The Age of the Pub Quiz

[randy_byers]

So after finishing fourth last week, last night Still Scared of the Yellow Ball in the Sky finished first at the Elephant & Castle pub quiz. This was without daveon, too. In fact, only three of us really participated in the quiz, although Nick popped in and out and provided us with the answers to the two questions that had been posted to the website earlier. He actually won a free pint by answering one of them via e-mail, too.

I was disappointed that I couldn't come up with the answer for, "Which Boston Red Sox player will always be famous for letting Mookie Wilson's single roll between his legs to lose game six of the 1986 World Series?" I got as far as "Bill B" when suddenly my mind was inhabited by "Bill Bowers". He wouldn't leave.

Further sign of advanced aging came in the mirror of the men's bathroom, where I spotted a long hair growing out of my ear. Criminey, how long had that been sticking out a half mile?! I trimmed it this morning, muttering querulously to myself. Some people are apparently shaping their ears to look like elf ears, while mine are turning into hobbit ears through natural processes.

My best correct wild (though reasoned) guess of the evening was for this question: "Which Seventies band was offered a billion dollars to reunite in 2000?"

A billion fricking dollars! Mamma mia!

Comments

[jackwilliambell.livejournal.com]

Led Zep already reunited, so it prolly isn't them. Who does that leave with enough draw to attract that kind of offer?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Led Zep was my first guess, too, and we likewise quickly remembered that they actually reunited on their own. So yeah, then I started thinking about who was *really* huge in the Seventies ...

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Tell me it wasn't the BeeGees. Then by god tell me who it was, please! Not dear god the Village People?!! Fleetwood Smack?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Nope to all of those, although I would say you're getting warmer with the BeeGees.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Abba!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

For the win!

[jackwilliambell.livejournal.com]

Ech...

I thought 'Abba' too, then thought "No freaking way anyone wants them back that bad."

No accounting for taste I guess, much less lack of same...

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

No accounting for taste, but plenty of accounting for money. Somebody must have figured they could earn that billion back, which is kind of mind-blowing.

[wrdnrd]

Or they thought there was a good enough chance they wouldn't have to spend it in the 1st place? Tho' i don't know enough about ABBA to really make that guess. Disturbingly, tho', after you said "not the BeeGees" above my next thought was "Please, god, don't let it be ABBA."

CNN - Showbuzz - February 2, 2000

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

ABBA refuses $1 billion reunion offer

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Members of the Swedish '70s band ABBA say they won't get back together -- not even for $1 billion.

An American-British consortium offered them that amount to reunite for 100 concerts, but they refused. "It is a hell of a lot of money to say no to, but we decided it wasn't for us," Benny Andersson tells the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.

ABBA disbanded 17 years ago, but their hit songs are currently experiencing an international revival. Part of the credit goes to the teen group A-Teens, whose covers versions of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" and "Mamma Mia" have risen up the charts. And the musical "Mamma Mia," based on ABBA songs, has become a hit in London -- sending sales of the album "ABBA Gold" soaring.

[sniprest]

Re: CNN - Showbuzz - February 2, 2000

[wrdnrd]

Why won't you let me have my illusions??

Eh, what do i know about how big ABBA was anyway? I was <10 for all of the '70s.

Re: CNN - Showbuzz - February 2, 2000

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Punk!

Re: CNN - Showbuzz - February 2, 2000

[wrdnrd]

Are YOU calling ME a punk? Now that's irony!

Punk!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not much of a punk anymore, if I ever was more than a poser.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

It could have been worse; you could have been name-wormed by Bill Bixby.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Certainly not an impossibility, since I used to watch The Courtship of Eddie's Father as a kid. Then there's Bill Burns ...

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I SHALL RETURN!!!!!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

We'll have to start calling you the General!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I was mortified when I spotted the hair in the mirror. It was as if a million teenage sales clerks had sniggered at me simultaneously. Or retroactively, as the case may be. I suddenly felt like my grandfather.

[kdotdammit.livejournal.com]

I hate the random hair thing. And why can't our loved ones tell us that we have sprouted unsightly hairs? I discovered one on my cheek and one on my chin recently. I was like, "What? I'm becoming Broom Hilda or something?" Also, I recently noticed that nostril hairs turn gray.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Okay, the graying nostril hairs had me laughing out loud. I'm imagining people using henna on their nostril hairs.

The thing that struck me when I noticed my ear hair was that I think my sister-in-law was trying to tell me about it last time I was with the family, but I didn't get the hint. Of course, why would you just hint about a thing like that? Why wouldn't you just say, "My god, you've got a half mile of hair sticking out of your ear!"

[bluewoad.livejournal.com]

My wife (nicely) calls them 'mutant hairs'. I seem to get them, but thankfully none out of the ears... yet.

Of course, you could always grow them out and then just have one of the most unique comb-overs ever.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I think I'm older than you, aren't I? So maybe I'm just ahead of you on the signs-of-aging curve.

And an ear-hair comb-over definitely sounds hobbitish, doesn't it? Or is all their hair on their toes?

[bluewoad.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're older than me. I'm just a young'un (37). I just look so much older coz of all the kids.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm the one with the ear hair!

[jackwilliambell.livejournal.com]

Why didn't you just yank it out?

Of course, when you do, two more grow back...

What is it with getting old anyway? You start losing hair where you want it and gaining hair where no hair belongs.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Ow! The very thought of yanking it out makes my flesh crawl.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

The "Mamma Mia!" was a clue for me. But it's already been discussed.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

You're the only one who seems to have picked up on it!

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Where is akirlu when you need her?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I figured she'd get it right away, but perhaps she was too busy discussing the Hugos elsewhere. It actually made it more fun for there to be a short guessing game.

[bluewoad.livejournal.com]

I picked up the clue. My 12-year-old daughter is a big ABBA fan (where did I go wrong?), so I clued in on it immediately.

I wonder if ABBA had accepted how long it would've taken to make a counter-offer of twice that amount for them to not reunite. I would've donated some.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and ABBA probably would have loved it, since it sounded like they really didn't want to tour. I mean, you'd really have to want *not* to tour to turn down a billion dollars, I'd say.

So did your daughter talk you into taking her to the movie?

[bluewoad.livejournal.com]

She was interested until I described what it was about. Now she just wants the soundtrack.

[paulcarp.livejournal.com]

I completely love that ABBA is an acronym. Kinda.

Anna, Benny, Bjorn, Frida.

I wondered why they weren't FABB.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Didn't want to compete with the Fab Four? But Anna could have changed her name to Ulrika, and they could have gone for FABU. Or BUFA! The magic toad!