We haven’t held a Friday Happy Hour in a while. Let me throw out some questions.

1. Last weekend, we offered up the mental_floss summer reading list. But what about summer DVDs? What out-of-the-ordinary titles are you moving up in your Netflix queue?

2. You might not be enamored with your city or town, but I’m guessing everyone can get somewhere cool (and back) in a day. What’s the best day trip option in your part of the world?

3. If you could invite any living musician to play a concert in your home for you and a few dozen friends, which artist would you choose?
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Today’s ‘Friday Happy Hour’ questions were deleted after some careless clicking on my part. Not saving my work also played a role. Rather than try to remember what I’d written, let’s just go with one question this week. The topic: field trips.

Earlier this week, Brett Savage asked whether we knew our Super Mario Bros. villains from our obscure dinosaurs. In his quiz intro, he touched on his annual field trip to the local museum. This sent us on a field trip tangent.

We had our share of memorable trips—The Land of Make Believe, Turtle Back Zoo, Hershey Park—but my clearest memory is about a trip that wasn’t taken. After the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103, our scheduled field trip to Newark Airport was canceled. When a classmate asked our teacher what one thing had to do with the other, she said, “You might get kidnapped by terrorists.” It’s a wonder any of us ever flew again.

What was your best field trip?

[Image courtesy of buelow. See transcripts of previous Friday Happy Hours]

1. We’re getting some great comments under this morning’s spelling bee quiz. I hope more former spelling prodigies come out of the woodwork. But spelling wasn’t the only quirky way to separate yourself from your grade school classmates. Perhaps you dominated the National Geography Bee. Or won a gold medal in gymnastics at the Junior Olympics. Or were a world class math-lete. Or starred in a Crispy Critters cereal commercial. (They were indubitably delicious.) What secret talent from your youth have you been hiding?

2. Yesterday we posted an article about people fired for blogging. Got any good stories about getting canned?
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1. Earlier this week, I was watching the DVD bonus features included with season one of The West Wing. Let’s say there was a deleted scene that showed media consultant Mandy Hampton being fired for making comments detrimental to President Bartlett. (There wasn’t; this is all hypothetical.) If I were putting together a West Wing quiz, would “she was fired for making comments detrimental to President Bartlett” be the correct answer to the question “What happened to Mandy Hampton after the first season?” Or when the directors chose not to include that scene, did it cease to exist?

It may be an unfair quiz question (how many people regularly watch DVD bonus features while wheezing on the treadmill?), but I’d love your opinion on the larger question—did deleted scenes really happen?

2. As another class of graduates pours into the workforce, let’s talk about career paths. Which of your friends has the best job? (And, more importantly, what’s the job?) I’ll let you define what exactly “best” means—hours worked, money earned, satisfaction derived, and so on.
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1. Last week I was in a minor car accident. (Hold on to those gift baskets. I’m OK.) Afterwards, I pulled into a shopping center to take pictures of the damage. An elderly woman was parked beside me, watching suspiciously as I snapped away. When she got out of the car, I (unnecessarily) assured her that she wouldn’t be in the photos. “I don’t care about that,” she snapped. “I thought you were going to mug me.” I didn’t have a comeback for “you look like the kind of person who would steal from a helpless octogenarian,” so her remark effectively ended the photoshoot. I put away my camera and went to buy a smoothie.

Today’s first question—what’s the wildest thing you’ve been (falsely) accused of?
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It’s a busy afternoon at mental_floss—we’re preparing to unveil our new homepage later today. Here are three questions for you to ponder while you anxiously await.

1. We’ve lined up a special guest blogger for next week. Grammar legend Patricia O’Conner, author of Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English, will be sitting in. And next Friday, she’ll be answering a handful of reader questions.

I don’t want to spoil any of the topics she’ll be covering, so I’ll ask this: what other special guests would you like to see writing for mental_floss?
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Sorry I’m so late with today’s questions. My wife and I took my grandma out for a birthday lunch. Her birthday is February 22nd. Punctuality clearly isn’t my strong suit.

1. I feel like we’ve already discussed our craziest roommates. But let’s be a little more specific, and talk about crazy décor. What’s the strangest thing your roommate has insisted on displaying? For me, it was an eight-by-ten picture that hung in the kitchen. A baby picture, with his mother. In this old photo, my roommate was being breastfed. Had we been part of a reality show, the FCC would have levied fines. [Lots more on that crazy four-month stint here.]

2. Last week, we discussed the best VHS tapes still in your video library. Let’s talk about the ones that got (thrown) away. What’s the greatest VHS tape no longer in your possession? For me, it’s “MAGIC HOUR (SELECTED EPISODES).”
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Last week’s Friday Happy Hour shattered the previous week’s attendance record, with 131 comments. That will be tough to beat.

1) I’ve made a few trips to my parents’ house, searching for quiz ideas. Piled up with my old WWF action figures and baseball cards are several boxes of VHS tapes. Back in middle school, I was rapid with the record button. Between 1991 and 1993—my definitive VCR days—I taped nearly every episode of Saturday Night Live, Cheers and Seinfeld, plus rare treasures like “A Concert for Life” and the 1992 NFL Pro Bowl. Sadly, I was unable to locate any episodes of The Magic Hour, which I distinctly remember recording in 1998. (If you happen to possess any Magic Hour footage, let’s make a deal.)

Today’s first topic: what’s the most intriguing VHS tape you still own? [We’re not looking for movies you’ve bought in VHS format. Rather, stuff you’ve taped from TV or shot yourself.]

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Last week we had a record number of Happy Hour guests (82). One of these Fridays, we’ll break into the triple digits.

1. One of the winners of our Admit Vice, Win Book contest was Amanda, who admitted her propensity to snoop:

“When people leave their e-mail up on the computer, I always look through it. I’ve even been regularly checking the e-mail of an ex-boyfriend from years ago who gave me his password. Leave me alone in your house? I will, without a doubt, snoop through your desk drawers, look into your bedroom (including under the bed, where the good stuff is), and see what you’ve tucked away at the back of the pantry.”

Now we all know Amanda is not alone. First question: What’s the most shocking thing you’ve found while snooping? (Snooping stories not limited to closets and medicine cabinets. Think email, Googling, NSA files, etc.)

2. Now let’s talk about stalking yourself. What’s the strangest thing (about you) that comes up in a Google search of your name?
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I’m running a little behind today, so let’s get right to the questions…

1) mental_floss will be creating some longer, more difficult quizzes on specific topics, like Star Wars and The Supreme Court. The Masters’ Series, we might call it. (We might not.) What subjects would you like to see covered?

2) Do you have a favorite DVD “bonus feature”? A deleted scene that should not have been deleted, perhaps? A particularly insightful director’s commentary?

3) Have you ever seen a stranger really lose it? In a Washington Mutual parking lot, I once saw a man whose horn was stuck in the honk position. He was screaming at it.

4) What restaurant chain not available where you live do you find yourself craving?

5) What’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever broken?

[See previous Friday Happy Hours.]