The three of us ventured out into Arctic-like temperatures on a recent Sunday afternoon for two reasons – one, to play in our first “official” Sporcle Live trivia game of 2024 at the YpsiAlehouse – and secondly, to hang around after the game in order to watch at least the first half of the L.A. Rams/Detroit Lions “Wild Card” game.

Well, the Lions fared better than us, winning their bout by just one point, with the final score being 24-23. The trivia game’s points margins were nearly as razor thin, with mere single points dividing teams leading into the final in both games, and a first place tiebreaker in game two. We finished third overall for the night with 119 points, no prizes. We just barely missed the prize zone in game one, and a PlayStation visual mystery round in game two was enough to mean that being anywhere near the top scores even after getting the final question right – would be out of the question!

Here were our questions:

Game One/Round One

1 Math – In math, what is the term for the number that is placed as a superscript after an expression to denote the power to which it is raised? A bit of discussion and a cautious wager, but we got this.

2 Lyrics – In the lyrics to a 1976 single by Steve Miller Band, what four words immediately precede “to the sea” and “let my spirit carry me?” I couldn’t help but sing bits from another SMB song that my husband Mike absolutely loathes – which is “The Joker.” How much does he hate this song, do you ask? So much so that he DELETED the mp3 from my computer’s hard drive years ago! Trivia note, did you know that the African island nation Mauritius has also been called Maurice? I’m not sayin’ that Steve Miler was inspired by this East African island nation when he wrote the song, but I just love weird trivia tidbits like this. Did you also know that they have a dodo on their coat of arms? Maybe you already knew both of those factoids about Mauritius…so how about this one? Did you know that the session musician Jean Roussel is a Mauritius native – and arranged/played piano on the hit Police single “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic?” OK, OK, I’ll stop before this becomes a blog all about Mauritius!

3 U.S. Geography – Among the eight states that border Tennessee, which one comes last alphabetically? We like to call states like Tennessee “filthy whores” for touching so many other states (like that other filthy whore Missouri).

4 Action Movies – What are the full titles of the two 1980s action films that star Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan? I recently read that Arnold is more than happy to give up playing The Terminator ever, ever again, but would love to have one last chance to play Conan again as an aging King Conan. Yes, yes, a thousand times YES! He would look SO great with a full beard and a kingly cloak lined with a fur collar! I say this…

Mystery Round One – 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 the four most recent TEAMS to select first overall in the NBA Draft (2020-2023).

Ugh, we only got ONE of these correct. The only player on our team who would be decent in this category is currently on parental leave! I remember meeting him at a trivia game where he wanted to arrive early so he could watch a draft event on TV!

5 U.S. History – What politician was the target of an assassination attempt, but was saved because the bullet was slowed by the text of his 50-plus page speech “Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual,” and the metal glasses case in the pocket of his jacket?

NERD POINT: In what year did this happen?

Got this, but missed the bonus.

Round Two –

6 Safety – In vehicles, when an airbag inflates, it is primarily filled with which gas – helium, nitrogen, neon or hydrogen? We eliminated helium immediately, but how funny would it be to have to call OnStar with a squeaky heliumy voice? Haven’t we all done the helium balloon gag and inhaled the helium in order to talk funny to others (I did this on the intercom at my place of employment before)! And wouldn’t your car explode if your airbag was filled with hydrogen? And your air bag wouldn’t be filled with neon, would it (that’s just silly)!

7 TV Themes – Inspired by a film of the same name, what TV series that aired on USA from 1994-1997 features a theme song by Oingo Boingo? Brad: “How do we know this one?” Mike: “Heather knows all about Eurotrash music.” Come on, to be fair, Danny Elfman is an American! And who knew that he was married to Bridget Fonda?

8 Animals – What animal is commonly afflicted with a disease known as ich? Did anyone else learn this while watching “American Dad?”

Mystery Round Two – Before and After

Combine the two clues to form a single answer. Answers may share a word, part of a word, or a syllable.

M1 2009 cooking-themed film starring Meryl Streep[ and Amy Adams AND actor who stars in the Taken franchise

M2 Last name of the 18th U.S. president AND a pair of words with opposite meanings

M3 Animal of the subspecies Equus africanus asinus AND Comedy Central sketch comedy show that aired from 2012 to 2015

M4 Hometown of the characters Archie, Veronica and Jughead AND race car driver known as “The Intimidator”

A bit of discussion on #3, animal guy Brad was kind of thrown by the word “africanus,” thankfully I remembered the sketch comedy series, which led us to the correct beast of burden for the first part of the question.

Scores leading into the final: we have a babysitter…until 8, 25; The Conquistadores, 27; Two’s Company, 44; Where’s the ranch, 45; Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods, (us) 46; Drmjbphd, I think, 47; The Ron DeSantis Participation Trophy Committee, 48; 24 Hour Brunch, 50 and Out of Our Street Smarts, 51.

Game One Final Question – Actresses

The actresses whose Academy Award nominations are for the films Up in the Air and Spencer, respectively, both appear in what 2008 film?

I had no idea what actress was nominated for Up In the Air, but knew who played Diana in Spencer, so I just guessed that the 2008 movie would be “that” movie. I’ll refrain from making any commentary about this movie lest I give away a clue to the answer!

Game One Top Scores:

24 Hour Brunch, 65; Drmjbphd, I think, 62; Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods, (us) 61; Where’s the ranch, 60; Out of Our Street Smarts, 36; The Ron DeSantis Participation Trophy Committee, 33 and Two’s Company, 29.

Game Two/Round Three

9 Slogans – What footwear and apparel company has used the slogan “Because Life is Not a Spectator Sport?” Miss…just like we do every time we have questions like these!

10 Seas – What sea borders Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Phillippines, among others, as well as the country for which it is named? Mike and Brad needed no help from me here…

11 Villains – What villain is played by Alan Rickman in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves?

12 Magazines – What monthly technology magazine headquartered in San Francisco coined the term “crowdsourcing” in the mid-2000s? Brad is always so whiny whenever we have this category, but wouldn’t you know who actually came up with the right guess here (stop whining)!

Mystery Round Three – Everybody likes “Chris”

Give the first and last name of the people described in the following clues, who have names that include “Chris.”

M1 Actress whose breakout role was as Wednesday in the 1991 film The Addams Family

M2 Singer known for his time with Soundgarden and Audioslave

M3 Three time nominee for the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight alongside Jackie Chan

M4 US Secretary of State from 1993-1997

Got all of these.

13 First Names – What female first name, derived from the Greek messenger god, spiked in popularity in the early 2000s? Boy we were way off with this one, maybe we should go to that one private school where we can learn how to ride around on broomsticks and stuff…

14 TV Characters – What TV series that aired from 1999-2004 features David Boreanaz as the title character?

15 Comedy – What comedian, a former Pentecostal preacher who adopted the style into his act, won a Grammy Award for his posthumously released 1993 album Live From Hell? FB clue.

16 Elements – What element on the periodic table is named for the seventh planet from the sun?

NERD POINT: In what century were both the element and the planet discovered?

Oops on the nerd point, we were thinking about Marie Curie – thankfully we came up with the right element for the other part of the question!

Mystery Round Four – Visual

We didn’t have the right players for this kind of round, though we did get one correct. Ugh…

We were in sixth place going into the final behind Where’s the ranch, 45; Two’s Company, 50; 24 Hour Brunch, 51; The Ron DeSantis Participation Trophy Committee, 51 and Out of Our Street Smarts, 51.

Final Question Game Two – 20th Century History

In 1944, the V-2 rocket became the first artificial object fired into space after being launched from what country?

Brad was our hero here…

Game two final scores – Out of Our Street Smarts, and 24 Hour Brunch, 66; Where’s the Ranch, 60; Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods (us), 58; The Conquistadores, 47; The Ron DeSantis Participation Trophy Committee, 36; and Two’s Company, 35. I think 24 Hour Brunch won the tiebreaker, I do not recall the tiebreaker question.

We finished in third overall for the night, but narrowly so – second place finishers Where’s the ranch? finished with just one more point than us. Top dogs were 24 Hour Brunch, finishing with a nearly perfect score of 131 points.

We’ll be back at it next Sunday. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Edward the sparkly vampire who is actually a forest elf!