Sweet, Sweet Virginie!

Hello all, it's Ryan here. So today is my birthday and birthday's around here are quite a celebration. There is usually a theme for the day that centers around something about the person we are celebrating. My theme? Virginia.

I am from the great state of "lovers," as you may refer to us from our slogan "Virginia is for Lovers." Anyways, so I tell you this because as with the rest of the day lunch club today centered around the VA. We played this very informative game called Jeopardy (maybe you've heard of it). All of the questions were about, you guessed it, Virginia.

I will admit I was really nervous going into it. Everyone thinks that I was a little late to the table because of heating up my Ramen noodles, but I was actually putting my "game face" on and wiping the sweat from my brow. So I sat down to take the reins of "team captain" and on the other side of the table was my nemesis (just in this game), Steven (with a ph). Steven (with a ph) is also from Virginia and I am sure knows much more about it than I do, so I was ready to go down in defeat.

I started the game off by picking the first category and as I anxiously stared down Famous Virginians, Virginia Emblems, Virginia History, and Fun Facts in increments of $100, $250, $500, and $1,000. I remembered what my dad always taught me... "Go Big or Go Home." (Actually I don't think he taught me that but let's just say he did) I chose Fun Facts for $1,000! Oh yeah I did!

Liz, who I assume did all of the work for the game (Thanks Liz), proceeded with the question, uh, answer. "These became the state's highest-grossing exports in 2006, surpassing its traditional top exports of coal and tobacco." Answer: Computer Chips, I mean, what are computer chips? Needless to say no one got that one and I quickly realized the "fun" facts were going to be more facts and less fun.

However, we made it right with the very next question thanks to Oliver. Oliver had very responsibly done his homework and studied up on the VA five minutes before lunch, which proved handy in a lot of very crucial moments. The question: "The state motto of “Sic semper tyrannis” translates roughly to this in English." Answer: Thus always to tyrants. Oh yeah, high-fives all around and a $1,000 lead!

Oh, I forgot to list our teams...!!!

My Team - Evans, Oliver, and Earl (We were joined by Anne midway through the game but she couldn't really play since she knew some of the answers, so she "subtly" persuaded us at points)

Steven (with a ph)'s Team - Deasy, Jorge (he's been sick and couldn't say much, point for my team!), and Marie (They were also joined by Leigh about midway through the game)

We made our way through the rest of the board, always sticking to our team motto (Go Big or Go Home) answering questions like, "Who even knew that there were official state beverages? This is the one for Virginia." (Milk), "This actress was born in Arlington in 1964 – at one time she was considered the successor to Meg Ryan as “America’s Sweetheart.” (Sandra Bullock), "The infamous “Virginia is for Lovers” slogan was appropriately adopted in this year, to appeal to the free thinking minds of young Americans of the day." (1969), "When Virginia seceded during the Civil War to join the Confederacy, 48 counties remaining loyal to the Union. Those counties are now recognized as this." (West Virginia), and so on. There were so many interesting questions!

As tension rose and we were all at each other's throats, right when we thought it was about to get out of hand.... just kidding. It was pretty neck and neck until...

Question: "Though its frontman was born in Africa, it was in Charlottesville Virginia that this famous band formed and got its start in 1991."
My Team: "Dave Matthews Band"
Jorge or Marie, or Steven (with a ph): "Oh, he didn't phrase it as a question!"
Liz: "Oooo, that is right... but I'll let it be a warning this time."

Question: "Troops led by George Washington defeated the British General Cornwallis in this crucial Virginian battle that essentially ended the American Revolution."
Steven (with a ph)'s Team: "Yorktown"

And there went their warning...

Okay, so now we all have to be really careful (the hardest part of Jeopardy we quickly realized was remembering to phrase everything as a question).

And the turning point...
Question: "Dog-fighting bad boy Michael Vick was a top player at this Virginia college before becoming the #1 NFL draft pick in 2001."
Steven (with a ph)'s Team: "Michael Vick"... you see here is what happened, the rule was you could not ring in until after the question and Steven (with a ph) accidently hit the button too early, well, when the question finished he was rattled and accidently said Michael Vick, instead of Virginia Tech. So we had the opportunity to steal and did so.

After it was all said and done my team was ahead by a score of $2950 to $1850 heading into Final Jeopardy. We did the math and hoped we knew the answer because if not they were completely close enough to us to pull out the win (this was serious folks, I mean really, this was office bragging rights).

The question: "Name five of the eight president's born in Virginia."

Remember Oliver? Yeah this is where he won it for us, all of that cramming worked. He briskly wrote down the first three and I just thought back to the pictures on my wall in my elaborately decorated office. Sure enough I could remember two more, George Washington and Zachary Taylor.

Answers were submitted and we all awaited the final verdict. We displayed each teams wager, Steven (with a ph)'s Team: $1848 - My Team: $800. And here's how it played out. We answered with five correct president's but... forgot to phrase it as a question, however, Liz graciously allowed our answer to still be considered correct. Steven (with a ph)'s Team answered all but one president correctly meaning no matter how the "cookie crumbled" my team came out victorious! (Insert claps and cheers here)

With still about fifteen minutes left of Lunch Club, Oliver brought up a blog that he had read that was written by someone at a large book distributor. The blog basically discussed the lack of customer service this person had experienced at certain retail outlets and how they compared to other retail outlets. We, of course, hashed this out and came up with our own thoughts and opinions, but instead of telling you what we said I'll just let you read the blog and you can opionionate on your own...

I know I've been very wordy, but I couldn't allow you to miss out on our lesson about Virginia today. Now you know!

1-800-Visit-VA,
Ryan