BRUNSWICK, Maine — Local trivia buffs usually flock to Byrnes Irish Pub on Wednesday nights to test their wits against teams named Morally Bankrupt, We Are Regular and The Table of Misfits.
But Trivia Night came early this week, as family and friends filled the bar Monday night to watch operations manager and freelance voiceover artist Rook Thomas Hine of Brunswick form questions to Alex Trebek’s answers on “Jeopardy.”
Because the show was prerecorded, Hine, whose team Mystery Machine frequently bests the rest at Byrnes, joined the crowd, which erupted in cheers each time Hine’s buzzer beat his two opponents, according to Pat Byrnes, who runs the pub.
Hine quickly shot to the lead, correctly questioning answers in the World Leaders and Dangerous categories, before winning a Daily Double with the answer “catharsis.”
Headed into Final Jeopardy, Hine trailed Ed Kim by about $400 and one-day champion Tara Anderson by $5,000 when Trebek presented this answer, under the category American Poems: “The title of this poem that begins the 1916 book, ‘Mountain Interval,’ was inspired by long country walks.”
Hines knew the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken,” but incorrectly answered “in a yellow wood” — a line from the poem, but not the title.
While neither of his competitors got it right either, Hine bet — and lost — all his winnings — and Kim, who didn’t bet a penny, became champion.
But Ryan Lindall, a cook at the pub, said that didn’t matter: the crowd cheered for their hometown boy anyway.
“They just said, ‘Good luck next time,’” Lindall said.