Yup, we pretty much followed the ‘Pods trivia playbook to the T on our Sporcle Live trivia night Wednesday! Let’s see, we just barely finished out of the money in game one, broke our “house” rule of not wagering high on a regular round questions when there is dissent among the masses, and compromised on the points wager on the final question. We managed to win first for the night despite blowing big points on an insects question in game two. Sporcle With Tim said after the game that quite a few teams made that same mistake. Interesting…it’s not the first time in history that insects have exacted a devastating toll on humanity! Stumping trivia players is chump change compared to what locusts did to crops in Minnesota in the 1870s. To read more about that bugocalypse, click here here. It was so bad that for a time, every able-bodied man was required to destroy grasshopper eggs one day a week for five straight weeks in the affected areas. “Well, honey, I gotta go smash some bug eggs today, I’ll try to be home for supper. By the way, what’s for supper tonight?” “Grasshoppers and hardtack, dear.” Uh, no wonder the Rocky Mountain locust went extinct! But hey, farmers didn’t take too kindly to them destroying their crops/livelihoods!

As for last night’s game, we finished first for the night, and got a $10 gift certificate for second place in game two. The trivia crowd was lighter than usual, with only 11 teams in attendance (though every single team ranked 1-7 in the bar standings was in attendance, some with slimmed-down rosters). We managed to summon four players, special thanks to Brad for coming out even though he’s still kind of sick, John and I guess thanks Mike and I? Kind of weird to thank myself! And the questions…

1. Trilogies – What character is played by actor Jamie Dornan in three films that were released around Valentine’s Day in 2015, 2017 and 2018, respectively? Mike and I knew the guy’s last name, John knew the guy’s first name, got this for 10.

2. Advertising – Audio clue of commercial using the slogan “Gimme a break…gimme a break…break me off a piece of that…(blank).” 9

3. Bases – Brad and I speculated a bit about what this would be about. Baseball? Or science? We were both wrong…

Also the name of an ABC series that debuted in 2015, what is the name of the United States Marine Corps base where the FBI Academy and NCIS is located? 8

4. Illegal Activities – What is the two-word rhyming term for the place where stolen autos are dissembled with the purposes of selling their parts? 7

5. Grammy Winning Songs – Name either the lead artist or the featured artist on the 2001 single “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” which became the first Grammy winner for best rap song collaboration? Nope, nope, nope and nope. Not one of us had a clue here, miss for 1.

6.

6. Tennis – Two different women have spent a record 186 consecutive weeks as the WTA #1 ranked tennis player. Give the first and last names of one of these two women. Nope, miss for 2.

7. Mythology – What mythological figure has a name that means “desire” and is the son of Venus and Mars? Got this, and it only occurred to us after we got it that this was the FB clue.

8. TV Openings – What TV series that debuted in the 1970s had an opening credits narration that began with the line: “Once upon a time there were three little girls who went to the police academy?” I don’t remember ever seeing this show when I was a kid, but I’m PRETTY sure my dad probably watched it after us kids went to bed! And I do remember seeing quite a few reruns later on..photo tie in is for “sweeps month,” lol…

9. Big Birds – What is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species? Now I’m curious whether there is a larger extinct penguin…we had a question about the largest (now extinct) shark ever to live on Earth in our MTL finals last weekend. Hmm…got this for 4. And yes there is a giant extinct penguin, read about it here

10. Awards – The RITA award is presented annually to the best works of what specific genre of fiction? Mike with reasoned guess, considering the holiday, 3.

Mystery – Black History Month

1. Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize in what category in 1950?

2. Who was the first African American to earn a doctorate from harvard who was also one of the founders of the NAACP?

3. Which boxer held the world heavyweight championship title from 1908 to 1915 and was the first African American to hold that title?

4. What abolitionist was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree and gave herself a new name in 1843 – she is known for her “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech.

Missed #1 and #4, only one team managed to get all of these.

Scores – Eleven teams, scores 49 to 63, with Your Resume Sucks and Sabertooth Crotch Crickets tied for first. We were quite a ways back in seventh with 59 points.

Final Category – The Earth

I was in line getting beer when they started asking this, so I went up to see the question on the screen. “Meh,” I thought, “They’re not going to need me for THIS question!”

The Earth’s solid inner core and its liquid outer core are both primarily made up of two elements. Name those two elements, both of which are metals with atomic numbers lower than 30.

Nope, they didn’t need my help! Got this,  so did three teams ahead of us, so we finished just shy of the prize zone.

Oh well…tomorrow’s another game, as I like to joke when we have a crappy game one! A little “Gone with the Wind” reference there, lol…

Game Two

1. Candy – What is the 11-letter name for the holiday-themed candy made by NECCO that is printed with messages including “Be Mine,” “Kiss Me,” and “Miss You,” among others? We had a good laugh about this question because during the break between games I drew a bunch of hearts with off-color phrases, which prompted everyone on the team to want to chime in with their own rude candy heart phrases! We did not, however, get this one right…boo! Miss for 3.

2. Currency – What was the official currency of Germany immediately before the introduction of the Euro? Brad the hero here for 10.

3. Latin – Who is commonly associated with the Latin phrase, “Veni, Vedi, Vici?” This question is abbreviated, but is essentially trivia 101, so I hope y’all are OK with it! 9

4. Rom Coms – What is the title of a 1999 Garry Marshall film, which is also the tabloid nickname of its main character Maggie Carpenter? Yay, we got a rom com question right for big points! That’s not a category we’re very strong in.

5. Animal Sounds – What body part does a cricket use to make its chirping sounds? Mike insisted it was one part, and Brad (who actually has studied animals academically) insisted it was another part. So what happened? Mike put in his guess for 7. The next conversation heart I doodled said “Blow 7 points” on it. We did not know at the time that several other teams made the same flub we did for big points!

6. Mountains – The coat of arms for Morocco includes a star and a sun rising over what mountain range? Brad again for the points, I think he was probably the MVP of this game!

7. Musician Nicknames – Composer Scott Joplin was known as the king of what style of music which peaked in popularity around the turn of the century and is noted for its syncopated rhythms? 6

8. Star Trek – In “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” what is the first and last name of the ship’s counselor played by Marina Sirtis?

9. Comebacks – In January, 2018, nearly two decades after its first incarnation, Alpha Entertainment announced that what league would be making a comeback, with plans to begin play in 2018? Nope, miss.

10.

10. States – Name either the 33rd U.S. state entering the union on Valentine’s Day in 1859 or the 48th state entering the union in 1912 (also on Valentine’s Day)? Both for a nerd point. Got one, not both.

Visual Mystery –

Got all of these.

Scores – Eleven teams, scores ranging from 29 to 59, with Sabertooth Crotch Crickets in first. We were in sixth with 52 points.

Final Category – U.S. Populations

There was some groaning from the ranks, and a couple of them wanted to wager zero. Sound familiar? I said, with a lot of pretend bravado, “Hey guys, Mike and I have taken lots of population quizzes on the Sporcle site. Let’s do this.” Yeah, they were still not very convinced, so I said “Let’s wager 10.”

And the question…

As of the 1900 census, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia were the three most-populous cities in the U.S.

Name two of the other seven cities that were in the top ten, none of which are still in the top ten today. This is how the question was published online, but our trivia spot had to name 2.

I came up with two correct ones right away, then the debating for the third city began. We had one possibility written down, then crossed it off. Brad made a couple of other suggestions, one of them sounded good, so we went with it.

Final Standings: Sabertooth Crotch Crickets, 40; ‘Pods, 62, and Don’t Forget to Strip Your Bartender, 77.

Until next time, which is TBD. We thought about hitting up an old haunt tonight, but nah…not interested in driving on a bunch of roundabouts in the fog! Bet that cemetery in Willis looks hella cool, though…so tempting! We “might” play Saturday, that is TBD. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Bosley!