Cities Starting with "S"

The last six years, since I first moved to Seattle, could be delineated by pub trivia. When I moved here, it was one of the first regular social things I got roped into, and then I was soon hooked by winning a nice $350 jackpot from a question about Jimmy Carter ("I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times."). When I lived in Stockholm for my Valle Fellowship, I was roped into the only pub quiz in town -- at an English pub in Östermalm. Back in Seattle, I quickly burnt out on the Irish Emigrant, but after a break I eventually found myself occasionally bouncing between trivia nights at the Kangaroo & Kiwi and at The Jones.

So it's only natural that there had to be some kind of final trivia night in Seattle. Thanks to Kapena for arranging it -- he rallied all our regular team members to come to the K&K, even bringing the legendary Tim back out of retirement from India. When Tim had his "final" quiz back in...March(?)..., we did the same thing, and we pulled out a dramatic win by coming in strong in the last couple rounds. So we had high hopes for my final night as well.

What we didn't anticipate, however, was the competition. It wasn't that there were so many other teams (actually, it was a slow night), but that one particular team, two tables over, were professional competitors: the Seattle Storm. Yes, the Seattle Storm, our city's WNBA team, including the one-two-punch of Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson. Now, this was true challenge. Sure, they weren't too shabby with random facts and figures, but even worse, they were distracting some of our players from the game ("oh...damn, she caught me glancing over there again!")...you see, not only are they national-championship basketball players, but...they're also hot. But after a few rounds, we got a grip and sailed through to a big first-place win. As to the Storm? Well, I'll just say they didn't place in the top three. I have to hand it to them, though, they were fiercely competitive: gloriously excited at every right answer and vocally indignant at some questionable wrong answers. Now that's the way to play pub trivia.