What was your
most memorable
work holiday party?
My latest one is this Sunday, so I may end up having a new #1. So far, that spot is held by the one where I ended up sitting next to the local TV film critic I’d spent my whole life watching and corrected him when we were talking about Vincent Price and he said he was born in England (Price’s life began in St. Louis, Missouri).
The night’s entertainment ended up being a game show–the participants of which were selected by raffle tickets we all had to compete for by answering trivia questions. Me and Mr. Critic ended up with the largest stack of them following moments like:
Trivia Person: Who said, “You know how to wh–“
Both of us in unison: LAUREN BACALL! *Pause and look at each other* TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT!
(There was also the moment where I correctly identified the theme music of Barnaby Jones, even though–to this day–I’d never seen a single episode of the show and really only knew it from a Mad Magazine parody I’d read when I was 10 in a torn up issue at the house of people I’d never seen before and would never see again. Not that I’m bragging.)
Thanks to our fat stacks, we both ended up on the big stage, but on separate teams. Unfortunately, my team ended up getting one question wrong and he knew that Shakespeare’s wife was named after the girl from The Princess Diaries, which was enough for his team to take the win.
It’s not a tale of reckless debauchery, but it was one of the rare occasions where my nominal gifts actually managed to impress people rather than alienate them.
Hopefully yours are a lot less boring.
Love that story, Mott! I usually work at broke-ass places without holiday parties, but the most memorable remains a long-ago one at which I had just arrived with my then-boyfriend when a guy I had no idea even liked me walked over to me and said, “Oh, you brought your special someone. That’s–that’s really great,” then proceeded to suck down lots of rum-filled eggnog. I was totally mortified because I had to work with this guy every day. Good times!