We played our first night of the “new” Sporcle Live season Monday at Sticks and made not TOO embarrassing of a showing – 124 total points, and a $15/first place prize in game one. The NBA final question was not exactly a “slam dunk” for any of the teams playing in our bar, though the “animals and music” final in game one was a “slam dunk” for us! We had four ‘Pods show up for this game, nice teamwork on most of the questions, though we “hiccuped” a bit on the Africa mystery round in game one – missing one of those. Usually Africa is a decent category for us (unlike Emmy and Grammy Awards, LOL), but…well, read on to learn more…

Game One

1. Roads – What road, considered to be one of the most expensive in the world due to its cost per square foot of retail space forms the Eastern boundary of New York’s Central Park? 6

2. Heroes – Battle Cat, Man At Arms, Teela and Orko are some of the companions of what hero from Eternia in a media franchise that began in 1982? 10

3. Logos – What company known for its musical instruments, electronics, motorcycles and personal watercraft uses a logo consisting of three tuning forks? 9

4. Food – What produce item is cooked and mashed before being mixed with tahini, olive oil and spices to make baba ghanoush? Drool, I LOVE this stuff – with some tabouli, those little bitty pita bread things from Kroger’s deli department and maybe just a smidge of cheddar cheese (sorry just had a “snack attack” there), 8. There’s a new Middle Eastern joint that opened up on Washtenaw called Haifa Falafel that makes GREAT baba ghanoush. Well? What are you waiting for? Go eat lunch there…like right now (LOL)!

5. Adaptations – Lee Everett and Clementine are the main characters of what 2012 video game that shares its name with the comic book series it was based on as well as an AMC TV series based on the same source? 4

My favorite tracks from this album besides the two “hits” Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah are Car Jamming and Straight To Hell. The latter song (which would NOT fly by today’s politically correct standards) is sampled by British artist MIA on her track Paper Planes. Every time I hear the MIA song I just want to hear the Clash song! Uh, more about this band in the next question…

6. Bands – Audio clue of a band performing I Fought The Law, name the original band that recorded the song (although everyone who covered it charted higher with it), 7.

7. Planets – Within one, in what decade did Clyde Tombaugh discover the dwarf planet Pluto by using a blink comparator to track its movement through the night sky? For a bonus point, in what decade are Johann Galle and Urbain LeVerrier credited with discovering Neptune? Got this for 3, missed the bonus.

8. Captains – In the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, who plays the captain of characters played by Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, William Fichtner and John Harkes? Didn’t get this right away, but Brad thankfully remembered watching this on TV recently (he doesn’t even have cable TV), 1.

9. Poetry – Because I Could Not Stop For Death, I’m Nobody! Who Are You? and Success is Counted Sweetest are all works published by what American poet? Yay for my brief obsession with death from my senior year in high school (that’s really how I knew this), 6.

10. Same Name – A member of AC/DC, an actor that starred on Two and a Half men and a senator from Maine all share what first name that begins with the letter “A?” 2

Mystery Round – Africa

Fill in the blank with the country missing in the following alphabetical sequences (all correct answers will be “short form English names,” i.e. Ivory Coast, NOT C’ote D’ivoire).

M1 – Benin, (BLANK), Burkina Faso

M2 – Djibouti, (BLANK), Equatorial Guinea

M3 – Libya, (BLANK), Malawi

M4 – Nigeria, (BLANK), São Tome and Principe

Missed #4 (Mike kicked himself for this…)

Scores – Nine teams, scores 38 to 66, with Goodbye in first. We were in second with 64 points.

Final Category – Music and Animals

The three bands whose highest charting songs on the Billboard Hot 100 are the 1984 single “Round and Round”, the 2007 single “Dashboard”, and 1979 single “I Don’t Like Mondays”, all have names that reference animals in what taxonomic order?

Just needed to confirm with Brad (our team’s zoological expert), that the term we put down was indeed an “order.”

Scores: Peas Above Stick, 75; ‘Pods, 84.

Game Two

1. Bones – Metatarsus is a group of bones in what part of the human body? 10

2. Comic Strips – What comic strip character appears on packages of several varieties of snack foods made by Conagra Foods including Hot Fries, Cheddar Fries and BBS Fries? For a bonus point, who was the author of this comic? Got this for 9, missed the bonus (I said this bonus question smelled like a MTL question LOL).

3. Music Math – Within two, what is the year difference between the number in the title of Taylor Swift’s fifth studio album and the year it was released? Got this within 3, so miss for 4.

4. Theme Songs – What Fox drama series that aired from 2004 to 2012 has a theme song sequence that begins with a MRI of a patient’s head? 8

5. Unofficial Mascots – In 2003, students at Dartmouth College created an unofficial mascot of what object, that is commonly used to hold alcohol? Mike came up with the right guess, but only got this for 3.

6. Borders – New Hampshire borders what Canadian province? Brad the “Canadologist” stepped up to the plate here, 5.

7. Web Sites – Three humanoid figures appear in the logo of what social media site founded in 2003? I doodled this web site’s old logo very crudely, then someone mentioned this social media site’s name. What would Emeril say to that? Bam! God who else remembers when he was a “thing…” 6

8. Alcohol – Which of the following rum brands is named after a real life person who was alive the longest ago? Did not write down all of these choices – the two I wrote down are Captain Morgan and Sailor Jerry… got this for 2.

9. Drawings – How many limbs are depicted in Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” drawing? Glad we went low on this, miss for 1.

A still from PCU (more about that movie in a bit)!

10. Nicknames – Bluto, Otter, Boon, Pinto, Flounder and D-Day are all nicknames used by characters in what 1978 film set at Faber College? I reminded Brad of a trivia game at Powell’s about a year ago where he was not in attendance and the other two of us (whom are both younger than him) didn’t know the name of that college (facepalm), got this for 7. Meh. PCU is more MY “college” movie! It’s the Animal House for the Gen-X generation!  This is why having a good “generation gap” on your team works out well!

Mystery – ’60s TV

Got all of these (yay we are old…).

Scores – Nine teams, scores 27 to 58, with us in first.

Final Category – NBA Players

Brad and Dave wanted to “go for it” in terms of wagering. But we didn’t wager it all (only wagered 18).

What NBA player, who played 14 seasons with four different teams, is the most recent player to earn the NBA Rookie of the Year Award who has also been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame?

Nope…

Scores – Zero betters were wise to hold onto their points – with team #2 holding onto their 50 points, team #1 holding on to their 53 points.

Until next time, which is…TBD. We plan to play another game this week, but haven’t decided when/where that will be yet. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Captain Morgan!