Note, this is the “Facebook” version of the trivia recap posted previously with slightly different opening commentary.

We were able to summon three players for a trivia battle royale last weekend in Canton, MI – Sporcle Events “Globe Game,” as it were, with a $1,000 cash prize split five ways.

We didn’t win any of that cash, but we did a LOT better in the game than we have done in past attempts to win at cash tournaments! Our biggest mistake was in wagering low on the final question since we knew the answer! Maybe we’ve been burned by too many final questions in cash tournaments past? Possibly! We were among the top five going into the final, and had we wagered it all, would have wound up in a tiebreaker for fifth place, which would have been very, very disappointing to have lost! We’ve been around the trivia “block” to know this from experience!

Our “Three Amigos” team this time was me (Heb), Mike (my only slightly grumpy not morning person at all husband) and our longtime friend Dave K.

Driving out to this trivia spot was interesting, to say the least! We opted to take the “scenic” route north on Ridge Road, which will take you through what was once (and still sort of is) the “historic” district in Canton. There are some old farm houses, an old church, an old school building and even an old factory building that used to be owned by some guy who made cars. Anyone hear of Henry Ford (yeah that guy). It’s a nice looking building with lots of windows and appears to have “good bones.” Might be an ideal spot for a restaurant, brewery, or office space. I have no idea how it’s zoned, you’ll have to go to the Canton Township folks for that information!

Speaking of Canton Township folks, one of their very important ones must’ve passed recently, since we were witness to a funeral procession heading south on Ridge Road flanked with Wayne County Sheriff’s escorts!

After waiting for our turn to go through the light and only one wrong turn later (sorry Mike!), we were at our trivia spot! When we went inside, things were set up well for the trivia teams – there was a sign at the host stand telling teams to find their tables and for the love of what was good for them, don’t swap tables (I’m only kidding about that, the signs weren’t THAT wordy)!

Apparently, Spoons Place – a pub grub/bar located right by Meijer on Canton Center south of Ford – has a “reverse” happy hour, which meant drink specials between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Since it was too early for lunch, I decided to have a couple of beers (meeting friends for a championship trivia game for the first time in four years is cause for celebration, after all), and Dave had an Irish coffee. I tried the Cheboygan Brewing Company oatmeal cookie stout, which was a nice holiday themed “sipper!” I jokingly talked about its “mouthfeel” to my teammates, which of course opened everything up to raunchy jokes! I also had the Perrin Brewing Company’s blackberry IPA, which is one of my favorites. So much so a keg of it got killed several years ago while I was enjoying it at the Wurst Bar in Ypsilanti (that stuff is GOOD)! I jokingly renamed it the Karen Blackberry IPA (RIP actress Karen Black)!

Long story short, if you just like day drinking in general, or like to have drinks while watching sports in a bar with lots of screens and not break your bank too much, Spoons Place might be a place you’ll like!

The top five teams were Calvin and Hobbes, More Beer Less Pants, Potty Power, We Don’t Have a Team Name and #1 was Hugh Jass. Pardon me, I don’t know how they spelled their name, I’m thinking of the Bart phone gag where Bart crank calls Moe’s Tavern asking for Hugh Jass – which he thinks is a fake name – but Hugh Jass actually shows up!

Well, the Hugh Jass trivia team obviously did more than just show up, hats off to them for winning today! Sorry if the name is not spelled correctly!

Game One/Round One

Here were our questions, some of which may be heavily abbreviated and not include all of the qualifiers that were presented to the teams:

1 Prisons – What California prison, the oldest in the state, located north of San Francisco and founded in 1854 is known by a two-word name and for live albums recorded there by Johnny Cash and BB King? We missed this and initially thought we did so for eight points. Turns out we only wagered 1, thank you whatever glitch caused this to happen! We incorrectly guessed another prison – one not quite as old as the correct one in the same state – where the Man in Black also was associated musically. Miss.

2 Song Lyrics – What character created by five elements of magic rings invented by Gaia is the first entity mentioned in the lyrics of Fallout Boy’s 2023 cover version of We Didn’t Start the Fire? Thankfully knowledge of that actual song was not required, Mike took a swing and got a hit here.

3 Same Name – What is the shared name of both the last name of a private investigation played by James Garner and also geographic regions in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois? This was one of a couple of “Yay, we’re old!” questions!

4 Board Games – What is the third most valuable property for purchase in a standard Monopoly game and shares its name with a U.S. state? This question is heavily abbreviated… (but we got it right).

Mystery Round 1 – Before and After – State Nicknames Edition

M1 State nicknamed The Golden State and actress/writer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding

M2 Bluegrass State and former capital of Tokyo

M3 Magnolia State and name of 2004 debut single by Ashlee Simpson

M4 Volunteer State and name of children’s book series featuring characters named Usara and Kalik, among others

#2 was the only one we got correct. I completely brain farted on the Greek Wedding woman’s last name, though I did know her first name even without the state nickname clue!

Round 2

5 Cells – What organelle, which is responsible for transporting, modifying and packaging proteins and lipids into vessicles for delivery to targeted destinations is located in the cytoplasm and named for the Italian scientist who first discovered it in 1897? What a question for our team when we had an actual cell biology PHD owner playing with us! This time, “science guy” Dave took a swing for the hit.

6 Airports – What are the two busiest airports in the United States whose names do NOT contain a city name in their official names? They are the sixth and seventh-busiest airports in the U.S. as of 2022. What? Did we actually get an airport question correct? Bet y’all would not have bet on that! Yet there we were, woo hoo!

7 Working Titles – Lenny, Kenny and Penny was the working title of what sitcom that was ultimately changed when a main character’s name was changed prior to debuting in 2007? My two guys were all over this one (thanks guys)!

8 Short Stories – In what short story by Edgar Allen Poe does the narrator describe his experience of being a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition? Mike and Dave kind of went back and forth about this one, sadly, we didn’t “swing” the right way (yes that’s a clue to the answer).

Mystery Round 2 – Add ‘Em Up – The correct number answers to each of these questions will add up to 100.

M1 – Name of musical duo who had Grammy winning songs called Stressed Out and Heathens

M2 – Numbered interstate running between Las Cruces, NM and Wyoming

M3 – Number of bits in a byte

M4 – Number of chromosomes that people typically have

Missed 1 and 2.

Round 3

9 Academy Awards – Name either of the actresses who received Academy Award nominations for playing the person whose birth name was Norma Jean Mortensen – one in the 2010s, one in the 2020s. Can you believe they actually needed me for an answer in this game?

10 YouTube – What group with nearly 60 million subscribers, holds more than 20 Guinness world records for feats including most limes sliced in 30 seconds among other things (this was very wordy and I couldn’t be f—ed to expend this kind of energy on a question we didn’t know anyway. Though I guess I just used a lot of words to describe this situation, so the irony ain’t lost on me (more about irony later). Nope!

11 Dynasties – What was the last imperial Dynasty of China that ruled from 1368-1644? this period of Chinese history featured the refurbishment of The Great Wall and large naval expeditions.

12 Commercials – Cynthia and Brittany Daniel, Jean and Elizabeth Sagal and Tia and Tamera Mowry are among the many pairs appearing in commercials for what gum? Second “Yay, we’re old” question for the night.

Mystery Round 3 – Two Songs, One Title

Given the names of the artists and release years, give the name of the hit song both groups recorded.

M1 – 1969, Three Dog Night and 1992, U2

M2 – 1959, Isley Brothers and 1984, Tears for Fears

M3 – 1983, Def Leppard and 2015, Ed Sheeran

M4 – 1992, Radiohead and 1994, TLC

We got all of these correct. And there was an off color joke made about how I felt about this (but it’s not family friendly, lol).

Round Four

13 Relocations – What two cities are home to NHL franchise that moved from Atlanta- those moves taking place in 1980 and 2011? As often happens in trivia games, there is ALWAYS a question you get that you need an absent player to answer. In this case, our absentee player Brad would have helped us here. Boy does he love going on about how this team used to be this team and play somewhere else and boy does he also love talking about the American Basketball Association! Every trivia team has to have “that” quirky player – or several, don’t they?

14 Stock Symbols – What Italian car company trades under the name RACE on the New York Stock Exchange? A bit of discussion, but we hit the finish line here.

15 Original Songs – What song that won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003 was the only nominee not performed at the ceremony? After a surprise performance at the 2020 ceremony the artist said: “Back at that time, the younger me didn’t really feel that he would understand me.”

16 Street Names – The U.S. Postal Service maintains a list of more than 100 Street names includingStreet, avenue and drive. What four- letter C Street name can also mean a piece of land jutting into the water and a type of cloak?

Mystery Round 4

Add a Letter – Comic Book Edition

The following clues will create new comic book Characters by adding one letter.

M1 – Tony Stark puts on a suit of armor that allows him to fight enemies using words whose meanings are opposite of what they intend or mean

M2 – Catwoman is an expert in singing songs in an improvisational jazzy style using nonsense words

M3 – Fiery founder of the Fantastic Four uses his powers to promote empathy and sympathy

M4 – reddish video game console released in 2017 and alter ego of Wanda Maximoff

Missed #4, Mike took care of this whole round, thanks for the effort on #4!

We were in fifth place going into the final with 86 points. We didn’t feel confident with the category of “U.S. Geography – And MORE!” We remembered a tough final we had about U.S. interstates that was really, really rough…maybe in 2015?

So we only wagered three points on this. And as soon as my husband heard it, he said “Of COURSE we know this!”

Final – The largest moon in the Solar System, also the cupbearer to the gods in Greek Mythology can be spelled using the postal abbreviations of four U.S. states. Place the capitals of those states in alphabetical order.

I didn’t actually write down the tiebreaker question, but from what I heard of it (I think it was about rivers or something), I probably would not have won had we been in a tiebreaker. So had we been in a tiebreaker for fifth and lost, that would have been far more of a bummer than not being in the top teams at all! Trust me on this, I know from experience!

It was fun being a part of a championship game again! Boy do I miss some of the crazy things we used to do in our trivial pursuits! Like driving 40 some-odd miles to Berkley, MI to help out a friend’s trivia team back in 2016. This was mid-July, and our car at the time had no AC! Sadly, just today I learned that the bar where this happened (Patrick J’s) will no longer be offering trivia Anyone else miss those places where we used to be able to get our trivia fixes but can’t anymore?

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Fortunato! Maybe some day your story will be the correct answer in a trivia game!