Two true stories here as well...
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First (and if this is more common than I realize, I apologize in advance).....
I don’t have any memorable “almost-perfect” stories. However, on one occasion I did have a “reverse-almost-perfect”.
I got my board just as a game of Countdown was winding down. I completed my login after question 15 had already started to tick down. By the time I read the questions and punched in my answer, the score had almost reached zero.
Almost.
My score for that question - and my final score for the game – was…
1.
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And next.....
Once upon a time, there was a waterhole just up the street from where I worked; several of my friends and I spent a fair amount of time and money there back in the day. Anyhow, over the years the bar changed hands on several occasions, and I changed jobs and addresses as well.
Some years later, after moving back to my hometown, I was driving past the old hangout one day when I saw the words "NTN Trivia" on the marquee that was now on the outside of the bar. Although I already had a regular NTN hangout, I decided that if I was ever in the neighborhood some night, I would check the place out for old times' sake.
And so I did. I pulled in one evening, walked into the bar...and immediately noted that it was decorated in Early Harley, as were most of the patrons. I had not noticed the goodly number of motorcycles parked in the lot on the side of the bar opposite from where I had parked...and, since I normally did not go through this section of town anymore for logistical reasons, I was completely unaware that it had become a local biker hangout.
What the hell, I thought. So I ordered a beer and a board (since nobody else was playing, getting a playmaker was no problem whatsoever), sat down, and began playing.
Have you ever had the sense that you were being watched, even when you were concentrating on something else? Yeah. By the second break in my first Countdown game, I was quite aware of several pairs of eyes watching me from the end of the bar. And, needless to say, the people in question were not dressed as though they were at a stockbroker's convention.
I was on a roll that game, and wound up on the national top-20 board. As I turned away to go to the bathroom after checking my score, my eyes caught somebody standing right behind me. It was, of course, the biggest, most badass-looking of the guys from the end of the bar.
"You know..."
Now, I am not sure about any of you reading this, but I do not recall too many conversations over the course of my lifetime that began with the words "you know" and turned out very well...
"You know...we were watching you play. Damn...nobody ever gets our house on that board! Put your money away...the beer is on me and my friends the rest of the night!"
Needless to say, I was not about to argue with a guy who could probably dismember me and have one free arm left to hoist his mug. So I moved on down, sat with them for a couple of hours, and really had a very good time.
Unfortunately, the bar took the game out not long afterwards. And I never did see my benefactors again...
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