You KNOW you’re going to have a rough time with a final question when you ask what a key word in the question means – and none of your players are able to come up with that answer! Sadly, had we known what that key word meant – we would’ve gotten that final question correct! In fact – before the game – a couple of our players were talking about how cephalopods are unique in their genetics because of the very thing we needed to put down for our final answer (among other related things)! In short, they “rewrite” their genetic codes (strange creatures indeed)!

As for the game, we finished in second overall for the night with 119 points, won a second place prize in game two. Congratulations to More Beer Less Pants for winning a first place “sweep” (won the top prize in both games).

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 may not have all been written down word for word, and assume that there may be additional qualifiers for some of the questions that were not written down. Also, the mystery round in game one was all audio, so I really have no way to “write” down those questions. Now let’s go to last night’s trivia game!

Game One

1. College Sports – What is the nickname for the athletic teams at Notre Dame?

2. Dogs in Film – What is the name for the German shepherd who became a movie star in the 1920s, starring in the silent film The Man From Hell’s River (among other movies), and was rescued from a World War I battlefield by a U.S. soldier?

3. Islands – What island, the largest in French Polynesia by both size and area is known for its black sand beaches and black pearls?

4. Instruments – The 1965 Beatles song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) features George Harrison playing what instrument from the Indian subcontinent?

5. Protection – The Swiss Guard is a small military unit established in 1506 that serves to protect what leader? Who says you can’t learn something by watching Archer?

It doesn’t matter HOW you know an answer in a pub trivia game as long as you know it!

6. Yogurt – In 2011, John Stamos began appearing in ads for what Greek yogurt brand made by Dannon?

7. Animals – The Portuguese Man ‘O War is a long-tentacled animal that closely resembles what other animal in appearance? Funny comment by Evan, “I’m sure you guys know this since you love your sea creatures.” Then I showed him a plush version of that very sea creature dangling from my purse (given to me by Kim a couple of years ago)!

8. Jump Rope – In 1974, an intermediate school in New York hosted the first ever tournament for what jump rope game later associated with hip-hop culture? When I first heard this category, I kind of wondered if any old jump rope songs would be involved with the question, so just to be safe, I started singing: “Johnny over ocean…Johnny over sea…Johnny broke a pop bottle blamed it on me…I told ma…ma told pa….Johnny got a lickin’ ha ha ha  – how many lickin’s did he get…one…two…three.” This all sounds much better coming out 6-8 year old me…This is why I can’t remember names of Emmy winners! My brain is too cluttered with silly songs I remember from grade school! 🙂

9. Literature – The search for a statuette of a certain bird of prey is central to the plot of what 1930 novel by Dashiell Hammett that featured detective Sam Spade?

10. Competitions – The Great American Baking Show is an adaptation of what series that originally debuted on BBC2 in 2010? Our special “guest” of the game Abby hit this one out of the park (and she thought she wouldn’t be any help in the game)! Our bonus point was to correctly identify the “theme” of this whole round of questions, which we got. Perfect score going into the mystery round (don’t worry – we’re the ‘Pods – we’re going to screw things up in just a bit)!

Mystery – A series of audio clues based on movies, world events and music were presented to us – we had to correctly identify the year. And  because this was a progressive mystery round (a favorite category for the people on our team…NOT), the sooner you handed in your answers, the more points you would get. We would not know the answer until the very last clue was played, so two points.

Scores – Seven teams, scores 23 to 64 with Between the Cheeks in first. We were tied with More Beer Less Pants with 61 points (I’m guessing their game one virtually mirrored ours).

Final Category – SCIENCE!

Which main nucleobase was first discovered in the 1840s in the excrement of sea birds?

We spent virtually all of our time trying to figure out what “nucleobase” meant. And when the answer was revealed, we facepalmed ourselves so hard that we left welts (JK)! Yup, before the game, I rattled off the word we needed for the final along with three other similar words when Mike and I were talking about how strange octopuses/cephalopods are. Go figure! This wouldn’t be the first time that something I talked about before a game winds up getting asked about in the game (vis a vis the polar bear incident of 2016)!

No prizes for us! But we learned what “nucleobase” means! Uh, what does it mean again? 🙂 Maybe we need to take a biology class…

Game Two

1. Movie Quotes – What four-word phrase from the movie Taxi Driver appears as #10 on the American Film Institute’s list of their “100 Years of Movie Quotes” list? Mike had a little freakout when he thought he put down the wrong second word even though one of us wrote down the correct second word…turns out he didn’t write down the wrong word (the poor dear got SO despondent though)!

Travis Bickle “practicing” being a bad-ass in Taxi Driver…

2. Ingredients – In 2014, what sandwich chain removed an ingredient used as a bread conditioner from its breads following a petition drive by food blogger Vani Hari?

3. Musicians – Singer and guitarist Ric Ocasek, who passed away September 15, is best known for what band which was inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame in 2018? Facebook clue.

4. Machines – In mechanical engineering, the simple machine known as the wedge is a variation on which of the other simple machines?

5. Cards – What playing card brand introduced in 1885 and is usually seen with its trademark printed on the ace of spades is the flagship brand of the U.S. Playing Card Co.? Miss for 5 (ouch)! We went with the “other” prominent playing card company.

6. Pardons – What former adviser to Dick Cheney who was convicted in 2007 on four counts for his role involved in the covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson received a full pardon from Donald Trump in 2018?

7. TV Casts – Randall Park, Constance Wu, Hudson Yang and Lucille Soong are among the main cast members of what TV sitcom? Wow…a TV question about a show we actually watch (the mom on that series is hilarious).

8. Running Backs – What Pro Football Hall of Famer who played from 1993 to 2005 was nicknamed “The Bus?”

9. Parents – Coined in the 1990s, what is the term for excessively devoted parents who “hover overhead” – overseeing every aspect of their child’s life? I would love it if these parents had to meet some of the parents from the 1970s – whose kids pretty much stayed out all day unsupervised – and that was OK- as long as they came home in time for dinner!

10. Old Things – What southern U.S. city is home to the St. Charles streetcar line – the oldest continually operating streetcar line in the world? For a bonus point, what is the “theme” for the questions in this round? Got this for the points and the bonus.

Visual Mystery –

Got all of these.

Scores – Eight teams, scores 25 to 60, with More Beer Less Pants in first. We were in third with 58, and Bald for the Win was ahead of us by one point with 59.

Final Category – Senate Records

The longest period of time that a state has been served by the same two U.S. senators is a little more than 36 years, from November 1966-January 2003. Which southeastern U.S. state had the same two senators for that entire period of time?

Came up with right state right away, almost talked ourselves out of it – but came back to it. What’s this madness? This is obviously not part of our normal playbook! 🙂

Final scores: ‘Pods, 78; MBLP, 80.

We’re done with trivial pursuits for this week, but we’ll be back at it Monday at Sticks. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Scooter Libby! Sigh..what kind of adult man continues using a name like “Scooter?” Is he actually a Muppet?