By Judy Reiss

I have always considered myself almost a savant about trivia! Just ask my children, I don’t think I have missed an episode of Jeopardy since it began about 30 years ago. Every night that we watch the program I am as quick as a bunny to shout out the answers. And a lot of the time, I am right. And when I answer a particularly hard question Malcolm will applaud! For years, several of my children have suggested that I go on the program because I am so good at it. Of course, I have always lowered my eyes and pretended that I was embarrassed at the suggestion but that I really am not that smart. Well, let me tell you what happened.

In Waitsfield, we have a restaurant call the Elusive Moose that decided they would introduce something for friends and customers, just for fun. Every other Wednesday night, they have Trivia Night that is free. Not only that, but it is now sponsored by Woodchuck Hard Cider, which means they give prizes!

Well, the first night they had Trivia Night, I was unable to go, but I had a good friend who did go and she told me what a good time she had and that we should be sure and go the next week. So, I thought that it would be fun to go, but that it might not be fair to the others who would be there because I was so good. Now I want to tell you how our night went.

It was snowing like crazy so there weren’t too many people there to play and of course, my first thought was that we would probably not only win but crush everyone else. So Cloe and I picked out our table and took a very conservative name for our team, Hill Women. We glanced around at the other teams and no one looked outstanding to me. It just tells you how looks can deceive!

Now the first round, out of seven, was a miscellaneous category and I told Cloe not to worry but when the first question came up, neither of us had any idea of the answer. But I wasn’t worried, after all, it was the first question. We went through all the 10 questions and again, we didn’t answer all the questions. But when the round was over, we found that we had tied with answer team for first place! And I had won a pair of sunglasses and Cloe won a very nice glass. So, now we were on a roll and ready to swamp all the other teams.

Truthfully, I can’t remember what the other six categories were but I can hardly tell you that in the music category we didn’t get even one answer! In fact, except for the history category in which we got four answers correct, we did just about as bad as was possible. I just couldn’t believe it. Wasn’t I a Jeopardy champ? What happened to me and our anchor, Cloe?

Well, at the end of the tournament, we were not only not the winners, but the winner was a team of 3, which included a young man of about 22, who I think was a ringer! I saw him quickly writing in all the answers, especially about music. And not only did they win, I think that actually slaughtered the rest of us. They won a terrific parka to boot.

When I softly mentioned to Cloe that I thought we won the Booby Prize, one of the people on another team said, “boy, I haven’t heard the phrase Booby Prize in years!” And I thought, “Lord, how old are we?”

So we didn’t win. Was I upset? Not really except that I thought there were lots of answers that we should have gotten. Will I go again? Of course I will. In fact, I can hardly wait. Cloe and I have decided that what we actually need is a young person to help round out our team and one that knows what happened in the past 30 years! We also have the word out that we are anxious to discuss participation in our team to anyone who would like to join. We don’t need the smartest of participant. Nope what we need is someone with a good sense of humor!

Should you want to join us at The Moose, just know that the name Hill Women is already taken and from now on we are prepared to win! Or if we can’t win, we no longer are going to be real good sports if we get the Booby Prize.