In 2019, my husband and I moved to Searsmont, Maine, a small town that has everything we need (except a gas station): a great little store, a library, a post office, a church, and a brewery called Threshers. Late one afternoon, before the pandemic hit, we found ourselves at the brewery, where the weekly trivia night was about to begin.
We quickly formed a team with some friends (we were and continue to be called Ass Magic) and we won! Like a gambler, I've been hooked ever since. The host is an abrasive, loud, and lovable ex-Marine named Matt, who, it turns out, went to my high school a few towns over. He booms out clues in the categories of sports, history, TV, music, science, and nature, and always includes a different “revolver” category — named for the in-house revolver beer that changes hops every month. It's a lot of fun, costs just $2 a person to enter, and brightens up the long Maine winter, during which the game moves inside, where there is now a brick oven pizza joint offering delicious hand-thrown farm-to-table pizzas.
Except for the months when Covid-19 forced us to stay home, we’ve been going to Threshers every Wednesday night to play trivia. I can’t get enough of it. The questions make me laugh and always challenge me to wrack my brain for an answer I just know is in there somewhere. I've even brought trivia into my classroom (I’m an 8th grade Language Arts teacher) and my students love it as much as I do! Our current round of trivia includes the categories of America, Stranger Things, Ancient Civ, Fast Food, Holidays, and The Office. I plan to go find a set of small trophies at Goodwill to use for silly prizes.
When I regularly played Quizzo (pub quiz) in the 90s, our team name was: Ted Dancin' on Air.