The Trouble with Team Trivia

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Sharon went to mass while I finished up the blog, and did a review of country flags for tonight’s Mega Trivia game. When she returned we went up to the Crow’s Nest for the Team Travel Trivia. All six of us found a prime table and were ready for a Day of Trivia. “What European country has the longest coastline?” I figured Norway. My teammates were debating Italy or Greece. The later claimed they hadn’t heard me or they would have all agreed that Norway was right. What country has the largest archipelago? Sharon suggested Alaska. I guess it figures that the answer is the country with the world’s largest volcano: Indonesia. What country has the most lakes? Jim noted that Minnesota is known and the land of 10,000 lakes, and this led us to the correct answer: Canada. It’s interesting how many places in this game Sharon and I’ve visited in the previous year. We were in the town where Romeo and Juliet is set just last month while on the Nieuw Amsterdam. And while in the Holy Land last December we were at the lowest point on the surface of the earth. And when we were asked where we might find a 541 foot replica of the Eifel Tower, well: Gee, we’re moving there! Oh yes, there was also, “What is the only city that lies on two continents; and, what was its former name?” We were in Istanbul for two nights on the Nieuw Amsterdam as well, and we learned there (and in the Holy Land) that its former name is Constantinople. We also knew the name of the body of water that separates this city, Europe from Asia, and we took an evening boat tour upon this waterway. It is the Bosporus Strait. We didn’t qualify for the bonus questions, despite so many “Been-there-gimmes” for us. How many lakes are in that lake filled country? Over three million!



We had to excuse ourselves for breakfast. I had fried eggs (again) and Sharon had hers scrambled. Today they had the good potatoes so Sharon was pleased. We went to get ‘our seats’ on the second tier of the Showroom. The lecture covered the ancient cities on the Southern Coast of Spain. It detailed the various influences in Spain, first by the Romans, then by the Visigoths, then by the Moors, and finally reclaimed by the Catholic influence from the north. There were churches that we’d visited that were built on a Roman foundation, replaced by a Moorish mosque and then converted to a Catholic cathedral. An impressive complex was the Moorish palace in Granada. In light of that grandeur and architectural brilliance a rather ordinary Medieval Church was built in the center of the complex. Granada certainly is a candidate for us to visit at some time in the future.



After the lecture we checked out the casino; but, the table that offered 3:2 odds on blackjack that I had my eye on was not opened yet. Sharon found that here machine had been converted to something she didn’t want to play for the slot tournament today. We both went back to the cabin, Sharon to post the blog and me to study some more flags.



Our Daily Team Trivia was at 1 PM. Our group of six had two tables at the back with ample seating but with difficulty hearing the questions. The Crow’s Nest was pretty full with those enjoying a drink, looking out at the open waters and reading a book. “What is a group of gorillas called?” We answered “Troop”; but, didn’t get credit for it because Mike was looking for “Band”. Both actually are correct, as is a third answer “Whoop”, but “Band” is the predominant term. Next came a question for Linda, who often has dinner with my mom and her brother. “How many eyes are there in a standard 52-card deck of cards?” Don’t worry, I got this one right, but go ahead and think about it. When I came up with my answer, Stewart and Valle were saying, “No, some of them only show one eye.” They were suggesting that the answer must be somewhere between 18 and 24. I reminded them that there are two heads on each face card! After that they didn’t complain about my answer of 42 (14-eyes on the kings, all 16-eyes on the queens, and just 12-eyes on the jacks). “What does a queen ant lose after mating?” Someone shouted out “Her virginity!” I think we must have gotten the ants confused with spiders because we went with “Her mate”, thinking that she eats him. The queen loses her wings. And we couldn’t come up with the crystal anniversary. I can’t explain why we went with 10. It should be 15. And now a dog question for my mom. “What breed of dog has the best eyesight?” We went with a pointer. I was pretty sure the answer wasn’t a collie. I was leaning towards something like beagle; but, the answer was greyhound. How do you give a dog an eye exam anyhow? And we didn’t know what they call Mickey Mouse in Italy. Sharon is counting this as a “Disney” question that I should know because I attended Walt Disney Elementary School (but it wasn’t in Italy though I did live there for a while as a child). This big eared character is affectionately called “Topolino” in Italy. I came up with the bonus question, “What city hosted the 1980 Olympic Summer Games?” The Brits suggested Los Angeles; but, Sharon and I both experienced the LA Olympic Games in 1984. The Russians boycotted those games because the US boycotted theirs in 1980 in Moscow. Thank-you very much Jimmy Carter for screwing up a sporting event with your failed foreign policy. I’m just saying… Not many missed this bonus, and we missed out on first place by more than a few points.



We gave the Casino a second chance. Sharon found a machine to play and I sat down at the Fun-21 table. I started out playing alone, so the dealer shuffled the cards for me. In Fun-21 the game is played with 8-decks in which the Kings have been removed. To compensate the player some, the player always wins with any “21” or blackjack. The player may also do both early surrender (surrender first two cards before dealer checks for blackjack). You may also surrender any two-card hand (after splitting a hand) and also after doubling down if you don’t like the card that you get. I guess these special rules is what makes the game “Fun”! And I did have a number of times where I took advantage of the surrender, twice surrendering a bad hand when the dealer turned out to have a blackjack. I was playing fairly even with the dealer, gaining slightly because I was winning my double-downs and I had a couple of blackjacks. Then these two women descended on “my” table and made a big show of their arrival. I played a couple of hands while they rummaged through their purses for some money. These two were already quite drunk, and it was clear that they were the loud obnoxious type drunks that mistake their condition for wit and class. Who asks the pit-boss to check out how silky smooth her slacks are by begging him to run his hand down her thigh… I’m just asking. I suspect that was why the pit boss seemed to think it was time for a dealer change, replacing they guy who was dealing to me with a woman dealer. The two seemed disappointed that the very handsome dealer who’d been chatting amicably with them was replaced. I was hoping that they’d follow him; but, such was not my luck. And as I feared, I began losing more hands than I was winning. Despite the spectacle these women were making of themselves, the dealers must love them, and they all seemed to know them by name. They only stayed at the table for ten minutes, and I must say that their play wasn’t dreadful. The one woman always stands on sixteen when she should hit against a decent dealer card; but, I’ve seen much worse. Despite their state, they did seem to have a game plan and were executing it; although, not all that quickly. In that ten minutes they’d held their own; but, left the dealer with over $40 in bets made for the dealer. They were playing just $15 per hand (I was playing $5 so I must have looked like some low-life at first base to them). They started out pretty lucky; but, couldn’t stand the dealer winning against then three times in a row (okay, the two 21’s in a row did come out of thin air).

I was slowly watching my pile of chips dwindle down about $40 bucks, so I didn’t shed any tears when they went to the other blackjack table with the handsome dealer. When I started doing better, I reached a point and placed my next bet. The dealer hesitated when I bet the green $25 and waited to confirm that it wasn’t a mistake. I signaled for her to continue. Blackjack! Followed by nice win streak of 8 hands and I left with a small profit with plenty of time to spare to meet Sharon.



I returned to the cabin to do some last minute flag cramming. She chided me that she expects me to get all of the flags correct (or she’s going to be on my case). They start selling bingo cards at 4 PM in the Showroom and the game starts around 4:15PM. We got there early and I urged Sharon to get a seat with a table because I planned to go up to the Crow’s Nest to get a “Happy Hour” drink (buy one, get a second for $1). I was the third in line to buy a card (sadly it was my turn to buy). I noticed that the guy next to us had pile of single blackout games. I couldn’t quite understand how he expected to play them, he’d also bought a $35 6-pack and $5 extra 3-square for the blackout. I’m just saying… he had 30 or so single plays for the jackpot game! It was time to get my drink. I offered Sharon the chance to pick which card to play; but, it was apparent that she was going to take a long time doing this, so I took the top one and handed her the other. There: I’m going to get my drink; but, I did sort of suggest that she could change cards with me if she wanted to… who would have thought that she actually would take me up on that? They took my order right away; but, they were still working off the pre-ordered happy hour drinks. It took over 10 minutes to get my double-Sambuca and another two minutes to get my card back. Andy was already finishing with the rules when I returned. Sharon was getting fidgety with me not there. She’d punched through my cards for me… and she had plenty of time to check out all of the cards and had swapped with me. It seems the one that she preferred had her “lucky” numbers on the final game: 3-6-13-53. Who has “13” among their lucky numbers? I’m thinking this may not end well for her. I’m just saying… We both got shut out for the first three calls of the regular bingo and never got caught up. The second double-bingo game was much more promising. We both had numerous 3-in-a-row multiple times on all of our cards. Many people were already standing when Sharon stood, then I stood, then someone else called bingo. Okay, down to the final game… the guy next to us asked Andy if his many cards were only good for this bingo session, or if he could play some of them later… He decided to play 12 of them (trying to handle 21 total squares). This I had to see. He was marking them with one of HALs ball-point pens. Obviously not an experienced bingo player… even if he has bingo on a card, he’ll never realize it in time. Sharon started out well; although I wasn’t far behind. With the 46-call limit for the $10K bonus jackpot looming just 10 calls away, I notice Sharon’s lucky square needed just six calls. I’m starting to have second thoughts about her switching with me. I was already out of the bonus at this point. Ten calls later Sharon still needed six numbers; but, one of my cards had improved to just needing seven! Sharon needed three “B’s” and two “O’s”; but, Mike continued to call “I’s”, “N’s” and “G’s”. Then she got one of her numbers (the missing “G”), and then another number. I noticed that one of her lucky numbers “6” had not been called yet. Three more calls, she got another number, and then Mike did call “6”. She was down to two numbers, when the girl sitting to my left stood up needing just one number (and on Sharon’s lucky number). If she’d gotten a bingo on her lucky number I think Sharon might be done with this whole lucky number nonsense. Sharon need just two “O” calls, something Mike seemed reluctant to do. Then he did call O-64 and Sharon pushed through her lower corner and stood up. “Okay, folks, we have two standers now,” and you hear “Oooooh” throughout the room. Sharon almost couldn’t believe it when she heard Mike call “O-72”; but, everyone in the room heard her announce “Bingo”, nice and clear the way you should call it out. I gave a clap and audible, “Yes”, and then turned to see the disappointed woman sitting down next to me, and said “Sorry,” to her. The man playing all of the cards look totally exasperated with his array of disorganized plays, and said “Congratulations” to me… I wonder why he congratulated me. Sharon won; albeit with my card! She won $353.



We considered eating in the Lido because we had promised to play Pub Trivia with our Team members. We stopped by the Dining Room to check out the menu and it looked good enough to stay.

Crostini with tomato and prosciutto; Italian Wedding Soup; Seared Tuna w/ horseradish mashed potatoes. Sharon had the brisket. When we sat down at the table for 6 two others were already seated by the window. He asked us what “Brisket” was, and we explained. And then maître de came by our table, extending his sincere apologies to the other couple, and offering them some complimentary wine. The offered an explanation later about a myriad of problems that they’d had with the food, and problems that they had with it not being cooked. The last straw came in the Lido for lunch when the Fish-and-Chips that they were looking forward to, was clearly not only undercooked, but appeared raw inside. He showed the problem to the server, who called his supervisor, and HAL appears to be taking the issue very seriously and is fixing the problem, and trying to extend their apologies to this couple. I wonder what he thought of me and the man seated next to him ordering fish that clearly came served with a raw center; but, then he hadn’t ordered seared fish-and-chips! I thought my meal was delicious, and unlike when I had the seared tuna earlier in the cruise, it actually came seared and not done to medium on the inside. This way, seared properly, it was tender and delicious. Overdone it gets a little tough and chewy. Sharon and I both skipped dessert, and it’s a good thing we did. When the others were served their desserts it was time for us to make our way to the Northern Lights to play Pub Trivia.



We arrived to find Jim, Stewart and Vanne already in a booth. Jim said that Lucia was resting. I asked if she was resting up for the Mega Team Trivia, and he said no, she usually goes to bed early. So it will be just the five of us tonight. Which of the lower 48-states is the only with just one border with neighboring states. I figured Maine, but our geographic expert and former resident of Vermont corrected me saying both Vermont and New Hampshire have borders with Maine. So if it isn’t the obvious state, I reckoned then it must be Rhode Island, and defer to the geographic expert and former resident of Vermont who’s on our Team. All I can say is that even some geographic experts occasionally get it wrong! Then we were asked how many countries there are in the world. I asked him if he was counting territories (such as Puerto Rico)? He didn’t answer what I wanted to hear, saying “No”. I knew that I was studying 266 different flags; but, that these did consider territories. If I thought more about it I probably would have come up with “200”. His answer was “196” with a plus-or-minus of five allowed. I’d only knocked of “21” allowing for territories; and, was justified in fearing that might not be enough. Our British couple struggled to come up with the names of Queen Elizabeth’s two great-grandchildren, the children of William and Kate. They came up with George, but were struggling with the girl. It seems she has too many names. We suggested Elizabeth… “No, no, that’s one of them but not the first.” How about “Victoria”. Again, not the first. It took Sharon to go, “Oh, oh, oh and she wrote down Charlotte”. Stewart correctly surmised how many people it takes to be a “mega-city”. He suggested 10 million. We didn’t know what bird has it’s nostrils in the tip of its beak. We went with the ever popular hummingbird; so, we missed this question, again. It is the ever elusive kiwi bird. And we didn’t know how many dots are used to make up a character in Braille. We should have been able to figure out “6” (giving a total possible 63 characters… 31 wouldn’t be enough to cover numbers and letters).



We got choice seats in the Showroom, but there was still thirty minutes to kill. Sharon announced she was going to try her luck in the casino. I decided to go back to the room for some last-minute cramming. I was just finishing going through them when Sharon popped into the cabin. She’d looked for me in the Showroom; which she said was full. I was supposed to have finished my flags and gotten back to the Showroom in time to occupy some seats for us. Oops. “You better get all of the flags right,” is all that Sharon said in a tone somewhat stronger than her previous chide remark. We went to the lower level and were lucky to find two seats together against the back wall (with the view of the stage partially blocked by a column). Kevin Jordan was the comedian and he did a great standup and sometimes adlibbed performance. He’s a retired former policeman from the LA police department. One of his lines was about having retired just prior to the Rodney King and other scandals that have plagued the department, and pondered about, “Who would have known I was the one holding that department together.” He started his performance by bringing out his oversized police flashlight, and proceeded to examine folks in the audience. After some looking he says, “Just as I thought, not a single black person!” You must understand, Kevin is black. He proceeded to examine people with his flashlight, one by one, “No, no, no, hmm, maybe…” He also said the other thing he was glad about was no kids. He then continued with a series of cruising humor, disparaging Carnival Cruises and also noting the average age of Holland America Cruisers. People were rolling in the aisles. He continued with a litany of self-depreciating humor as well. At one point he goes over to a couple, introducing them as his parents. The audience was roaring. Returning to the stage he commented, “Imagine how my dad must have felt returning from the war, and I popped out!” If you get a chance to see Kevin, who has done numerous USO shows and is heading for Iraq after this cruise, don’t miss it.



Kevin’s act had started late, and he had some fun with some give and take with the Show Host Andy that he’d spotted in the audience, making him stand up and trying his best to embarrass him. Part of what he did was try and match up single women with single men in the audience, and he forced Andy to turn around to allow any potential matches to get a good look. Nearing the end of his act Kevin came back to that side of the stage, and I think he had planned to have some more fun at Andy’s expense; but, Andy had already disappeared… no doubt getting ready for the Mega Team Trivia that he was supporting.



We joined Jim, Stewart and Valle who already had a table ready for us around the back and near the center. Sharon ordered a Sprite. With flags swirling in my head, they were a little late starting, passing out the answer sheets finally. I wrote our Team Name and Team Number (we were assigned “8” on the first sheet) on all of the six score sheets. There was my category “Flags” right on top. There was also “Art and Science”, “Movies”, “Logos”, “History and Geography” and “Music”. They passed out the flags, and I recognized all of them; except, one! Now understand, recognize means that I know that I’ve seen that flag in my list; whether, I can come up with the names of all of them, that’s another thing. Sharon’s words were still ringing in my ears. The first flag was obvious, and we didn’t need Lucia to know that it was Brazil. Every team got that one right. The next one I suspected few other teams would get; but, its name starts with an “A” and I studied my list always from “A” to “Z” alphabetically in order. It’s one of my backup crutches to associating country names with flags, by relatively where it appears in the list. So the “A’s” were pretty well covered. The top-half of the flag is red and the bottom half is black. A gold star, partial semi-circular gold cog, and gold feather form an emblem overlaying the center of the flag. There were quite a few flags that most on this cruise would easily identify: Greece, Denmark, India, South Korea and Jamaica were among those that most people should get correct. I was glad that I’d made an effort to learn certain flags, including the one for the Philippines. And I’d had some trouble with a flag having a black horizontal striped flag with a red top and green bottom edge. There is a white crescent moon and star in the black field. The flag I didn’t recognize had a white top half and red bottom half, with an ornate eagle coat of arms in the white field. Now without the coat of arms, I did recognize the flag as that of Poland, so I’m assuming this is a variation I haven’t seen, and I turned out to be right on that score. I recognized the bonus flag as that of Sri Lanka, and hoped few would know this one. When the dust had settled, I had indeed gotten them all right. And that “A” flag was “Angola” and I was the only one to say that out loud when Mike was reviewing the answers, and I think that Mike was surprised that anyone knew this. We seemed to do fairly well with the trivia questions; but, not getting all of any other category right. From the audience shouting out the answers while Mike was reviewing the flags I’m guessing that we picked up between 2 to 5 points on other teams… one other team did know the bonus answer. The flag with the mostly black field and white crescent moon and star, well, that was Libya.



The movies featured films such as “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Monster’s Inc.” and “West Side Story”. Some we just didn’t know; but, we thought we’d done pretty well. We also got almost all of the logos, so we hoped that would hold us in good stead. DreamWorks, Audie, and Pepsi were pretty easy. A rotund light blue bird fluttering along was stumping us until I realized it was Twitter. We missed a couple, so we were still hopeful. We had trouble with the music, but we sensed the room also did not do well. Still, we could have used that lady from the last Mega Trivia on our team that knew the music up and down, from the first note! Sharon had us scored at 55 out of 72 points; or, 54 points if we didn’t get credit for “Vatican City Guards”… it should have been “Swiss Guards” for the soldiers wearing a uniform designed by Michelangelo. We got 54 points and came in fourth place. Ahead of us came teams with 55, 56 and winners with 57 points. No free drinks for us tonight.

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