( A note of explanation: I host a trivia quiz at a local pub every week and blog about it afterwards. After I posted a link to this blog on Facebook, Bruce Cantwell suggested that the post also belonged on this site--I think you'll see why. You can skip past the quiz-related material, or check out geekswhodrink.com to see if there's a quiz in your neighborhood. It's FUN.)
Normally I write about quiz, but this time I have to write about my drive home from quiz, because it was just like one of those movies where the expendable minor female character’s car breaks down. On a dark, untraveled road. Nowhere close to anywhere lit and safe where she can wait. Next to a cemetery (or in this case, in between 2 cemeteries—way worse). She thinks she’s going to be okay when the firemen come, but they just move her car off the road (which was very nice), and leave. She sits in the dark and waits for the tow truck that never comes. Instead, suddenly, there’s a man with a hook for a hand knocking at the window…
But in a twist, it was no creepy man but the friend the minor female character called to get a ride home from the mechanic’s shop when she foolishly thought the evil tow truck driver was telling the truth about picking her up. Yes, Marina (who is a friend, neighbor, and a Moreland Alehouse quizzer) didn’t like the thought of our throwaway character waiting by herself. (Did I mention the dark cemeteries?) And she stayed with the character for hours (yes, hours) until the tow truck driver came, reinforcing my—I mean the character’s—opinion that she is one of the nicest people on the planet and belongs with us at Moreland Alehouse, where we have the nicest quizzers around (see how I made that transition?), like BASKET OF TOTS, who took first place after a summer hiatus, and BROSNAN’S BRUISERS who took second even though they were a member down. The very nice BINGE THINKERS and THE HARNEY TOADS tied for third. It was a fun raucous crowd and the minor female character is glad she turned out not to be expendable so she can host quiz again next week. (And thank you again, Marina!)