The good people of Chamberlain Law have once again hired Geeks Who Drink for one of our always-amusing private events, and again I'm lucky enough to get to play quizmaster. This year, the fun was moved to the venerable Black Labrador pub in Montrose, where we were surrounded by so much Winston Churchill memorabillia I almost felt homesick.

Things got started with a little round we like to call "Duh", where all the answers are so easy that you'd kick yourself for missing a question. I'm very relieved that no one thought Keanu Reeves has an Oscar - even if he was great in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Round 2 was our first audio round and featured songs and artists with numbers in the name. A bit of a generation gap was revealed in this round - somehow there wasn't much crossover between those who knew 2Pac and those who knew Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons.

Round 3 was one for the history buffs among us, as it chronicled some of the great rivalries of all time; Hector and Achilles, the Confederacy and the Union, the Boers and the Bristish, and of course, Kanye West and 50 Cent (possibly the greatest battle of all).

We followed this with a fun round that mashed together baseball players and terms with general pop culture awareness. In the words of Periodic Table Dancers, "we got this." Round 5 on presidential pets came next, then a round on Double Ls and next up, love themes from movies. I'll say this for Geeks Who Drink - there's no greater place for diversity of knowledge.

A great example of that - Round 8 (Random Knowledge). Ipse Dixit even threw a little extra info in there: "Wild Bill" Donovan was the founder of the OSS. I was so impressed, I almost wish I could have given them an extra point!

After tallying up our final scores, Ipse Dixit came in with 52 points. Just ahead were the Periodic Table Dancers with 53 points. Way ahead of the pack, and celebrating evey correct answer as mightily as they could, were The Pub Stars with 64 points.This marks the second year the members of the Pub Stars have won the Chamberlain Law quiz, and this time they were rewarded with some super cool custom pint glasses.

Hopefully everyone will be back next year and they can try for the hat trick!

Darwin's theory of evolution remains a pretty hotly contested issue, but at its core is the idea that when a species faces a situation it's not used to, the only options are adapt or die. Well, that's a bit how I feel right now; that I had to choose to adapt or die, and I chose well! The good folks at the UT Austin Leadership Conference helped me learn that a true quizmaster can deal with any circumstances on the fly.

So, Future Leaders of the Future, what did we learn today?

*Keanu Reeves has never, and likely will never receive an Oscar nomination.

*Yao Ming is taller than Women's Olympic volleyball nets.

*Leader of the Pack was a really badass song.

*The "D" in "D-Day" just means "Day." 

*When I'm sick, my voice sounds just like Super Dave Osborne's.

Thanks to all of you for letting me come babble weird stuff at you while you ate your lunch. I hope the rest of your conference goes well! Lead on; I'll follow you anywhere. Well, anywhere I was already kinda planning to go.

--Chris

As a quizmaster, you never know quite what to expect when you do a private event. Will the people be extroverted and easy-going, or quiet and shy? What kind of music will they like? Will they like the quiz rounds?

This quiz was no different. I had no inkling of what to expect from you guys. You seemed nice enough, but it wasn’t until you guys started singing along to Rebecca Black’s “Friday” that I knew I had a group of winners. I mean, I’m still a wee bit disturbed by how well some of you knew that song *cough*Iron Ladies*cough*, but I’m pretty sure you enjoyed it ironically, so I’m giving you a pass. The crazy hats and impromptu Avengers props didn’t hurt (I’m still cracking up over “Iron Man” from We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite). And best of all, you guys were full of sass, and I dig that. There’s nothing more boring than a stoic crowd.

Regardless, you guys did quite well, as the stats below prove. The Buddha/Mohammad/Dr. Phil round gave you the most trouble, but let’s be honest: it’s a heck of a lot tougher than it sounds, as you guys quickly found out. When all was said and done and the dust settled, We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite were declared the winners. Hopefully some of that money got you into an Avengers showing tonight. If not, well, your Avengers can assemble at the theater tomorrow.

Thanks for playing guys; I had a blast. 

The Rundown

Round 1: It’s Probably What You Think It Is

High Score: 8 (achieved by The Iron Ladies, We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite, and Smarty Pants) 

Average Score: 7.4/8

Low Score: 6

Round 2: Earworms (Audio Round)

High Score: 16 + joker (achieved by We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite)

Average Score: 13.4/16

Low Score: 10

Round 3: Thus Spake the Buddha, Muhammad, or Dr. Phil?

High Score: 5 (achieved by Smarty Pants and Team Awesome)

Average Score: 4/8

Low Score: 3

Round 4: Disasters, Natural & Otherwise

High Score: 7 (achieved by We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite)

Average Score: 4.4/8

Low Score: 3

Round 5: Do Not Adjust Your TV (Visual Round)

High Score: 8 (achieved by The Iron Ladies, We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite, and Lezbehonest)

Average Score: 7.6/8

Low Score: 7

Round 6: Random Knowledge

High Score: 12 (achieved by We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite, and Lezbehonest)

Average Score: 9.8/16

Low Score: 7

1^st Place: We’re Missing Avengers For This Shite

Now, when I say know... some things, I don't mean to say you don't know things. You're grad students. You obviously excel in studies far beyond what I've done and work far harder than I've ever done. But does your knowledge extend out of you field? Based on the scores, for some yes. For others? Not so much.

Our DUH warmup round only caught a few of you in its deceptive trap. Yellow Breasted Warbler? I've never seen such a specific wrong answer. Oh and the last word in the bible is not Armageddon. "... and then there was Armageddon." Well, that would be a downer. 

Our music round was a game of counting, moving up one number for each song (that was the secret!) Another secret? The answer will never be Train unless the theme of the round involves torture. 

Someone suggested that our sports related game of inches multiple choice round was sexist. Sexist would be assuming that all women hate sports. And besides, I had a question about Olympic Women's Beach Volleyball, probably one of the most watched Olympic events. Sure, you could argue why people like watching women's beach volleyball, but the point is I'm not sexist (ladies...). 

In honor of all the white people going out to drink cheap and crappy Coronas today, we had a round called Cinco De Mayo. A lot of you got Pentateuch, but I don't think anyone spelled it correctly. That's okay though because I'm not entirely positive I pronounced it correctly. 

Our handy visual round proved to be tougher than I thought with few of you correctly identifying Mario, Mr. Burns or Tyler Durden. And yes, I'm positive that was Tyler Durden and not Jesus. Although to be fair Brad Pitt is heavenly to watch (well, as long as it's not Meet Joe Black)

After that we doubled up some Ls and the came to the dubstep audio round. I don't care how many of you were talking about Skrillex. You're grown ass smart adults. Grad students, c'mon. I know that many of you want to look like the super hip with it cool guy teachers, but please don't listen to dubstep just to fit in. Dubstep: not even once. 

Then came our final round. Everyone questioned my pronunciation of Vientiane but no one offered a better way to pronounce it. In the end, after all was said and answered, we found our winners of quiz:

First Place
When Gingrich Pulled Out There Was No Santorum Left

Thanks to everyone for coming out and showing me a fantastic time. To those of you who hadn't played a Geeks quiz before I hope you enjoyed it. Come see me again every Wednesday night at 9 in the main room of O'Niell's. And, if you really loved having quiz, be sure to throw a complete temper tantrum at every department head when it comes time to plan your next shindig. Seriously, a three year old level tantrum meltdown. No one will ever expect a grown adult to do that. Like listening to dubstep...