Did You Know?

It takes frighteningly little to make me happy; for example, getting my coffee for free will make my whole day.

Once each week, on my way to the day job, I stop at the same Starbucks to treat myself to a tall latte. I haven’t paid a dime for my cup-o-joe for the past month.

The reason?

Trivia.

My Starbucks has begun posting occasional trivia questions, and not only have I been lucky enough to patronize the store on trivia day, but also it seems the individual choosing the questions believes the crap sitting in my head qualifies as arcane.

Here are the questions that have garnered me free lattes for the past few weeks:

1. Before it was a movie, Psycho was a story. Who wrote the original tale?
2. Who was the host of the show featuring both J.P. Morgan and The Unknown Comic?
3. What is an Onomatopoeia?
4. Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?

Question number four was featured today, and even better than the free drink was the look on the barista’s face when I came up with the answer. According to her, no one had even guessed the line was from a song, let alone been able to follow up with the answer.

I can tell she thinks it’s a bit weird I seem to know the answers to all of the trivia questions.

I think it’s a bit weird they keep picking stuff I would have to have lived my life under a rock not to know.

I can take being thought weird as long as the free lattes keep flowing.

For those of you who don’t know them, here are the answers:

1. Robert Bloch wrote Psycho.


2. It was called The Gong Show.


3. An Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it symbolizes: the words buzz, zip, purr, swish, and boom are examples.


4. Just like me, they long to be close to you. (Drag out your Carpenter LPs!)