We had an interesting mix of players Wednesday playing Sporcle Live Trivia with Kuma – a California bookstore owner, a former movie and TV actress, and the usual suspects – a graphic artist, retail slave/former journalist, medical researcher, microscope technician, computer technician, a couple of U of M employees and a college professor. Our team’s movie-phile Heather was particularly star-struck talking to Chris B’s sister Mindy Hester, who had credited roles in the 1993 film “Rudy” and the TV series “Family Matters.” Hearing Mindy drop names including Jon Favreau (whom she says is still a good friend of hers) and talk about wild wrap parties, well, let’s just say she had our full attention! Go ahead and look up Mindy Hester on imdb. You know you want to…Long story short, our apologies to the other teams for us needing to use a second table for one night. We don’t normally have 12-player teams. Scouts’ honor.
As for the questions? We did all right on those. No prizes again, though. A sacrifice to Cthulhu might be in order. What does our dark watery overlord want this time? Soft serve? A reuben sandwich? Gerbils? Virgins? (psst… It’s always virgins).
Game one
1. Terminator – In “The Terminator” film series, what is the name of the company that created Skynet?
2. Title roles – What actor played the title role in the ’80s TV series “Remington Steele?”
3. Commercials – After surpassing the U.S. for being the most obese nation, which nation took action in 2014 by banning commercials for high-calorie foods during certain hours of the day? Miss for 2.
4. NBA Draft – Name one of the two players drafted ahead of Michael Jordan in the NBA draft. Miss for 1.
5. Cover songs – What band had charting hits in the late ’90s and early 2000s with cover songs including “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby” and “I’m a Believer?” FB hint.
6. Flags – What color is the center stripe of the national flag of Belgium? Right up Brad’s alley.
7. Milk -What process prevents cream from separating in milk? This is a simplified version of the question that was asked.
8. ’90s movies – Audio clip from 1993 film featuring Johnny Depp and Leonardo di Caprio. Dave K. nailed this one easily.
9. Astrology – What animal is the symbol of the zodiac sign cancer?
10. Presidential firsts – Which president was the first to have his inaugural address broadcast live on the Internet? Debated this one for a bit, but got it.
Mystery – Before and After
1. Disney Jr. series featuring a girl who becomes princess when her mother marries a king and position played by Pete Rose and Lou Gehrig (our recap writer didn’t write down the actual baseball player names that were asked and used Google to find other famous first basemen).
2. Registered trademark of Church & Dwight and song lyrics from “You Can’t Touch This.”
3. California animal sanctuary and film featuring Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller
4. A 2003 Jack Black film where he played a character named Dewey Finn and an Elton John song
Missed #1, though Heather had a really good guess with the name “Cynthia.”
Heading into the the final: Fourteen teams with scores ranging from 30 points to 66. Money Badgers were in the top spot, we were in fourth with 61 points, playing under the pseudonym “Cthulhu, Or the Unexpected Virtue of Insanity.”
Final category: World Series
“Name four of the six MLB franchises that have played in but have never won the World Series?” The three teams to get this one correct wound up filling in the top three spots.
3. Team that was in 10th place 70, 2. Ennui, 78 1. Money Badgers, 86.
Game two
1. Academy Awards – which film was the only one of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to garner an Academy Award nomination for acting? For nerd bonus, who got that nomination? Got both easily, though a couple of doubting Thomases tried to sway favor toward the wrong movie.
2. Opera – Fidelio is the only opera written by which composer? Random fact – this is also the password Tom Cruise’s character needs to get into the orgy in “Eyes Wide Shut,” which one of our players saw for the first time recently.
3. Prisoners – Sirhan Sirhan is currently serving a life sentence for killing whom?
4. Canada – What is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta? We have a guy on our team who knows all of the Canadian capitals, even for the territories. And we get this softball…
5. Inventions – What Swedish chemist is credited with inventing dynamite?
6. NFL Stadiums – Within one, in what year did the Mets and Giants play their first game in the Met Life stadium? Miss for 6 points. Yes, Brad is still alive, lol.
7. Poker – In Texas Hold ’em Poker what is the highest ranking non-flush hand? Dave K. steps up with this one.
8. Breakups – What member of the Spice Girls left the Spice Girls in 1998 and returned in the late 2000s? Picked wrong one, we went with Goth Spice, lol…
9. Albums – What color hat is in Bruce Springsteen’s back pocket on his “Born in the USA” album cover? Heather was all over this one – her mom has nearly every one of his albums on vinyl. No hipsters, you can’t have them…
10. Books – Hester Prynne is the protagonist of what classic novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne? A general resounding of groans was overheard, which spoke volumes about how easy this question was.
Visual mystery round – http://www.sporcle.com/live/visual/25game Got them all (thanks mainly to John L.)
Heading into the final – Thirteen teams with scores ranging from 37 to 61. Ennui led the pack this time, we were tied for third with 56 points.
Final category: Retail
“Which U.S.-based retailer, according to Forbes magazine, ranks #1 in sales per square foot with more than 450 stores worldwide?” The last part of the question threw us off enough to totally miss the correct answer, which was discussed. Number one team took the top prize, two unknown teams – either new teams, or playing under unrecognized psuedonyms – took second and third.
For the record, we are continuing to play at Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery for the next season, despite any grumblings from within our ranks you may have heard last night. Too many of our players like playing here, it is a convenient time and location for most of us, and old habits die hard. We know that trying to use Corner as a gateway to the tournament will be about as difficult as the Kobiyashi Maru in “Star Trek” (for those not in the know about Star Trek lore, that basically means an unwinnable scenario that is intended to build character). Other teams, we have heard, feel the same way, and another long-playing team from Corner was overheard talking about switching venues next season. Perhaps this new trivia format is revealing its dark side before it even begins. Whatever the case, we are not passing judgment on it until we have at least given it a shot and see how it shakes out. Until next time, Go Pods!