When our team manages to get three players to agree upon a trivia night to play these days…well, that’s something! Tuesday, Mike, Brad and I managed to agree upon checking out the new Sporcle Live trivia scene at Ypsilanti’s Tower Inn Cafe hosted by Kat. It marked the first time the three of us managed to play a trivia game together since Sept. 12. As for the game, we won two first-place prizes…but we don’t have anything to show for it (except for a “Welcome to Tower Inn” e-mail in my inbox). Tower Inn’s prizes are awarded differently than any other trivia spot we’ve ever played. We’ve received cash trivia prizes at some places, but the “norm” is usually a gift card or paper gift certificate. We were asked to give our phone # to management, and the next time we come in, we will get whatever dollar amount we won (in this case $40) deducted from our bar tab. With the “V Formation” pints by Goose Island being just $2.50 each, that money could go quite a long way! Just to make sure I don’t forget we have prize money to spend here, I wrote myself a couple of “IOUs” and put them in my “prize wallet.” What – you don’t have a separate wallet to store prizes from trivia games? Maybe it’s just me! But that prize wallet actually tried getting away from me once! It was quite a scare, at the time there was probably about $75 worth of trivia prizes in it – and I left it at the Wurst Bar! Thankfully, the staff was very, very honest and I got it back with all of the prize money intact 🙂 However, I had to lay down the law and make sure that thing is attached inside my purse (with a little tiny carabiner).
Pouch I use to store gift cards. It stays attached inside my purse, thanks to its previous attempt to escape! Glad I bothered to look inside of it today, I have a gift card for $1.77 for Original Gravity I haven’t used (hey every litle bit helps)! I also have a $11 gift card for Heidelberg that likely will never get redeemed…
Our first experiences with Tower Inn were about a decade or so ago (give or take a couple of years or so…most likely take) when we’d hit up the karaoke scene in the back room.
Let’s take a look at the questions, shall we? It was kind of a rough question set! We blew big points on a question about an athlete with a Slavic-sounding name who actually wasn’t born in a Slavic country! That was a team effort in failure between Brad and I (though I pretty much got all of the blame). Where’s that tennis racket? 🎾 The person we put down for our answer actually had MORE grand slam titles than the correct person! Read on to find out more about our hits – and misses – in this strange game…
Game One
1. Film Series – Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End and On Stranger Tides are titles of films in what series? 10
2. TV Debuts – Within one, in what year did Beavis and Butt-Head, Walker Texas Ranger and Bill Nye the Science Guy all debut? A bit of discussion but (thankfully) the two guys listened to me on my answer! 🙂 Only one off on the year but got for 5 points.
3. Pastries – From the old French ford for “bump,” what pastry is made from deep fried choux dough and is typically served as a dessert with powdered sugar in New Orleans? A whole lotta nope from all of us, miss for 1.
4. One-Hit Wonders – What four-letter word is is part of the titles of songs by Gary Numan in 1980 and Snow Patrol in 2006? Facebook clue, 9.
5. Young Adult Literature – What Richelle Mead book series includes the titles Frostbite, Blood Promise and Last Sacrifice? Mike was close in his guess, but we missed for 2. Just what is this book series about? Is it Sweet Valley High with vampires? 🧛♂️
6. Athletes – Zlatan Ibrahimović, a player for the MLS team L.A. Galaxy, was born in what country? He is considered the second-greatest athlete of all time from his country, with the first best athlete from that country having won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. One team managed to get this correct (for one point). Our team was not that team…miss for 8! Archie would probably thump us on our heads for missing this (hangs head in shame)!
7. Vitamins – Beta Carotene is converted into what vitamin in the human body? 4
8. Africa – What African capital city was the former capital of British East Africa from 1907 to 1963? 3
9. Chess – If a knight is moved on the first move, how many spaces can a single knight be moved? 7
10. Voyages – Name both the city in England from which the Mayflower departed and the city in the U.S. colonies where it landed, 6.
Mystery – Current Events (a couple of us whined – “We’ve been out of town for five days.”)
1. An NFL team is currently in negotiations with purchasing a MLS team to keep it from moving out of state – name either of those teams.
2. Name of reality series in its 17th season in 2019 which will have a new host and mentor.
3. Name both of the films earning the most money at the U.S. box office released on Oct. 5
4. First name of British royal born in Windsor Castle on Oct. 12
Missed all of these but #4. By some stroke of weird, dumb luck…I managed to pull the right royal person’s name from my not so royal ass and GET IT CORRECT! And simply because I saw a picture of this person in an old People magazine that was lying around the break room at work. On the Simpsons, wouldn’t that be akin to pulling a “Homer?” Pssst…it means “to succeed despite idiocy.” And I don’t even really make an ATTEMPT to learn things about royal persons! But isn’t Kate pregnant with baby #4 or something? 🙂 Probably saw that on a supermarket tabloid or something!
Scores: Six teams, scores 23 to 58 with ?? in first. We were in fourth with 49 points. Maybe listening to (say it like Casey Kasem) “The Swedish Supergroup ABBA” will make us feel better for missing the “athletes” question!
Final Category – Flags (Brad got all excited about this category)
Name three of the six U.S. states that have flags that contain only two colors.
Easy for Brad (fist bump)!
Final scores: A.J., 51; ‘Pods, 69 (sixty-nine, dudes)!
Game Two
1. Coaches – What was the nickname for Paul Bryant who coached the University of Alabama football team for 25 years? Brad demanded the biggest point slip, got this for 10.
2. State Capitals – Which state capital is the capital of the “Bluegrass State?” 9
3. Improv – What comedy and improv series has been hosted by Nick Cannon on MTV and MTV 2 intermittently since 2005? Miss for 1.
4. World History – From 1809 to 1917, Finland was operating as an autonomous state belonging to what other country? Miss for 5.
5. Allegories – Which pig character in Animal Farm is based primarily on Trotsky? Someone yelled out the answer, to we had the following question instead (thank you loudmouth, since the replacement question was much easier).
5. ’80s Movies – What 1989 movie’s main actors were Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal and was written by Nora Ephron? 8
6. Video Games – Requiem, Sarcophagus and Refuge are worlds in what video game series launched in 2001? Miss for 2.
7. Film Settings – The 2011 film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel focuses on a group of British pensioners who move to a retirement home in what country? Yup, totally missed this movie (though I have seen a few “indie” Brit flicks, just haven’t seen THIS one! Miss for 3.
8. Same Name – What five-letter word shares its name for a place a bird sits and a type of fish? 7
9. Samples – Audio clue of song I’m Coming Out. Question was to name the song’s original 1980 artist or the lead artist from the 1997 single that sampled this song – both for a nerd bonus. Got this for 6 no bonus.
10. Commercials – What brand of canned food features a mischievous talking dog named Duke who threatens to make the secret recipe public? 4
Visual Mystery –
Missed two of these (unsure which two).
Scores – Seven teams, scores 33 to 51 with 99 Problems in first. We were in second with 48 points.
Final Category – 21st Century Music
Since 2000, seven different solo Canadian artists have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, including Drake and Justin Bieber. Name three of the other five artists.
Wagered zero. Managed to come up with one correct Canadian, though…
Final Scores: 99 Problems, 31; ‘Pods, 48.
Next trivia outing is TBD. As always, go Pods, and stay classy, Bjorn Borg!
hebspeaks 