In Sunday afternoon’s episode of “It Doesn’t Matter HOW you know a Trivia Question Answer, As Long As You Know It…”

Anyone remember the animated Warner Brothers series Mike Tyson Mysteries?

The first time I encountered this crazy series, I was in Weber’s Inn in Ann Arbor. My husband and I were on a little post-holiday “staycation,” and this show came on very late after we’d consumed some drinks.

“Holy crap, is that an…animated Mike Tyson?”

And from then on, we were hooked! And apparently watching that show taught us some facts that would, years later, help out in the Sporcle Live league championship game at the YpsiAlehouse! And that question would be about something Mike Tyson is heavily associated with! Is it ear biting? Uh, no! Read on, and you’ll find out (but I know all of the people who read these recaps are super smart and already know the answer)!

Trivia got off to a bit of a late start because of technical difficulties with the sound system. Poor Emily!

As for the league championship, we were sadly unable to crack into the top three finishing teams for the season. Which is our fault – were a bit slack about coming out for games at the beginning of the season, and only made a real effort after about…mid October? Let’s just say a competitive “fire” was lit around that time, and I had no choice but let it burn, baby burn!

Hey…we tried! With just three of us every week – at least two of us sober pretty much every game since we try not to drink before 8 ‘o clock – I think we did pretty well under the circumstances! I’m actually pretty proud of my two helpers – Mike – and Brad – they would follow me into Hell if I asked ’em to!

Life beckons, however, and we’ll have to miss the YpsiAlehouse game next Sunday. It’s not every week I get to see my old friend from high school! We always go out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch in a dying mall (it’s actually much more fun than it sounds)! I hope the animatronic dinosaurs are still there…

Round One

1 Subtitles – What board game has spawned spin-offs subtitled Case of the Missing Pet, The Great Museum Caper and Discover the Secrets?

2 Math – In geometry, what is the seven letter term for a quadrilateral with four sides of equal length including the square, diamond and lozenge – among others?

3 TV Series – What TV series that aired on NBC from 2013 to 2023 stars James Spader as an FBI informant nicknamed “Red?” There was a guy setting up a camera for a comedy show right by our table that would start after the trivia games ended, and he gave us a little lifeline here. Hey, we didn’t ask him to help us, but are grateful he did!

4 Europe – The Canary Islands are an archipelago off the coast of Africa belonging to what European country?

Mystery Round One

Twisted Titles – Bruno Mars Edition

The correct response to each part is a song by Bruno Mars with just ONE letter changed. Give the new song titled based on the description.

M1 Put yo’ pinky rings up to the moon when Bruno is in an agitated state

M2 Bruno sings that a high school hallway unit for keeping books takes him to paradise

M3 Bruno would go through all of this pain for a island in the West Indies

M4 Bruno picks up gold jewelry shining so bright and strawberry champagne on ice on a two-wheeled mode of transportation

I was actually able to name three whole Bruno Mars songs! Though one might be a duet credited to another artist. We still only got #2 correct.

Round Two

5 Routines – The Two Minutes Hate is a daily occurrence that happens at 1100 hours in what novel?

6 States – Name one of the two U.S. states that are currently home to the spring training complexes used by Major League Baseball teams

NERD POINT – Name both.

7 Movie Music – What rapper released the single “I Am the Grinch” from the soundtrack of the 2018 film The Grinch?

8 Meat – According to the book Salt Sugar Fat, Oscar Mayer created Lunchables in the mid-1980s so that it could sell more of what lunch meat, which has long been its signature product?

Mystery Round Two

Quickfire – 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.

Name four of the five players who appeared on the rosters of BOTH the 1992 and the 1996 U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball teams.

We clearly did not have any of our players whom are strong in basketball lore at this game, which means…zero points! I’m willing to bet that our player who had to miss the game because he was watching the Browns game in Cleveland might have helped us out a bit here!

There were nine teams playing, and the scores going into the final were as such:

The Big Looey, 35; Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods, 36; College Heights All Starz, 41; just us 2, 43; help is on the way/Street Smarts, 46; Pretty Advanced for Ypsilanti, 47; I Think I Can.hmmm, 49; 24 Hour Brunch, 53.

Final Question Category Game One – TV Casts

We wagered zero on this…

Name two of the three performers who are credited in every episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, which concluded its 14-season run in May 2023.

I Think I Can…Hmmm finished in first with 64 points, and Street Smarts/Help is on the Way were tied for second with 61 points. One other team wound up getting this correct as well.

The two teams tied for second had to battle this tiebreaker question:

How many episodes of the NBC and CBS drama JAG aired during its run?

Street Smarts won the tiebreaker.

Game Two/Round Three

9 Companies – The first Starbucks location was opened in 1971 in what city?

10 Money – What building in Washington, D.C. is depicted on the reverse side of a U.S. $10 bill?

11 Rules – The Marquess of Queensberry rules, developed by John Graham Chambers in 1865, apply to what sport? Brad came out of the bathroom and said he knew this answer, and I said I knew it too – and I just HAD to explain to him why I knew it, so I went over to where he was sitting and whispered in his ear.

“That’s funny,” he said.

12 Movie Groups – IN the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, including Mr. Blonde, how many characters use colorful aliases? Miss…They just HAD to ask about the one Tarantino film I never saw!

To break up the monotony, here’s a pic of Linda Ronstadt (my dad had a poster that looked a lot like this – and my mom let him keep it on the bedroom wall (can you believe it? 🙂

Mystery Round Three – Who is Oldest?

Pick the person whom is the oldest among the following groups:

M1 Grammy Winners – Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, or Celine Dion

M2 Bond Girls – Famke Janssen, Teri Hatcher, or Michelle Yeoh

M3 Celebrity Chefs – Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, or Rachael Ray

M4 NFL Stars – Jalen Hurts, Travis Kelce or Davante Adams

We missed #3 and #4.

Round Four

13 Dancers – Dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov played the artist/boyfriend of a main character during the final season of what TV series?

NERD POINT – He was born in what Baltic country?

Missed the nerd point, but Brad strangely knew the main answer (how)? I should get the Mike Tyson Mysteries crew to solve this mystery!

14 Bands – What band’s highest charting songs on the Billboard Hot 100 are Remedy, She Talks to Angels and Hard to Handle? Thorn in my Pride is also a very, very good song by them if you want to find it in your music streaming service! Why don’t I queue that up now? 🙂

15 Syndromes – Anterograde and retrograde are the two main types of what syndrome, caused by brain damage or disease? I’m really, really glad I “remembered” the answer to this

16 Books – What Caldecott Medal-winning holiday book by Chris Van Allsburg is partially set in Grand Rapids, MI and partially set on the title train?

Mystery Round Four – Visual

My husband was in charge of this one, and boy did I pick the right man for the job (he got ’em all)!

“How did you know all of these?” I asked him.
“I know my tribes,” he said.

Well then!

Don’t worry, our euphoria over getting all of these correct would be short lived! We still had a pesky final question to contend with, but first the scores:

The Big Looey, 42; help is on the way, 44; just us 2, 45 (also a team tied with them I didn’t catch their name); Street Smarts, 46; Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods, 48; 24 Hour Brunch, 51; Pretty Advanced for Ypsilanti, 52.

Final Question Category – World History

This sparked a very short discussion:

Brad: “We’re pretty good at World History.”

Me: “No chance in hell we’re wagering big on this. The questions have been really rough all week!”

The Palmyrene Empire, which existed for just over a decade in the third century CE – during which time it was ruled in part by Queen Zenobia and annexed Egypt had its capital near the center of what modern-day country?

Brad wanted to go with an African country, I thought about a European one because of the name Zenobia. Turns out we were both wrong, but we only wagered five points.

Our cautious wager allowed us to finish in second behind Street Smarts – whom was clearly THE team to beat all last season! Although…there was an occasional “visiting” team that also helped keep us on our toes…tentacles? Trivia is no fun if it’s TOO easy, now is it?

To those teams that kick our butts in trivia I say:

We’ll continue playing occasionally at the YpsiAlehouse, but can’t commit to playing every single week. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Tina Fey (she is the reason I guessed Greece for the final question answer).