I assembled a small trivia posse Friday night consisting of me, my brother and sister-in-law (both of whom live about 600 miles away) for a Sporcle Live virtual game.

The three of us didn’t do too badly – we were in third heading into the final, but as it turned out, we just didn’t have the right players to help us get the final correct (though two different players whom have played with us in previous games both knew the final answer when I shared it with them later). You just never know who’s going to know something you need to know in a trivia game!

1. Theme Songs – “It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights” is the opening line of the theme song to what TV series that originally aired from 1976-1981? Easy one for all of us Gen X kids at heart… Though we did joke about “Welcome Back, Kotter” a bit. What if Mr. Kotter was still teaching and annoyed by the hipsters? What would he say? “Look at you with your tiny screens and your skinny jeans…I used to be afraid of some of my students, now I’m afraid FOR you!”

2. Presidents – Which 20th century U.S. president, known for his big bushy mustache, was the most recent U.S. president to regularly wear facial hair while in office? The last time we had a question about mustached presidents was in January, 2018 while we were playing in a noisy bar with poor acoustics (oh the things we did to get our trivia fixes back in the day, LOL)! We were supposed to have only named one of the most recent presidents to have sported a mustache while in the White House, but we named two consecutive presidents who did – and didn’t get any points. Well, we got the points THIS time! Benefit of being able to read questions during trivia games!!!

3. Theories – What two-word phrase used in chaos theory refers to a small change in a complex system that can lead to large-scale and unpredictable variation in the future state of the system? Thank you big brother!

4. Movie Couples – What actress stars as Marion Silver, the girlfriend of Jared Leto’s character, Harry Goldfarb, in the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream? None of us knew anything about this movie, so we went with a guess of Chloe Sevigny, whose name I can spell – but not pronounce – correctly (she was not the correct answer).

5. Length – The longest song to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100 peaked at #78 following its singer’s death in January 2016, though it was released as a single the previous November. Name either that song or its artist. We did think about the right person but…overthought and failed.

6. Prizes – Which Ivy League university administers the Pulitzer Prize? Miss.

7. Arcade Games – What arcade shooting game, distributed in the U.S. by the Midway division of Bally, won the Game of the Year at the first 1st Arcade Awards in 1980? Correct guess, woot!

8. World Capitals – Jakarta is the capital of what country, the world’s fourth-most-populous with over 260 million people? Social, all teams got this one.

9. Famous People – Twyla Tharp is most closely-associated with what artistic field? Melanie knew this one right away, and when she mentioned the answer, I remembered a scene from the 1997 remake of “The Birdcage” where Robin Williams is demonstrating different dancers/choreographers.

10. Sports Teams – Name two of the three team names beginning with the letter “J” that are currently in use by teams in the MLB, NHL, NFL, or NBA.

NERD POINT: Name all three.

Brother and I both teamed up successfully here for all of the points.

Mystery – Anagrams

Decipher the anagram to reveal the name of a superhero / superheroine who has served in DC Comics’ Justice League.

Note: All used names are the “super” names, as opposed to civilian identities.

M1. “Earn Rent Glen”
M2. “Run Mire Manhattan”
M3. “I Calm Pants”
M4. “An Owned Worm”

We only got two of these, my husband (whom was sitting at a campfire at a friend’s house during the game) probably would’ve been a help with this round.

We were in third with 53 points heading into the final.

Final Category – Samples

“The Joker” by Steve Miller Band and “Angel of the Morning,” first made famous by Merrilee Rush, are both sampled on a #1 single by what artist?

The single was released in 2000 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2001.
Off our radar, no clue…

Next trivia game will be Sunday. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Shaggy!