It was a more subdued evening than usual for a trivia night at Sticks. Did people not want to go out in the rain? Are classes at Eastern Michigan University on some kind of break? Were the people with Amazon Prime accounts staying home to watch the Saints/Jaguars game? Have the locals had it with roadwork in Ypsilanti? Questions abound! Speaking of questions, you’ll get to see trivia questions from the game in a bit! First, a bit about how we did…

Not bad! Second place in game one, finished second overall for the night. Strangely we remain in fourth in the overall standings after having played only three games this season. We’re also in fourth at the YpsiAlehouse, where we are actually making a half-assed attempt to qualify so that we can play in the league championship at the end! What do I mean by “half-assed?”

Here were our questions, some of which may be abridged/abbreviated:

Round One/Game One –

1 Tools – What common household tool is known as a “spanner” outside of North America?

2 Colors – One of the Pantone Colors of the Year in 2021 was “illuminating,” which is a shade of what color?

3 Actresses – What English actress, known for her role as Maeve Millay on the TV drama “Westworld,” announced in 2021 that she would begin using the original Zimbabwean spelling of her first name, which includes a “W?” Miss.

4 Lakes – Lake Nakaru and Lake Bogoria in Kenya are both known for attracting vast populations of what wading bird, which feed and nest along their shores? Did you know they have also been spotted recently in Wisconsin and Michigan? FB hint…

Mystery Round One – Visual

Missed #1. And we were wondering why the racy 1980s film 9 1/2 Weeks wasn’t included in this round!

Round Two

5 Olympians – Lolo Jones has represented the U.S. in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Name one of the two sports in which she has competed. Nerd point, name both. Yay Dave for helping us get this one!

6 World Leaders – Genghis Khan was the founder and leader of what empire, which would go on to be the largest contiguous empire in world history? He did all of that and also managed to totally ravage Oshman’s Sporting Goods at the San Dimas Mall (impressive)!

7 NASA – What celestial object was the primary destination of NASA’s New Horizons probe, which it reached in 2015, more than nine years after it launched? Miss…

8 Music – What type of musical art form has a name derived from the Latin meaning work or labor? Good guess from Mike.

Mystery Round Two

Batman Villains (Yay!)

The correct answer to each clue is also the name of a villainous character who is associated with Batman.

M1 – Animal nearly exclusive to the Southern hemisphere, with the exception of the Galapagos species

M2 Allergenic plant of which Toxicodendron radicans is one species

M3 Noun meaning a source of harm or ruin

M4 Short-lived 2002 Fox sci-fi series created by Joss Whedon

Got all of these correct.

We were in third with 45 points going into the final. We bet it all on the category of:

1980s Hits

Van Halen had three top ten songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1980s, two of which have titles that include what four-letter word?

I came up with one right away, and Dave helped come up with a couple of others, so we felt very confident with our answers.

Yay, we got it! And yet another “bridesmaid” prize for us (we’ll take ’em)! Hey, when you play with as few players as we typically do, even the second place prizes go quite a long way!

Game Two/Round Three

9 Desserts – The dessert consisting of yellow butter cake filled with custard and topped with chocolate glaze was invented and named for what city?

10 Darts – What is the lowest positive number that cannot be scored with a single throw of a dart? Miss.

11 2010s Movies – What Academy Award-nominated film directed by Richard Linklater was filmed over many years from 2002 to 2013, allowing its lead actor to age over the course of the movie?

12 Canals – Name one of the two seas that are connected by the 61-mile long Kiel Canal in Northern Germany. Name both for a nerd point. Got it for both, nice teamwork!

Mystery Round Three – Broadway Musical Anagrams

I’m just going to say a big thank you to our host Ashley for giving LOTS of extra time for us on this mystery round (boy did we need it)!

Decipher the anagram to reveal the title of a musical. Also given is the year it debuted on Broadway.

My “word man” Mike is normally very good at anagram mystery rounds. But he doesn’t known a lot about Broadway shows! And I’m TERRIBLE with anagram rounds! Garbage in, garbage out? Yes, we struggled with this one quite a bit…

M1 “Toothed Winos,” 1987

M2 “Link Hint Ego,” 1997

M3 “Immune Chats,” 1957

M4 “Gas Mission,” 1991

Number 4 is the only one I came up with right away. Dave managed to come up with #2, which left us with two more to agonize over. Seriously, NONE of these were Lloyd-Webber joints? Seriously? 🙂 Thanks partially to Dave’s coaching (“Come on Heather, name some old-ass musicals”) I came up with #3 literally the last second, mentioning that it was the same musical Dave’s stepdaughter was in recently (see I do pay attention to your wife’s status updates on Facebook, Dave)! We didn’t even take the time to see if the letters matched up (thankfully they did). I thereby dedicated that question to young Natalie! We never did come up with #1. Still six out of eight on a very tough mystery round, we’ll take it!

Round Four

13 Duos – This was an audio clue, had to ID the duo involved in the song they played an 8-bit version of. For the people reading this, ID the duo based on these lyrics:

And when you’re out there without care
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn’t because I didn’t know enough
I just knew too much

14 Tennis – What two Grand Slam tournaments are played on the same type of surface?

15 Artists – What French post-impressionist painted The Card Players, a series of five paintings, the most expensive ever sold? And we did what we typically do on questions about artists – narrow the choices down to two possibilities – and pick the wrong one. Miss.

16 Comic books – In Marvel Comics, Stark Industries is a company owned and run by a man who has what superhero alter ego? W eheard a lot of cheering for this question, maybe this was the other players’ way of thanking the trivia gods for ending the round with an easier question than the previous ones (seriously this was a rough round)!

Mystery Round Four – Drama Series Casts

Name the TV drama that has won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, based on a selection of the cast:

M1 Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle and Laura Innes

M2 Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Rupert Friend and Mandy Patinkin

M3 Claire Foy, Tobias Menzies, Olivia Colman and Jonathan Pryce

M4 Elizabeth Moss, Samira Wiley, Alexis Biedel and Madeline Brewer

Missed 3 and 4.

We were in first with 46 points going into the final. In a virtual game, a score like this would easily put us in tenth place!

Looking back, maybe we should not have wagered it all on this final question, though being right next to the team who got it correct? Well, their excitement was infectious!

Governors

Which two Midwest U.S. states have current governors with a Z in their last names?

Strangely, we got one correct purely on a guess. But since we needed more than one, we missed this!

We’re going to be back at it Sunday. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Stephen Sondheim!