Knowledge grows when beer flows

Trivia night makes for a pleasant bar scene

Picture this: You walk into a bar and you’re greeted by the sound of quiet murmuring. You don’t have to dodge any elbows or squeeze past any butts. The path to the bar isn’t crowded with people. Once you reach the bartender you give him your order in your “inside” voice.

Nobody’s yelling, people aren’t leaning over the bar until their feet practically lift off the floor, no drunks are trying to make your personal bubble their personal dance floor and no one shouting across the bar or in each other’s faces. Everyone is huddled intently at his or her own table. You take your drink, head over to your friends and chat naturally, without having to shriek or lip read.

This down-tempo bar scene is a description of trivia night at the Moose Lounge. I’ve been actively avoiding trivia nights for the same reason I used to avoid karaoke-I’m bad at it and it makes me feel stupid. But I thought I’d give it a shot and I was rather surprised how much I enjoyed the experience, so much so that I wouldn’t mind having trivia night more than once a week.

From my personal experience as a 23-year-old bar frequenter, “pleasant” is an adjective normally reserved for coffee shops, not Coeur d’Alene’s downtown bars. But the atmosphere in the Moose on Wednesday was just that – refreshingly mellow.

Wednesday night hits that mid-week point where it’s time for a drink, but there are still too many responsibilities to be stumbling home drunk. The Moose Lounge has a lot of live music, which is really great, but sometimes it just gets too loud and too crowded. You’re practically forced to do some sort of bizarre interpretive dance as you wind your way through the narrow passage between the bar, the tables and the patrons.

When I walked in on Wednesday night, everyone was sitting down. I could tell by the silence in the room that people were taking their trivia pretty seriously, but there wasn’t a hint of hostility or rowdiness in the air. I remember how wild the kids would be when I worked as a camp counselor for Art Shop. It always took some effort to settle them into ‘classroom’ mode after recess.

Trivia night somehow reminded me of watching a bunch of rambunctious children who were given paint and paintbrush and could visibly be seen settling their little minds on the task.

Now, I’m not trying to be demeaning with this metaphor. Trivia night is a test of wits. But it’s also a surprisingly soothing antidote for the volatile concoction of adults and booze. Don’t get me wrong, people still get as hammied as much as they would on a Saturday night, but at least they are using their minds as much as their livers.

It makes me wonder if we shouldn’t start incorporating a drinking policy into the classroom. It certainly makes learning more fun.

And you have to ask yourself, when’s the last time you left the bar feeling like you actually learned something?