The Glitter Ponies
Finbar Devine’s is a pretty traditional Irish pub in Petaluma, traditional in the sense that there’s a painted portrait of JFK and his brother on the wall, as well as other “Irish” memorabilia. You know, like a bag of golf clubs. And some Guinness posters. The place is pretty well lit, but that’s probably because they serve food. Which I don’t especially recommend, least of all the Irish quesadillas. Two words. Corned Beef.
But they’ve got a damn fine burger, their fries are crispy, and on trivia night there’s usually a special on Widmer Hefeweizen or Lagunitas IPA, both of which I’m quite happy to be drinking.
Every Wednesday they hold a trivia competition, part of a larger series that spans several weeks. Over a month ago Marcia and I stumbled into Finbar on the first week of this competition. We were a few rounds late that night, needed a team name in a pinch, so I picked the most embarrassing option out of the ideas Marcia was not seriously suggesting: Glitter Ponies. Fast forward several weeks, and the Glitter Ponies have grown into a pub favorite—a legend if you will—courtesy of the bons mots we send to the trivia callers on our scorecards. Oh, and the fact that we call ourselves the Glitter Ponies helps too.
Tonight I arrived in the middle of round two (of six) having come directly from climbing with Dawn at Vertex in Santa Rosa. There was quite a crowd out, Joy and Kyle and their two friends (who had joined us two weeks prior), plus Marcia and her friend Chris, as well as Dawn and myself. I sat down to discover that Joy and Kyle’s friends have bought us the coolest mascot EVAR, a bonafide My Little Pony™ named Fair Weather.
We nicknamed her Glitterati and spent the night styling her fine glittery hair in between questions. And it must have helped. We usually score in the mid to low 40s (out of 70-80 points), but tonight we rocked with an amazing 57! Not enough to take home the prize, but quite enough to put a twinkle in our pony-smitten eyes.
Update: The Glitter Ponies now have a website: glitterponies.com!
SWEET, I love the pub quiz/blogging action. I have sampled quizzes in four countries now and love the opportunity to compare east and west coast that you offer.
The worst pub quiz was definitely in germany, where they hand you a sheet with questions on it and an answer sheet and you have an hour to fill them out. Not being able to hear the questions spoken aloud takes all the fun out of it and makes it into an exam. Which pleases the germans enormously.
I love your my little pony. I reckon there’s a band in Britain called the glitter ponies… My sister would know, her cat is called Princess Chocolottie, which tells you everything you need to know about her.
There is, I hope you know, a band called Sparklehorse… And a My Little Pony called Princess Sparkle. Make of that what you will.