With our usual venue on hiatus this week, I’m finally getting around to posting the recap from Saturday’s My Trivia Live Finals at Sneaky’s Bar. Our core trio of Ginger, Mr. People Person and myself were playing, with Mrs. People Person rounding out the team. This was the same quartet that won the MTL tournament in the spring of 2015.

It was an interesting mix of softball and impossible questions. And as we usually expect, the questions tended to skew a bit older than some other leagues. Or maybe we’re just losing our edge. You decide.

1) On what current TV show would you find the main characters Penny, Leonard and Sheldon?
– I assume free points for all, but you never know with a crowd this old.

Big Bang Theory.

2) What venue is home to the Brickyard 400, first run there in 1994?

Not my category…

3) Excluding voice work, what was the final live action film featuring Sean Connery?

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? 

4) What long-time Las Vegas entertainer lives in a walled estate called “Casa de Shenandoah” in Paradise, NV?
– Flying high so far. Until we came to this.

Wayne Newton my guess.

5) What Biblical Old Testament image is also the title of a #1 hit single in 1987 by Huey Lewis and the News?
– Bible question disguised as a music question… ugh. Nope.

Ditto. Nope for me. 

6) In Alexander DuMont’s “The Three Musketeers”, two of the musketeers were named Athos and Porthos. What was the name of the third?
– Nope. We went with the narrator of the story.

My nerdy husband says Aramis.

7) What auto company was founded in Warren, Ohio, in 1899?
– Three strikes in a row. This car company has come up before in MTL tournaments. I’m starting to wonder whose dad worked there.

Nope.

8) In 2013, what island nation became the first in the Asian Pacific Region to legalize same sex marriage – The 13th worldwide to do so?
– Got it.

9) What tanned actor currently portrays Col. Sanders in KFC “Extra Crispy” commercials?
– Easy points. It started a table discussion about our love of their current series of “guest” Colonels, and our love of fried chicken.

My Colonel-obsessed husband would NOT miss this.

Halftime – Get a Job
Match the old-timey name for a described profession. There are more names than described professions.

a)A person that sells fruit and veggies, usually from a handcart.
b)Someone who is employed to watch over horses in a stable, while the guest is staying in an inn.
c)Harness maker or slaughterer of animals.
d)Illuminator of a manuscript or painter.

Choices: Collier, Costermonger, Drayman, Hostler, Fossetmaker, Knacker, Limner, Wainwright

Obscure words is NOT my category…my team would lean on Mike for this, and I don’t think he would do too well!

Got A&D, had B but changed it as we turned in the slip. No clue on C, although this term came up in a MTL semi-final earlier in the year.

At halftime, we were in “7th” place, tied with one other team at 26. Although there were actually a large number of teams ahead of us, including a 9-way tie for “6th”. One is the Loneliest Number was leading the pack with 33. I’m told they had a perfect halftime round.

10) Who was the last man to leave footprints on the Moon?
-Got it.

If my husband doesn’t know this, Brad would be our runner up…no idea from me…

11) What multi-player, sci-fi game produced by Niantic and Google, was a battle between factions called the “Enlightened” and “Resistance”? (this is VERY paraphrased from the original question)
– Nope. MPP had it, then changed it slightly when writing it on the answer slip.

Boy am I glad the worst thing we had to deal with on this particular day was a downpour (we ducked into a pavilion at the beach to enjoy some beers to wait it out). Oh the irony of going someplace to stay “dry” and we wound up anything…but! Wait, did this downpour happen on THIS trip or another trip to Cheboygan? Hmmm…

12) What were the only two countries to boycott both the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics?
– Got one, missed the other

This is a Bradagory. no clue from me.

13) What right is guaranteed by the 7th Amendment?
– When will we ever study the amendments? Off by 1.

Nope.

14) Only 60 people in the world have this shared experience: the first was Linda McDonald in 1936, Cecilia Sheehan in 1987 and the latest is Nimer Djelloul earlier this year. What is the shared experience?

Nope. Starting to feel like Buddy Holly here…(ahem). 

15) The fourth and final “Public Enemy #1” was what creepy, Depression-era gangster, who served the longest sentence at Alcatraz Prison at 26 years?
– We have never heard of this guy. Should we have?

Nope.

16) What 1936 song by Cab Calloway, most famous for its nonsensical “scat” chorus, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999?
– There’s a GRAMMY Hall of Fame? Great, another HOF to study up on! Also, I can’t name any other Cab Calloway song. Got it.

Nope.

17) The 2015 Spielberg film “Bridge of Spies” tells the story of whose cold war prisoner exchange, between the US and USSR?
– Missed it. None of us playing have seen it. There was great debate at the table after the answer was read, regarding the wording on the question. It was re-read with a clarification that they were looking for the person. It turned out they were looking for the name of the person being exchanged, not the person setting up the exchange (ie. NOT Tom Hanks’ character).

Nope. So far MTL is winning THIS game!

18) Marco Polo was a diplomat to the court of what ruler? Kublai Khan? Do I actually KNOW one of these answer? 

Final – Technology

What company, first launched in 1996 by Steve Pearlman, was purchased by Microsoft 20 months later for $425M and was intended to be their Silicon Valley division, as rebranded 6 years later as MSNTV?

Nope. I vaguely remember a friend’s grandmother using this when I was in college. I had no idea it survived into the 2000’s. There were at least 3 teams that knew it and wagered, so that was a highlight. Nothing burns us more than a team winning big money by wagering zero.

Nope from me. Upon learning the answer, I remember my friend Michelle used this, and met her second husband in a chat room. She is now on husband #3 and living in Las Vegas. 
No rest for the wicked though. The MTL season began a couple of weeks ago and the Sporcle Live season is in week 2. So another 12 weeks until things get interesting again.