By Dessa Bayrock (Team YOLO) and Melissa Spady (Team ‘90s) – Email
Print Edition: March 20, 2013
We sent two moderately undercover operatives to record the action at the first annual Library and Information Technology Students Association (LITSA) Quiz Night. While it stormed and poured outside, seven teams pitted their wits against one another in a fierce search for improved knowledge. All proceeds went to fund scholarships and conference fees for LITSA students in the future. Team YOLO and Team ‘90s valiantly held their own … or so they pretend.
Team YOLO: I successfully lured three other students onto my quiz team, mostly because I kept them in the dark about the fact that our name is Team YOLO.
Five rounds, 10 questions per round, one minute per question. That doesn’t sound so hard, right?
Team ‘90s: Like the overpowering sparkle of the ‘90s, I bullied my team mate into the evening’s festivities.
Team YOLO: We arrived at the quiz hall AKA AfterMath campus lounge a little late, but it was a pretty laid-back atmosphere and no one seemed to mind our tardiness. Students in multi-coloured wigs attempt to portray librarians as “fun.” There were snacks. There was fruit. More importantly, there was beer on special.
Team ‘90s: More important than two plates full of cookies? I think not. I did appreciate the colourfulness of the hosts.
Team YOLO: Speaking of hosts … I think I’ve found a new best friend. Her name is Smitty the librarian, and she is the killingest of MCs. Let the record show she could take Alex Trebek with one hand tied behind her back.
Team ‘90s: Seconded. I don’t think they could have found a better quizmaster. Spunky and hardass. She made a room of maybe 20 people feel like a mob … And I mean that as a compliment. Her signature instruction: “Drum roll, please.”
Team YOLO: I don’t think any of us knew we were capable of such musical hand-to-table drumrolls until she became our conductor.
Team ‘90s: In unison, no less.
Team YOLO: We were all feeling pretty good about ourselves … and then they started talking about the Dewey decimal system.
Team ‘90s: Horrible flashbacks to my elementary school days where books had to be looked up by hand. Oh, the horror. Alcohol definitely helped my self-esteem, although it couldn’t prepare me for the onslaught of questions I had no idea how to answer.
Team YOLO: Quick! What was Tolkein’s middle name!
Team ‘90s: I only remember the second one, which was Reuel. I have never heard that name before in my life.
Team YOLO: That’s because it’s not actually a name at all. But quick, what U.S. state has the most active volcanos?
Team ‘90s: Hawaii?
Team YOLO: That’s only what they want you to think. It’s actually Alaska! But quick! Can you correctly identify this passage from Farenheit 451?
Team ‘90s: I thought some of the questions were completely unfair. What if I’ve never read that book? That’s just setting me up for failure! Which turned out to be a theme of the evening. What was the most challenging question for you?
Team YOLO: Well, it honestly didn’t matter – because after I steered my team incorrectly two or three times they just stopped listening to me. Everyone wins! I I chose to interpret it as a sign from the powers that be that it was time for another beer.
Team ‘90s: Which, if I am not mistaken, was when you started getting questions right and everyone discredited you entirely.
Team YOLO: Sometimes it’s hard to be such a vibrant YOLO-er. But other times it’s not so bad. Like when SMITTY HERSELF picks up your battle cry.
Team ‘90s: And gloriously gets the whole pub involved in a battle cry-a-long. No wonder you took home the title of Most Team Spirit.
Team YOLO: I take full credit for that. And you know what? Despite some rough patches and impossible knowledge standards, I would rate the night a 10/10 would quiz again.
Team ‘90s: Absolutely! Even though my team took home the title of Best Golf Score—
Team YOLO: —which just means the lowest score—
Team ‘90s: —we arguably took home the best prize: homemade marshmallow bark. A literal armful of it. I regret nothing. I think essentially everyone won something, one way or another, which is always a good time.
Team YOLO: Absolutely correct. At the end of the night, be it through t-shirts or friendly trash talk or marshmallow bark, we were all winners. Winners of fun. Is that too sappy?
Team ‘90s: Yes. But I’ll let it slide because you have the most team spirit. You’re supposed to be sappy. I think my favourite part, aside from winning candy, was the dramatic interlude of thunder and lightning between questions.
Team YOLO: The weather certainly made for an interesting backdrop. Man, was it pouring. It made the snug atmosphere of the pub just that tiny bit cozier.
Team ‘90s: It made everyone a little more grateful to be inside drinking beers rather than outside in the shower downpour. Even more perfect, the storm had passed by the time the event was over.
Team YOLO: You could say it was like we weathered something together.
Team ‘90s: We sure did. And I’m not just talking about the weather. Getting through some of those rounds was painful to say the least.
Team YOLO: But we got through it. We learned some stuff, and we also helped to fund the LITSA annual scholarship.
Team ‘90s: Knowing all the money was going to a good cause made it worth the stink of failure I had to wash off when I got home.
