We decided to bring our “trivia hiatus” to a close on a rainy, drizzly Friday night and buy into a virtually hosted game. As it turns out, knowing the name of the guy who played an over-the-top game show host in a post-apocalyptic ’80s film can be helpful in coming up with answers in a game show hosts mystery round! Art reflecting life? Hey, in a virtual game, where perfect games are as frequent as wild 24 hour weather shifts are in Michigan, we’ll take any lifelines that our brains are willing to give to us! Today, as I do some laundry, there are shorts, heavyweight wool socks, tank tops and lightweight Hawaiian style shirts in the mix in addition to thermal shirts, which reflects the shifty weather we’ve had in the past week.

Round One –

1 Books -What European city serves as both the start and the finish of the journey in the 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days?

NERD POINT: Who wrote this novel?

We discussed two possibilities, picked the right city. Also got the bonus point.

2 Independence –  From its independence in 1948 until a name change in 1972, what Asian island nation was known as Ceylon?

3  Song Lyrics – According to the lyrics of a 1993 single by 4 Non Blondes, what question is screamed “from the top of my lungs?” Two Gen-Xers whom were in college when this song was an earworm ain’t gonna miss this one…

4 Ancient Art – Rediscovered in the 19th century, what ancient sculpture is named for the Roman counterpart of the goddess Aphrodite and for the island on which it was found?

Mystery Round One – First Capitals

Name the U.S. state based on the first city that served as that state’s capital.

Note: “First city” refers to the capital at the time the state entered the Union.

M1. San Jose (1849–1851)

M2. Huntsville (1819–1820)

M3. New Bern (1789–1792)

M4. Kaskaskia (1818–1820)

We missed #3.

Round Two –

5 Logos – What American film production company has used a logo depicting a boy sitting on the moon while fishing?

6 Athletes – Greg LeMond is notable for having been the first American to win what sporting event, doing so for the first time in 1986?

7 Wine – What seven-letter floral term can refer to the aroma of wine?7

8 Parodies – The 1991 film Hot Shots! parodies a number of films, most notably what action drama released five years earlier?

Mystery Round Two – Game Show Hosts (groan…we are not great in this category).

For this mystery round, your team can give four answers and can put them in any order you choose. Teams will receive two points for each correct answer.

Since it debuted in 1976, the game show Family Feud has had six regular hosts, including the current host, Steve Harvey. Name four of the other five regular hosts.

We managed to get two of these correct, one of them was this guy who was in a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger wearing a yellow bodysuit (I cannot say “onesie” without having to pay royalties to the Gerber Company. No wait…I just did, damn it!

Above, Richard Dawson (left) as Damon Killian – and Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards in the 1987 film The Running Man.

We were in seventh going into the final with 49 points. Curse us for not knowing game show hosts better!

Final Question:

Name two of the four U.S. Cabinet departments whose secretaries are lowest in the order of presidential succession (15th through 18th).

Currently, two of these four departments are headed by people who are not eligible to be president, due to having been born outside of the country.

We managed to get one, not both, we went too early with the incorrect cabinet department we put down as our guess, and talked ourselves out of another correct one. All trivia teams have their superpowers, and talking ourselves out of correct guesses is ours!

Oh well, it was a fun way to kill an hour!

We’ll be going out for a real-life trivia game next week! Anyone else excited about this? No, nothing (tough crowd)! If you haven’t seen The Running Man yet, what are you waiting for? If seeing Arnold in a skintight yellow bodysuit doesn’t do it for you, then maybe seeing Mick Fleetwood – and Dweezil Zappa – heading an underground resistance group might do it for you! No, not good enough? Maria Conchita Alonso also wears a bodysuit, too!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, all of you sleazy, handsy game show hosts out there!