We picked up a “helper” in a virtual trivia game Monday night. It’s usually just my husband and I doing battle with the trivia questions, but as it turned out, a player named Harrison from Austin, TX bought into the game – but didn’t have anyone available from his team to play. So we said…

Why not?

We didn’t do so hot in the game…we missed the final question about recent books, missed one regular round question and missed almost the entire sportsball mystery round. But it was fun having a different person to talk to even if it was just a virtual talk!

We’ll be back at it for a “double header” tonight.

Here were our game questions:

Round One

1) Islands – Baffin Bay separates Canada from what large island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark?

2) Board Games – Other than Park Place, name one of the other two spaces on a standard U.S. Monopoly board that have the word “Place” in their names?
NERD POINT: Name both.

Got both.

3) ’80s Music – This question was audio, so I’ll try to turn it into a “words” question instead: “What German band recorded the 1984 hit song “Rock You Like a Hurricane?” Since our new trivia compadre Harrison was too young to be familiar with the song, we took it upon ourselves to explain how this song – in addition to “Danger Zone,” by Kenny Loggins, “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC among countless other songs are standards played at air shows.

4) Monuments – Located in Maryland, the Underground Railroad National Monument is named for what woman? All of us were like, “Who else could this person be?”

Mystery 1 – Visual

Round Two

1) Founders – What is the last name of Michael, the man who lent his name to his computer technology company and became, at the time, the youngest Fortune 500 CEO in history in 1992? Anyone else remember those annoying commercials where they said “You’ve gotta get a (blank)?”

2) Science! – A pluviometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure the amount of what?

3) Shakespeare – What Shakespearean title character was the recipient of what was called “the most unkindest cut of all”? Clearly we weren’t thinking…miss.

4) Theme Songs – “I Don’t Want to Wait” by Paula Cole serves as the theme song for what TV series, which originally aired from 1998-2003? Never watched a single episode of that show, but it definitely seeped into my pop culture subconscious nonetheless. Plus, I had a couple of friends at the time who apparently used to dish about every episode the next day after it aired (or even the night it aired) – one of them had a huge crush on the female star. Oh the good old days of non streamable TV – when if you weren’t home to watch your shows when they aired, you had to set the VCR. Woe to us and the hardships of having to wait an entire week before finding out how those dramatic cliffhanger endings shook out! But weren’t some of the “watch parties” fun?

Mystery 2

Each of the following pairs of sports venues is home to two “Big Four” (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) teams that share a team nickname. Give the shared nickname of those teams.

M1) MetLife Stadium and Canada Life Centre

M2) State Farm Stadium and Busch Stadium

M3) Staples Center and Golden 1 Center

M4) Madison Square Garden and Globe Life Field

We got #3 correct, that was it… clearly a certain someone on our team needs to brush up on the names of U.S. sportsball teams (oh the humanity).

Only three teams in the game, but we were in third with 43 points. Yup – that last mystery round walloped us like a stray fastball. I’m not saying I have any real complaints about the “Stump!” format, but with the multiple mystery rounds, there is always a chance that one of the mystery rounds will kill your game. But it’s not really a complaint, just an observation.

Final Category: 21st-Century Fiction
What word completes the title of a novel by Kristin Hannah that spent five weeks from February-April 2021 atop The New York Times Fiction Best Seller list?

Nope, we made what we thought was a good educated guess, but no go…

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, those worm things in Tremors!