Tagged: trivia

Wednesday Night Trivia at Kilo Bravo, October 12

Update: Kilo Bravo is celebrating its two-year anniversary on Wednesday so we’ll be postponing trivia to next week, October 12.

I’ll be back to hosting Wednesday Night Trivia at Kilo Bravo on Wednesday, October 12, beginning at 8:30 PM. It’s been a lot of fun, and if you’re around, please do stop by and play along.

Whet your appetite for our quiz questions—and the bar’s half-price chicken wings—with questions from this past week’s Current Events round. The answers are after the jump.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump met in the first of three debates this Monday, setting a record number of television viewers. Photo NBC News.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump met in the first of three debates this Monday, setting a record number of television viewers. Photo NBC News.

Current Events

  1. Last week, Bloomberg revealed that hackers gained access to data of about 500 million users of which email service?
  2. Earlier this week, who declared his plans to colonize Mars within the next 40-100 years?
  3. Which recent, but defeated, Republican presidential candidate announced his support for the “Republican nominee” in the general election?
  4. The first debate between presidential candidates Clinton and Trump was watched by about 84 million television viewers, setting a new record. Which debate previously held the record?
    • Nixon-Kennedy 1960
    • Reagan-Carter 1980
    • Bush-Dukakis 1988
    • Bush-Gore 2000
    • Obama-Romney 2012
  5. As arguably the greatest left-hander in Dodger history, who had his last game this Sunday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles?
  6. Because of another case of partisan gridlock in Congress, what really bad thing might happen on Saturday, October 1?
  7. Officials have learned that the 58-story Millennium Tower has a “pronounced lean” in which earthquake-prone city?
  8. Last week, we learned that Michael Bay’s upcoming Transformers 5 movie will feature King Arthur and which historical figure from the 20th century?

I’ll be hosting again next week. Bring some friends, gather a team, and win some prizes, including a bar tab that you can use on-the-spot.

Wednesday Night Trivia at Kilo Bravo

Wednesday Night Trivia at Kilo Bravo, September 14

Although I missed last week’s trivia night due to a really bad cold, I heard that the quizzing festivities went undeterred. Mike Q stepped from behind the bar to play quiz master. I heard it was a blast.

But now my cold has passed, and I’ll be back to hosting again on Wednesday night. Again, there will be prizes…

  1. First place: $25 bar tab
  2. Second place: $15 bar tab
  3. Third place: a round of shots for your team.

Come on out! We start signing up teams at 8:30.

Wednesday Night Trivia at Kilo Bravo

Trivia Night at the Hostel

A novel but increasingly common sight in Long Island City is the presence of baggage-toting tourists descending to the subway station at 23rd Street-Court Square. Part of the reason is that the area has a healthy concentration of hotels, such as the Z Hotel and the Wyndham Garden, and our very own hostel, appropriately called The Local. I think a lot of travelers end up around here because the hotels must be cheaper than staying in Manhattan but are located one subway stop from Manhattan, although a hotel such as The Ravel is about a good ten-minute walk from Queensborough Plaza.

My travel experience wasn’t that of the typical youngster backpacking around Europe after college. Most of my travel consisted of many short trips, partly because I always had a steady job after college and, because my father worked for an airline, I could fly anywhere for practically nothing. Throughout my various travels, I only stayed in a hostel a handful of times: once in Italy with a bunch of college friends, once again in the Garden District of New Orleans, and most recently in London to attend an academic conference. As far as I remember, these hostels resembled university dormitories: they all had a shared bathroom, a communal kitchen and dining area, and a front desk with supportive staff to help you experience the city you were visiting. One thing that I don’t remember seeing at these hostels was a bar.

The Local has a bar, and in the spirit of promoting conviviality among its guests, the hostel features activities such as a Thursday trivia night. Some of my friends like The Local because it’s a nice space off the beaten track. There is no “bar drama” because there are no regulars among its transient clientele. And best of all, it features some very inexpensive craft beer and decent wine, or so I’m told.

Last week, Sarah and I went to the Thursday night trivia contest. Assuming we were the only locals who would regularly attend this trivia night, we named our team LIC You Next Thursday. The questions consisted of some common knowledge questions, such as whether alligators sweat. (They don’t.) Because the guests undoubtedly have New York on their minds, there were questions about the city, such as naming and ranking the five boroughs in order of physical size. The pop-culture round were mostly about movies from the 1990s, and our having come of age in that decade really helped us answer those questions.

The prize was a $50 bar tab, which I am happy to report we won.

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Last night's big trivia winners!! #thelocalhostels

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The prize was so big we had to call on friends to help us spend our winnings. However, we also could have saved for another day: the prize expires after seven days.

Aside from winning the trivia contest and spending the prize, I received no compensation. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Trivia Questions and the Most Obvious Answer

Further to yesterday’s post about Nick Zedd, where I called Zedd a “Cinema of Transgression icon,” it reminded me of one of my favorite strategies for playing trivia games, such as bar trivia or even Trivial Pursuit. Whenever you’re presented with a question about a very specific and obscure topic, try to select the most obvious answer.

For example:

Which “Yippie” was expelled as a sophomore from Classical High School in Worcester, Massachusetts after questioning the existence of God?

This question, in the course of the game, seems like a brain buster. But once you realize that the question isn’t about who got expelled from school and that it’s simply asking you to name a Yippie, you’re set. The most obvious answer is Abbie Hoffman, as he is the most famous Yippie and probably the only one you’ll ever need to know as part of your trivia experience.

Similarly, I was once in asked, “How many sexual mates do swans have in their lifetime?” I answered one because it was the smallest number. It turned out that I was right. Swans mate for life.

I mention these tips because, should anyone ever ask you the name of a “Cinema of Transgression” filmmaker, you can safely ignore any part of the question that follows “Cinema of Transgression” and confidently answer, “Nick Zedd!”

Unless it’s Beth B. Then forget everything I just told you.