I assembled a virtual trivia team with some “non usual” suspects Thursday night for the one-year anniversary of Sporcle Live virtual games, which all cost one dollar per device. My typically “usual suspects” were all famously unavailable for a variety of reasons on this trivia night, but our “alternate” team still did quite well – finishing in first at the end of things! Lots of great teamwork throughout the game.

Our players included me and my husband Mike, Kevin S., his sister Karen, David C. and my dear friend Michelle, whom I’ve known since 1989. David and Kevin have both played as “hired guns” in trivia games in the long, long ago (when they used to be in bars/restaurants and have cash prizes)! Here were our questions:

1. Capitals – Which two U.S. states have capital cities with names that end in “-polis”?

2. Voices – What character has been voiced by Katy Perry and Demi Lovato in theatrically released films? Our only miss of the game – we guessed Minnie Mouse.

3. Cocktails – What brand of whiskey-based liqueur is mixed with cranberry and lime juices to make a Scarlett O’Hara cocktail? This is one of a couple of different alchoholic drinks with a restraining order against me drinking them (the others include dark/spiced rum and Everclear)!

4. 1990s Music – What group had six top 20 hits in the U.S. during the 1990s, the last two of which were “Beautiful Life” in 1995 and “Cruel Summer” in 1998? Cautious but correct guess, I suppose we “saw the sign” or something!

5. Bowling – Within five, what is a player’s score in bowling if they roll all 9-spares and a 9 with the final ball? This was all Kevin. My bowling memories were from junior high and I was not good at adding scores…(bowling alleys didn’t always have automatic scoring).

6. Literary Characters – Who is the only character to appear in all seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis? David recently read a later installment of this book series, so this was helpful…

7. Geology – Kettle landforms are typically caused by what geologic activity? Mike was all over this…

8. Television – What TV title character was played by Richard Dean Anderson on a series that aired from 1985-1992? What a hairdo!

9. Historic Events – Francis Scott Key wrote “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which would become the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” after witnessing a bombardment during what war?10. Logos – How many overlapping circles appear in the logo for the German auto manufacturer Audi? A bit of discussion, but we got this…

Mystery – JW Initials

Give the first and last names of the people described by the following clues, all of whom have the initials J.W.

M1. Actor known for his long-running TV role as Steve Urkel on Family Matters

M2. Two-time Olympian and three-time U.S. champion figure skater who is now a commentator for NBC

M3. Actress who plays the thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor on Doctor Who

M4. Actor nicknamed “Duke” who was known for Western films

Nice mystery round teamwork. We were in first going into the final with 63 points.

Final Category – There are five films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture that also earned Steven Spielberg nominations for Best Director. Name three of those five films.

Lots of movies discussed, thankfully the ones we put down were all the correct ones!

That was fun, but concludes our trivia adventures for the week. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Patty and Selma!