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.
Glitterati rocks. She’s got a purple mane. Can a plastic toy pony even be that cool? Seriously. God, I’d kill to have eyelashes like that. ;-)
-Finbar Devine’s is a pretty traditional Irish pub
-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.
These two statements do not go together.
effin’ Californians…
I think I used to own that very pony, no kidding. My favorites were the ones with the velvet skin ‘cuz they were more EXCLUSIVE.
Well, I admit the trivia at Finbar doesn’t hold a flame to the Mark Dorosin’s Hellish trivia in Chapel Hill, but that’s probably a good thing, because here at least I’ve got a chance of knowing some of the answers. Except when they ask you to name the presidents who were in office during 10 famous boxing matches throughout history. WTF?!
Patrick, I should have been more clear and said Finbar seems like a traditional Irish pub yadda yadda except for the fact that it’s well lit and they serve Irish quesadillas.
Next time I will be sure to bring my camera to get some Glitterati action shots (Glitterati drinking from a trough of beer, Glitterati walking all over the crappy Irish quesadillas, etc.)
Shenanigans the My Little Pony!
Has no one ever heard of traditional Irish quesadillas, which originate from Inish Bofin off the west coast of Ireland, they have been mentioned in some of the old celtic fables- “and Fionn sat by the river and ate the quesadillas of knowledge and he gained the wisdom of the ages”
I ♥ Shenanigans!
And Enda, you’ll have to post your more traditional Irish recipe.
Okay. So, you give me shit for putting Dashboard Confessional up on my site, but you, in turn, put a glittering My Little Pony on yours. Honestly? I’m having a hard time deciding which is worse. ;)
Aww, Matty. I was just giving you mad props for putting Dashboard in your Top 5 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
How ’bout this: next time we go anywhere together, let’s remember to bring The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most along, we’ll crank up the dial, roll down the windows, and sing out loud together at the top of our lungs!
I’m getting shivers just thinking about it.
Sounds good to me! But we have to sound as pathetic as possible. Chris wouldn’t want it any other way.
Also, I think that Top 5 list has already changed. Replace Dashboard with Freezepop or, since we work together, check out my iTunes share.