This actor will be asked about in game two…

Twenty teams battled it out Wednesday at Arbor Brewing Company – Corner for its Sporcle Live trivia night. There were tiebreakers for prizes in both games, multiple ties leading into the final questions, slim, slim point spreads among the top teams. There were also quite a few questions in which more than one answer was accepted as correct. Hats off to host Sporcle With Tim for handling all of this chaos with utter professionalism – and still making sure everyone got to leave by 9 p.m.! And (this is a public service announcement) – stop folding your answer slips, people! No one is impressed with your very, very rudimentary origami skills! This is one of Tim’s (and other hosts’) pet peeves, and for good reason! Who has time to deal with unfolding slips during a game? Don’t do it, people! Don’t be that team! We are all sick of hearing hosts asking players not to fold their answer slips. Seriously…who isn’t getting the memo by now? Does Tim need to write “Please For the Love of Pete Don’t Fold Me” on each and every slip?
Now my turn to rant about “chair bandits.” There were two unoccupied tables next to us with chairs – and someone came over to ask if they could take our empty chairs that we were saving for teammates who had not yet arrived.

Blurry photo of an empty table. And chairs. Right next to our table. And another one…

Really? It’s clear that we have to make our chairs look occupied until people arrive to sit in them. Otherwise? Potential human interaction (the horror)!  Maybe we need to bring blow-up dolls to occupy the empty chairs until my teammates arrive. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

I’m sorry! Were you expecting a picture of female blow-up dolls? My trivia teammates are all guys, so maybe this one will suffice! Inflate him at the valve just underneath the belt buckle 🙂 Here is Otto the autopilot from Airplane!

Or I could make “RESERVED FOR” signs! Maybe use some gag names…Reserved for: Ken Jennings, Doctor Strange (I think he’d be fantastic in a trivia game), Seth MacFarlane (his pop culture knowledge is bar none), Mike Myers, HAL 1000, Deep Thought…Who would YOU want on your trivia dream team?

All of that aside…we didn’t win any prizes, missed final question #1, finished seventh overall for the night. We are fourth in the overall standings after three games. Good! Things are going according to plan!

I predict we’ll stay in the top five teams (or thereabouts) until the final game, and will be in a decent spot at venue tournament time. Being number one is not essential to winning the venue – as this bar proves time and time again.
And the questions….
Game One
1. Commercials – In commercials, who has been seen singing “chicken parm, you taste so good” and “that’s a first rate queso dip” to the tune of the company’s jingle? Brad all over this, 10.
2. Motown – What song, that references Pagliacci, became a number one hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles? Big hit for Dave, 9.
3. Grammar – In English, the word “the” is what type of article? I had the right answer, but my team wasn’t convinced. We still wound up putting it down – and getting it – but for only 5 points. Sometimes I have to prove to my teammates that the world is round, lol…and I would have to do something similar two questions later, read on!
4. Actors – What actor gained prominence after appearing in the Disney Channel film “High School Musical” and is sequels before going on to star in “Dirty Grandpa” and “Baywatch?” FB clue (thank goodness), 8.
5. Country Names – Which two South American countries have names ending in the same four letters? For a “nerd” bonus, name the capital of either of the countries. I wrote one of them down right away, but again…I was “Doubting Thomased.” WTF? So I wrote down the other capital, which they felt was the more “safe” answer. This is when I said, “Guys – have I suddenly turned dumb or something?” Don’t answer that! We wound up putting the “easier” capital for the extra point.
6. Names – What surname, among the most common in the U.S., referred to someone who worked with metal? John jokingly wrote down “Osbourne,” LOL…6
7. Olympic Medals – Name any of the cities in which Apollo Ohno won an Olympic medal in short-track speed skating. Brad talked himself out of the correct answer (d’oh)!
8. Kids’ TV – Audio clue of an animated TV series featuring a female protagonist. Again, talked ourselves out of the right answer.
9. Legislature – The state DUMA and the Federal Council make up the national legislature of what country? John all over this one, 4.
10. Musical Duos – What duo wrote the musicals “Carousel,” “Flower Drum Song” and “The King and I?” This time they all easily accepted my answer (IKR)! Don’t worry, this was just a blip! They’ll be back at it the next game (these bastards really keep me on my toes…and they drive me absolutely insane sometimes – but I know they’d follow me into Hell if I asked ’em to, lol)!
Mystery – Crosswords
1. Five letters – item appearing on reverse side of pennies minted between 1909 and 1958
2. Nine letters – last name of gel-filled action figure with the first name “Stretch”
3. Seven letters – French derived name for a woman’s private sitting area
4. Six letters – word for improving the hardness of steel as it reheats/cools
Two different answers were accepted for #3 and #4.
Scores – Twenty teams, scores 34 to 67, with Ennui and Don’t Forget to Strip Your Bartender with perfect scores. We were in seventh with 64 points. Yup, miss three points, wind up in seventh (that’s Corner trivia night for ya)!
Final Category – Spacecraft
The Command Module and Lunar Module for the Apollo 10 mission in May 1969 were named for characters who were first introduced in a comic strip nearly two decades earlier. Name either of those two characters.
Overthought it. Though we did think about the answers that would have been correct. Can I get on a space shuttle now? 
Teams Kim Jong Un and Your Resume Sucks were in a tie for third place with 63. Also Ennui and DFTSYB were tied for first. So they had to settle ties by fighting to the death. JK! They had a tiebreaker, which was this question: The U.S., Japan and Canada combined won how many total Olympic medals in the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary? Everyone was WAY off..if “Price is Right” rules counted at Corner, nobody would have gotten this!
Final standings: Kim Jong Un, DFTSYB, Ennui.
Game Two
1. Movie Titles – What number is in the title of a 1995 film and a 1997 film starring Brad Pitt? We had a similar question to this one two weeks ago, and my team wanted to…PUT THE SAME ANSWER DOWN! I didn’t have to play the “Stalin Card” and overrule their answer, but I did have to show them that I knew what both of the correct movies were (see, didn’t I see they keep me on my toes)? Honestly, it’s like fraternity hazing on my team sometimes (except no rubber gloves/goat/lube/fifth of whiskey)! JK, of course…we don’t use gloves (those are for wusses)! And no lube, either! All right, enough silliness, ahem…10 points.
1. Sketches – During the “Roxbury Guys” sketch on SNL, what song do the guys bob their heads to? 9
3. State Names – Which western U.S. state has a name derived from the Spanish word for “snowy?” Dave’s knowledge of Spanish came in handy here, 8. I also remembered that there is a Sporcle host whose name is winter (this state name).
4. Tea – Yellow, Brisk, and Pure Leaf are all varieties of what brand of tea that is owned by Lipton? Miss for 1.
5. Medicine – What do the letters “PA” in PACU stand for in medical parlance? Miss for 2.
6. Defense – What type of broad ditch – sometimes filled with water – was historically used as a preliminary line of defense?
7. Trios – In the 1990s, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti performed together under what name?
8. Books – A 1985 book by Chris Van Allsberg features a train that is heading to what location? Brad for the points.
9. Moments of Silence – Prior to the Super Bowl in 2006, a moment of silence was held in honor of what two women of the Civil Rights movement who had recently passed away? Name one of the two women, both for a “nerd” point. Got both.
10. Actors – Actor Cillian Murphy has appeared in five films directed by Christopher Nolan, the first of which was what 2005 film? Again, I had the right answer, and…was voir dired. “Are you sure it isn’t this movie?” But I stuck to my guns, and we handed it in for the points. I gotta say…the ‘Pods were a feisty bunch last night! Maybe the cold’s making us all stir crazy! I think a snowball fight might be in order!
Visual Mystery –

We missed two of these..we overthought Missouri.
Scores – Seventeen teams – scores ranging from upper 30s to
63, with Jesus Chris Superstar in first. They were tied with DFTSYB, Macho Nachos, and Your Resume Sucks…We were in ninth with 57 points.
Final Category – Baby Names
Among the names that appear as part of the NATO phonetic alphabet, one ranked among the top 250 names for both girls and boys born in the U.S. in 2016.
What is that name, which ranked 185th for girls, and 227th for boys?
After all of the other second-guessing shenanigans that happened? I wasn’t taking any chances! And neither was Mike! So we BOTH wrote down the whole NATO alphabet (we used to goof around on walkie talkies together before cell phones were a thing and we liked to pretend we were all bad-ass by using the NATO alphabet, among other things). They were a vital form of communication when I was driving into a music festival site – and Mike was walking our gear into the festival. Life was much more fun before cell phones!
So yeah, we got this, but so did enough teams ahead of us. Nice to get 20 more points to our score after blowing the game one final!
Until next time, which will be Saturday *weather permitting.* As always, Go Pods, and stay classy…The Pods! Yeah, I’m looking at YOU! 🙂