ISSUE #62 | FEBRUARY–MARCH 2020 | Submissions: PO Box 6161, Cleveland, Ohio 44101 or [email protected] Presenting Clyde Simon,mon, Lincoln-WestL Global Studieses Reaching Lincoln Heights Land Memories of Living at Artistic Directorr of Students Helping Puerto Use Plan to be Presented to 2464 Tremont in the convergence-continuumum Rico Earthquake Victims Lincoln Heights Block Club 1940s (Part 2) ...page 4 ...page 5 ...page 10 ...page 11 INSIDE A Look into Thursday Trivia Night at Edison’s Pub "Edison’s is just a great place to have a trivia night. Becky and Mike are the best and most responsive bartenders in town. Even when it’s packed to the gills (most Thursdays), you are never waiting long for a drink.” -Matt Mondalek, Quizmaster ...story on pages 2–3 Photo by Shawn C. Mishak Page 2 • Issue #62 • Th e Tremonster • February–March, 2020 Meeting of the Minds: by Shawn C. Mishak “…Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells fi rst. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more effi cient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.” -Cliff Clavin (from the TV show, Cheers) In the heart of downtown Tremont, as everyone knows, is the staple bar, Edison’s Pub (2373 Professor Ave.). What some might not know is that every Thursday night at around 9 pm there is a “meeting of the minds” in the long-running tradition of trivia night or pub quiz. Intellectuals, pseudointellectuals, and non-intellectuals from all backgrounds come shuffl ing in, crowding the bar, adjusting spectacles, and rubbing their bearded chins as they dig into the recesses of their public education retention to conjure up answers in order to showcase their trivia prowess. There is something cozy about a lot of sweaters, knit hats, and fl annel shirts huddling together under the historical Edison’s décor—the colored lights illuminating the crowd as they rack their brains to take a shot at the trivia brass ring. Cleveland State m University alumni can be seen scarfi ng s down pizza and beer while laughter erupts Photo by Shawn C. Mishak from tables as people pick from the silly Matt Mondalek works the room as Quizmaster of Trivia Night Thursdays at Edison's Pub. team names presented to one another. A couple I overheard of were “Doug’s Last out on a piece of paper in anticipation of SM: I feel called to task having to ask expensive back then, and my Dad bought Dance” and “Imperfect Strangers.” turning them into the host as the challenge interesting questions to someone who is an edition a week alphabetically from the Long-time Tremont resident and emcee concludes. If there is a tie, they leave it up a master...any tips? grocery store (weird, right?) After about a of the trivia ceremony is Matt Mondalek, to a friendly game of fl ip cup, where one of MM: Ask questions you think the person year, we had the complete thing. I and my a handsome guy in his early 40s, who the teams breaks into the lead. One of the you are asking would be interested in sister read the whole thing cover to cover. I paws the mic with a Cheshire grin as he sets of questions (many of which Mondalek answering. remember in the middle of that year being turns the music down and gets on with it: comes up with about an hour before the SM: How do you spell your full name? well versed on the world A through K. “Round one, question one.” Hushes break event) was what he called, “T.E.T.s,” like MM: Maroon Matthew Mondalek…Yes, SM: Are you good at Jeopardy? out from the patrons as the question is what is the mountain range in Wyoming? Maroon is my legal fi rst name. MM: I’m pretty good! Funny story—my presented; then, the music goes back up The Tetons. Or, what is a video game SM: What it the offi cial/unoffi cial title of Dad, in lieu of a set allowance, would give as the teams ruminate. When the answers consisting of pairing like-colored blocks? your Trivia Night? me and my younger sister a quarter for are fed, the crowd erupts in a cacophony Tetris, etc. When the music fades, it is time MM: Edison’s Thursday Night Trivia??? I every question we got right on Jeopardy of either celebration if they got the answer to get serious…meaning the question is honestly don’t know. (laughs) starting at about the age of 7 to 8ish. 7:30pm right or grumbles if they got it wrong, but about to be asked. “It is on the tip of my SM: Do you live in Tremont, and if so for at the Mondalek household was frigging go all is done in playful merriment. Becky and tongue!” someone yells out. “No, that’s not how long? time! I remember studying during Wheel Mike, the bar tenders, dance around one right!” I hear to my left. The smell of pizza, MM: I’ve been in Tremont for 10 years of Fortune. Why do you think me and another popping open beer bottles from the beer, and popcorn permeate the air, bottles and love this neighborhood. my sister read the encyclopedia cover to Edison’s impressive and seemingly ever- clank, spontaneous laughter erupts like SM: What is your background, where cover? (laughs) changing beer selection while occasionally geysers, and you might hear an occasional did you grow up? As Jane Scott used to SM: Question—no cheating: Who dropping hints to the sometimes stumped profanity or a fi st smack on the bar as a ask, where did you go to high school? invented trivia night or pub quiz? participants. It is a fun crowd, an engaged last-ditch effort to summon the answer up MM: I was born at Marymount and raised MM: Some cool person who wanted to crowd, and most importantly a competitive into the cerebral cortex. in Broadview Hts. until I was about 9 years incorporate the love of having tons of crowd. These are the future Cliff Clavins Edison’s Thursday Trivia Night was started old—then Parma until I was 12. My family nearly useless knowledge with pounding a of the world, even though many of them around the end of 2010, was sponsored by then moved to Dublin, Ohio, and I went to few beers. If I had to guess? Some Irish kid look too young to even know what the the beer company Magic Hat, and was not Dublin Coffman High School. I lived in came up with it. show Cheers is. very well-attended in its inception. Word Columbus until I graduated from The Ohio (The pub quiz was established in the UK in This is where the nerds and the jocks spread quickly, and now one might want to State University. After college, I came the 1970s by Burns and Porter and became come together on an even playing fi eld. get there early to get a comfortable place back to Cleveland. part of British culture. The Great British Since the questions vary categorically, it to sit as it is usually packed every week. SM: What was your best subject in Pub Quiz challenge is an annual event. might be in a team’s best interest to have Throughout the years, there have been school? In continental Europe, pub quizzes are a members from heterogeneous backgrounds a variety of hosts, sponsors, and prizes, MM: I always loved history, lunch, and staple event at Irish pubs, where they are and expertise in order to pull together their including bikes, dart boards, coffee tables, getting picked last in gym class. usually held in English –The Independent, collective insights into these questions, trips to Chicago, a guitar, and a hammock SM: Did you own an Encyclopedia 10 Dec. 2015.) which are challenging at times but certainly to name a few. The Tremonster had some Britannica? SM: How long have you hosted trivia for? within the realm of general knowledge. questions of our own, which Mondalek MM: We did have an encyclopedia (not MM: I started doing trivia at Edison’s in The answers for each team are scrawled was nice enough to answer for us. the Encyclopedia Britannica). They were September of 2015. February–March, 2020 • Th e Tremonster • Issue #62 • Page 3 A Look into Edison’s Thursday Trivia Night SM: What are some of the differences you see in people’s answers/behavior from the time the trivia night begins to when it ends? Do people become more competitive? More intoxicated? How does this infl uence their answers/ behavior? MM: Some teams hold it together all three rounds, and some go deep and lose a few I.Q. points at the end. It goes week to week. (laughs) SM: What’s the most competitive thing you have witnessed at trivia night? MM: The most competitive part of trivia is the fl ip cup tiebreakers. Anytime at the end of round 1 to 3 there is a tie score, we settle it with fl ip cup. Sometimes we have 4 teams competing for the overall prize of $50 with one fl ip. Then we take the teams that took 2nd through 7th, and they compete in a fl ip cup for $25 in the merit roll round. It gets crazy.