Usually if we get both final questions correct in a game it’s because it’s a cold day in Hell. Or, it could be a celestial event, such as a blood red moon, which happened in September, 2015 at Arbor Brewing Company (the one in downtown Ann Arbor that isn’t open anymore and was supposedly haunted). Or maybe we got both final questions correct because of the Aurora Borealis having been sighted the very same night in the U.P. by my brother, who took photos of it happening:

This particular game happened during another celestial event called March Madness. Wait, is that a celestial event? In this case it was! Oh, OK, I’m reaching there…me, my husband and our occasional helper “Mr. E” was in the house for this game, and we finished first for the night, getting both final questions correct.

I know what y’all are thinking! Isn’t is just so much easier to get the final questions correct because you’re super smart like that one team with the Seinfeld inspired name that plays in the northern suburbs area of Metro Detroit? Well, we’re not one of “those” teams! We’re more scrappy than that – things are never easy for us. But we are super happy when we get lucky enough for odd things like getting both final questions correct in a trivia game!

In the case of this game two days ago, it wasn’t a cold day in Hell, but a very, very… “sultry” day in Southeast MI. A major thunderstorm was a brewin’, which wound up knocking out our power for about 18 hours. I don’t handle humidity very well, it affects me like a giant moist fist punching me in the face. It makes me feel like this woman:

Again, I know what you’re thinking! “Ooh, ooh, since you got both final questions correct, surely you must’ve won some trivia prize money and maybe even finished first!” Uh, nope! We wound up finishing tied for third with 117 points, which is the second highest scoring game we’ve had since that Aurora Borealis game in March. We did have a great time with a cast of all “OG” Pods players, who have been playing on and off since 2012. And we made some very lucky guesses on questions in the game, including final question number two!

Before I get onto the questions, I wanted to pass along a hot tip about the place we played (Sticks in Ypsilanti, which is upstairs from Aubree’s Saloon). If you’re into liquor, the bartender Tammy has a heavy hand with her pours. If you’ve had a rough day, week or…life, stop in for one of her concoctions (wink)!

And now some questions or something, which may be abbreviated:

Round One

1 Animals – What is the five-letter word for a home for a beaver?

2 What major South American city’s name translates into English as “January river?”

3 Movie Couples – Name one of the two films in which Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams play a couple on screen. Both for a nerd bonus point. No teams got both parts correct, we’d never even heard of the other film.

4 Holidays – National Read Across America Day coincides with the birthday of what children’s author? Lucky guess, not much confidence.

Mystery Round One

“Wheel” Sports Teams

The guys playing with me didn’t need my help with any of these, they knew ’em all (I love you guys)!

Round Two

5 TV Families – Elizabeth, Robin and Casey are stepchildren of the title Marine on what CBS sitcom airing from 1989 to 1993? Mike with the correct guess here.

6 Song Titles – What 2008 single by Coldplay has a title that was taken from that of a painting by Frida Kahlo? This song got them sued by Cat Stevens slash Yusuf Islam slash Yusuf slash whomever he is now, but he wound up dropping the suit. Guitarist Joe Satriani also sued Coldplay over this song, but the case was settled. Can this band do anything original? Though I do like a couple of their songs (Daylight and Paradise are pretty good), overall, I’d say they’re just a ripoff of U2 and lacking in much “edge.” But I won’t ever say this to my brother, who is a huge fan (sorry brother)! I remember years ago using a 40 Year Old Virgin quote on him by saying “You know how I know you’re gay? You like Coldplay.” It was a different time, we can no longer tease people about their sexuality, though I say when it comes to political correctness all bets are off between two Gen X siblings!

7 Board Games – In the 1992 board game Looper Louie, players attempt to protect their chickens from the title character whom is operating what type of vehicle? I came up with the right guess – after we’d already submitted the wrong guess (oops)!

8 Fruit -A pluot is a hybrid derived from what two types of fruit?

Mystery Round Two

This is going to be bad, you might want to skip ahead if you’re easily triggered by sad events!

Born This Day

Identify the following celebrities born on August 24 based on the following clues:

M1 Actress, whom at the age of 21, became the youngest woman to win an Oscar for best actress, born in Morton Grove, IL in 1965

M2 Director of A Wrinkle in Time, Selma and 13th, born in 1972 in Long Beach

M3 Author of The Fault in Our Stars born in Indianapolis in 1977

M4 Actor who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise on film

We only got #4 right. Bad!

We were in fourth with 45 points going into the final. We bet it all on the category of World Capitals

Name two of the three countries whose capitals in Europe have exactly eight letters and start with the letter “B.”

Turned out to be too easy for us topple anyone ahead of us, who probably did better on that second mystery round than us! We finished third, just shy of the prize zone (curse that mystery round)!

Round Three

9 Trains – Also called a “pilot,” what is the common animal related term for the device mounted on the front of a locomotive that deflects objects off its track? My husband wants a vehicle with one of these things!

10 Primaries – Name two of the three women who earned at least one pledged delegate in the 2020 Democratic Party primaries. Mike and Brad couldn’t pull this off, aww shucks, I thought they were such political animals! 🙂

11 Team Colors – What is the only official school color of Rutgers University, which is also found in the names of its athletic teams?

12 Advertising – Audio clue, had to ID product being sung about by Snoop Dogg (which turned out to be Hot Pockets), one of my “lucky guess” answers of the night.

Mystery Round Three

Match the Southeast Asian country in this list to the following clues:

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

M1 Birth country of Kumali Nanjani

M2 First woman prime minister in history

M3 Has Ashoka Chakra symbol in the flag

M4 Second largest city changed its name to Chattogram in 2018

We got two points out of this round, ouch! Where’s mom with that mercurochrome? Truth, my mom never used the stuff, but I was in awe of seeing the neighbor kids boo-boos swabbed with the red stuff! Sigh, I was deprived by not only not having a Green Machine, but also deprived of mercury exposure! 🙂

Round Four

13 TV Laughs – What TV characters is best known for his “haw-haw” laugh? FB clue.

14 Discoveries – In what decade did James Watson and Rosalind Franklin discover the double helix structure of DNA? Me to Dave, who has a scientific background “C’mon Dave, tell us when they invented DNA!” He did not disappoint, yay SCIENCE!

15 Country Music – According to the lyrics of a 2011 Toby Keith single, what is “the best receptacle for tailgates, fairs and festivals?” Another lucky guess from me, whew – usually we fail spectacularly on questions about country music! I remember when I used to have to get up early Sunday mornings at Central Michigan University to file stories on deadline for the student newspaper, I’d have to kick these out of the way in the parking lot, which was typically the site of many a Saturday night party. I was never cool enough to be invited to any of these, but we’d occasionally go to a bar downtown on Saturday nights or experiment with mixology involving cheap vodka and concentrated juices/pop!

16 Movements – What is the 13 letter term referring to the intellectual and philosophical movement known as the age of reason that occurred in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries?

Mystery Round Four

From the following list of years, pick the ones in which an installment of the Mission Impossible movie franchise was released in theaters

1998, 2000, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2020, 2023

Only missed one. Not bad compared to a couple of these other mystery rounds!

We were in fifth with 42 points going into the final.

Company Names – The streaming services Redbox and Crackle are both currently owned by a company named for an inspirational book series that it also owns. Name that book series.

Our list of inspirational book series that we know about was quite short. Thankfully the only one we thought of was right!

We still haven’t figured out a live trivia game plan for the week, but it will be…somewhere! Asd always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Tom Cruise!