Who Wants to be a Fifty Euro-Aire?

I have a freakishly fine-tuned memory, particularly for conversations. It’s the sort of memory that can remember conversations from 15 years ago, nearly word-for-word. Peter knows all about my freakish memory, which makes me wonder why he still makes sucker bets like this.

We were up in our secret clubhouse this weekend, with the I-Tunes PartyShuffle going as per usual. A dance song came up – “Flowers on the Moon” by Pinocchio.

Peter: I bet you &euro 50 that you can’t tell me the first time I heard this song.

Poor Peter, I knew the answer before the question was even completed.

Me: It was when “Black and White” , the first one came out. It was in a demo for it where the creature danced to the music.

Not only was this something I heard, thus prime fodder for my freakish memory, it involved the visual of a CGI cow busting a move. How could I possibly forget that? How could anyone forget that?

I knew I was triumphant when the “Oh, damn” look passed over Peter’s face. I was especially pleased because I owed him &euro 50 for making my own sucker bet about 2 months ago. (My sucker bet involved primary colours and colour theory, which is a stupid thing to bet on with a photographer. Although in my defense, I do think that my sucker bet was somewhat open to interpretation, which was why I hadn’t paid up yet.)

So now we’re even, at least until next time. It all started with a sketch on Saturday Night Live that poked fun of “Who Wants to Be Millionaire” and “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire” – “Who Wants to be Groped by an Eleven-Thousandaire?” I loved that phrase – “Eleven-Thousandaire” and we started making bets that began with “Who wants to be a five-dollar-aire?” or "I bet you all the money in my pocket..."

The largest amount I ever bet was $1,000 and I was crazy enough to do it twice. Once the answer was General Westmoreland and the other time, the answer was Jello Biafra. Both times, Peter guessed wrong and the $1,000 stayed in my savings account.

Would I have had to pay Peter $1,000 if he knew the answer? Damn right I would have. But this is the plus side of knowing each other so well, we’re usually able to calibrate the wager based on the likelihood of the other person knowing. In fact, I nearly won &euro 200 this weekend except that something held Peter back from making that offer. My freakish memory, probably.