For my daughter's birthday, some of us head to a restaurant for wings and nachos and all kinds of crazy stuff. The meal is decent and the company is stellar, but the trivia we play on the tablets is vicious.First, we play trivia against each other. This is good because my daughter's friend wins first, and then I win. Somewhere in the middle of the trivia game, another person joins us, someone named Eck whom we cannot see anywhere in the room. It is obvious from the score that, unlike our band of sisters, this person must be sitting alone ... or should be.
But, our little circle of friends will prevail. We won't let Eck beat us -- not until we are ready to move away from the game. Perhaps we will opt out and leave him playing all alone (adult version of Ding-Dong Ditch); perhaps we will all answer the questions but only use one tablet.
Wait a second, though. Here's a question I can answer: "Beowulf is the oldest existing English..."
"Poem!" I yell at my screen. "Poem, poem, poem, poem..." And this goes on for a bit while the computer decides whether or not I can wager a guess then turn it into a score.
In the end, we beat Eck for one game out of three or four. However, we don't intend to waste my daughter's birthday trying to figure out who the game-playing, dateless, super-competitive person is in the room with us. Leftover wings are packed up and handed around the table, then, after splitting a huge piece of cake and an enormous glob of ice cream, we say a silent good-bye to Eck (who is still playing trivia by him or herself) and head home.
By the way, the answer is "epic poem." Boom.
