The league night of 9/24 – our sixth of the season – marked the return of an old joke. In the Matt era, we – usually Matt, but sometimes Mike – would bring our own lightbulbs to replace the dead ones or empty sockets around the Avenue. It was so dark in the bar in those days that a strobe going off in a game would leave players standing there like jacklighted deer. Matt would bring the (then-expensive) LED lightbulbs home with him after league because if they got left behind by accident, they would tend to get appropriated into other use around the bar. On one occasion we were able to retrieve a few of them, but one disappeared never to be seen again. The rumor is that it got put in an office. Anyway, I started the joke that Lansing was a BYOB league: “bring your own bulbs.”
So we returned to being a BYOB league last time, as Josh brought a package of bulbs and put them up anywhere he could. He did have to give up on one light fixture that turned out to have the wrong type of socket (I’d guess it takes a mogul base), but not before sustaining an injury trying. This happened before I arrived, so I just saw the aftermath in the form of a Band-Aid on Josh’s head. Apparently he bled quite a bit after hitting his head on the fixture (the scalp is full of blood vessels so even minor scalp cuts bleed dramatically) but he was able to get it to stop by the time I saw him. Someone did remark on the fact that you could barely see the Band-Aid on his head because he turns out to be the person with the exact skin tone that Band-Aids are designed for. People started bugging me to take a picture of the light fixture and put it in the league update. Why? Because he left behind a piece of skin on it. I was disgusted by this and refused to look at, let alone photograph, it for most of the league. Finally, in the end, I caved in and took a quick shot. It’s grainy but it will do. Here, you jackals.
We played bank Polyhymnia, named for the Muse whose name means “many praises,” which was intended to be any miscellaneous games that had not been in a previous bank plus games we voted on as favorites. Instead it was all miscellaneous games because of the large number that have been added over the season, and it didn’t even account for all of them, which is why tonight’s bank, Terpsichore, is the “new Polyhymnia.” Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance, is made up of Batman ’66 (do the Batusi!) and four games chosen by popular vote.
This turned out to be a dangerous league night, since in addition to Josh’s accident, I nearly choked. I inhaled so much Diet Coke thanks to Mike that I had a genuinely scary moment of coughing for dear life, and continued coughing intermittently for at least ten minutes. We had been waiting for a group of people to finish a game of Puzzle & Dragons so we could get on Road Show, and when we did go up to play, Mike said we needed to “do a Chris Tabaka stance” in order to keep away any other Puzzle & Dragons players. He then did an imitation of Chris getting ready to play that caused pop to go into my windpipe. Chris has not been seen for a few sessions, I should note.
The “worst score” award has been determined for the season. After one season of no slam tilts (which made choosing the worst score ribbon a bit more involved), we’re back to having a zero score. The award (presuming no other slam tilts occur this season) goes to Derik, who rage tilted on Willy Wonka, causing a tilt through that cost Danny his extra ball. Danny got a compensation ball but he was not pleased at his loss of bonus.
This was the longest night in a while with a lot of high scores both in league and in SmackDown qualifying on Medieval Madness. Nevertheless, the actual SmackDown ended with the highest score at a mere 19 million, a victory for Pat. The B division (including me) played on Ghostbusters, and my best moment of the night was probably pulling off a skill shot plunge of an extra ball that got me 10% of my score and won me the match. I got to take home one of the “fall leaves” medals that I was rather proud of, my first time experimenting with using colored pencils instead of markers.
I’ll be seeing you soon! 7:00 pm, The Avenue Cafe, tonight; be there!