Place: The Liberal Cup Trivia Night in Hallowell, Maine.
Distance from campus: 35 minutes.
Time: Every Tuesday Night, 8 p.m.–11 p.m.
Number of Companions: One or more.
Ingredients and gear: Brains equipped with a Bowdoin College education, plus a few random facts.
Cost: $10 per team.
Brunswick is surrounded by nooks that are worth discovering. If you are looking for a unique alternative study break on any given Tuesday night, let me recommend gathering your chums together to try your luck at Trivia Night at the Liberal Cup—a watering hole on Main Street in the picturesque town of Hallowell. A group of Bowdoin students ventured here this summer and found it to be a fresh escape from campus life.
"We were greeted by the smell of traditional English food," said Thompson Ogilvie '10. Bangers and Mash—pub fare of sausages and garlic-enhanced mashed potatoes—are popular options on the menu. The group made its way through the dimly lit restaurant to an open table, noticing four portly men with long white beards whispering over their plates.
"One of them could have been Santa Claus," Ogilvie said, convincingly. Laura Peterson '12, a central Maine native and Liberal Cup regular, knew from experience that they would be tough competitors in the field.
"You always have to watch out for that table," Peterson said.
By eight o'clock, the pub was packed to the brim with people of all ages—college students, families and even a handful of children.
The Bowdoin gang gave ten dollars to the host, "a tall, gregarious man with a funny voice," said Lindsey Horowitz '12 and in exchange received a piece of paper numbered 1 through 30 in two columns.
Then the questions started coming: "Who was the first baseball player to make more money than the president?" (Babe Ruth), "Who was the last sitting president to win the Nobel Peace Prize?" (Woodrow Wilson). The categories included Arts and Literature, Maine, Sports and Beer and Leisure. The Polar Bears tossed around answers from one end of the table to the other—keeping everything at a mumble so as not to be overheard.
As the night went on, tension in the Liberal Cup grew. Locals cheered confidently when asked a price-is-right style trivia. "How much did I pay for this pair of Carhartt pants?" the announcer bellowed, as a waitress followed him around the restaurant displaying the trousers. "If you guess within 20 percent of the cost, you get 1/2 a point. If you guess within 10 percent, you get a full point. If your guess is right on the money, you score 2 points. But if your guess is just a penny more than the price, you don't get anything!"
Finally, all thirty lines of the paper were filled with answers (and educated guesses). The host announced the correct answers, one by one.
"Hoots came from tables around us—but we decided to save any immediate celebration and play it cool, as Polar Bears do," said Colin Ogilvie '12. The team did not win first place, but discovered that they were candidates for the middle-place prize.
"Our tie-breaking question was 'How many people live in Boise, Idaho?' Stephen Gonzalez '09 remembered.
"The highlight of my night was when the announcer walked over to our table and threw the middle place prize money in the air so that it rained on us. That's how we found out we won. Forty dollars in fives and ones!" Horowitz said.
I would like to challenge you, Bowdoin students, to try your luck at Hallowell's Tuesday night trivia night. You might return to school with more than just garlic breath. Words of advice:
1) Study a local newspaper on your way from Brunswick to Hallowell. Not only will this be helpful for you to get to know central Maine, but it will assure you a point or two!
2) Gonzalez would warn you to not the get the Beer and Cheese Soup. "Beer and fine cheese just doesn't work. It tasted like it was going to mold inside my stomach". Apparently, it did not go down as smoothly as the homemade French fries.