Our original plan for trivia on Sunday was to just meet up with our team at the YpsiAlehouse. But since not all of our players were on board with this plan, I decided to check out one of Ann Arbor’s “Globe Games” that were both happening in the afternoon (a rainy one, as it was). I had a choice between the Haymaker Public House and the Garage Bar, which is an offshoot of The Pizza House, and is exactly what it says it is! It’s a garage-like bar, designed to be an open-air bar on nicer evenings and expands out into patio seating, ideal on REALLY nice evenings!

I chose the Garage Bar, mainly out of curiosity! Though I’d visited the Pizza House many times in the past (mainly when we were 20 somethings and new to the area), I’d never “trivia’d” there before, while I have played at Haymaker at least a couple of times. It’s always fun to check off a new trivia spot, isn’t it?

The last time we visited this spot was in 2021 to pick up a pizza order that the staff kindly placed in our trunk for us. Oh the strange things we did during the early days of the pandemic! My husband and I ordered “his and hers” pizzas to celebrate my birthday since we couldn’t really go out to restaurants for dine-in. I chose a vegetarian deep dish, he chose a thin crust with (gross) anchovies. We ate those pizzas for days!

Since this particular day was not quite so nice for garage/patio seating, the trivia game was in an upstairs bar area. Maybe they always do trivia in this area (I honestly don’t know). I ordered one of my favorite non-alcoholic drinks (a half and half mixture of club soda and lemonade).

The server asked me, “Is pink lemonade OK?” I said, “Oh yes! That will make my drink even prettier!”

I love it when bars make non-alcoholic drinks look like alcoholic ones! It was especially nice when I did “No Drink November” (something I made up and did on my own) four years ago. Those wedges of lemons and limes were always appreciated!

Since I was not “really” playing, I got to do things that most of the players weren’t allowed to do! Take bathroom breaks whenever I wanted, use my phone whenever I wanted, and shout out answers (which of course I didn’t do)! Shortly after the game started, I had another “non player” sitting at the bar near me, so I had someone to talk to! Turns out he was the husband of one of the players in the room – and usually plays in the My Trivia Live trivia league. We only “slightly” collaborated on answers, since I think we both kind of wanted to see how we did on our own.

I pretended to play along anyway, keeping track of my own points/score. I only used a lifeline once by sending a text to a teammate who was not present (a question about sports team moves, which I know absolutely nothing about). Since he didn’t answer in time for me to use his answer, I still did the whole game on my own! I didn’t too badly as a lonely soloist in game one, managing to get 36 points. The second game was a lot rougher on me, with me missing every single regular round question and only getting some mystery answers and the final question correct!

Questions may be abbreviated, I’ll indicate “hit” or “miss” and the points “wagered” on each.

Game One/Round One

1 Prisons – What facility with a repeating name, located about 30 miles north of New York City, has housed the Rosenbergs, Tony Sirico and most of Murder Inc., among others, since opening in 1826?

Hit, 8 points.

2 Song Lyrics – What French actress is the first still-living person to be mentioned in the lyrics of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel? Only her last name is referenced, and it comes immediately before a European capital city name.

Surprise hit, 3

3 Same Name – What seven-letter last name is shared by a contemporary of Shakespeare known for the play Tamburlaine the Great AND a fictional private eye played by Humphrey Bogart, Danny Glover and Liam Neeson, among others?

Hit, 7

4 Board Games – Assuming the player does not draw a card telling them to go elsewhere, what is the FIRST space containing a state name that they will pass on a standard Monopoly board?

Miss, 2.

Mystery Round One

State Nicknames, Before and After

The following answers can be combined with a letter, syllable, word (y’all know how these rounds work by now):

M1 – Beaver State/1936 novel primarily set in Tara

M2 Nutmeg State/cephalopod with a W shaped eye

N3 Sunflower State/Canadian Province

M4 Gem State/1976 album with the lead single “New Kid in Town”

Sadly since I should know about this stuff, I missed #2, though I thought my guess of “Arizonautilus” was pretty good! I had zero clue what state would be associated with nutmeg!

Round Two

5 Cells – Adenosine triphosphate, otherwise known as ATP, is the fuel for cell operation generated by what organelle? I didn’t have my “science guy” to help me here, so I named the one cell part that’s mentioned in lots of true crime shows.

Hit, 4

6 Airports – While Atlanta is home to the busiest airport in the United States by passenger traffic, what other southern city the nation’s busiest for cargo traffic?

Miss, 1

7 Working Titles – Insomnia Cafe and Six of One were two for the working titles for what sitcom that went with a much simpler name when it debuted in the 1990s?

Hit, 6

8 Short Stories – A disfigured, vulture-like eye is claimed by the narrator to be the reason for murder in what 1843 short story by Edgar Allen Poe?

Miss, 5

Mystery Round Two

Add ‘Em Up

The numbers needed for the following clues will add up to 100.

M1 – Name of Adele’s debut album, 2008

M2 Number of states containing more than one word in their names

M3 Number in title of 2023 dinosaur film starring Adam Driver

M4 First number to be retired across the NBA

Only got #3 correct.

Round Three

9 Academy Awards – Name either of the two actresses who won an Academy Award for playing the same character, doing so in the 1960s and 2020s.

Had I known the actual years they wanted for this, I might have done better on this, alas…I incorrectly guessed Julie Andrews, thinking that I must’ve missed a remake of Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady or the Sound of Music in the 2020s!

Miss, 2.

10 YouTube – “Would you fly to Paris for a Baguette, “Make this Video the Most Liked Video on YouTube,” and “Giving IPhones Instead of Candy on Halloween” are the three most-liked videos of what YouTuber, one of only nine accounts with more than 100 million subscribers?

Clearly I don’t “YouTube” enough, miss, 1.

11 Dynasties – The classic Chinese novel Journey to the West takes place during what Imperial dynasty with a four-letter name that ruled for most years from 618 to 907 CE? This period is considered to be a Chinese golden age.

Miss, 3.

12 Commercials – In 2013, what company launched the “Hear What You Want” ad campaign with a commercial featuring Kevin Garnett and the song “I’m the Man” by Aloe ZBlacc? Other athletes, including Colin Kaepernick, also appeared in the campaign.

Miss, 4. Goose egg this whole round!

Mystery Round Three

Two Songs, One Title

Given the artists and release years, name the songs recorded by the artists sharing the same titles.

M1 Four Seasons, 1962/Fergie, 2007

M2 Neil Sedaka, 1975/Taylor Swift, 2015

M3 Huey Lewis and the News, 1985/Celine Dion, 1993

M4 Van Halen, 1983/Kriss Kross, 1992

Missed #2 and #3. Considering how many songs Taylor Swift has done about breakups, I figured “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” was a good guess, especially since that was the only Neil Sedaka song I could think of!

Round Four

13 Relocations – Before moving to East Rutherford in 1982, the New Jersey Devils franchise was known what what name? This name is now used in full by National League MLB team.

Miss, 5.

14 Stock Symbols – What company currently trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the sticker symbol FUN? It is planning to merge with a competitor in 2024, with the combined company continuing to use the ticker symbol.

I was in the right ball “park” here, but miss for 6 (and the number “six” was used in my answer if you want a hint). If you want another hint, I picked the right competitor, not the right company (so, so close)!

15 Original Songs – The Academy Award for Best Original Song has been given to non-English songs four times, including the song “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire, which is primarily in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. Name one of the other non-English languages to have produced a winner, doing so for films released in 1960, 2004 and 2022.

Miss, 7.

16 Street Names – The U.S. Postal Service maintains a list of more than 100 streetname suffixes, including “street,” “avenue” and “drive.” What four-letter word street name suffix is a word that can also mean a block of food or to be idle?

The key to success on this one was to focus on the food and laziness clues, not to think of common street names. Sadly, I was not successful, miss, 8.

Mystery Round Four – Comic Book Characters, One Letter Added

The following clues about comic book characters will be about new characters created with one letter added.

M1 Superman’s greatest enemy hogs all of the mirrors at the gym in order to show off his muscles

M2 Norse god stops using his hammer and instead switches to roses

M3 Sorcerer Supreme uses his mastery of mystic arts to choke his enemies to death

M4 Batman’s plant-based enemy switches tactics and starts using French fish

Yay, I GOT all of these, eight points added to two this whole round!

Since everyone is smarter in hindsight and knowing that the final question would be similar to the one we had the previous day, I decided to pretend wager it all on the final. I had a whopping imaginary 48 points going into the final.

Here’s how the teams playing for reals were doing going into the final, sorry I did not write down every team but I did write down the top five scores:

Fifth place, 82; fourth place, 83; third place, 85; second place, One is the Loneliest Number; 91; first place, Moops, 93.

Final Question Category – U.S. Geography – And More!
The name of a language spoken by nearly a billion people – also a fruit tree of the species Citrus reticulata – can be spelled using the postal abbreviations of four U.S. states.

Place the CAPITALS of those four states in alphabetical order. (NOT in order their states’ abbreviations make up the word).

It took me a minute or so to come up with the right word to play with, which might be because I put that word for my incorrect answer to #15…the rest came easy. Wouldn’t this question have been much, much harder had we had to put them in order of population from least to most instead of alphabetically? Anyone else going to try doing that right now? I KNOW you will! 🙂 Metropolitan areas, of course, not city proper!

Special shout out to One is the Loneliest Number! I’ve competed against different “components” of their team a lot over the years – and I noticed they had three women playing with their team on this day (yay diversity), and had players representing at least three different league teams in two different trivia leagues. I really did want you guys to win (you can believe that, or not 🙂 ), that game was really, really close! Not hating on the Moops, of course – you guys are awesomely talented – and have deserved to be THE team to beat in Michigan for as far back as I can remember!

Now that these Globe Games are behind us, maybe I can start playing the Sunday games at the YpsiAlehouse again!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Doctor Strangle!