Our part-time trivial pursuits at our “secondary” trivia spot continued on a recent Wednesday at Ypsilanti’s “Corner Brewery,” which has been serving trivia nights for going on 12 years now. Wow, a whole Chinese zodiac cycle!

We’ve been playing on and off here since the beginning in 2012, and it didn’t take us long to begin “exploring” the local public trivia scene, mixing it up in two different leagues at our peak in the couple of years or so before the plague hit. Corner Brewery is a place close to home for us, so even if we can’t be there every week, the competitive scene is too much of a draw to resist!

We’ve seen at least three different hosts on the mic here before the present host Tim, who took over Kuma’s spot in early 2016. It’s not uncommon for more than 20 teams to pack the joint on Wednesdays.

In this particular game, I was able to summon three total players, which these days is a big number for our team! A notable fist-bump moment was when Dave and I came up with the same list of Nicolas Cage films for a mystery round, and bonus, we were both right! Ugh, we weren’t quite as fortunate in the TV Actors mystery round!

Here were our questions, some of which may be abbreviated.

Game One/Round One

1 Food – What two foods inspired both the name and design of the cronut, which was created in 2013 by Dominique Ansel?

2 Newspapers – What is the most circulated daily newspaper in the city that is also home to newspapers called the Times, The Hill, Politico, and Stars and Stripes?

3 First Ladies – Juana Manuela Gorriti, an Argentinian writer, served as First Lady of what country in the mid 19th century?

4 Film Settings – A record store named Championship Vinyl is one of the settings of what 2000 film? Doesn’t get much more Gen X than this movie! Interestingly, it sounded as though some teams guessed Empire Records for this! I love the scene where a customer asks for a Stevie Wonder record for his daughter and store clerk Jack Black tears into him…”Do you even KNOW your daughter?”

Got all of these. The two mystery rounds in the first half will be humbling for us for sure! 😔

Mystery Round One

Missed all of these except #3. Throw a sheriff outfit on the second guy in #3 and the answer would be “Fargo!”

Round Two

5 Colors – Name one of the two full member schools of the Big 12 Conference that have purple as one of their colors.

NERD POINT: Name both.

Miss and miss.

6 Companies – What is the nine-letter first name of the woman who inherited 20 percent of Versace from her brother when he died in 1997 and who currently serves as the company’s artistic director? We came up with an Italian female name, but not the right one. When they revealed the answer, I said it sounded like a female Ninja Turtle name! But because she works for a fashion house, she has to stay skinny, so she can’t eat pizza with her turtle pals!

7 Mascots – Tux the Penguin is the mascot for what computer operating system? We had a neighbor about 15 years ago or so who was a fanboy of this OS…

8 Words – What one-word catchphrase, made popular by The Simpsons, was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in the early 2000s? It’s also a common phrase for our team members on trivia nights!

Mystery Round Two – Spotify Songs

Name the musical artist based on three of their most played songs on Spotify

M1 “Quit Playing Games With My Heart,” “I Want It That Way” and “As Long As You Love Me.”

M2 “Fancy,” “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” and “Consider Me Gone.”

M3 “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words),” “My Way” and “That’s Life.”

M4 “Kill Bill,” “Snooze” and “Good Days.”

Missed #2 and #4. My guess for two would have been correct had the second song be the original artist’s – and not a cover!

We had 39 points going into the final and were in 16th out of 19 teams (not our round for sure). Shit We Need a Team Name had a perfect score of 53 and were in first, Admiral Knowledge and Smells Like Potential were both right behind them with 53 points each and My Type on Paypah rounded out the top three spots with 52. Don’t Forget to Strip Your Bartender was in fourth with 50 and Your Resume Sucks was in fifth with 49.

That TV mystery round really hurt us! You’d think that with all of the TV we’ve been streaming /watching since the pandemic hit, we would be better at questions about TV. Nope, I guess we’re not watching the right stuff! Sorry, we’re not into office comedies after they replace the lead actor – and God please, please don’t make us watch slice of life family dramas! One of the shows we missed does sound interesting, maybe we’ll give it a look!

On the final category of Actresses, we decided to go for it. That would prove to be unwise!

On five occasions, two actresses have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for their roles in the same film. What is the most recent film to accomplish this feat, doing so in the 20th century?

Knowing which decade – or even narrowed down to two – this happened might have been helpful, though we did get close in our guess (it was a few years earlier than the correct answer). Of course we weren’t SO upset that we drove off a cliff in a convertible while being chased by Harvey Keitel or anything…it’s trivia, you shake it off, get a drink and call it your “warmup game!”

Four teams appeared to have gotten this correct – SWNATN held onto their first place spot with 68, Paypah moved to second with 66, and Smells Like Poutine Spirit rounded out the top three with 61.

Game Two/Round Three

9 Books – In what 1976 novel by Anne Rice does an undead creature named Louis de Pointe du Lac tell his life story to a reporter, including many encounters with another creature named Lestat?  

10 Advertising – Audio clue of advertisement from a a dating site for agrarians

11 Elements – What element on the periodic table gets its two letter symbol from its former name “hydreargyrum,” which comes from Latin? Dave with right guess.

12 Albums – Name one of the two studio albums by Olivia Rodrigo that have reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

NERD POINT: Name both.

Well, when you start out your trivia brainstorming bid by asking who the singer in the question is about, you’re probably not going to know the answer – let alone the bonus answer! I wrote on my paper, “Whodat?” Nope and nope, thanks Dave for at least trying to make a guess!

Mystery Round Three – Nicolas Cage Films

Choose the four Nic Cage films from the following list that are considered “Certified Fresh” with at least 60 percent approval ratings or higher on Rotten Tomatoes’ movie reviewing site.

Con Air, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Honeymoon in Vegas, Moonstruck, National Treasure, Raising Arizona, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Dave and I both independently wrote down the same four films and so we gambled…and won, our guesses were 100 percent fresh! If you haven’t seen the scene in Honeymoon in Vegas where Cage loses his shit with Ben Stein when he’s in line at an airline ticket counter, try to find it…it’s hilarious! It’s not quite as funny as his scenes in Vampire’s Kiss, but it comes close!

Round Four

13 Technology – The final product in the iPad product line was the seventh generation of what model, which was discontinued in 2022? Miss.

14 Cabinet – In 2021, Lloyd Austin became the first African American to serve as the first secretary of what US Cabinet Department? Got this…

15 World Series – What National League team is the most recent one to lose two consecutive World Series? Miss…

16 TV Settings – Highclere Castle is the primary filming location of what PBS series? Got this…

Mystery Round Four – This Day in History (Yay)!

Answer the following questions about events occurring on January 31.

M1 1990 – What restaurant opened its first location in the Soviet Union

M2 1606 – What main conspirator in the plot to blow up the British Parliament building, whose likeness has been used in masks, was executed in London?

M3 2023 – The last of what Boeing aircraft was delivered to Atlas Air, ending 54 years of production?

M4 1865 – What number amendment to the US Constitution was passed by the House of Representatives to be ratified by the end of the year?

Got all of these. We were in seventh going into the final with 48 points.

We did a lot better in game two, the two mystery rounds were much kinder to us! SWNATN was again in first with a perfect 55 points. YRS was behind them in second with 52, Poutine, Hotter than Mordor and Paypah were tied for third with 50. Money Badgers and Admiral were both right ahead of us with 49 points, and we were n seventh tied with 24 Hour Brunch with 48 points. Whew, I’ve gotta catch my breath!

We decided to do the opposite of what we did jn last week’s Gama and…bet it all, this time on the category of… World Geography.

FInal Question Game Two

Of the 20 southernmost settlements with at least 1,000 inhabitants, 18 are in South America, one is in the UK, and the other is in what country?

Moved up to fourth, just shy of the prize zone.

We’ll be returning to our Sunday trivia spot after a brief NFL induced hiatus this weekend. It’s a bit more of our “speed,” as far as trivia spots go! More laid back, better chance at prizes, chance to see Brad (if he’s feeling better)!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Donatella Versace!