Filed under: san francisco, the bitter end, tim's mom, trivia night, university of san francisco, usf
Trivia night is a popular event offered by many San Francisco bars. Among them is The Bitter End, which in addition to questions to stump the eggiest of heads serves up $10 pitchers of beer, alcohol and t-shirt give-aways, and a raucous atmosphere. The best part of trivia at the Bitter End though? “That’s gotta be Tim,” said Jesse, a trivia regular. Tim, a 25 year old native San Franciscan and USF alumnus, is known for his perpetually popped collar and skills on the mic as the host of Trivia Night at the Bitter End for the better part of the last two years. He researches the questions, coordinates the event, tallies the scores, and berates the audience seemingly all at the same time.
To keep things interesting between rounds, there is a best team name competition which awards the best team name (not everything is tricky) as judged by audience reaction. The winning team is treated to a round of shots, courtesy of Tim. Often the winning team names are a clever bon mot, a witty reference to current events, a crude and unfounded disparagement of the moral fiber of the host’s mother, or some combination of all three. Tim’s favorite team name: War is God’s Way of Teaching Americans Geography (he noted with disappointment it later turned out to be plagarized from stand-up comedian, Paul Rodriguez). Tim isn’t in love with the mother jokes so we don’t see eye to eye on my favorite: Tim’s Mom is Givin’ it up for Lent (offered this year on Mardi Gras and one of the few if not only printable instances of a Tim’s mom joke). Fortunately, Tim’s mom isn’t aware that her good name is being sullied in this fashion, but that blissful ignorance was nearly shattered when she made her only visit to Trivia Night. “At first it was something my friends would just do,” Tim said in reference to the mother jokes. “But one week my father came to visit trivia, and so I had him stand up and wave. That night the best team name was For a Good Time, Call Tim’s Dad. The next week, my mom came out. It really blew up and things got a bit nastier. He knew what to expect from the week before, so my dad lead my mom out before we had to read off the team names.”
While they often provide the biggest laughs, the best team name contest is only a distraction from the main event. Trivia Night is a competition, so what do you win? It’d be easy to say anyone who goes will come away with a smile, but actual prizes go to the top three teams, and it’s something everyone can enjoy, cash: thirty dollars to the winning team, twenty to second place, and ten for third.
The money is as well earned as free money can be. Trivia is often very tough. Try it for yourself. Here are a few recent questions from Trivia Night. Click to find the answers:
Name the top three selections in this year’s NFL Draft.
In which century did the first crusade occur?
What archipelagic nation has the fourth highest population in the world?
Trivia Night, every Tuesday at 9 pm at The Bitter End. Located at 411 Clement between 5th and 6th Avenues. Arrive early if you want to get a seat.
Filed under: bon appetit might be a sarcastic name, cafeteria, i guess this wasn't that surprising, i should have just eaten the ten dollars, roast beef sandwich, university of san francisco, usf
For a while now, I’ve been hearing quite a bit about a certain neighborhood eatery. Frequented by all the college kids and still totally underground (alright, built into a hill), the buzz is unbelievable. I walk past it just about every day, and I’ve decided that I owe to myself to find out what everyone’s been talking about. I am, of course, referring to the Bon Appetit-run Market Café found at the University Center on the University of San Francisco’s main campus. Now, before you call shenanigans on my unfamiliarity with my own school’s cafeteria, bear in mind I’ve never lived on campus and reside only a couple blocks from school so heading home for a meal in the middle of a day of classes is about as convenient as—and cheaper than—any on-campus option.
Not being initiate to Market Cafe culture, I asked around for what I should expect. Tiffany Dempton, a senior media studies major, visits the Cafe (pronounced as you would ‘calf,’ but you knew that) once or twice a week “They have a lovely lasagna,” she said. “Chicken with portabello and goat cheese and what I think was asiago sprinkled on top.” That actually sounds pretty good, I thought, now I’ll have something to look forward to.
So with lasagna on the brain, and days, not weeks, left in my college career, I made the trek up to campus to explore what has been for many students the first frontier of life at USF. Arriving at the Market Cafe at around 2 pm on a Tuesday, I was first struck by the emptiness of the place. I thought this place was bursting at the seams with students. And it was not just a lack of students, but the food stations were abandoned too. Deli station, salad bar, pizza: all empty. It is difficult to say which left first, the student or the cafeteria worker, but either way the place was dead. In fact, it was so dire my only options were pre-packaged sandwiches and some bell peppers on ice. I opted for the sandwich.
If you think a roast beef sandwich wrapped in cellophane does not sound great, you’d be right. Paired with some particularly slimy tomatoes and some mayonnaise that I shouldn’t have deconstructed the sandwich to get a look at, getting the thing down was a chore. And along with chips and a soda, the tab came out to nearly ten dollars. American. Now, let’s summarize: a sandwich wrapped in plastic, a mundane bag of chips and a bottle of soda to be enjoyed in a graveyard-like environment, all for the (truly) amazing price of $10. This place is madness. Shaking my head as I turned for home and looking hard for a silver lining to my experience, I realized at least I hadn’t been missing out on something great all along.
Alright, here’s a great how-to on the best way to view blogs right now. From Common Craft via usfblogtastic.
Filed under: golden gate park, green apple arts and music festival, san francisco, stephen marley, university of san francisco, usf, video demo
Well, the camera angle is about as phenomenal as the fact Stephen Marley stopped playing as soon as I started capturing video.
However!
This has been a valuable exercise in video embedding.
