We decided to stay in Saturday night because of storms in our area – which were bad enough to make it difficult for our virtual trivia host Alana to get back to her house! The rest of the players in the virtual game all waited patiently while she got back into her house and served up the trivia – with some of the players exchanging “dad” jokes with each other. We decided that none of the jokes we’d want to share would be family friendly enough, so we just turned off our video and mics until the trivia show started.

1) Commercials – In the 2000s, the Addams Family appeared in candy form in commercials for the dark chocolate variety of what candy?

2) Quotes – What word completes the following quote from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, which ranks #11 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 most memorable movie lines?

3) Albums – What musician released a 2012 studio album that includes the image of a gorilla standing next to a certain type of music-playing device on its cover? We had no idea, so we guessed Beck, because “That sounds like something esoteric and weird that he would do.” Miss.

4) Websites – What travel-related search engine, launched in 2004, shares its name with a type of personal watercraft? Host Alana joked that maybe one of these would have helped her get home faster!

5) Pitchers – Name one of the three pitchers who won multiple National League Cy Young Awards during the decade of the 2010s.

NERD POINT: Name two of three.

Miss, though we thought our guess of Justin Verlander was pretty good (we wagered low points).

6) Anatomy – What is the nine-letter term for the cranial nerve that relates to the sense of smell? Thank you eighth grade teacher Mr. Francis! He taught us to remember this word because an “old factory” stinks. And…because most of us kids grew up near a city with lots of old auto factories (some of them dying ones as it were), it was a perfect mnemonic device for us!

7) Food – Gazpacho is a cold soup that originated and is widely eaten in two countries on what peninsula?

8) Authors – In 2005, what author was called “An American Tolkien” in a Time magazine book review? Wrong, wrong WRONG! This guy is about as far away from being like Tolkien as Michael Moorcock is from JK Rowling! Aside from the middle initials being the same, these guys couldn’t be more different as people – and as writers. Tolkien lived through World War I and could describe an epic battle sequence better than the other guy could describe a torrid sex scene – though to be fair, Tolkien had a bit more class than to include any sex scenes in his works. He didn’t need to! Even if his works did kind of lack in strong female characters – except Eowyn, Galadriel and Luthien Tinuviel (she’s in The Silmarillion and is a bad ass – and based in part on Tolkien’s real life wife Edith). Did anyone think I forgot about Aragorn’s wife Arwen? Nope! Sorry, but Arwen was a bit whiny and dramatic. For those pervos out there who might think Tolkien’s stuff isn’t “sexy” enough, go look for erotic fan fiction! Or stick with your Game of Thrones and imagine the writer of that book series engaging in actual sex! Mental note to self? Look up “erotic Tolkien fan fiction.” Preferably NOT involving Hobbits (except maybe Rosie Cotton, she was probably a firecracker in the sack)! Uh, is it just me, or did anyone else just picture her tying Samwise to the bed while wearing a “mistress of pain” getup? Hmmm, maybe erotic fan fiction involving Uruk Hai? Maybe Saruman had a secret romance with an Uruk that Tolkien didn’t tell us about? Should I go ahead and write that story myself? 🙂

9) Networks – What TV network has had Thursday night prime time programming blocks called “The Best Night of Television on Television,” “Must See TV,” and “Comedy Night Done Right”?

10) Planes – What number is associated with the Boeing-made bomber known as the Stratofortress, which was produced in the 1950s and 1960s?

Mystery – Initials

Give the first and last names of each of the people described by the following clues.

Hint: The first and last initials of all of the people will be able to be rearranged to spell a word for a type of small rodent.

We immediately started brainstorming names of rodents, and ruled out capybara (too big – maybe use for future mystery round, Sporcle – hint hint lol), Norway rat (too many letters) and once we heard the clues, we ruled out another smallish rodent.

M1. Current Brooklyn Nets player who was the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft

M2. Actor known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars film series

M3. Winner of the fourth season of American Idol

M4. Congressperson currently representing California’s 12th district in Congress

Got all of these except #1.

Final Category – Theater Geography

Of the 75 most populous cities in the U.S. as of 2020, three have names that are found in the titles of performances that have been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Name two of those three cities.

Neither of us felt confident enough to wager on a “theater” category, especially one as vague as this. Aside from taking a musical theater class in college and knowing almost every lyric in Evita, I certainly am no theater expert (forgive me I haven’t even SEEN Wicked or Hamilton). We worried it would be about different parts of a theater, and be a “put these in order” question like: “Put the following theater areas in order from lowest geographically to highest – place where The Phantom kept as his lair to sabotage productions, mezzanine, orchestra pit and that one room where everyone f—ed each other before performances.”

Bummer the question wasn’t that hard since we wagered zero – and knew two of the correct answers (all we needed was two). Still, our cautious wagering allowed us to move up just a little in the standings (to sixth, I think). Three teams had perfect scores of 64 and two teams had almost perfect scores of 63 – and we were two places behind them with 58 going into the final.

How many gold medals did the United States win at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games?

As always, we never know when we’ll be doing a trivia game next! But our “real life” game is in three days (unless we call it off for some reason). We won’t be braving thunderstorms to drive to a game even if stormy weather sometimes means we’re going to have a good game (fifty percent of the time, it works every time)! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, George R.R. Martin – though who would read your books if they were classy?