trivia

okay...

my head is filled with junk.

total junk.

i have recently been bemoaning to craig and mike (and anyone else who'll listen) my inability of late to put a sotry together the way i used to. oh, sure, i'm fairly happy with the one that's currently running in the perhapanauts, and there are a few other things i'm working on right now that give me that same jolt that writing something you enjoy can bring. but it comes a lot harder than it used to. there was a time when i felt i was on fire and all the elements of a good story would just fall into place in my head. now those elements take a little more rearranging, a little more coaxing into place.

my friend dave will say it's 'cause we're getting older and our memories are going, but i don't buy that. first, because i don't think that storytelling part of my brain has anything to do with my memory. totally different muscles. second, because i KNOW right when this slowing down started, know that there was a pretty powerful emotional...event, i guess, (a break-up) a few years back that left me with a writer's block that shut down almost all production in that area of the plant.
but mostly the reason that i don't feel that it's my memory is 'cause there is just SO MUCH USELESS INFORMATION IN THERE THAT BOGGLES EVEN MY MIND!! I"M BOGGLING MY OWN MIND!!!

here's how my brain works...
i'm watching tv the other day and a commercial comes on for this hair restoration process by bosley.
in an instant, my mind does this.
bosley was the name of charlie's intermediary on "charlie's angels".
bosley was played by david doyle.
they originally wanted tom bosley for the role.
he was busy being howard cunningham on "happy days".
coincidentally, the two played in-laws at odds on the short-lived, 1972 mixed-marriage sitcom, "bridget loves bernie", starring david birney and merdith baxter birney.
an instant!
that's what my mind went to first.
(maybe it's a defense mechanism because i'm in denial over my slowly thinning hair. i dunno.)

either way, that's where my mind goes; to all sorts of bizarre, needless, worthless information that could only help me if i lucked out with those categories on "jeopardy".
the book, america the book, by jon stewart and the daily show gang, asks the question "how many supreme court justices can you name? now how many of the brady bunch can you name? what does that say about you?" 4 supreme court justices (but that's mostly 'cause they had just named them in the previous chapter in the book!) but i can easily conjure up ALL OF THE BRADY BUNCH!! AND THEIR REAL NAMES!!
and what was the dog's name on "the brady bunch"?
what was the dog's name on "the partridge family"?
what was the dog's name on "the ghost and mrs. muir"?
where did anne marie's parents live on "that girl"?
sure, imdb and google and the rest of the internet can put any of that stuff at your fingertips in a hearbeat--but it's rattling around in my head constantly!
and i can't help thinking that if there were a real pensive somewhere that i could off-load some of that garbage maybe i could write something good for once.

so, of course, this leads me to throwing out a trivia challenge.
unfortunately, 'cause i don't have a tv show like" jeopardy" or "who wants to be a millionaire?", we'll hafta do it old school. like a take-home test using the honor system. so NOT using imdb or google or the internet or turning on your tv or referencing your 2006 leonard maltin movie guide, jot down your answers to these and write 'em in to the comments section (or, of course, put 'em in an e-mail and send 'em to me at todd@perhapanauts.com) and we'll see how everybody does.
after this, maybe you guys should send in questions to me and we'll see if my head really is filled with fluff...?
anyway, here's the quiz...

1. what was the dog's name on "the brady bunch"?
2. what movie's poster touted "just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water"?
3. prior to "the x-files", david duchovny played an fbi agent on another tv series. what was the show?
4. there are only 3 words in the english language that begin with the letters "dw". what are they? (proper names and derogatory terms don't count ie; dwight or dweeb)
5. what was the dog's name on "the partridge family"?
6. how many of each animal did moses take on the ark?
7. what was the dog's name on "the ghost and mrs. muir"?
8. what was "alf"s real name?
9. name the 6 james bonds?
10. where did anne marie's parents live on "that girl"?

smell ya later!
todd