There are two certainties in life – death and taxes. And the third certainty is – you either know enough about “doctor, cop, lawyer” TV series – or you do not. And even if you’ve attempted to “study” the doctor, cop, lawyer shows created by one guy – it won’t necessarily help you get a trivia question right if it’s about another guy’s doctor, cop, lawyer shows!

It was quite a challenging set of questions in a Sunday night virtual Sporcle Live game we threw our hats in to play – we were defeated by the doctor, cop, lawyer mystery round – and the final question that was in a category that is normally a strong one for us.

1. Keyboards – What is the nine-letter term for the punctuation mark that shares a key with the number 7 on a standard QWERTY keyboard? Maybe not the best trivia question to ask of players who might be using laptops or desktop computers for their Zoom game? No big surprise, everyone got this one correct.

2. Rock Bands – In the 2010s, what rock band released studio albums titled Wasting Light, Sonic Highways, and Concrete and Gold, their 7th, 8th, and 9th studio albums overall? Mike actually considered the right band for this, which is surprising, since this isn’t normally his strong category. We didn’t pick the right band, so meh…

3. Electricity – The reciprocal of electrical resistance, what is the term for the measure of the ease of passing an electric current through a substance? Mike made up for last question’s flub by acing this one…

4. Book Titles – The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is the alternate title to what 1969 novel by Kurt Vonnegut? Anyone else crack up in the movie Back to School when Thornton Mellon (Rodney Dangerfield) hires Kurt Vonnegut to write a paper about a Kurt Vonnegut book and his teacher busts him by saying “Whomever you hired to write this paper obviously doesn’t know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut? Or is that just me? Gets me every time…

5. Photography – An SLR camera uses a mirror and prism system to allow the photographer to view through the lens and see exactly what will be captured. What do either of the letters “S” or “R” stand for?

NERD POINT: What do both letters stand for?

Knew one, but not both.

6. Jerseys – In 2019, pitcher Adam Ottavino became the first player in New York Yankees franchise history to wear what jersey number, which is the last single-digit number not retired by the team? We actually made the right guess here but for low…

7. Mountains – Located in the Snowy Mountains, the summit of Mount Kosciuszko is the highest point in what Southern Hemisphere country?

8. Math – What is the ten-letter term for an expression in mathematics that consists of multiple algebraic terms that can be combined using addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division? Miss, we needed a math teacher for this one!

9. Storage – Floppy disks were primarily manufactured in three different sizes – 8 inch, 5 ¼ inch, and what third size?

10. Breakfast -What brand of breakfast cereal was the subject of a commercial in which the narrator compared how many bowls of its competitor’s cereals would equal the nutritional value of one bowl of theirs?

Mystery – Quickfire

Name the four TV series created by David E. Kelley that have aired at least 100 episodes.

When we sadly tried getting these, I made sure to pick ones that were NOT created by Steven Bochko. We only managed to get one correct (the series whose star reminded David Kelley of his own wife).

Final Category – Elements

Name two of the elements on the Periodic Table with atomic numbers greater than 50 which are represented by a single letter.

We failed chemistry class – don’t tell our parents or we’ll get grounded!

Oh well, we’re not the only trivia teams to have been toppled by questions about the Periodic Table (shakes fist at the air)! As always, Go Pods – and stay classy, anyone whom acted inappropriately in the co-ed bathroom in that one doctor, cop, lawyer show!