Our year-end trivial pursuits at the Corner Brewery have come to an end. After having a couple of consecutive Wednesdays off from work, we’ll have to say good-bye to playing trivia games at this place. At least until another free Wednesday rolls around, especially one where I can rustle up at least one extra human!

I only had two players available for this game, so of course we didn’t do very well compared to the other teams in this room, though we had a couple of fist-bump moments! Being able to use our max points available on a question about NFL coaches was a rare treat! If we knew the answer to this question, every team probably did! 🙂

We weren’t so lucky in the final question in game two, which was about one of our least favorite trivia categories (drum roll) – Emmy Awards. For reasons I don’t fully understand, I can’t be bothered to “study up” on this TV trivia subcategory. I just….don’t care. Peter from Office Space can express this better than I can…

Yep, that pretty much sums up my feelings about that! I’ve even tried looking at lists of Emmy winners, but ugh…it just doesn’t stick in my brain, might as well be Algebra!

Read on to see our other trials/tribulations from the game:

Game One/Round One

1 Stocks – What web-based company that provides consumers with discounts for various products and services trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GRPN? Easy softball to start the game.

2 Law - In the U.S. a county that designates itself as “dry” forbids the sale of what type of products? Ever visit Kentucky? Better plan ahead if you like to have one of these products! It can get confusing, for sure!

3 Mythology – According to Greek mythology, Athena created what tree during a competition with Poseidon? My “mythology guy” Mike tried and missed here. He’s so much better at the more obscure mythologies – Egyptian, Norse, Polish (kidding about the last one)!

4 Fossils – The hominid fossil known as Java Man – the oldest ever found at the time of its discovery in the 1890s – was excavated from a location in what is now what Asian country? Fun untrue fact, Java Man was so named because of his epic love of coffee!

Mystery Round One – Acronyms

Give the full meaning of the given acronyms.

YOLO, NASA, SWAT, DARE

Missed NASA, picked the wrong final word, got the rest of these.

Round Two

5 Speeches – Who was referenced by Bill Clinton in his 1999 State of the Union address when he said, “She’s sitting down with the First Lady tonight, and she may get up or not as she chooses?” This was definitely a “Who else could it be?” question.

6 Capitals – Name one of the two Caribbean countries with national capitals that have names starting with the letters KING in that order.

NERD POINT – Name both.

I actually tried learning capitals of this geographic region years ago, and I still remember some of these capital cities. Sadly, I didn’t get the nerd bonus point though, damn it, the name of the country should’ve been a clue! Oh well, I don’t think too many teams got the nerd point on this.

7 TV Bands – I didn’t record this question, it was tied to the Facebook host clue about an animal-based band with a dessert inspired name from a late 1960s children’s show, and later, a horror film.

8 Stadiums – From 1977-2004, Olympic Stadium was home to what MLB team that has since moved to another city? Don’t you hate it when you think of the right city, don’t say anything to the person who’s putting in the answers and it turns out to be right? Sucks to not be very confident in this category and you don’t have backup! Had Brad decided to join us instead of staying home to watch football (tsk, tsk), we might not have missed this! We have greatly relaxed the attendance policy for trivia games since the pandemic, LOL!

Mystery Round Two – Visual

We remember a game from many moons ago where Wild Bill was hosting – and we put down a desperate answer of “That guy who played Newman on Seinfeld” when we couldn’t think of the actor’s name, and he actually gave us credit for it. This time, our act of desperation was putting down “Short Round” as our guess for the first person in the picture, since we couldn’t think of his name – and we did NOT get credit for this (not that we expected to or think we deserved to)! Not everything will roll your way in a trivia game – you’ll have some strikes, and some gutter balls, too! There’s always another frame coming up…

Scores heading into the final –

We were in tenth going into the final with 44 points, three teams were tied for third with 49 points (600 Miles to Cville, bobby conns and 24 Hour Brunch).

Final Category – U.S. Presidents

Unlike the Emmy Awards, we actually kind of like this category!

There are four U.S. presidents with middle names starting with H. Name all four of those middle names.

Yay, we got this, but so did enough teams ahead of us to keep us from being even remotely close to prizes. Meh…

My Type on Paypah moved from second to first with 65, other top scores stayed the same,mwe moved up to seventh (at this competitive trivia spot for megateams we’ll take a top ten finish when we only have two playas). There was an overly jammed table with 12 playas right next to us, and I’ve gotta say overly jammed tables aren’t really an unusual sight at this bar, but it was the first time I’d ever seen a game of Battleship happening simultaneously with a trivia game! It appeared to be a holiday family reunion of sorts, it had the appearance of having visiting players from out of town (not just the kid sized Minnesota Vikings football jersey). It’s all part of the fun of trivia nights with family, isn’t it? I’ve had a few trivia nights with family members over the years, but it has been a minute! I’m always pleasantly surprised at what my family members – and extended family members – bring to the trivia table. My mom has a head for names of actors/actresses!

Game Two/Round Three

9 Military – What is the six-letter nickname of the U.S. Navy’s F-14 aircraft that was in use from 1974-2006? This is a category Mike actually knows some things about, but we just couldn’t come up with this one, miss.

10 Reality TV – The song “Sharp Dressed Man” is the opening theme to what reality show that aired on A&E from 2012-2017? Never watched this series, miss. Is it an ironic song to use for this show? Just curious.

11 Books – What three-letter word completes the titles of the following books by marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson?

The (blank) Around Us AND Under the (blank) Wind?”

Made the right guess.

12 NFL Teams – Name one of the two head coaches that have led the Chicago Bears to an appearance in the Super Bowl.

Surprise, we knew this!

Mystery Round Three – Mayors in Order

For this mystery round, there are four answers and must be placed in the correct order. Teams will receive two points for each answer that is in the correct spot 1-4.

Place the following people in order according to when they served as mayor of San Francisco, beginning with the earliest.

London Breed, Willie Brown, Dianne Feinstein, Gavin Newsome

We put the last two in the correct order, not the first two, so four points.

Round Four –

13 Soup – The original varieties of Campbell’s condensed soup included chicken, consomme, oxtail, and two others. Name one of other two original varieties. 

NERD POINT – Name both.

A bit of discussion, but we got this and the bonus point.

14 2023 Films – The 2023 film Dumb Money is based on real- life events involving the stock of what retail company?

15 Song Titles – What 2019 single by Lil Nas X shares its name with a type of sandwich? Damn, it’s NOT the Monte Cristo!

16 Dance – What movement in ballet is a smooth and continuous bending of the knees outward with the back held straight? Like many other Gen X gals, I could not escape ballet lessons. Fortunately this only wasted a few months of my life! Tutus aren’t for everyone, apparently!

Mystery Round Four – Island Cities

Name the island based on its most populous city (none are sovereign island nations).

Nuuk, Tokyo, Palermo, Medan

Picked wrong island name for Medan, knew the rest.

We were in eighth going into the final with 43 points. my Type on Paypah was in first with 51, Strip YB was in second with 50, Boozier was in third with 49. We wagered zero on the final category of….

Emmy Awards

What performer has earned Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for playing TV title characters with the last names Pierce and Sheehan?

Standings unchanged at the end of all things, we didn’t move up by wagering zero. Go all of you teams who know about Emmies and stuff!

Next Wednesday doesn’t work for us for trivial pursuits, unsure if we’ll be out for trivia on another night depending upon the availability of other players besides just us two. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Mike Ditka!