Day 3 - Simpsons Trivia Game (Give)

(Tuesday, November 9, 2010)

     I made it easy on myself today.  I gave away a game I have never once played.  It's a Simpsons trivia game in a tin container that Melissa gave me one year as one of those goofy little "extra" gifts that you throw in with the "real" gift at Christmas time.  I like the Simpsons.  I just don't like games.  And so it had been relegated to the garage where it rested on a counter top for ... literally ... years. 

     So this morning I was in the garage to get an extension cord because I planned to go to my mom's house after school today to blow her leaves away from her house.  I saw that pathetic tin box and decided to set the Simpson's free from the garage.  I say I gave it away, but technically what I did was put it on the shelf in my classroom which houses a stack of straggly board games.  It will finally get used.  The 7th and 8th graders get to play games sometimes on Fridays for the last 20 minutes or so of class.  The Simpsons will get attention if for no other reason than it is novel and has all its pieces!  And when I pack up my room a year and a half from now (God willing), I will leave the Simpsons trivia game on that shelf.  And that will virtually guarantee that it will NEVER be thrown away!
     If I had the money back from all the unused items around this house that I or Melissa or one of the kids spent money on, I'd be a rich man. 
     I can't leave this post without at least mentioning my all-time favorite Simpsons episode ... and it was my favorite even before I began to consider the possibility that I might become a missionary.  It's the episode from a few years back called "Missionary: Impossible."  Homer is watching PBS and he gets impatient with all the phonathon fundraising interrupting his program so he calls in a pledge of ten thousand dollars to get them to shut up and return to the show.  Of course he has no intention of paying up and he's surprised when folks from PBS hunt him down.  Reverend Lovejoy helps Homer escape by putting him on a plane for "Microasia" where Homer replaces some departing missionaries.  Instead of finishing the half-built chapel, Homer decides to erect a casino.  When the morals of the island collapse, Homer reluctantly finishes building the chapel.  The best line of the whole episode (in my humble opinion) is when Homer steps back from the church building and admires his handiwork:  "Well, I may not know much about God, but I have to say we built a pretty nice cage for Him."