What follows are questions from a Stump! virtual trivia game we played on January 2, 2022:

Sometimes trivia questions will make you take a trip down memory lane – and think about the person you once were – and no longer are!

Case in point, a question involving, of all things, ’90s supermodels. Anyone remember those? Back in my salad days, I actually subscribed to such glamor rags as Cosmopolitan (in addition to music rags like Spin and Rolling Stone) and when I was even younger, I even (gasp) subscribed to fashion rags like Seventeen and that very saucy magazine Sassy. I think the editors of that last one got into some trouble for giving advice about teen sex that was just TOO graphic!

But let’s go back to early ’20s me, shall we? Not only did I pretend to be a follower of fashion by reading Cosmo, with huge emphasis on “pretend,” but I also pretended to care about pop music of the day. What better way to marry those two knowledge areas than to be the George Michael music video “Freedom ’90?” Huge hit of a pop song, with supermodels strutting their stuff and lip synching to the song!

Thankfully older me was still able to remember the names of those super fashionable and super thin ladies well enough to ace a mystery round about them! Though the last time I actually thumbed through a Cosmo was a few years ago in a public library when I found a riveting article about how to effectively have bathtub/bathroom sex. The keyword I took away after reading the article was “lube, lube, lube,” but I digress!

I’m sorry to say that aside from the mystery round we had about supermodels, the questions we had weren’t very sexy! Read on unless you’d rather search the Internets for that article I mentioned earlier about bathtub sex, LOL! Believe me, that will be far more exciting to read than anything I can write…

Round One

1) Fictional Bears – What bear, introduced in a 1958 children’s book by Michael Bond, wears a duffel coat and loves marmalade sandwiches? Why oh why did they have to make a live action movie about this poor bear (just my opinion)!

2) Winter Wear – What thermal winter wear was invented in 1873 by 15-year-old Chester Greenwood, after he asked his grandmother to sew tufts of fur between loops of wire? I was drawing a blank, but as my trivia pardner Mike is so good at doing during trivia games, he came up with the correct answer.

3) Animated TV – The Mean Machine, the Compact Pussycat, and the Arkansas Chugabug are three of the vehicles driven in what Hanna-Barbera TV series that premiered in 1968 and was revived in 2017? We couldn’t come up with this, miss…

5) Advertising – What pitchman, who promoted OxiClean, Orange Glow, and Kaboom!, among others, was known for his enthusiastic delivery? Commercials haven’t been the same since he died…

Mystery One – Music Videos

For this mystery round, your team can give four answers, and can put them in any order you choose. You will receive two points for each correct answer.

Name four of the five models featured in the music video for “Freedom! ’90” by George Michael, lip-syncing on screen in his place.

Got all of these.

Round Two

1) Copyright – When a copyrighted work has its copyright expire, forfeited, waived, or otherwise become inapplicable, the work is said to enter what two-word phrase, in which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply? Mike to the rescue here.

2) 70s Songs – In what 1975 song does the singer suggest that one can “slip out the back,” “make a new plan,” or “hop on the bus” as methods of stepping out on a current relationship? Mike again to the rescue!

NERD POINT: Who is the singer? Once he came up with the song, I produced the singer.

3) Movies and SCIENCE – What element, number 33 on the periodic table, is also the counterpart of old lace in the title of a 1939 play that was adapted into 1944 film starring Cary Grant?

4) New Names – In 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives changed the names of French fries and French toast in their cafeterias, replacing “French” with what word? So, so dumb…

Mystery Two – Twisted Titles – Sports Edition

Identify the sports teams described in the following clues – the resulting answers will be names of sports teams with just one letter changed.

M1) A colorful instrument played by Charlie Parker or John Coltrane inspired the name of the MLB team associated with the Green Monster

M2) The Florida-based NWSL team for which Sydney Leroux and Marta both play is named for the numbers 2, 3, 5, and 7, and many more beyond that

M3) As its name suggests, the NFL team led by quarterback Carson Wentz is a social group with beliefs and practices that may be considered strange or suspicious

M4) Although its logo is an animal chewing through a hockey stick, one NHL team is actually named for a type of crude shelter or hut

Nice teamwork on these – the only one we missed was #2.

Final Category – 20th Century Poets

What American expatriate poet, who made pro-fascist radio broadcasts from Italy during World War II for which he was later indicted for treason, was awarded the 1949 Bollingen Prize from the Library of Congress for The Pisan Cantos?

The ensuing controversy caused the Library of Congress to end its association with the award.

Nope, we didn’t come up with this one, miss.

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Billy Mays!