We played our first trivia game of 2023 virtually on a recent Thursday evening, and…and…it didn’t go so well! When you brain fart on the very first question of the game, and then the second question of the game – and get a coaches question you’re so clueless on that you type in “The other Harbaugh brother” as your answer – topped off by having “meh” performances on mystery rounds AND completely blowing the final question? It kind of makes you feel like a Samurai without a master.

Oh, OK, it wasn’t THAT dramatic! My nerdy husband did spend a bit of time blathering on about how horrible of a thing it was to be a Samurai without a master (yes they did ask about this in the game, and yes we got the question right). Did anyone else see that stylish Robert DeNiro movie with the epic car chase? If you read on and happen to know the answer to the question, you’ll know why my mind went to this 1998 movie, directed by John Frankenheimer – which supposedly had the best movie car chase scene since The French Connection.

You can’t do a movie with a French dude without casting either Jean Reno (pictured above) or Gerard Depardieu. Though I don’t think they’re allowed to be in a movie together, that would cause the Hollywood universe to collapse on itself!

Here were our questions:

Round One –

1. Publishers – What was the last name of the brothers George and Charles – who co-published Webster’s Dictionary? Miss, though we felt super dumb when the answer was revealed.

2. Alliances – Founded in 1997, Star Alliance is the largest global alliance of companies in what industry? No f—ing idea, miss.

3. Nutrition – What was featured on the top of the USDA’s original food pyramid, which was used from 1992 to 2005? Thank you FB host clue.

4. Song Lyrics – What song, whose title follows the lyric “sky rockets in flight,” was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976? I STILL love this song just as much as I did when I was 5 and had this as a .45 RPM record which I’d play on my little orange portable record player. Yes – I was 5 – and was avidly listening to a song about afternoon sexual escapades! Honestly, I didn’t know the song was about sex until years later!

Mystery One

5. (TV Voices) Name one of the two actresses who have been the speaking voice of Meg Griffin on Family Guy for at least one season.

NERD POINT: Name both.

We knew both of these.

6. Coaches – Who is the only currently active NFL head coach to have won both a Super Bowl and an FBS college football national championship as head coach? There is another Harbaugh brother who also coaches football, isn’t there? 🙂 A cursory Internet search tells me I’m right? See? I do know “some” things about sportsball!

7. Warriors – The term rōnin once referred to a leaderless individual in what class of warrior? If all of the questions in this game were like this one, we would have had a perfect game!

8. 2022 Movies – What 2022 film stars Michelle Yeoh as a Chinese immigrant who is the only one who can stop the destruction of the multiverse? Thankfully I remembered this movie’s name…

Mystery Two – Visual

We only got two of these correct. We have not been doing very well on crossword – or flags – rounds lately. We were in second to last with 39 points.

Final Category – TV Firsts

Final Question: What show, which debuted on TV in 1948, is considered by Guinness World Records to be the first “reality TV” series, due to it featuring members of the public as its stars?

Maybe our next game will be better? As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Ed Sullivan!