The Height of Knowledge, the Abyss of Ignorance, or: I went to Bremen Cafe Pub Trivia last night and all I got was this lousy tee shirt

So last night parenthesis (girl), GTA Feghoot, and someone we'll call Mr. ARO attended for the first time the weekly Pub Trivia competition at the Bremen Cafe, presided over by a fairly affable young woman who seemed as equally interested, if not more so, in intoxicating herself and in plugging some film about punk rock in Arkansas (she even had tee shirts to give away) as she was in hosting the trivia game. Needless to say, the atmosphere was laid back, and, surprisingly, the drinks were inexpensive. However, the evening activities were somewhat tarnished by the newly-implemented house rule that allows for only two members per trivia squad. We inevitably participated individually, and ultimately H.G.S. suffered for it.

Obviously, the reputation of the Hot Grad Students preceded us, and the utter fear in the other competitors' faces was undoubtedly present as the three of us sat there confidently, answering questions on small squares of paper and eating our Big Polish sandwiches. This pub trivia was a challenge to us--not in its level of difficulty, but in its attempt at destroying the integrity of the group. Pub Trivia is a team sport. And while many if not most of our adversaries would stop at nothing to cause a rift in our group's chemistry, they have simultaneously underestimated us by focusing on how HOT we are and not on how GRAD STUDENT we are. The conspiracy against us is transparent. We are way too smart for that.

Mr. ARO, as an individual performer, was the most successful, winning one of the aforementioned tee shirts the host was giving away as prizes for victory in a round. Despite GTA Feghoot's plea that Mr. ARO throw it back, alas, we are grad students, and we cannot afford to look a gift tee shirt in the mouth. He kept the shirt, most likely only to wear it to other trivia competitions in order to strike fear in the hearts of other teams.

While the Bremen Cafe tried to crush our collective team spirit, the events of this past Sunday have only united us more in our determination to win. As stated above, Pub Trivia is a team sport. I believe it was Henry Adams who discussed the value of working as a team in Pub Trivia: "They knew nothing themselves. Only by comparison of their ignorance could the hot grad students measure their own."