Played our first Sporcle Live game of the season Saturday at Oscar’s Sports & Grill. The bar was a bit busier than usual, but I was able to get a couple of seats at the bar, and waited to see if any tables in the bar area would open up. That did not turn out to happen! Because it was Cinco de Mayo, I could see a lot more margaritas being made than usual, which actually looked…kind of tempting! Our “weekend warrior” trivia crew of Evan and myself did battle on the night’s questions, and aside from blowing the earth science and Tony Award final questions, we didn’t do TOO badly! Finished third for the night with 71 points (112 points was the top score of the night), missed out on a second place prize in game two after failing a three-way tiebreaker about Barry Manilow songs. Barry Manilow will always remind me of that scene in “Hellboy 2″ where the lovelorn Hellboy and Abe Sapien get drunk together and sing Manilow’s song ‘I Can’t Smile Without You,” which winds up being heard throughout the whole building (and is also heard by the female objects of the men’s affections).

Hellboy and Abe Sapien getting drunk, talking about their love woes, and listening to Barry Manilow in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Doug Jones, the guy playing Abe, plays the fish monster in The Shape of Water, which recently won the Academy Award for best picture.

Now that you’ve seen some of the question topics that sunk us, how about the rest of the questions?
Game One
1. Instruments – What scientific instrument invented by Galileo in the early 1600s has a name originating from the Greek for “far seeing?’ 10
2. Grammy Awards – What song is the only Barry Manilow song to win the Grammy Award for best male pop vocal? Went with the one named for the woman instead of the one named for a place, miss…4. Now I am finding myself wishing that my mom would have been more of a Barry Manilow fan (I personally think his stuff is a bit too sappy, and my mom probably shared this opinion).
3. Football Players – Name either of the colleges drafting the two highest drafted players in the 2018 NFL draft. Name both for an extra bonus point. Got this for 9 (yes our team really got a draft picks question correct for big – I am not making this up)! This was all Evan…
4. Novels – What is Dr. Frankenstein’s first name in the Mary Shelley novel? 8
5. U.S. Cities – As of 2016 Census estimates, what is the most populous U.S. city beginning with a vowel? Dammit…I forgot our team’s own mantra…”Everything’s bigger in (state name)….everything’s bigger in (state name).” Miss for 3.
6. Sports Games – What series of Playstation-exclusive MLB games, debuting in 2006 features its most recent edition with Aaron Judge on the cover? Evan again for the big points.
7. TV Organizations – Name any one of the words in the TV series title acronym “UNCLE” in “The Man From Uncle?” Wow, how nice to be too young for a question answer in a Sporcle game! Miss for 1.
8. ’80s Movies – Audio clue from 1986 comedy film of a song played during the movie with a two-word title. In fact, I think those two words are the only words in the song…. 6

To listen to the song played in the audio clue, click  here (though this picture already gives a clue to the answer, lol…

9. Presidents – Which actor served as president of the NRA from 1998 to 2003? 5
10. Gods – Ra, Helios and Sol are the Egyptian, Greek and Roman gods of what? We were a bit worried about this category at first since Mike was not playing with us, but thankfully this was easy, 2.
Mystery – Before and After
1. Full title of 2011 Marvel Cinematic Universe film and 2015 Marvel Cinematic Universe film
2. Central cartesian plane and collective World War 2-era name of the countries Germany, Italy and Japan
3. Animated TV – Series featuring characters with the last names Platter, Kleinschmidt and Gribble and person who received the most legal votes in the 2016 election (yes this really was how the question was worded)
4. NBA player who won back-to-back finals in 2009-2010 and lead singer in the song “Meant to Be” by Florida Georgia Line (wow questions about this band are really making the rounds lately).
Missed #1. Must study up on these titles and their box office grosses!
Scores: Eleven teams, scores 20 to 60, with Better Late Than Never in first. We were tied for second with Let’s Get It and One Is the Loneliest Number with 56 playing under the moniker Michael Pena Fan Club.
Final Category – Earth Science
Of the five principal layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, which two have the longest names?
All the teams failed this, which meant…three way tiebreaker for second. Had to name how many Hot 100 songs Barry Manilow had. One’s guess of 14 came closest to the correct guess, but was still 14 short of the correct number (I guess none of us thought Manilow was as successful as he was).
Game Two
1. World Records – “Rap God” holds the Guinness record for having the most words in a song by what artist? Evan for the win, 10 points.
2. Running – Of the 33 fastest people holding the record for the 100 meter sprint, 24 of these people have been dismissed because of “doping.” What player holds this record now? I am not 100 percent on the wording of this question, but we got this for 8.
3. Movie Families – Name either actor playing either Owen or Decker Shaw in the “Fast and Furious” installment #6 or #7. Miss for 2.
4. Mergers – Which of these companies did Thrifty car rental merge with in 1990 – Budget, Enterprise, Dollar or Hertz? Miss for 3.
5. TV Actresses – Which actress won won six NAACP image awards for playing Joan on “Girlfriends” for eight seasons and Rainbow on “Blackish” for four seasons? Evan for 7.
6. Yahtzee – How many points is each bonus chip worth in a game of Yahtzee, which is earned by rolling 15 points after already rolling a previous Yahtzee? Evan again for 6 (this might have been a decent solo night for him, lol).
7. World History – From 1534 to 1542, Jacques Cartier embarked on three separate voyages, ultimately claiming what modern day country for France? Yay, an answer in this game I knew, 6.
8. Desserts – Affogatto is an Italian dessert featuring vanilla gelato topped with what? Nope for 1.
9. Kids’ Novels – Norton Juster is the author of the Phantom what? FB clue, 9
10. Time – The longest portion of the International Date Line crosses what ocean? 5
Visual Mystery –

Missed #4 (though we talked about the right answer).
Scores: Nine teams, scores 21 to 57, with Let’s Get It in first. We were in second again with 55 points.
Final Category – Musicals
Name any of the four musicals nominated for Best Musical at the 72nd Tony Awards, to be held in June 2018.
I left right after answering this question (I had a special someone to meet in a bar close to home, wink-wink), but I know we missed this and Evan said at least 2-3 other teams got it. When I shared the question with my husband after the game, he said “What’s a Tony” I said, “It’s the Emmy Awards for Broadway.” Yes, this kind of illustrates how uncultured our team is, lol! I was kind of vainly hoping the question would be about Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals 😦  Unsure who got the top scores of this game since I wasn’t there. Well that’s it for now! Unsure when we will be able to play at Oscar’s next, since we have MTL tournaments going on the next couple of Saturdays (if all goes well and we get a finals spot). Our next trivia night will be Monday, so look for the next recap on Tuesday. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, that principal from “Ferris Bueller’s Day off.” I think his name was Ed? Ed Rooney!