(first off I have to throw in a RISTLTMB for my mom- Target patio rocking chairs for inside.  SCORE!)

It has been a hell of a week for celebrity deaths.

Dennis Hopper, short dude from Different Strokes whose name I can’t remember right now, Rue McClanahan, the rumored death of R. Lee Ermey- all sad.

None of them however, are equal to the loss of a great, no, wonderful contributer to modern society- Chris Haney.

Who?

The high school dropout who with a friend over a game of Scrabble came up with perhaps one of the greatest games in history, Trivial Pursuit.

My mom just sent my dad and I an email with a link to the NY Times article about his death asking us what “would we ever do in light of this heartbreaking news?”

Spiro Agnew!  What?  That wasn’t an actual question?  My bad.

I adore Trivial Pursuit.  I excel at Trivial Pursuit.  I will make you cry with my neverending knowledge of the most random, useless shit you could ever imagine.

My dad- equally as good.  He’s actually hysterical to play with because if he doesn’t know the answer he just repeats the question- but he’ll swear up and down that he’s just thinking about it.  You’re not fooling anyone Dad!

We both have our specialties.   My Dad, being of a certain age, is much much better at the original Trivial Pursuit across the board where my most legendary ass kickings have been during raucous bouts of the original Disney version.  I pwned my family so often in that game I was often accused of reading the cards.  Sore losers, the whole lot of them.

Much like my dad’s question repeating, my Trivial Pursuit “tell”, if you will, is Spiro Agnew.

That is my default answer.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a vice president question or not.

Ahhhh, the memories, the tears, the laughter, the awe, the wonder, the accusations, the more tears, the times my sister got pissed off and stomped upstairs, the times my siblings refused to play with me…

Brings a tear to you eye doesn’t it?

So here’s to you Mr. Chris Haney-

Thanks for the memories and good times.

Requiescat in pace (he’d appreciate it in Latin).