return of The Manifesto to the pub quiz winner's circle. Welcome back, guys!

Since both Jordans were traversing these United States in search of new material for the quiz, I was fortunate to have Brave Sir Robin to assist in the distribution of trivia. We opened the night with a round on commercial mascots, letting everyone show off their knowledge of Nasonex, Snuggle, and 7-up. Then we continued the homecoming theme with a subject that had been unofficially banned at the IRCPQ for the last three years. Only Brave Sir Robin had the Iguanodons to bring back Dinosaur questions to the quiz, and he totally killed it.** After that was a round called Portrait of Gary as an Oldman, that focused on Gary Oldman, but also asked you what US river is known as The Old Man.***

For the second half of the quiz, Robin took us all on a tour of NYC when he asked us what significant events happened at a series of notable addresses on particular dates. I'd like to add that, for the people who lost their luggage at JFK on February 7th, 1964, it was a pretty significant event. For the fifth round we were joined in spirit by the T-Birds, who couldn't be here in person, but were generous enough to send in a round on guns and ammo. Finally, as part of the Common Bond round, Robin tested your knowledge of NYC-based bands.

At the end of the night, Noah got to celebrate his birthday by being the first person to activate the much talked about Bonus Machine. In a highly-expected turn of events the machine didn't do anything. The good people of Inwood Nation have promised to remedy the situation with a healthy dose of solder during the next week or so. Be sure to come back and see if the Bonus Machine will do anything. Also, we'll have beer.

* - Citibank and Chase are my two biggest fans.

** - Now it's extinct.

*** - Not to be confused with the Oldman River.

If you were at the last quiz, then you know how amazing the trivia, the banter, and the beer chugging was. If you weren't there, then there's nothing I can write here that could even come close to describing it. But, I'll try. The first thing that happened was...