We recently learned the hard way that our favorite room in the house for playing our virtual trivia games, listening to streaming music and playing board games – wasn’t getting the best wi-fi signal. We had signed on to do a virtual game Sunday evening, but canceled because the Internets wasn’t cooperating – and we didn’t have time to move our whole operation to a different room. Then we “thought” the Internet was working again after the game, but nope!

So when we wanted to play again, we set up in our “backup” virtual trivia spot, which is my husband’s work-from-home office slash seldom used spare bedroom. It’s actually quite nice – it has a cozy futon for sitting, a nice office chair also good for sitting, an attached full bathroom – also good for sitting (you see where I’m “going” here), and most importantly, a desktop computer! And even more important – a cooler with some drinks in it!

Overall, it was a pretty friendly question set for the two of us, with us only missing questions about actors, fast food menu items and basketball. We wound up finishing in fourth overall, out of all of the “league” teams playing (63 points).

Here were the questions:

Round One –

1) Social Media – What was the first social media website to surpass one million monthly active users? Got it, but not for max points (we weren’t too confident).

2) Signs – In the Chinese zodiac, which of the twelve animals has an English name that comes last alphabetically? We actually know the Chinese Zodiac animals pretty well, and we both started to list them. At the end, the only animal we missed between our two lists was monkey (the correct animal comes alphabetically after monkey, if anyone wants a hint). Anyone else craving Chinese food and want to look at a Chinese Zodiac chart on one of their paper placemats?

3) Singers – What singer-songwriter released the 1994 single “All I Wanna Do,” which has lyrics adapted from the poem “Fun” by Wyn Cooper?

4) TV Characters – Characters named Luke Spencer and Laura Webber got married in a 1981 episode of what long-running soap opera, which originally focused on a medical staff?

NERD POINT: Name either performer who played these characters.

One of my favorite stories about this fictitious wedding involves one of my older co-workers, whom was about the same age as my mom. She said that she called in sick at work that day so she could watch this episode (forgive her, VCRs weren’t in everyone’s households yet and watching things on demand was only a glimmer in the eye of the most technologically advanced folks of the time). I used to watch this soap as a kid, so we got this and we could’ve named both actors. I even remember that there was a rape scene with these two characters (the things TV did to get ratings back then – isn’t that terrible)? When my non-soap opera watching husband asked who the male actor was, I said, “You might remember him as the character Philo in the movie UHF.” He was a strange mad scientist type. His character was going to do a segment where you could learn to make Plutonium out of of standard household items (though we never got to watch it).

Mystery Round One – Starts with “S”

Name the word beginning with “S” that fills the blank in the title of each given book.

1. The _____ and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)

2. A Storm of _____ by George R. R. Martin (2000)

3. Song of _____ by Toni Morrison (1977)

4. The _____ Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)

Got all of these.

Round Two
5) Anatomy – A hiccup is caused by a spasm or involuntary contraction of what muscle within the human body?

6) Athletes – An athlete nicknamed “The Galloping Ghost” was among the inaugural inductees into the pro hall of fame in what sport? Thanks to whichever host provided this clue before the game (otherwise we wouldn’t have known this).

7) Religion – What major world religion has four main pilgrimage sites, including Lumbini in Nepal, which is traditionally believed to be the birthplace of the religion’s founder?

Question Eight – Actors – With a Best Actor nomination for his role in the 2021 film The Tragedy of Macbeth, who became the fifth performer to be nominated for an acting Academy Award in five different decades? Miss, we picked an actor who was nominated in only three decades, and had nothing to do with Macbeth (though he “seemed” like he would be, since he’s appeared in and directed Shakespearean movies before). Yet another question we miss about “this” actor (go figure)!

Mystery Round Two –

Missed #1 and #4.

We were in sixth going into the final with 48 points. We bet it all on the category of “Elements:”

Seven elements on the periodic table have English names in which the second-to-last letter is “E.” Name three of the four that are NOT gases at standard temperature and pressure.

I think every single team got this correct…final standing unchanged, though there was a tiebreaker for first (did not write down the question).

Let’s hope this technological wi-fi gadget works for us and we can go back to using our “favorite” room for trivia games (and other recreational activities)! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Denzel Washington! Sigh, we’ll never, ever know enough trivia about you, will we?