SuperSquirrels you can believe in

In news that redefines the concept of startling, last night SuperSquirrel became the Captain of the Sailors, as Robbie took on the mantle of Captain Emeritus. (It occurs to me that this may be the first official female captain, to which one might respond either that it’s about time or so what, depending on your commitment to identity issues. Back in my daughter’s day, we were too tiny to do officers.) The office of captain, subject as it occasionally is to senioritis, is a calendar-year position; other jobs, including the dreaded role of Hardware Engineer, are assigned in September. As I told S-Squirrel last night, her key job is speaking up when I tell people something that is totally wrong or ridiculous. She is, therefore, expecting a busy year in office.

Now you may be of the persuasion that, if you’re playing bean trivia, it might be a good idea to bring along the beans. I, on the other hand, managed to forget them. Fortunately, the board and markers sufficed, although the lack of the physical bean meant that teams couldn’t surreptitiously break their beans in two for extra points. The Sailors were broken into 4 divisions, by age group, and handicapped accordingly, as in, the freshmen started with more beans than the seniors. In a hotly contested round, the seniors almost immediately went into negative points (watching Peanuts attempting to logically deduce the number of keys on a piano was a wonder to behold). The freshmen got off to a decent start, but their youth ultimately worked against them. Arriving late because she had to attend her little brother’s sousaphone recital kept S-Squirrel’s team on the edge for awhile, but not long enough. In the end, our Hardware Engineer’s fine grasp of non-rock music, not to mention the Panivore’s ability to think on her feet without any visible means of nutrition and the amazing camaraderie of our sophomoric squad in general despite the fact that they detest the very ground each of them walks on including their own, won the day for the class 2011. Joy and rapture was spread throughout Hudville.

How would you have done? Here’s a sample question from each topic.

WDW: What is the official overall job name of Walt Disney World Employees?
Non-rock music: Name the composer of Carmen.
Animals, real and fictional: What are Fiver and Hazel?
Classic books: In what book would you find the Piper at the Gates of Dawn?
Science, inventions and tech: What does DRM stand for?

No fair googling the answers! Those strike me as fairly easy ones. Who the artist is who designed “It’s a Small World,” on the other hand, is meant for professionals only. Don’t try answering that one at home without a trained adult standing by at all times.