Ah the Milan, MI trivia scene! At its peak, one could spar in trivia battle at THREE different trivia joints in town – Fenders, Original Gravity Brewing Company and The Owl. I think farther back there was another joint in town offering trivia too (I never played there). JRs? Can anyone help me out here?

But, I’m not 100 percent sure when Fenders stopped offering trivia, I am definitely not an expert on the Milan trivia scenes of auld! I only played Fenders once, in 2017.

The last place in town still serving trivia on Wednesday nights is The Owl ( OpinioNation on Tuesdays). Back in the days of yore, our team fancied being able to count Original Gravity (OG for short) as a notch on our competitive trivia bed posts. And at least 2-3 times (give or take) we managed to do just that! I used to enjoy the weekly trivia sparring matches there, there was plenty of good competition in the room to make it interesting! Not just competition for getting those pesky questions correct, but sometimes competition for coveted bar seating, too! Woe to the players having the audacity to sit in someone else’s “designated” spot (I kid of course)! Or AM I? 🫢

I’ve played at all three Milan spots that have offered trivia the past seven years. This was our 14th game at The Owl, here’s the report of that game (we finished second overall):

Game 1/Round 1

1 Elements – Used in pencils and batteries, among other applications, graphite is a form of what element?

2 Fashion – What Italian fashion house is the parent company of the women’s clothing line Miu Miu? Miss.

3 Netflix – What Netflix series was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for its first season in 2021, becoming the first non-English language work to be nominated in the category?

4 What seven-letter word fills the blank in the title of a 1976 children’s novel by Mildred D. Taylor? Roll of (blank), Hear My Cry?

Mystery Round 1

The correct answer to each clue contains either or both of the words “big” and “little.”

M1 Singer and pianist born in 1932 who has been called “The Architect of Rock ‘n Roll”

M2 PlayStation video game series featuring Sack as the primary character

M3 HBO drama series starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman that aired from 2017-2019

M4 Furniture and home decor retailer headquartered in Columbus OH

Uh, we got #4 right! Didn’t Meat Loaf say one out of four ain’t bad? No? 😆 we talked ourselves out of getting #1 right.

Round 2

5 2000s Hits (audio) – You either know what a 50 Cent song instrumental sounds like, or you don’t. We did not…miss.

6 Schools – Four different Jesuit universities in the U.S. located in Baltimore, Chicago, New Orleans and Los Angeles- have names that all include what six-letter name? This was a sportsball question in disguise, miss.

7 Government – Formed in 1917, the government agency responsible for maintaining information on citizens for potential military conscription has a name abbreviated “SSS.” What d9 any two of those three letters stand for? NERD point name all three. Two out of three ain’t bad?

8 Athletes- Sachin Tendulkar from India is considered to be among the greatest players in the history of what sport?

Mystery Round 2

Give the first and last names of the people described by the following clues, all of whom have the initials PJ

M1 Director of the films Monster, Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984

M2 Magician and TV presenter known for his long association with fellow Magician Teller

M3 Model, actress and singer who is the only daughter of Debbie Rowe and Michael Jackson

4 Anchor of World News Tonight from 1983-2005

Missed #1 and # 3 (we put one of the sons’ names instead, someone clearly either missed the qualifier “actress” figured MJ was weird enough to name his daughter “Prince” or the actress was born with a different gender identity. Hey, we’re living in a world where we all have to be more accepting and open minded, aren’t we?

We were in fourth going into the final with 33 points (those mystery rounds did a whammy on us)! What was that game game show with the “whammy?” Press Your Luck?

What better means of improving our fortunes than a final question? Maybe the category will one that is strong for us, let’s spin that wheel and hope for “1980s Movies,” “1980s Music,” “Presidents,” “1970s Reality TV” or “Fantasy Fiction.” Someday…someday…maybe there will be a final question about “The Gong Show” or “That’s Incredible!” Granted, I know more about the second of these shows, but a dream category is a dream category!

Final Category – TV hosts

I’ll let Lana Kane from Archer express my feelings about wagering points in this category…

Place the following hosts of The Late Late Show in order according to how many episodes they hosted, beginning with the MOST. Tom Snyder, Craig Ferguson, Craig Kilborn

Every team missed this. We got a second place prize.

Game 2/ Round 3

9 Transportation – The penny-farthing, notable for its large front wheel, is an early version of what now-common form of transportation?

10 Clubs – In 1977, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager opened what Midtown Manhattan venue that would become known as a disco nightclub? Oh to be a fly on the wall in this place! If I had a time machine (which I’d only use for stupid stuff like coming with perfect comebacks for past arguments and telling TS Eliot to not write those damn poems about cats). In this case, I’d use the time machine to just be an observer in the club and watch Luded up club goers dancing wildly to “Night on Disco Mountain,” which, IMHO, is one of the best cover songs ever made (fight me)!

11 Movie Plots – In a 1981 film directed by Steven Spielberg, the staff of Ra is used to find what religious relic, located inside the Well of Souls? Unofficial name, “huge ass snake pit?”

12 Science – The four nucleobases in DNA are adenine, cytosine, thymine and what fourth nucleobase?

Mystery Round 3 – Visual

Missed #1 and #2.

Round 4

13 Video Games – Within three, in what year was the first installment of the RollerCoaster Tycoon Video game series released for Microsoft Windows? NERD point, get the year exactly correct. Nope and nope…

14 1990s TV – Actress Fran Drescher plays the title character on what TV series, that aired from 1993-1999?

15 Countries – The small Southeast Asian country of Brunei is located on the northern coast of the island of Borneo, where it borders what other country? Ya know how in trivia games you sometimes put Indonesia as your answer instead of another Asian country that’s correct? Yeah…. (woe was us)!

16 In American Tex-Mex cuisine, refried beans are typically prepared using what tyof bean?

Mystery Round 4

Name the month of the year in which each given event typically takes (or took) place.

M1 Boston Marathon 🏃

M2 U.S. presidential inaugurations from 1793-1933

M3 Bonnaroo Music Festival

M3 The spring equinox in Australia

Missed #1 and #3.

We were in fifth going into the final with 41 points. Maybe THIS final category will be better for us and offer up a question for which only my husband and I would know the answer!

Sorry, this wasn’t going to be one of “those” trivia games (except only one team would wind up getting this correct):

Final Category – Quarterbacks

Poor old Charlie Brown wasn’t good at kicking footballs held by that sneaky Lucy, and the Pods are terrible at sportsball questions unless we have the right players (one time Dave helped us get a baseball final correct and he was so excited he ran a victory lap around the bar).

Sorry, this game would not be one of those triumphant games (not for us, anyway).

The only two quarterbacks to throw for at least 80,000 yards in their NFL careers (regular season) collectively played for four feanchises. Name three of those four NFL franchises.

Did the teams at Corner have to provide all four (tell me, Terry)!

Again, our zero bet gave us a second place prize! Hats off to the team getting it right (I knew you’d get it…I just KNEW it). Now here’s an undated file photo of yours truly tipping my hat or something appropriately Irishy on a chilly St. Patrick’s Day:

Maybe we’ll play here the next time we have another online order to pick up at Cabelas!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, you teams that know all about quarterbacks and stuff! 🥲😃