A whopping eight of us met virtually for a very special trivia game recently by special request of birthday girl Michelle, who wanted to celebrate her 50th birthday with friends she wouldn’t be able to see in person.

Michelle and I have known each other going on 33 years now, when we met as high school seniors at…band camp! Well, it wasn’t really “camp,” but rather a music symposium program offered at University of Michigan-Flint for high school students who wanted to hone their skills with their respective instruments – and study music in more detail than they could in band class. And of course there were American Pie inspired jokes about our respective musical instruments – hers the flute – mine the saxophone. I’ll spare you the details!

While I’m posting pics, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t post a picture of us two friends goofing off? This picture is from the early 2000s:

We were doing really well in the game right up until that pesky final question about highly rated television, where we could only name two of the correct series we needed. Honestly, who cares about all of that when we had such a good time chatting amongst ourselves in the breakout rooms and after the game? We were in second going into the final tied with several other teams, and several teams were tied for first with 53 points (yes it was one of those games).

And the questions:

Round One

1 Geography What country is immediately south of Key West, Florida, about 95 miles apart at their closest points?

2 Feats Doing so in 1875, Matthew Webb was the first recorded person to swim across what body of water within the Atlantic Ocean?

3 Long-Running TV – What long-running procedural crime drama that originally aired from 2005-2020 follows a group of profilers from the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) of the FBI? Foiled yet again by a “Doctor Cop Lawyer” TV question (shakes fist)!

4 Instruments – Named after the Greek god of nature and shepherds, what musical instrument consists of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length? Our conversations turned to strange territory at this point, when someone mentioned the name Zamfir. Anyone else remember him? Someone joked, “Kill Zamfir and you’ll be the best person in the world at playing (instrument he plays).” I don’t even know how that line of conversation started!

Mystery Round One

“F” Words Name the word beginning with “F” based on the definition.

Yes at least one of us snickered when the host said “F” words (hey I don’t plan to mature mentally anytime soon even if my body has other plans)!

M1. The main body of an aircraft

M2. A long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs

M3. Singing voice that overlaps and extends above the range of the full voice, especially of a tenor

M4. Type of juice referenced in the title of a book by Judy Blume

Round Two

5 1970s Movies In the 1979 film Alien, other than Ripley, the only other survivor aboard the Nostromo is what type of animal named Jones?

6 Boxing From 1999 to 2007, what boxer won all 24 of her professional fights, including a bout against JacquiFrazier-Lyde in the first Pay Per View boxing event to be headlined by two women? Thank you Dave for knowing this answer! If if were just Mike and I playing, we would have made our best “d’oh” faces.
7 Games – In the board game Monopoly, what denomination are bills that are colored white? For a nerd bonus point, what denomination are bills colored pink? Dave again for the points (clearly he’s played this game more recently than us).

8 Book Titles According to the title of a book by Dr. Seuss, there is a wocket in what location? And Mike was the hero for this one…

Mystery Two Anagrams Decipher the anagram to reveal the first and last name of a U.S. vice president of the last 50 years.

M1. “Be Joined”

M2. Ark Rah Salami

M3. A Real Meltdown

M4. Drag Folder

Got all of these, though we stumbled a bit on #4 (I was too obsessed with this guy’s V.P. and was disappointed his V.P. wasn’t one of the answers). And neither was Hubert Humphrey! Or Schuyler Colfax – yes I know neither of these guys served in the past 50 years, but dang it, I want to be rewarded for remembering Schuyler Colfax’s name! 🙂

Six teams were tied with a perfect score of 53 points, we were tied with two other teams right behind them with 51 points.

Final Category – ’90s Television

We knew that with tight scores like this, wagering zero would get us no place. We also knew this wasn’t a strong category for us. What the f— we wagered 15 anyway!

In the 1990s, only five different TV series had the #1 ranked average Nielsen rating out of the 10 television seasons during the decade.

Name three of those five series, which include two sitcoms, one news program, one drama, and one game show.

(Note: This includes television seasons from 1990-1991 to 1999-20000.

We only named two correct ones. So we moved from second to ninth. Meh! If I were still as competitive with trivia as I used to be in the long, long ago, maybe I’d be bothered! Nowadays though..

Only 20 more games to go until we hit game #700! Woo hoo? Or do we have a serious trivia addiction? Judging from teams higher than us on the leaderboard, we are amateurs when it comes to the frequency of our games! That’s out punishment for occasionally taking nights off to enjoy the weather outside, or actually leave the house to go to a drinking establishment!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, McDreamy! Or whatever the f— that guy’s name was on that Doctor Cop Lawyer show we didn’t name for the final that we also never watched!