A few of us ‘Pods and those attached to ‘Pods either by tentacles or marriage (really is there a difference there?) – gathered virtually for a “birthday” trivia gathering for Susan. If her birthday present was a good trivia game, well then I guess that means we have to go have a painting commissioned for her to make up for that! But wait…someone already did that! Starbucks gift card then?

All joking aside, even though it wasn’t our best showing in terms of answering questions correctly (which is completely overrated), the virtual games are still a fun way to connect while being hundreds – or maybe a couple of dozen miles apart geographically. Happy belated birthday, Susan! Maybe our next “birthday” game in September will go a bit better!

If only our final question hadn’t been about theater…here’s what I think of when I think of theater…

Here were our questions:

Round One

1 License Plates – Which U.S. state has a standard-issue license plate that includes the phrase “America’s Dairyland?” Helps when this state is the neighbor of the state a few of us live in or formerly lived in.

2 Beverages – A beverage known by the French name café au lait consists of coffee with what additional ingredient?

3 Cars – What luxury and performance arm of Honda originally produced the Integra model from 1985 to 2006, and plans to revive the nameplate for model year 2023? Anyone else remember the “South Park” episode where Satan had a huge party and commissioned Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy to get him a Ferrari cake? They wound up trashing the cake, so they had to get the type of car needed for this question answer instead. Well, I thought it was funny! Serial killer humor not for everyone apparently…

4 – Nicknames – What Basketball Hall of Fame player and current TV analyst was known as the “Round Mound of Rebound” during his playing career? Always nice when at least three players come up with the correct name on sportsball questions (high five)!

Mystery One – 

We only got #1 and #2 correct.

Round Two

5 Books – Criminals Bill Sikes and Fagin are the two main antagonists in what serialized novel by Charles Dickens that is subtitled The Parish Boy’s Progress? Brace yourselves for a little rant. F— Dickens! All of his stories were pretty much the same. We get it – Victorian England was a shithole and pickpockets were everywhere! Your only good story was A Christmas Carol, even if it has been overdone (a good story is still a good story). And who doesn’t like seeing a vile, miserly son of a bitch get his comeuppance because of a visit from ghosts? Pickpockets? Hard pass…
6 Mythology – In Greek mythology, to claim his rightful throne of Iolcus , Jason assembles a crew of heroes to sail with him on the Argo and retrieve what valuable artifact? We did a little Zoom flub here because our host Charlie from Richmond “called on us” to answer a question so we turned our zoom mic on to answer it. And we left it on after he put this question up and so the host and players on the remaining three teams may have heard our off color joke answer for this question which included the word “golden.” Maybe when hosts ask players to talk during the game they can mute everyone afterward like some other hosts so while they ask questions?
7 Actresses – Stephanie Beatriz provided the voice of Mirabel in what 2021 film? I do not know if this is the exact question we had, since I didn’t get it down – I only wrote down the answer. There was probably more to it…

8 Science – What is the scientific name for the Northern Lights? For an extra nerd point, what is the name for the same lights in the Southern Hemisphere? Got both of these.

Mystery One – Add ’Em Up

Each answer will be a number. Those four numbers will add up to 82.

M1. Number of letters in the last name of the actress married to playwright Arthur Miller from 1956-1961

M2. Number in the name of Miller Brewing Co.’s “extra light beer”

M3. Last number in the year in which Reggie Miller won an Olympic gold medal in basketball

M4. Number of studio albums by rapper Mac Miller (including studio albums released

Almost a total goose egg on this round, only got #1 correct.

We were in fourth with 38 going into the final. Tough round of questions to be that low yet that high in the standings! But in all honesty…THERE WERE ONLY FOUR TEAMS PLAYING ON THIS NIGHT! So…yeah?

Final Category – Musicals

Since 2000, seven musicals with one-word titles have won the Tony Award for Best Musical, including Spamalot and Hamilton.

Name one of the other five winners.

There are some players and some teams that follow the theater world and would consider questions like this easy. Ours is not one of those teams! A whole lotta nope…

Oh well, it’s always fun to joke about urination when you’re on the Zoom mic to the whole crowd! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy every sleazy pickpocket and ne’er do well in the Charles Dickens universe!