Seven-hundred trivia games? It simply boggles the mind, doesn’t it? I mean, it took us 10 years to get to this point, but it’s still pretty telling – and there are way too many stories to share in this one little ‘ol trivia recap!

Since I knew this 700th game was coming, I wanted to make the game “special.” My first thought was to possibly do a live game, but since our players are so spread out geographically – with our “founder” Sam and his wife Angela living near Newport News, VA, and one of our “guest stars” (that’s ‘Pods slang for players, typically from other league teams, whom have helped us in any way with our trivial pursuits, especially at tournaments)…guest star – oh yeah, I nearly lost my chain of thought – he lives in Minnesota. With other players living in Ypsilanti, Dearborn and Plymouth, MI – a virtual game meetup seemed the best way to go.

A little joke about the ‘Pods and our frequent “guest stars?” I think I said something along the lines of us having had more guest stars than the TV series “The Love Boat.” And when I mentioned that to some other players, one of them said she had the theme song for “The Love Boat” earlier that day. On our trivia team, we are certainly no strangers to incidents of weirdness such as this!

Since some of us are also big fans of “The Simpsons,” I thought I’d point out that they aired their 700th episode in 2021. Though we haven’t tuned in for too many episodes more recent than ones that featured the late, great Phil Hartman (Rest in Peace, brother), we are still fully capable of having entire conversations using only Simpsons quotes! It’s true…it’s one of those “you have to be there” things.

As for the game? We actually did quite well AND had fun! We had eight players for this game, which was hosted virtually by a Denver, CO host named Deana, whom we have played games with on lots of occasions. She rolled out the carpet for us and our special game by taking two song requests (Octopus’ Garden by the Beatles, and Crimson and Clover by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, for inquiring minds), and she also gave us a little shout out to us for our “milestone.” Special thanks for that! In these dark times, we’ll take any warm ‘n fuzzy moments we can get!

We finished in third with 66 points, only missing a question about sportsball. The two players we had did not agree on what answer was correct for the question, and as it turned out, neither player wound up mentioning the right team anyway! And that’s OK!

Here were our game questions:

Round One

1 Video Games   What home video game console produced by Sega was known as the Mega Drive in most regions outside of North America? Got it, but for low points.

2 NASA Juno is a spacecraft launched by NASA in 2011 that currently orbits which planet? A bit of discussion, but we picked the right planet.

3 French What word from the French meaning “cloth” or “rag” refers to a fine, sheer cloth woven from silk, nylon, or rayon in plain weave? Thank you to “guest star” David’s wife for helping come up with this correct answer!

4 Characters What character has been played in film by all of the following performers?

Bernard Lee, Robert Brown, Judi Dench, and Ralph Fiennes

This was an answer we all agreed upon.

Mystery One –

We got all of the mystery questions correct.

Round Two

5 World Series Which National League team was the only one to win the World Series twice in the 1980s? Brad mentioned a couple of teams, Dave K. mentioned one he liked…neither person thought of the correct team. But hey – the 80s were a long time ago (though I really don’t want to admit that)!

6 Flags What constellation is represented by the stars on the flag of New Zealand?

7 Politics What political party had two of its candidates elected U.S. president between 1840 and 1850, only to have both of them die in office?

NERD POINT: Name those two presidents.

Dave K. joked to me, “If you get this one wrong, you’re off the team.” Did we get it right? Of course! If there’s anything I like to keep in my “trivia bag,” it’s knowledge about presidents who died in office!

8 Salads What type of olive is traditionally used when making a Greek salad? The photo Sporcle used in the slide for this question made us all want to go out and get a Greek salad!

Mystery Round Two

We got all of these correct. And used process of elimination on #4 “It’s not (blank), (blank), or (blank).” Sometimes this trivia strategy works!

We were in third going into the final with 51 points.

Final State Capitals

Three U.S. states have exactly three “i”s in their names. Name two of the three capital cities of those states.

Got this correct, no change to the standings. We were not at all disappointed, since we had gathered simply to have a reunion – and have some fun!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Zachary Taylor (Ulysses Grant actually thought very highly of General Zachary Taylor during the Mexican War).