All it took was one seemingly innocent trivia question to spoil the whole barrel in Saturday’s Sporcle Live game at Oscar’s Sports & Grill. The question: “The Minute Men were members of self-trained militias who were among the first to fight in what war?” We were instructed to “be specific.” Well, it turns out the teams were not specific enough if they answered “The Revolutionary War,” and the teams that put that down did not initially get their points – which stung a bit, since those teams probably all wagered big! Well, the resulting scene was not unlike the one in Boston in 1773 when the Sons of Liberty dumped tea into Boston Harbor as a protest against tea taxes. Oh, OK…the trivia players didn’t exactly dump any tea into the Saline River or anything, and they weren’t wearing really cool colonial outfits…but there WERE verbal protests resulting from that question! There were numerous groans, some utterances of profanity, and some waving of torches and pitchforks (JK about the last two things). We resigned ourselves to having missed this for 10, and soothed our wounded spirits a bit by making some off-color jokes about the most recent movie to win best picture (more about that later). Sporcle Live with Liz later announced that the teams that put “The Revolutionary War” as their answers would get their points – but also said that if any other angry “protests” about questions were uttered during the game, she just might take points away from teams for that! After thinking we’d blown that question for 10 points, we got a little more ballsy than we should have on the wager for the next question, which we missed. Clearly it was a night we probably should’ve stayed home! Not wanting to beat a dead horse, we decided to leave after game one. Special thanks to Kimberly for spotting me the visual round in game two (she played a game at Tony Sacco’s in Canton the same night). By playing Saturday’s game, we logged our seventh minimum game to qualify for the April 7 venue tournament. Because of St. Patrick’s Day and other upcoming weekend activities, we’re not likely to play here again until April 7, if we need to play the game to qualify for finals. The way our luck has been going lately, we may not even end up qualifying for finals this time! As difficult as it is for me to say it? That’s perfectly…OK! 😀 And here are the questions (for game one only):

1. Albums – What solo artist has had albums titled “Witness,” “Prism,” and “Teenage Dream?” 5

2. Fighters – Name one of the two fighters involved in the 2015 bout that has been ranked as the most-viewed pay-per-view fight event of all time? 3

3. Fighters – (be specific) The Minute Men were members of self-trained militias who were among the first to fight in what war? 10

4. Book Settings – The Invisible Man and Fried Green Tomatoes were both set in what southern U.S. state? Miss for 9

5. Large Buildings – What French building with more than 700 rooms was used as a royal home between 1682 and 1789 and is now used as a museum? 8

6. Award-Winning Films – What is the most recent film to win the Academy Award for best picture? This question is abbreviated. A lively discussion ensued about hilarious alternative names for this film, including “Fifty Shades of Blue,” “The Creature from the Blue Lagoon,” and “Grinding Nemo.” Got this for 7.

7. Video Games – What series of Square Enix video games features elements of “Final Fantasy,” as well as characters from both Disney and Pixar films? Miss for 1.

8. Comedians – What is the last name of the host Billy, of “Billy on the Street?” Nope for 2.

9. Snacks – Pocky, which are chocolate-dipped cookie sticks introduced in 1966, originated in what country? Miss for 4, though we have a couple of friends who gave us a similar treat before!

10. Carpet – What color is the carpet the kids walk on in the Nickelodeon “Kids Choice” awards? Mike with right guess for 6.

Mystery – Before and After

1. 2003 Dennis LeHane novel adapted into a 2010 psychological thriller and landing site for Rudolph and assorted other characters

2. Asian country bordering Afghanistan, Iran and India and last name of St. Louis Cardinals player whose nickname was “The Man” (I kind of rewrote the last part of this because I didn’t write down the question when it was asked)

3. 28th president of the United States and comedian/former CBS musician who turned to politics, dying in 1998

4. Viking themed comic strip introduced in 1973 and 2011 film starring Jennifer Aniston, Charlie Day and Jason Bateman

Missed #2 and #3. Should’ve cued in better on the 1998 clue on #3…maybe if someone put their tiny hand in mine I’d feel a bit better, lol…

Scores: Twenty-two teams, scores 15 to 66, we were in 10th with 46 points.

Final Category – Action Films

As of February 2018, four actors have played the character Jack Ryan on film. Name three of those four actors.

Managed to get two correct, though we did have the right movie for our incorrect guy.

Team Sloths won first, unsure who won second.

And here’s the game two final, though we did not play game two:

There are only two Major League Soccer teams who play their home games in state capital cities and have that city in their names. Name either of those teams.

A Toledo host told me that Ohio teams had a different version of this question! And of COURSE we would get a question about soccer in a game we didn’t play since we would have gotten this (Murphy’s Law of trivia…).

Until next time, which will be our MTL game Monday. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, King George III!