Peggy Dover

It had been a long day after a couple hours. A busy morning at home quickly catapulted into an equally robust afternoon with a bass lesson and grocery shopping. However, by Monday evening, I found myself beetling off (Wodehouse style) for a second trip to Medford to take on all comers in a rousing joust of Trivial Pursuit, a game I thought I enjoyed.

Various establishments host the game. They’re dotted throughout the valley like land mines for the overly confident. I thought because I’d taken the “Jeopardy!” online test, that gave me a passport to vast knowledge. The difference is, I never knew the outcome with “Jeopardy!” Jake, the host for TP at Jefferson Spirits on E. Main Street, belted out our scores using a microphone. Ah, the trials to which I place myself on the altar of entertainment. But I’m getting ahead.

We began with fortifying drinks before descending the stairwell of possible humiliation where teams gather to match wits. Hindsight would have me questioning the choice of lemon drop for an intimidating bracer. An old-fashioned would have been more appropriate since I soon found myself seated at the Boomer table while around us loomed thirty-somethings looking alert and salivating. I assuaged my doubts by recalling that two of my three teammates had recently been on the winning team, the Frankly My Dears, at Dana Campbell Vineyards. I sipped at the frosted rim and tried to summon real intelligence.

The way they play at Jefferson Spirits is by asking 10 questions in each of three categories. Each question in rounds one and two are worth one point, and round three is worth two points, for a possible total of 40 points. I began to squirm when Jake announced that the first category was “Futurama.” Now, I knew this was some type of inane adult cartoon that my sister and brother-in-law adored. I asked if I could phone a friend, but that’s a different game. No one on our foursome, the Men of Action, (though two of us were clearly females) had ever seen the show. Nevertheless, as the questions came, we fabricated answers out of the clear blue and had fun that way. I thought funny answers should count double. I should announce my team members to evenly distribute shame where shame is due. The three comrades in chagrin were Lane Hall, Denis Davis and Denise Summers.

The opposing teams sounded sickeningly cheery as I felt the noose begin to tighten. We managed to get the one multiple-choice question. Somehow, God granted us the knowledge and we all agreed that Seymour was indeed the name of the dog on the show. I’ll file that away.

Jake announced team standings into the mic after each round so we could be three-time losers. That ought to have earned us a fresh round of drinks. We stood or were mowed flat, rather, in fifth place. Yes, five teams. We had nowhere to go but up. Up the stairs and out the door had we been really using our noodles. But optimism is a powerful drug, and the next category was famous people in bands. We got a few correct. Lane knew that Steven Seagal had a black belt in Aikido. I knew that Zooey Deschanel was the lead in “New Girl,” a nugget I picked up from a recent crossword — the only way I ever learn anything about pop culture.

The third category was directors. Denis and I felt fairly confident that we could lift our team out of the gutter and score double points in the final go-round. I’m thinking Hitchcock, DeMille, Ford, Hawks, etc. But lo and behold, there have been other directors since the 1960s.

I crawled over to congratulate the first-place team while checking for the encyclopedia under their table.

Three cheers to Jake, who is an energetic and outstanding emcee, and not too shabby in the dance category.

Maybe the experience will teach us to act our age, but I doubt it. I do think I’ll stick to wineries, however. At least there we can lose with a view.