We went back to an “old stomping grounds” trivia spot Wednesday – the “we” being just two of us. We used to have lots more of us doing trivia battle at this place – Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery, more commonly referred to as “Corner Brewery” to locals – but several teammates moved away over the years, some just lost interest, and…well, some details involving teammates from the past are better left unsaid! Kind of like the stuff Bilbo Baggins did when he used the ring to turn invisible and spy on people in Hobbiton!

We wound up finishing in fourth for the night with eleventy-twelve points (or 112 if you’re not a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien). Anyone else remember how old Bilbo was when he did his disappearing act at his big party at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring? He was eleventy-one, as he said! Magic rings help you live quite a long life, apparently! Sure, that long life might be like butter spread over too much bread and involve an unhealthy obsession with your “precious!”

We didn’t win any cash prizes, we were content enough to hold our own as a duo amid some pretty rough questions! I’m kicking myself for not knowing the answer to the “disco group” question. We were too hung up on the geographical details of the question and decided to guess Manhattan Transfer instead, even though we knew it wasn’t really a “disco group.”

Here were our questions (expect these to be abbreviated and not copied down word for word):

Game One

Round 1

1 Vehicles – Since 1949, what auto manufacturer has produced its Type 2 model which has been known as the “hippie bus” due to its popularity in the 1960s?

2 Games – Each card in the Pictionary board game is designated by letters representing the categories, including AP for “all play” and P for “person, place, animal.” Give the category represented by the letters O, A or D. It has been decades since either of us played this game, but thankfully we made the right guess. This may have been a nerd point question for answering more than one, if it was, I didn’t write that down.

3 Athletes – Paige Spiranac, a YouTube and Instagram sensation, is best known for her instructional videos in what sport, which she played in college? No clue, miss.

4 Catchphrases – “Dy NO mite” was a catchphrase associated with the character JJ Evans on what 1970s sitcom? This was the first of three “old people” questions in this game, and the only one we got correct. One of the other questions was a bit too old even for us fogeys! I joked that I needed my mom’s help with that question. Don’t worry, when that question comes up, I’ll mention this again!

Mystery Round 1

Alliterative Answers – Each answer will be a two-word alliterative phrase

M1 – Character played by Lynda Carter on TV in the 1970s and Gal Gadot in recent films

M2 – Jazz age flapper who appeared in more than 100 theatrical shorts beginning in the 1930s

M3 – Geek Squad retailer

M4 – Coastal Texas city whose name means “body of Christ.”

Got all of these.

Round 2

5 Documentaries – “Driving Home 2U” is a 2022 documentary about the making of what singer’s debut album? Miss, never heard of this person, nor the documentary about this person.

6 Musicals – An upper Manhattan bodega owned by Usnari de la Vega is one of the settings in what musical which opened on Broadway in 2008? When you have to ask “What’s a bodega,” you’re probably not going to know the answer! And we didn’t! Never heard of this. But at least I know what a “bodega” is now (psst it’s like a 7-11).

7 Schools – What historically black university in Washington, D.C. is the alma mater of Taraji P. Henson, Thurgood Marshall and Kamala Harris being among its most notable alumni? FB clue.

8 Organs – Hepatitis, which has a variety of causes, is characterized by the inflammation of which organ in the human body?

Mystery Round 2 –

National Parks Quickfire – Name four of the five U.S. states beginning with the letter “M” that have at least one national park.

We came up with three easily, struggled on the fourth, talking ourselves out of one of the right “M” states. Show me something good about this mystery round (that’s a hint as to the state that we missed)!

We were in 11th place going into the final question with 44 points. We bet all 15 points on the category of:

TV Voices

H. Jon Benjamin voices the title character on two different animated series that have aired at least 13 seasons debuting in 2009 and 2011 respectively.

Got this, so did every team ahead of us. We’ll chalk that one up as a “warm up game” and move on to…

Game 2

Round 3

9 Science Terms – What is the term for the type of resistance that an object encounters while moving over another object?

10 ’90s Movies – What actress appears on the poster for the 1996 film Scream, in which her character is surprisingly killed off in the first scene?

11 Audio clue question for us. So I’ll just ask – in what year, within one, did Mark Maguire hit his 62nd home run? We missed this one.

12 Internet – What Caribbean nation uses the Internet domain suffix “tt?”

Mystery Round 3

Before and After

Combine the following clues into one answer (I think y’all know how these rounds work by now)!

M1 – 2022 revival series featuring Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song and two-word calendar anomaly occurring in 2016, 2022 and 2024

M2 – Country that got smaller in 2011 when its southern region became independent – and a romance author

M3 – 2012 Adele song used in a James Bond film and post-apocalyptic video game series launched in 1997

M4 – Marvel character embodied by Peter Parker and capital of the Philippines

Got all of these, nice teamwork on #3, I would not have thought of that video game series on my own – and I’m so glad I steered my brain away from Jackie Collins on question #2!

Round 4

13 Sketch Comedy – Name one of the two hosts of the variety show “Laugh-In,” which aired on NBC between 1968 and 1973. Name both for a nerd bonus point. This is one of those face-slap questions – when you year the answer, you’re like “Oh yeah, I should have known this!” Did we know this answer when we had to know it! No! We’ll just say this one was a tad old for the two of us! Though we remember the whole huge chair Edith Ann bit that Lily Tomlin did on that show! Maybe that was in a rerun or something?

14 Singers – Singer Victor Willis is the last surviving member of what disco group, which was named for the NYC neighborhood in which they were formed? And I guess they are still recording new stuff, if the Internets info I read earlier is correct. We missed this, put in Manhattan Transfer as our guess even though we knew it was the wrong music genre.

15 Surgery – What is the female counterpart to the surgery commonly performed on pets – to neutering?

16 Laws – Name one of the two U.S. states that first legalized recreational marijuana, both of which doing so in 2012.

Mystery Round 4 – Visual

I love it when my trivia pardner handles a mystery round all on his own! He did pretty well, we only missed #4.

Unsure what place we were in going into the final, but we had 45 points. I think we were in the top 5?

We had the final category of “Great Art,” which is a category I’ve griped a bit about lately! Sigh…either we’re too confident and waste big points on a miss, or we’re not confident enough – and know it when we wager nothing! I decided to do something we don’t normally do in trivia games and go halfsies on the final wager – rounding up – and wagering 8.

The Guardian listed 10 “Greatest Works of Art Ever,” which included one depicting a real-life event from 1937 – and another called Number 31 from 1950. Name both of those artists creating those works.

Turns out wagering it all would not have changed our final standings much – but it certainly didn’t hurt us to not wager it all! We just barely escaped the prize zone, but we were happy with the result at this very competitive trivia spot. Just imagine what kind of damage we could do if we had an extra player or two helping us out! It just didn’t work out that way this week.

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, the Village People!