My husband and trivia partner Mike and I decided we wanted to do something special to mark our 738th trivia game we’ve played since…2012? I have no idea when Sporcle started tracking all of these stats!

I kid, of course – we weren’t really celebrating that trivia milestone! What I really wanted to do was just play one “live” trivia game before the year’s end, and I wanted to play it somewhere where I used to play at least semi-regularly in the long, long ago – you know -the “before times.” Am I the only one who thinks everything that happened pre-pandemic feels more like a decade than (almost) three years? What a mind f— it’s all been.

We also wanted to play in a trivia spot that wasn’t too packed or competitive, since we’re just a wily duo – though blowing an entire mystery round about December songs – and the second final question about fir trees – didn’t make us feel very wily! So we hit up The Owl in downtown Milan, Michigan, which is a hybrid coffee house/bar. It’s not uncommon to have to wait for the barista/bartender to make a latte while you’re waiting for them to be able to pour your beer!

We finished in second in game one, winning a $5 gift card. Wow, beer money – it’s been too long! Here were

I wasn’t sure whether trivia hosts still gave out trivia category sheets or not, like they did the last time we played a live game at Arbor Brewing/Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti in November, 2021. And since I didn’t want the host to think I was an idiot for asking, I did the second best thing – asked another player whether they still did that – or not.

“No, it’s all on the phones now,” the veteran player said.

OK then! Then we were off to the races! Here were our questions – which are very abbreviated versions of the ones that were actually asked (hey I don’t have a secretary)!

Round One –

1 Zodiac – What Western zodiac sign are you if you are born on December 1?

2 Cookies – What is the primary flavor of the third and fifth best selling Girl Scout cookies?

3 Physics – What does the letter “d” represent in the formula d=m/v?

4 Animated TV – Timmy Turner, Cosmo and Wanda are main characters in what Nickelodeon series debuting in 2001?

Mystery Round One – December Songs

Identify the songs with the word “December” in their titles based on the artist – and snippets of lyrics:

M1 – Counting Crows – The smell of hospitals in Winter

M2 – Demi Lovato – I feel a separation coming on
‘Cause I know you want to be moving on

M3 – The Four Seasons – She was ev’rything I dreamed she’d be
Sweet surrender, what a night

M4 – Taylor Swift – So this is me swallowing my pride
Standing in front of you, saying, “I’m sorry for that night…”

Missed…every one. And I don’t know if I’m using the exact same lyrics the host gave out, I kind of used the Google machine to help me out on this!

Round Two –

5 Applications – The original Microsoft Office released in 1990 had exactly how many applications?

6 World Leaders – Droupapi Murmu is the second woman to become president of what country doing so in July, 2022?

7 Books – What 1989 historical fiction novel by Lois Lowry focuses on events of World War 2?

8 Countries – Cabo Verde is a nation located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of what continent? Nerd bonus, what is the official language of Cabo Verde?

Missed #7.

Mystery Round Two – Movie Taglines

Identify the movies set around Christmas based on the following taglines:

M1 – Forty stories, twelve terrorists, one cop (1988)

M2 – Don’t get him wet, keep him out of bright light, don’t feed him after midnight (1984)

M3 – the bat, the cat and the penguin (1992)

M4 – They’re not getting rich – they’re getting even (1983)

Got all of these. I drew a blank on #4, thankfully Mike was all over it!

Final Category 1 – Holiday Names

We had 41 points going into the final (darn that December song mystery round…shakes fist angrily)! This put us in second place.

Final Question: Two of the eight reindeer names from T’was the Night Before Christmas – Dunder and Blixen – have names derived from Dutch from what two words?

Good teamwork, I knew Dunder, Mike knew Blixen.

Finished in second. That’s better than how we usually do in virtual games!

GAME TWO –

Round Three –

1 In the Sky – What is the common name for aurora borealis?

2 Firsts – In 1970, Diane Krump became the first woman to win what racing event traditionally held in the month of May?

3 Reality TV – Janice Dickinson, Kimora Lee Simmons and Beau Quillian were judges on what reality TV series that debuted in 2003? My triviagasm moment here! I said, “Yay I knew a girl stuff question!” And that’s only because I work in a place that carried the fashion line of Kimora Simmons for a minute.

4 Folk Songs – What is the colorful title of the following folk tune with these lyrics (this was an audio question so I’ll include some lyrics for y’all):

Alas my love you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously;
And I have loved you oh so long
Delighting in your company.

No misses this round, yay!

Mystery Round Three – Visual

Missed #1 and #2. Totally our bad for missing number one, we just forgot how to count temporarily (I’ll blame the Great Lakes Christmas ale)!

Round Four –

5 Math – What lower case letter represents the mathematical constant approximately equal to 2.71828183? This is not exactly how they worded the question, but it’s better than how I wrote it down – and sorry, I’m not a maff person! We missed it..

6 Clothes – What Madison Avenue based company founded in 1818 was named by four songs of the company’s founder? And for the second time in a trivia game, we get a fashion question right! What madness was this??? I actually have a friend who used to sell clothes at their store in Somerset Collection, which is a fancy pants mall in Troy. I’m not allowed in that mall, I wouldn’t meet their dress code 🙂

7 Cities – After New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, what is the most populous city north of the Mason Dixon Line? Name a second city for a bonus point. Nope and nope, we clearly need to brush up on populous cities!

8 Video Games – What is the video game series released in 2005 on X Box and Playstation that used the tagline, “One giant step on mankind?” Thank you, thank you…FB host clue! Otherwise we would have missed THREE questions in this round!

Mystery Round Four – Current Events

M1 – Name one of the two countries playing in the World Cup final match.

M2 – New environmental regulations passed recently in Tokyo decree that all new housing must have what feature to help reduce carbon emissions?

M3 – A statue of Roger B. Taney was recently replaced with a statue of what Supreme Court justice appointed in 1967?

M4 – What civil rights leader who recently passed away will be featured on a postage stamp in 2023?

Missed #4, though we both slapped ourselves silly when the answer was revealed (d’oh)!

I’m unsure what place we were in going into this final…

Final Category – Trees

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, there are three different varieties of fir trees considered to be the most fragrant – name two of those varieties.

Got one, missed the second one. Finished the night with 81 points.

Unsure if – or when – we’ll play at this spot again. Live trivia games are not likely to become a regular activity for us, especially with snowstorms coming and other things!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Lionel Messi!