We were all excited about having a possible fourth player in the mix for our Wednesday night trivia meetup, but as people like to say, “Life happens!” And life indeed happened, as one of our players welcomed a new granddaughter into his family just before the trivia game was set to begin! We were kind of hoping that bit of last-minute news before the game might mean good luck for our trivia game, but alas, that was not the case 😦 We missed both final questions and heard some bad news involving rules about table capacity and other boring stuff that will send us playing at other trivia spots where 3-4 person teams are the norm, not the exception (but that is another story entirely).

We finished with 71 points for the night, so…not exactly a report card we want to show our parents!

We did fairly well on all of the mystery rounds, except that visual one at the end, which elicited groans from quite a few teams in the room. There was some muttering among my teammates about it being akin to a “wallaby” question which involved a visual mystery round on paper (anyone else remember those) when a photo of a wallaby looked too much like a kangaroo or something and we missed it…ah trivia memories! You just can’t forget some of them, even if you want to!

Another question eliciting very loud groans involved rock music. But you’ll have to read on to find out more about that! Let’s get on with the questions, shall we? Please note that they may be very abbreviated…also special thanks to host “Robear,” aka Robert E. for spotting me the visual mystery round (our host does not provide URLs to the teams for visual rounds, presumably to discourage too many players from using their phones).

Round One

1 Utensils – The hybrid eating utensil “”chork” is a combination of what two utensils?

2 Mountains – What is the highest mountain in Japan, at more than 12,000 feet high?

3 Animated TV – Name two of the three non-human characters on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, name two for a bonus point. We knew one, but not two… We saw lots of promos for this, but we never bothered to watch it, though we do watch a lot of animated TV! If only this question were about Archer or Harley Quinn! 😦

4 Track – According to track and field rules, which part of the body – head, chest, feet or hands – must cross the finish line first? So THAT’s what photo finish means! I thought it meant having to do with urgently needing to use a restroom!

Only missed #3 in this round…

Mystery Round One – “BARB”

All correct responses will include the letters BARB in order.

M1 -Shaving cream created by Frank Shields in 1919

M2 – Sci-Fi film released in 1968 starring Jane Fonda

M3 – Song at center of lawsuit involving Mattel vs. MCA records

M4 – Caribbean country with a trident on its flag

Got all of these.

Round Two

5 Founders – In 2011, Chinese American businessman Eric Yuan founded what communications technology best known for videoconferencing software? FB clue.

6 Singers – Audio clue of an instrumental “Mario Paint” take of a 1985 hit song by what artist – whose video for the song was inspired by a scene in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Yay for this being a song from an era where I actually paid attention to music and didn’t have to complain about all of the autotuning! If it’s too autotuned, you’re too old!

7 Animals – What is the nine-letter term from Greek meaning “outside” and “heat” describing animals commonly known as cold-blooded? Two different answers accepted here.

8 Historic Names – The first English child in the new world was given what name that is now the name of a U.S. state?

Mystery Round Two – James Bond Quickfire

Name all four James Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan.
Easy eight points.

We were just shy of the top five heading into the final with 51 points.

Final Category – Counties

I was hoping the question would be about Irish counties, so I started jotting some down. But since I didn’t kiss the Blarney Stone for luck, that was not to be…

Name two of the five counties in California that are six letters long and begin with the letter “S.”

We knew one, but not two. And slapped our faces silly when we saw some of the correct answers (d’oh)!

Round Three

9 Arcade Games – How many power pellets are there in each maze screen allowing Pac-Man to temporarily eat the ghosts?

10 Languages – What indigenous language of the Na-Dene family was used as an Allied code in World War 2 and was never broken?

11 Actresses – Nicole Kidman won an Oscar for best actress for playing what author in a 2002 film? Never saw the film, and the name was at the edge of my brain, but nope…we incorrectly guessed Gertrude Stein, even though I knew it was not right.

12 elements – What element on the Periodic Table is the first alphabetically to begin with the letter “R?”

Mystery Round Three – Twisted Titles – MLB Edition

A few groans in the room when the category was announced. Could there be other teams who dislike sportsball questions as much as we do? We would do surprisingly well on this round, thanks to Brad’s sports mojo, and Mike’s wordplay skills (he’s usually good at the twisted titles category as long as he has just a little help).

M1 – Team that broke its championship “curse” in 2016 is named for a place commonly used for taking a bath

M2 – Tropicana Field is home to a team named for an animal that was widely blamed for the Bubonic Plague

M3 – Ohio team named for a shoe brand founded in 1916

M4 – British sausage inspired name for a team that was once partly owned by George W. Bush

Got all of these. Now get ready for a groaner question…

Round Four

13 Rock Songs – What woman won the Grammy award for best rock song twice in the 1990s? We thought about her, but didn’t think the songs qualified as “rock,” we were wrong. Lots of booing when the answer was revealed, in the My Trivia Live world, this might be a “shenanigans” candidate! I don’t know if they allow these anymore since there was supposedly a fist fight resulting from this a few years ago. Explanation – in this trivia league, a player may call “shenanigans” on a question that all teams miss, and if enough other teams OK it, the question is thrown out and another question is used instead. I have no idea whether all the teams at Corner missed this (probably not).

14 Seals – The Great Seal of the U.S. depicts an eagle with two different items in its talons, name one of those things, both for a bonus point. My cynical guesses of newborn baby and scales of justice were not put in as answers – thankfully Brad was all over this for the points!

15 Interstates (groan, we are awful in this category) – I-8, I-17, I-19 and I-40 are all interstates located partially or entirely in what Western U.S. state? Miss.

16 Books – What best-selling 1989 Amy Tan novel chronicles the lives of four Chinese-American families living in San Francisco?

Mystery Round Four – Visual

We only managed to get #2 correct. There were grumblings that the “host” pictures didn’t show enough context, especially if the actors hosted more than one show, like the guys in #3 and #4. Audible groans in the room, too, so not just us…moving on!

We had 42 points going into the final category involving “Scientists,” and based on past performance on such categories, we opted for halfsies and wagered just 8 points.

What scientist and physician published the 1751 work Philosphia Botanica in which he summarized the classification and taxonomy of plants?

And someone from another team shouted out an answer after this was read. The answer was not correct, but still…bad player, bad player! Where’s my rolled-up newspaper? Boo!

We did not get this correct…not the happiest ending for a trivia night for multiple reasons 😦 C’est la vie.

We will be like Starfleet crews and may seek out new trivia spots next week – or revisit familiar spots! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Gregor Mendel! Maybe your name will be a correct trivia answer someday!