We thought since we’re going to be doing our first “in person” Sporcle Live trivia game in less than a week – the first one since the long, long ago – that doing a virtual trivia game with two games – would be a good “warm up.” After all, if we are to put on actual clothes and “go out,” then we have to be able to play with the “big kids,” don’t we? Play two games? Play visual rounds? Rack our brains over which Gallagher brother in Oasis was which (honestly – does it matter) – and why exactly did they fight all of the time anyway? I mean – I don’t always see eye to eye with my brother, either – but I would never, ever throw a tambourine at him! Would I play a tambourine badly at him just to annoy him? Possibly! 🙂 Me playing a tambourine badly is a guarantee – I just never learned the “percussion” instruments.

We wound up finishing fifth overall with 138 points. Two different teams BOTH had perfect games with 64 points each (though I’m not sure both teams got both final questions correct). A couple of things – perfect games – and teams taking too long with visual questions – is always an eyebrow raiser in a virtual game – and the reason some of the longtime pub trivia players have been hesitant to do the virtual format. And if teams are cheating to get the answers correct – this begs the question why? Is it for the prizes? Teams only get a “chance” at winning a weekly prize in the virtual games, so again – why?

But, enough about that – how about some questions? TWO sets!

1) Reality TV – What type of flower was associated with The Bachelor and the Bachelorette?

2) Nicknames – What type of astronomical event is SN 2003fg, which was nicknamed after a song by Oasis? Cue up the Oasis memories – “When you’re better known for your fights than your music, you’ve got a problem with your band.”

3) Film Plots – The theft of a Monet painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a key plot point of what 1999 film? We picked a different “heisty” 1999 film with a similar plot, so miss.

4) Counties – What city serves as the seat of the most populous county in Texas? We were torn between two – one of which would’ve been right – we picked the one with the Alamo instead.

5) Anatomy – In humans, the lunula is located in which part of the body—wrist, finger, shoulder, or elbow?

6) Coaches – At the time of his retirement in 1997, Eddie Robinson was the winningest college football head coach, having spent 55 seasons at what school in Louisiana? We picked a Louisiana college, but not the right one, miss.

7) Astronauts – Who is the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to outer space, doing so at the age of 32 in 1983?

8) Breakfast – Name three of the four current colors of the “berries” in Crunch Berries cereal.

NERD POINT: Name all four.

Got ’em all.

9) Slogans – What company has used the slogans “Your World, Delivered” and “Reach Out and Touch Someone?” God I even remember the old jingle…one of way too many old jingles that still take up residence in my head and don’t pay any rent!

10) Math Class – If a right triangle has one leg with a length of six and the other with a length of eight, how long is the hypotenuse?

Give the first and last names of the people described by the following clues, all of whom have initials separated by one letter (A.C., B.D., C.E., etc.).

M1. Actor nominated for an Academy Award for playing Jean Valjean in Les Misérables

M2. Actress known for her role as Topanga Lawrence on TV

M3. Governor of Iowa who went on to serve as secretary of agriculture in both the Obama and Biden administrations

M4. English supermodel who is the subject of an 18-karat gold statue titled Siren, which was displayed at the British Museum in 2008

Missed 2 and 3.

In the last five years (2017-2021), three films have each produced multiple nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Name one of those three films, two of which had a performer win the award.

Got it, though we choked a bit on the title…

Game Two

1) Books – Insurgent and Allegiant are the second and third books in a series that began with what novel? Mike remembered this answer because our niece used to read this series (thanks Anabel)!

NERD POINT: Who is the author of this series?

Nope, didn’t get the author…missed the bonus.

2) Rappers – What is the stage name of the rapper who is played by his real-life son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., in the 2015 film Straight Outta Compton? I don’t know a lot of facts about rappers, but I remembered this one!

3) Internet – Kyle Craven co-created what meme, which features him in character wearing a plaid sweater vest and is captioned with unlucky or embarrassing events?

4) TV Siblings – Twin siblings Brandon and Brenda Walsh were first introduced on what drama series? I’ll never forget my college roommates Kim and Sarah “forcing” me to come out into the living room to watch this! Did I try to find other places to be on 90210 nights later to get out of this? Possibly!

5) – Hockey – What common hockey statistic is abbreviated SOG? Yay we were happy to get this “sportspuck” question correct (though not so happy about missing the all-baseball visual round later in the game).

6) Wood – What is the common name for the large, fast-growing tree of the species ochroma pyramidale, which supplies the lightest wood used commercially? I happened to see one of the trivia host’s clues before the game (gotta start looking at those again)!

7) World Geography – The longest straight-line east-west distance between two continents across the ocean is more than 9,500 miles between which two continents? Miss.

8) Words – What word is the past participle of “forgo”? Miss.

9) Animated Movies – In the 2003 film Finding Nemo, what repeated single word makes up the entirety of the dialogue of the seagulls? Mike remembered this…

10) Quotes – In a 2011 interview, who delivered the following quotable line?

“I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man.” Ugh…his whole 15 minutes of infamy was so annoying. He could’ve bought gallons of tiger blood with the money he made on that series before he was fired.

Mystery Round: (Visual, will be inserted in a bit…)

Thanks to the goose egg on this visual round and too many other misses, we were in seventh with 46 going into the final. And this childhood photo of me tells you everything you need to know about my savviness with baseball:

Final Category – Cookies

Biscochitos are butter cookies flavored with cinnamon, sugar, and anise that in 1989 became the official cookie of which U.S. state?

Those sound good – except for the anise! Made right guess here. My notes tell me we finished in second – though my virtual game notes are not always very detailed!

We may do a virtual game Friday night, as has become our “thing” lately. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Charlie Sheen!