Dinner at Hamburger Mary's

Last night, my daughter Erica, niece Jessica, her good friend Kendall, and I went out to dinner at Hamburger Mary's in Orlando. While at the restaurant, Joan Crawford led us in several fun rounds of trivia. The first step to the trivia game was to choose a group name that needed to be terribly dirty and disgusting. To quote Marissa Tomei from  My Cousin Vinny, "They Worh!" Some memorable teams were "I Have 69 Problems Because my Girl Friend is a Midget" and "If the Red River Flows, Take the Dirt Path." Miss Crawford didn't like our team name because he is not a Harry Potter fan. We called ourselves, "You Can Slytherin My Chamber of Secrets."

Our Drag Queen Host

The names were just a small sampling of the fun to be had at trivia night. All of the questions centered around movie themes. I learned that the number one hit song from a movie is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," of The Wizard of Oz fame; Meryl Streep has been nominated for an Oscar eighteen times; and the Oscars were delayed in 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot.

We also had fun with our trivia MC's off the cuff comments. For example, when a lady ran to get her prize, he said, "Here comes a lady with a bad bra." Also, when mentioning gays, he pointed to a table and said, "Like you guys." Finally, a woman celebrating her upcoming wedding was asked the gender of her beloved. When she said she was marrying a man, he wanted to know why she came to a gay establishment to celebrate. He thought she was just rubbing in the fact that she CAN get married.

Our last round was called the Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay Round. All of the questions involved either gay actors, actresses, or movies. Since our host told us we could change our names and most of us should, we decided to call ourselves, Straight,  Straight, Straight, Straight,  Straight, Straight. When people booed, he wanted to know which table we were at. I tried to duck low, but after awhile my daughter raised her hand, since he wasn't letting this one go. He said, "We were alright" and wanted to know why we never have our own parade. I guess it's time to plan a Straight Pride Parade.

Trivia Night at Kickin' Chicken'

I just got back from visiting my son in Charleston and getting a first hand peek at what twenty-somethings do for fun. Every Wednesday at 10:00 is Trivia Night at the Kickin' Chicken. I was all over it. Perched on stools around a wooden table we delighted in competing for a $50 bar tab for the winners, $25 for second, $10 for third, and the dreaded syphilis infection for fourth. Competing against a large crowd, we left empty handed; but our team had full beer bellies.

The first task was picking a team name that related to current events, was totally obscene, or preferably both. My son, daughter, and I struggled over a name, but it took my son's twenty-three year old friends no time to come up with the kind of name with words that one would never say in front of someone's mother (AKA - me). I didn't mind the sexual names so much, but Charlie Sheen jokes got old, and Japanese related titles were just plain rude. My favorite team name was: "I don't bungee jump because broken rubber brought me into this world and I don't want to leave the same way."

Equipped with the rare knowledge that Michael J. Fox's middle name is "Andrew," we were ready to begin. . . but they didn't ask that question. Being the night before St. Patrick's Day, a lot of questions related to the Irish. No problem; I've been to Ireland. So why did I report the most southern county as being Limerick instead of Cork? Oh, the pressure!

We knew Sam Houston was the governor of Texas who retired from office rather than take the oath of allegiance to the confederacy (although we almost said, "George Bush"); Florida was the most recent college team to win two championships in consecutive years; and never remove the Cauliflower Ear during a game of Operation.

What we didn't know were the four most popular bands of all times. Beatles and Rolling Stones were the given. What were the two others? Being the old lady who loves to tune into classic rock, how could I have missed it? I was probably the only one in the bar who had been around during these bands' hey days. So, knowing what I know, how could the Grateful Dead not be one of the four? I mean, "dead heads" abound, even though no one understands why a dead person would be grateful. Anyway, I know you're dying for the correct answer . . . the winners were . . . wait for it . . . Led Zeppelin and U2. Really? Yeah!

Although Trivia Night is a blast, it's made for the young. To find out why, reread my second line: "Wednesday nights at 10:00." How could someone over twenty-five get up for work the next day?