Every Wednesday night, a local bar called Tommy Doyle’s hosts trivia night followed by karaoke. There are prizes for first, second, and third place but I don’t think anyone cares too much about getting gift certificates for the bar. Last year a group of people from my section started going regularly and inviting others in our section to join them. A lot of people did end up going at least once at one point or another. I went for several weeks in a row – the major lure for me at first was seeing what all the talk was about. Apparently, our contracts professor was a regular at trivia night and he always stayed to participate in karaoke.
The first two times I went he was a no-show, but those two outings were enough to get me hooked. I played on a team of six with some of my section mates and we won! Yes, I contributed to the win. I knew the answer to a bonus question because I had spent the past summer living in “the metroplex” in Texas. That’s what Texans call the greater Dallas–Fort Worth area. Occasionally our contracts professor would show up and float from table to table asking whether we were too young to know the answers to some of the questions or gloating because his team was in first place.
After our section had dominated the trivia game, most of the people would clear out, but a majority of my classmates would stay for karaoke. I never got on stage to sing, but I did help with backup from the crowd. Some of my favorite moments came from the most unexpected places. One of my classmates who had always been really quiet in every other social setting managed to sing several rock songs at the top of his lungs. He made the crowd go kind of crazy. The other performer who surprised me was my contracts professor. He was my section’s very first experience with an HLS professor. He walked in looking like the classic law school professor. He wore a tweed blazer with elbow patches, a polka-dotted bow tie and glasses that must have been made circa 1985. He didn’t say a word to us for the first 5 minutes of class as he stood staring at the board, stroking his chin and trying to decide whether he should erase the messages written on the board by student organizations. Then he went on to quote from The Paperchase. This is why it was so surprising when he got on the stage and started to sing Monster Mash complete with accents, sound effects, and a beer in his hand. Every trivia night regular knew who he was and the crowd cheered every time “the prof” was called.
Whenever I talk to my mom about trivia night, she says that it’s weird that one of our professors goes out and drinks with his students. I thought it was kind of odd at first but now I think that it’s kind of great. It’s nice to see people outside of the usual classroom context and being able to do that is what I like the most about being at HLS.
– Elizabeth
