We played our first pub trivia game of 2024 on a recent chilly afternoon at the YpsiAlehouse. It was an odd game indeed – we managed to WIN a three-way tiebreaker for second place in game two AFTER getting the question wrong! But, as it turns out, every – or nearly every team – got the final question wrong. Shrugs? We’re no strangers to oddities in trivia games!

We finished with just 94 total points, unsure what place we finished in the bar, no standings are currently showing online, and I have not received a post-game recap in my e-mail. I don’t know if the league is no longer sending these, or if because it was the last game of the off-season, they’re not bothering with it. Meh, whatever! We’ll see what happens when the new season gets going!

In my neck of the woods, the big to-do with many locals on Monday was the national championship game, featuring University of Michigan Wolverines vs. the Washington State Huskies. I’m sure local bars were packed – and those that typically offer trivia on Monday nights – might have taken the night off from doing that. My husband and I just stayed home to watch the game. We watched it on ESPN with a strange split-screen type format, with a majority of the screen featuring the events unfolding on the field of the Astrodome (yes that is what I’ll call it despite whatever their corporate sponsor is), and there was also a small screen over to the left where you could see coaches pacing back and forth and looking like the weight of the world rested upon their shoulders. Either that, or the weight of their colons was avidly plotting an escape. What if the future of sports TV viewing allows viewers to choose what events go in that screen? Random shots of drunken fans in the stadium? Cheerleaders? Marching band? Overworked assistants bringing out boxes of Gatorade to the coaching staff? Mascot cams? Players sitting in the sidelines? I’d pick ANYTHING but grumpy coaches pacing back and forth!

How about the questions already?

Round One/Game One

1 Newspapers – What type of game commonly associated with newspapers first appeared in the New York World in 1913? Easy start to the game.

2 Advertising – What personal computer was introduced nationally in a 1984 Super Bowl commercial featuring a “Big Brother” type of character? Mike and Brad remembered this, yay…

3 TV Settings – What TV series that aired from 2003-2012 is partially named for the fictional North Carolina city where it is set? Oops for six points. Ouch. We incorrectly guessed a series with a similar premise airing a bit earlier than this.

4 Borders – What South American country shares land borders with ONLY Brazil and Argentina? Mike was all over this, but Brad was second guessing him a bit, so we didn’t go high – Mike still got it, though.

Mystery Round One – Visual

This round a bit rough on us, we missed 2 and 3, though my original guess on #3 was correct (d’oh)!

Round Two

5 Movie Nicknames – In what 1970s film does Gene Wilder play a character nicknamed “The Waco Kid?”

6 Groups – “Worth It” and “Work from Home” are top 40 hits by what girl group that initially rose to fame by finishing third on the second season of The X Factor? FBA clue.

7 Birds – The terms for a yearling male turkey and a yearling female turkey are both common names for a person. Name either of those two J names.

NERD POINT – Name both.

Miss and miss. When I heard the answers, I kind of wondered whether a company making turkey products calls themselves this name because of the female name. Hmmm…..

8 Hidden Things – What holiday-inspired name is given to intentional inside jokes, hidden messages, or features in works such as computer programs, video games, movies and books?

Mystery Round Two – NFL Anagrams

Decipher the anagram to reveal the location and team name of an NFL team.

M1 Nut Hoax Stones

M2 Removable Trains

M3 Big Race Chaos

M4 Two Paints Greenland

We got all of these, yay teamwork for a team question!

We were in fifth going into the final with 41 points – ahead of us were Street Smarts with 46; two of us are not on the Epstein list with 47; isla’s college fund with 49 and 24 Hour Brunch with 51 in first.

Final Game Two – Name four of the six sovereign nations with short-form English names that end in BIA.

I tried taking a photo of the screen showing the final scores, but…they disappeared immediately. So I don’t know how we wound up after everything was said and done – or how the other teams did. We were sitting too far away to be able to hear who the top finishers were – we just know it wasn’t us!

Round Three/Game Two

9 SCIENCE – What common piece of lab equipment, named after a German chemist, produces a single-open gas flame used for heating, sterilization and combustion?

10 TV Voices – What main character on Family Guy, who was originally voiced by Lacey Chabert, has been voiced by Mila Kunis since season 2?

11 Mascots – Name either of the MLB teams that currently have costumed mascots that are baseball-headed and have names beginning with “Mr.”

12 Protection – The Pope and the Apostolic Palace are protected by a small force made of guards from what country?

Mystery Round Three – Ang Lee Pick ‘Em

From the following list of seven films, choose the four that were directed by Ang Lee.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Life of Pi; Traffic; The Ice Storm; Magnolia; Brokeback Mountain; The Social Network

13 Rock Songs – Audio clue, had to ID the rock song from 1992 based on its guitar solo. The song’s video featured the band – (duh), and the lead singer’s real life wife – who wore a very, very short wedding dress. I don’t know which was shorter – the dress’ hemline – or their volatile marriage!

14 Cities – Las Cruces and Rio Rancho are the second-and third-most populous cities in which U.S. state?

15 Organizations -What Nobel Peace Prize-winning international humanitarian organization was founded in 1971 by French physicians and journalists?

16 Spokespeople – Linda Evans, Raquel Welch and Priscilla Presley have all served as spokespeople for what low-calorie powdered beverage mix, originally released in the 1980s?

Mystery Round Four –

The correct answer to each clue is also the last name of a notable golfer.

M1 – Band with the soft rock hit “Baby Come Back”

M2 – Word that completes the title of a Stephen Sondheim musical “Into the (blank)”

M3 – First name of the mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019 who previously served as the White House Chief of Staff

M4 – 2021 Apple T+ film starring Justin Timberlake as an ex convict

Missed #4.

We were in second going into the game two final with 53 points, tied with team two of us are not on the Epstein list and isla’s college fund. Street Smarts was ahead of us by just one point with 54 points.

Final Game Two –

What two cities are the only ones to have had teams face each other in the finals of the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB? They have faced off 11 times, including four times in the 21st century, most recently in 2019.

Tiebreaker – How many shots on goal did the Colorado Avalanche have in game one of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals?

I guess our guess was closest since we won the tiebreaker? Events are a bit fuzzy at the end since I didn’t hear or see who finished with how many points.

Until next time, which will be Sunday – if not before that (a mid-week game is currently being discussed, unsure if it will actually happen). As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Krystle Carrington!