A couple of us ventured out for a trivia battle Thursday night, but before we could do trivia battle at Sticks in Ypsilanti – my “driver” had to battle for a parking spot! He called me telling me to sign into the game on my phone if he wasn’t at the game on time! Thankfully he was successful in his parking battle and found a spot.

“What’s going on to clog up all the parking?” I asked him.

“I dunno,” he said. “There were lots of people walking around really dressed up.”

“Ah,” I said, “There must be an event at the Freighthouse.”

For those of you who don’t live in Ypsilanti, MI, the Freighthouse is an event space by the railroad tracks where people dance, get married and drink – among other things. Why they don’t switch the letters around during Halloween and stage a haunted house called the Frighthouse – well, that’s my decision to make (though I would totally go there if they did)!

As for the game, we finished in fifth overall with 81 points, missed the game one final question. No prizes.

Round One

1 Surgery – What part of the body is enhanced or reconstructed during a rhinoplasty?

2 Ties – What knot named for Edward VIII is the only tie knot used by all personnel in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Air Force Cadets?

3 Geography – What is the common three-word term for the region surrounding the Pacific Ocean that is home to around around two thirds of the world’s volcanoes and 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes?

NERD POINT: The most powerful earthquake on record took place in 1960 and was centered in what country?

4 Horror Films – What character, who entered the public domain in 2022, is the subject of an independent horror film subtitled Blood and Honey?

Got all of these correct (except the nerd point). This is where our successes in this game would end! Well, except for mystery round three!

Mystery Round One – Quickfire

Name the four most popular languages on the mobile application Duolingo besides English.

We picked two correct languages.

Round Two –

5 Moons – Which planet in the solar system has the third-most known moons, after Saturn and Jupiter? We were torn between two different planets, picked the wrong one.

6 Basketball – What Western conference WNBA franchise moved to its current home from San Antonio in 2018, where the team was known as the Stars? Nope…

7 Drinks – What holiday cocktail that is a variant of eggnog with brandy and rum shares its name with a cartoon duo introduced in 1940? I remembered that they even have sets of glasses to go along with this drink and (I think) it’s popular in Wisconsin.

8 Novels – The 14th century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is set in the second and third centuries in what country? Nope.

Maybe the next mystery round will be one of those where we get ’em all right?

Spoiler…NOPE!

Mystery Round Two – Twisted Titles – Dave Matthews Band Songs

The following answers will be names of Dave Matthews Band songs with just one letter changed (lyrics are also changed accordingly to accommodate the new song titles).

M1 1998 – Crazy how it feels tonight, crazy how you don’t want to eat the bready end of your pizza slice

M2 1995 – People in every direction, No words exchanged, No time to exchange, When all the little insects of the family Formicidae are wearing the same outfit

M3 2001 – You cannot quit me so quickly, There’s no hope in you for me, Not as long as the comedian named David who stars in Tommy Boy gets in your way

M4 1996 – You’ve got your ball, you’ve got your chain, Tied to me tight, along with all of your garbage

We managed to get two of these correct. Crazy! Or am I dreaming? The song in #1 is the only one of their songs I “sort of” like. It comes off pretty sincere.

We were in seventh going into the final with 38 points. Those mystery rounds were not kind to us!

Speaking of questions that were not kind to us (drum roll):

Final question game one – Prime Ministers

Sheikh Hasina, who is currently the world’s longest-serving woman head of government, has been rime minister of what country for nearly 40 percent of its existence?

Should have wagered zero, though that would not have helped us get into the prize zone.

Final scores game one:

Prohibitionists, 17; Overqualified Babysitters, 21; Pods (us) 23; Be Nice to Ralf, 26; Keep Beach City Weird, 30; Can you Feel the Queef Tonight, 32; hey siri set an alarm for 4 am, 45; tummy beard, 50; Not Last This Time, 56; Wizard Sleeves, 63.

Game Two/Round Three

Photo below is from a song sharing its title with the next question’s answer (photo is from a 1982 video clip):

9 Words – What 11-letter “A” word, often used in stage magic, may be derived from an Aramaic phrase roughly meaning “I create as we speak?” In the last trivia game we played on Sunday, they asked about a different Steve Miller Band song (Fly Like an Eagle). Is one of the question writers cycling through trivia questions about SMB songs? What’s next for us trivia players? Questions about the songs Take the Money and Run? The Joker? Keep on Rockin’ Me, Baby? 🙂

Warning, if you decide to queue up the SMB band sharing its name with this answer, you’ll find that it’s quite racy – and more than a little pervy! Might make you think of early 80s mullets, gold colored cars with T-tops, and birds painted on the hoods! I’ll bet some guys back then played these on their 8 track players when they took their gals out to “Makeout Point!”

Well, what are you waiting for? Go and find that song and play it when your Tinder date comes over! 🙂

10 NASA – Within two, in what year did Atlantis fly the final mission of the space shuttle program?

11 2000s Music - What singer spent a total of 15 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2005 with the singles “We Belong Together” and “Don’t Forget About Us?” FB clue we were very, very grateful for…

12 TV Shows – Audio clip of a show we didn’t recognize, we incorrectly guessed Community. I didn’t catch enough of the clip to include it here, something about someone ranting about a car or something (there was another event going on in the bar so dueling mics made it hard to hear).

Mystery Round Three – Yeeted

All of the correct responses will include the letters EET in order.

M1 Trademark name for a type of plasterboard made of gypsum layered between pieces of heavy paper

M2 Careful not to cause embarrassment or attract too much attention

M3 A special type of loudspeaker that is designed to produce high audio frequencies

M4 Animal noted for being the fastest on land

Got all of these.

Round Four

13 Bodies of Water – The Strait of Hormuz is a strategically important link between two gulfs -. Name either of those gulf that are connected by the Strait of Hormuz.

NERD POINT: Name both.

Got this, but missed the bonus.

14 Bones – The bones that make up the fingers and toes in humans – 56 in total on average – are collectively known by what “p” name?

15 Hockey – With 3,971 in his career, Tiger Williams is the NHL’s all-time regular season leader in what statistical category? There was some whooping rivaling the noise levels at the most recent Detroit Lions game, which tells me that some of the people in the room knew this answer (sadly we did not). Sounds like a fascinating thing to look into, though!

16 Video Games – Vampire hunter Simon Belmont is the main protagonist in the first two installments of what video game series, first released in North America in 1987? I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help out my trivia pardner here more, all of my brainstormed ideas were wrong – Bloodbath Castle, Bloodhaven, Hotel Dracula, Bathory’s Hostel, Vlad’s Palace. Warning – do NOT stay in Bathory’s Hostel – not matter how cheap it is!

Mystery Round Four – Visual

We were in 10th place going into the final with 44 points, the top teams were Not Last This Time, 55 and Team Young Sheldon and Be Nice to Ralf were tied for second with 53 points.

Final Category Game Two – Playwrights

Written at the age of 92, Buoyant Billions was the last full-length play by what playwright, who, 35 years earlier, premiered a play named for a legendary figure of Cyprus?

Sporcle “usually” only asks about three different playwrights – Shakespeare, Arthur Miller and…this guy. I remembered that he was putting his thing down when he was an old guy and did one of the first versions of She’s All That. You know – just take off the girl’s glasses and take her hair out of the ponytail and bam she’s hot? Also maybe get her to tone down the cockney accent a bit if you’re the gal in GBS’s version of She’s All That?

Please take everything I said in the last paragraph in jest!

We finished in fifth in game two with 59 points, moved up from 10th place.

Final scores for game two:

hey siri set an alarm for 4am, 35; Panda, 37; Be Nice to Ralf/Team Young Sheldon, 38; Keep Beach City Weird, 41; Pods (us), 50; Rummy Bears/Wizard Sleeves, 66; Can You Feel the Queef Tonight, 67 and in first the ironically named Not Last This Time, 70.