While it's not the sort of "butterfly causes hurricane" example of chaos theory that everyone loves, our foray to play trivia last week was caused by an unusual chain of events.

The wife and I were not going to play last week, and we made plans to ride home on the train together. I normally catch one that leaves North Station at 5:25, and we planned to meet and get on that train.

That was until I got stuck late at work and suffered a s l o w T ride and arrived at the station around 5:30. At this point, the 5:37, the next train home, was delayed due to a mechanical problem. So we waited. And waited some more.

No train was forthcoming.

Adding to this was the arrival of passengers for the next train - one that, according to other passengers, is often cancelled. Meaning that there could be three trainloads of commuters trying to squeeze on to the 6:10.

Off to trivia we went.

And, to make a long story short, the wife and I came in second, losing by a single point. This week's questions will give you a taste of how that came about:

What musician and producer performed the song "Cruel to Be Kind" and wrote "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" for Elvis Costello? Nick Lowe (Shawn) - For some reason I got stuck on Nick Cave during the question, which is clearly wrong but was also impossible to clear out of my head. The only other Nick I could come up with was Nick Drake, which wasn't right, either. And on top of everything, I now need to download "Cruel to Be Kind."

Manitoulin Island, the world's largest freshwater lake island, is located in what country? Canada (Paul) - We got this right, but out lack of surety led to us bidding only 6 of a possible 10 points. D'oh.

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, a painting seen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, was done by what artist? Georges Seurat (Greg) - I had no idea, and the wife's answer of Manet was as good as any. Seurat was bandied about briefly, but not seriously.

The 1977 film Grand Theft Auto was the writing and directorial debut for what Oscar-winning director? Ron Howard (Greg) - now this I'm pissed at myself about. I know that Steven Spielberg's first film was Duel. I know that Ron Howard was older than Richie Cunningham, and thus could have written and directed his first film in 1977. But I went with Spielberg anyway. Stupid me!

The protozoan Plasmodium is responsible for what disease? Malaria - this was our first thought, be we then thought that malaria was caused by a virus and looked elsewhere. We wound up answering typhus (or typhoid fever, can't remember).

David Adkins is the real name of what comedian (hint: his stage name uses just six letters)? Sinbad (James) - we thought about this one for a long time, and we used pretty much all of our time up before the wife mentioned Teller of Penn and Teller. Seemed good to me. I know, you may be thinking that Teller isn't much of a comedian, what with the not talking and all. But how much of a comedian is Sinbad, really?