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Column: ‘Tiger’ is not his real first name

BEVERLEA WALZ PHOTO The brainiest in the ‘Battle of the Brains’ at the library. From left, moderator Bob DeStefano and the winning team of Abby Dress, Kimberly Rea, Kevin Byrne and Amber Brach-Williams.
BEVERLEA WALZ PHOTO
The brainiest in the ‘Battle of the Brains’ at the library. From left, moderator Bob DeStefano and the winning team of Abby Dress, Kimberly Rea, Kevin Byrne and Amber Brach-Williams.

“If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”

That line was said in a movie over 70 years ago. If you knew the name of that movie, you would have been a good partner in our general knowledge quiz at the Shelter Island Library last Friday night.

If you were an even better partner, you could have had answered this one. “How many teaspoons in a tablespoon.”

Sounds too simple, right?

Simple as attending a fun evening at your library. At that time, I asked 53 similar questions to nine teams of four playing in the competition.

The winning team only needed 39 correct to defeat the second-place team by one answer.

Even though I don’t think the word “trivia” fits my description of a good question, it’s still my favorite game. Since I’m not crazy about the word T-word, I prefer “general knowledge.” I like questions that you care about the subject of the question, you should know it and it creates a conversation among your team.

Thanks to the library staff, they welcomed this event for the third time and named it “The Battle of the Brains.” They charged nothing to attend and offered food, drink and prizes for all the attendees. The goal was to have an enjoyable get-together for all of us who were on the Island this week.

What could be more enjoyable than starting an evening by having all cell phones placed in the middle of the table. Yes, we were forcing players to have to think to come up with an answer.

Alexa was not allowed in the room.

When we had everyone fed and seated, the questions started coming. Plenty of time was allowed for discussion.

But it really didn’t matter how much time I allowed for discussion when it came to a question asking about the most popular golfer in the world for the last 20 years. No one in the room could answer “What is Tiger Woods first name?”

While we were playing, Tiger was also in the middle of his comeback, solidly in fourth place while competing in the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

As the evening was ending, we hadn’t heard a phone ring for a couple of hours. The room was filled with laughter and conversation. The winning team, the brainiest of the brains, was made up of Amber Brach-Williams, Abby Dress, Kimberlea Shaw Rae and Kevin Byrne. So that they will continue to improve, the library awarded a new trivia book with 2,000 new questions to the winners.

Along with winning trivia contests, Kevin Byrne is a stand up comic. I put him on the spot by asking him for a taste of his act. He improved the evening by giving us 10 minutes of his comedy.

Keep your eyes open for our next appearance at the library. We also run a few of these nights at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. Everyone is welcome and it’s free.

The next one in Southampton will be Monday night, March 12. Hope to see a Shelter Island team attending and taking on the brainiest folks on the south side.

Oh, and Mr. Wood’s first name?

Eldrick.

But you knew that.