We’re no strangers to the strange – and bizarre –  on the ‘Pods trivia team! Whether it’s being poked in the side when no one is sitting next to you, or your mystery round notes go missing, or answers mysteriously float into your head as if by magic? It’s all par for the course with our team! Nothing unusual here! 😉

On a more mundane note, perhaps you’ve heard about players on trivia teams doing the “divide and conquer” approach, with each player having their own “jobs” to do when answering questions… Yeah, we “try” to do that, too! Brad – for example – is “Mr. Canada” (an expert in Canadian stuff), he’s the go-to when we have a “what sportsball team used to be in this city back in the 1960s” question, and as our team’s “zoologist” (he has a degree in evolutionary biology), he’s generally our “science” man, too! These are, of course, just a sampling of the categories this brainy guy knows about (I haven’t even mentioned obscure cartoons from the 1960s)! You see, there is a reason we keep him around on the team (I kid, I kid…)!

A category we don’t tend to lean on Brad too much for is movies. Yes, I’m supposed to be the “movies” person on the team (though Evan occasionally will assist if the question is about recent movies, especially Michael Peña movies), even though I occasionally whine that “it’s such a broad category,” yada yada… Well…on TWO different instances in Monday’s game – Brad was the one knowing the answers to questions we had about movies (one of them was the final question). And it gets…stranger! Our game one final was about European history, which is usually a category Brad is good with. In this case, I was the one knowing the answer immediately (which of course we talked ourselves out of  – and didn’t put down on our slip…classic ‘Pods maneuver)!

As for the scores, we tied for first for the night with 121 points with team Peas on a Stick. We also won two second place prizes for $10 each. We remain in first in the bar’s standings, though it will be interesting to see how things shake out beginning next week, when our low scores start being erased (we are a week behind the other teams because we didn’t have a Labor Day game).

And here are the questions…assume they will be reasonable facsimiles of/abbreviated versions of the questions that were asked during the game, assume they were NOT all written down word for word, and assume that there may be additional qualifiers for some of the questions that were not written down. Now let’s go to last night’s trivia game!

Game One

1. Animated Characters – Introduced in 1962, what animated character has a boss named Mr. Spacely?

2. Sequels – Scheduled to be released in 2020, a film subtitled “Maverick” is the sequel to what film? Brad all over this one (hey do you want the “movies” job on the team lol)…

3, Animals in the Wild – The animal whose species name is Ursus americanus is commonly known by a name that includes what color?

4. Animals in Rhymes – According to a common nursery rhyme, what lost animal will come home bringing their tails behind them?

5. Airline Hubs – What airport is currently a hub for American Airlines, Delta Airlines and JetBlue and was a former PanAm, TWA and Town Air hub (among others)? Facebook clue…

6. Hats – What is the five-letter name for a hat most commonly worn by chefs? I KNOW we’ve had this as a question before, but nope, this nugget didn’t take up permanent residence in the brain…miss.

7. Zodiac – Each calendar year begins and ends under what Western zodiac sign?

8. Royalty – Who is the current Prince of Wales, among several other titles? Brad and I initially didn’t agree on what answer was correct – I reminded him who the Princess of Wales was – and so we went with my answer, which thankfully was correct!

9. Tennis – Name one of the two grand slam tennis tournaments played on hardcourt surfaces – both for a bonus point. Got both.

10. Debut Albums – Audio clip of debut album for a band which made its debut in 1967 (per Wikipedia). I was really thrown by this clip, since the lead singer in the clip actually sounded kind of like Michael MacDonald, whom was the lead singer for a different band from that era, so we put down that other band (which was incorrect). I’m more used to songs by this band being sung by their “other” singer (who has a very distinctive voice – and was all over the airwaves in the ’80s, even doing duets with Cher and Amy Grant). One of their songs was even played in the original Deadpool movie. OK, who wants to take a guess as to what band’s audio clip was playing based on my many, many clues? Sorry, but excessive trivia commentary is SUCH a “hard habit to break” (just shoot me)!

Mystery – Twisted Titles – Correct answers will be names of U.S. state capitals – with one letter changed. These clues will be very, very, very abbreviated (I’ll do my best)!

M1 – Capital of state whose nickname is “Crossroads of the West” and also the name of sodium-laden baked goods

M2 – Sophie Turner’s Game of Thrones character and capital city which is the highest above sea level in the U.S.

M3 – Second least populous state capital whose name means “poke a hole through” (this generated some snickering from the table next to us)

M4 – City of Trees which is inspired by its residents’ inability to stay quiet

Most teams had a very rough time with this – and said so (one team wrote please don’t do this again – or something to that effect)! We didn’t do TOO badly, only missed #1 (had one letter switched for the correct one). Mike and I teamed up pretty well here, with me jotting down possible capital names, and him coming up with the “switched” names (nice work, Mike)!

Scores – Ten teams, scores 30 to 62, with us in first. Peas Above Stick and Stop the Bus were tied for second with 57 points.

Final Category – European History

What was this kitty’s name?

Jane Fonda and George Segal in the 1977 version of Fun With Dick and Jane. Why was this not a nerd point opportunity (maybe in a MTL game, LOL).