We decided to give in to both my addiction to pub trivia games -and my wanderlust – and check out a different trivia scene on a recent Tuesday night. We weren’t disappointed (maybe a little disappointed about missing out on a tiebreaker prize), but we were NOT disappointed with the trivia spot!

Maybe I wore out that little bit of luck I would have needed to get that tiebreaker correct by lucking out choosing the beer I wanted – which happened to be the “beer of the month” special for $3! Honestly, I didn’t even know it was on special until I’d ordered a couple of them (Atwater Brewery D Light kolsch, for inquiring minds). Nice refreshing, light easy drinker…also easy on the wallet! 🙂

We’re going to be checking out alternative trivia spots for a bit, since we’re going to be taking a break from our Sunday games at the YpsiAlehouse. We don’t know yet if the “break” will become permanent or not. Spoons seemed like a decent spot to check out – not too long of a drive, decent drink selection, don’t have to pay to park, don’t have to arrive two hours early to get a table. Also, three of us played here at a Globe Game for cash prizes back in December 2023.

Verdict? We’ll definitely be back! We can’t commit to playing here every week, but it will be on our list of places to play for sure!

Here were our questions…

1 Same Name – What word describing an optical illusion is also the name of a Las Vegas casino?

2 #1 Hits – What 2000 single, the only #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 by Creed, has lyrics written by singer Scott Stapp after learning that his wife was pregnant?

3 U.S. History – What does the “U” stand for in HCUA, the investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives created in 1938 to investigate allegedly disloyalty and certain subversive activities?

4 Oil – What oil brand owned by Chevron was founded in 1902 in the U.S. state from which its name was derived?

Mystery Round One

Name the U.S. president who was serving at the time the given event took place.

M1 The First Super Bowl- known at the time as the AFL- NFL World Championship Game – is played between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs

M2 The TV series Mork & Mindy, starring Robin Williams and Pam Dawber, debuts on ABC

M3 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C.

M4 Adele releases the single “Rolling in the Deep,” which becomes her first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100

Round Two

5 Comic Strips – What comic strip by Antonio Prohías, first published in Mad magazine in 1961, features two agents involved in stereotypical and comical espionage activities?

6 Olympics – As of 2024, Sarah Hughes is the most recent American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in singles competition in what sport? Our first miss of game one.

7 Oscar History – Five people have won multiple Academy Awards by the age of 30, and collectively they have done so in only two categories. Name one of those two categories.

NERD POINT: Name both.

Nope and nope…

8 TV Families – The Roy family- owners of a global media and entertainment conglomerate – are central to what HBO series that aired from 2018-2023?

And thus ended our hat trick of misses…Maybe that hockey fight on TV will distract us!

Mystery Round Two

Direct-to-Video Disney

Name the character whose name fills the blank in the title of a Disney direct-to-video sequel film

M1 The Return of _____, (1994)

M2 _____II: Journey to a New World (1998)

M3 Atlantis: _______’s Return (2003)

M4 _______: Zero to Hero (1999)

Did surprisingly well on this mystery round since we’d never seen any of these, only missed #3.

Going into the final, we were tied with one other team for second with 44 points behind three teams tied for first with 50 points.

My better half wanted to wager zero on the category of Album Sales, so I said “Sure ‘hon, whatever you want!”

Final Question Game One

The top five on Billboard’s list of the best-selling cassette albums in the U.S. in 2023 includes two albums by Taylor Swift and three albums whose subtitles each include what two words that immediately precede “Vol. 1,” “Vol. 2,” and “Vol. 3?”

Two teams wound up knowing this “either one person on the team knows this or they don’t” answer. Which is the opposite of the other type of final question that requires a little thought and collaboration amongst the players. Hey congratulations to those people who knew this because they watched Guardians of the Galaxy – and boo for those of us who think it’s just a watered-down superhero movie for Millennials (looks away furtively). How much did they have to pay Bradley Cooper to play that talking raccoon? Hey, can’t win ’em all, can ya? I sure would have preferred the presidents final question from the night before!

Seriously though, isn’t it kind of awesome that cassette tapes – a completely physical media – have made such a comeback? Honestly it’s been a minute since I had the means to play a music cassette tape! My Buick LeSabre had a tape deck, I had a Walkman in college – and I recently offloaded a tape deck that no longer worked… Anyone else reading this old enough to remember making tapes from CDs so you could play them in your cars? Car manufacturers were slow to make CD players standard equipment in cars. And now new cars don’t even have CD players, just USB or Bluetooth capability.

I don’t care if not knowing the names of the top selling cassette tapes in 2023 makes me old and uncool – as a Gen Xer, I’ve had to adapt to countless changes in music playing technology and formats over my lifetime – records, tapes, CDs, Napster, Mp3s, Mp4s, streaming music services – I ain’t about to go backwards now! Though I still remember how to play a record (don’t miss the annoyance of rewinding a tape).

Maybe 8-tracks will make a comeback someday! Now there’s a music format I’ve NEVER used! Who wants to listen to some disco songs – or maybe some Abba, Donna Summer – or Jim Croce?

So we found ourselves in a tiebreaker for third, which I didn’t realize was important until afterwards (not too many trivia joints give a prize for third and wow – $10 for third ain’t a bad thing)! Another reason to keep this trivia spot on our radar!

Here was our tiebreaker question:

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 was performed for the first time on April 2 of what year?

Yeah we blew this. Had I known this was for an actual prize I might’ve tried harder…

Two teams finished first with 65 points each, we finished second with that team who also wagered zero and were tied with us and beat us in the tiebreaker (yay you guys).

Game Two/ Round Three

9 Slogans – What Kellogg’s breakfast product originally used the slogan “drop ’em in the toaster – or eat ’em just as they are?”

I made my husband chuckle at my joke answer suggestion of “wet bar of soap.” Seriously- did any teams get this one wrong? 😀

10 Gaming – The best- selling home video game console of all time was produced for more than 12 years by what company? Miss, picked wrong four letter word beginning with S.

11 2010s Movies – The 2012 film This is 40 features characters named Pete and Debbie, who were introduced in what film released five years earlier?

12 Countries – What country is home to 49 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Alhambra, Las Mèdulas and the Tower of Hercules?

NERD POINT: What country has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with 58?

Got the points and bonus.

Missed #4.

Round Four

13 Basketball – In 2014, the University of Connecticut won the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament for the ninth time, breaking a tie with what school for the most all time? Miss.

14 Comedians – (Audio) Clip of actress and Comedian we’d never heard of talking on the Ellen show. One thing I love about audio questions, they’re probably very hard to cheat for the answers! Wonder how many teams playing this night knew this one? Miss for us.

15 Desserts – What dessert of English origin is made of layers of sponge cake soaked in wine, along with jam, custard and whipped cream? Ugh sounds like the creation of someone who had WAY too much wine to drink! Is the wine intended to distract the eater from the overall grossness of traditional English cuisine? Cleanse the palate of steak and kidney pie? Can one make a version of this with smashed Twinkies and canned whipped cream? Where’s that boxed wine…

Sadly our guess of “Diabetes on a plate” was incorrect…

And our second hat trick of misses for the night!

16 Architecture – Which of the following is a common feature in Gothic architecture – black walls, low ceilings, pointed spires or round windows?

Anyone else think of the fight at Gotham City Cathedral from the 1989 Batman movie when they think of Gothic architecture?

Mystery Round Four

The third thing – Extinct Animals

Name the extinct animal based on the third sentence of their Wikipedia page.

M1 ” The woolly ______ began to diverge from the steppe _____ about 800,000 years ago in Siberia.”

M2 “Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats.”

M3 “The two formed the subfamily Raphinae, a clade of extinct flightless birds that were a part of the family which includes pigeons and doves.”

M4 Prior to European settlement, around 5,000 remained in the wild on Tasmania.

My husband was MVP for this round (I would not have known #2).

Not so great for us this game…last place with 39 points! Not knowing the video game answer, not knowing about women’s basketball, not spotting the audio clip and not being able to recognize the Spin Doctors without their stupid Peruvian hats hurt us! At least we can say our mystery round performance has improved over the past couple of games (they were really killing us during the month of February).

Sigh, if only that image from #4 in the visual round showed this guy…(his face did look familiar).

We wagered zero again on the final question category of Senators.

Final Question Game Two

Beginning on November 9, 1965, which U.S. state was represented by the same two senators for more than 36 years, a U.S. Senate record?

We moved up to fifth from our cautious wager, Notorious QUIZ finished first, No Talent Ass Clowns finished second. We wound up finishing fourth overall (which was about where we expected we’d finish).

We may be back here next week. But maybe won’t! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, you Peruvian hat guy from the Two Princes video!