We paid our third visit of the current Sporcle Events season Thursday at Original Gravity in Milan, MI. We’re happy that this place we used to play up until about five years ago is putting trivia back on their menu again (in addition to delicious, hearty, reasonably priced sammies and beer/cider)! I’ll stop before this starts to resemble a paid advertisement, which assuredly, this is NOT!

Seriously though, the sandwiches are very, very good! I do wonder if the Root Down ginger beer will make a return anytime soon, however!

The two of us cozied up to the bar on this rainy night, and enjoyed humorous conversations with a trio of younger folks sitting next to us whom were also doing trivia battle. Special thanks for trying to throw a lifeline at us about a NBA player when a question was clearly stumping us! Also congrats to them for knowing the game two final answer and finishing third!

We won a second place prize in game one, we remain in third in the overall standings.

The questions…

Round One/Game One

1 Latin – What five-letter word from the Latin meaning “great ‘ is found in the names of a drawing toy introduced by Tyco in the 1970s and a notable 13th century English peace treaty?

2 Viruses – The varicella zoster virus can cause shingles in adults in addition to an affliction in children commonly known by what name?

3 Trails – Name one of the two US states that mark the endpoints of the Appalachian Trail – at Mount Katahdin in the north and at Springer Mountain in the south.

NERD POINT – Name both.

4 Festivals – What type of Polish dumpling is the focus of an annual festival in Whiting, Indiana that attracts more than 250,000 attendees, making it one of the largest of its kind?

We got all of these, but the next mystery round will humble us a bit..

Mystery Round 1 – Star Wars Sequel Stars

Name the performer who appears in the Star Wars sequel trilogy based on two of their non-Star Wars films.

Yeah, we’re “those” people who whine like little bitches when trivia companies ask about anything involving Star Wars – unless it’s episodes IV-VI! We will NOT bow down to “the Mouse” and think of “those” recent SW movies as being anything but attempts to dazzle us with their trademark brand of “magic” – which make us want our money back, and ultimately leave us feeling empty inside after the “magic” effects wear off.

End rant?

M1 Marriage Story and House of Gucci

M2 Attack the Block and The Woman King

M3 Murder on the Orient Express and The Marsh King’s Daughter

M4 Drive and X-Men:Apocalypse

Despite our whining, we did get two of these correct. The same will not be true for a video games round later in the game!

Round Two

5 Duos – The 2000s country music duo the Wreckers consisted of singer-songwriter Jessica Harp and what other artist who had six top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from 2001-2003, including “Everywhere” and “All You Wanted?”

Nope..

6 Martial Arts – What martial art created by Bruce Lee has a thr4- word name abbreviated JKD meaning “way of the intercepting fist,” combines elements of fencing, boxing and jujitsu, among others?

FB clue.

7 Sitcoms – The Williamsburg Diner, Candy Andy and a cupcake shop named for a main character are among the establishments that appear on what sitcom that aired from 2011-2017?

Was I supposed to watch this? 🤔😃 Nope…

8 Books – What 1864 novel by Jules Verne follows the adventures of Professor Otto Lidenbrock after he and his nephew climb inside a volcano?

Mystery Round 2 – Video Games

Place the following video game series based on Tom Clancy in order according to when the game in each series was released, beginning with the earliest.

EndWar, Splinter Cell, The Division, Rainbow Six

Nope, nope, nope and…nope! Zero points here.

We were in second place with 38 points going into the final behind Josh Pit who had 44.

On the category of Social Media, we decided that we weren’t….social enough to risk a wager.

Final Question Game One:

As of April, 2024, Reddit’s list of “top communities” includes six with at least 35 million members, which is more than r/music, r/movies and r/meme. Name two of those six communities.

We held onto our second place spot and won yet another “bridesmaid” prize of Game $10. As for whether the first place team actually really knew this answer…or like they did two games ago on a tiebreaker with us…very likely cheated – I have no way of knowing. Maybe they really do use Reddit? I mean, at least one of those 35 million followers must have been playing in the same bar as us, right?

Game Two/Round Three

9 Restaurants – When KFC officially changed its name to its initials in the 1990s, it did so to distance itself from any negative association with what word?

10 Spin-Offs – What Bravo reality competition series has spawned spin-offs with the words Masters, Just Desserts, Duels and Junior in their titles?

Nope…

11 Film Franchises – What action horror film franchise starring Kate Beckinsale has five installments, including ones subtitled Evolution, Rise of the Lycans and Blood Wars?

NERD POINT: What is the first name of Kate Beckinsale’s character?

Got this, missed the bonus.

12 Crossings – I didn’t get this question in its entirety, something about a river crossing from NY to jersey named for an engineer and not a us president.

Mystery Round 3 – Add ‘Em Up – 1999 edition

The answers to the following clues are all numbers, which add up to 23.

M1 Number in the title of a 1999 rom-com starring Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell and Dylan McDermott

M2 Number in the title of Lou Bega’s biggest hit, released in 1999

M3 Number in the title of the animated series that premiered January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII

M4 Number of NBA championships that Michael Jordan had with the Chicago Bulls

Got two of these.

Round Four

13 Outer Space – What does NEO stand for, in terms of a body in the solar system that comes within 1.3 astronomical units of the Sun?

14 Nicknames – What NBA player, who has played for six franchises since he was fourth overall pick in the 2005 draft out of Wake Forest University, is nicknamed “The Point God” and has a second nickname that incorporates his initials and jersey number?

Nope…

15 Video Games – Audio clue of…Yoshi. Sorry didn’t want to rewrite this as a “words” question (can’t be fucked, yeah, I’m a tad hung over today….forgive me)! 😉 Nope.

16 Military – The guard of the The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery represents what branch of the US Military? Miss.

Face palm on me for not knowing who #4 was and mistaking her for another singer. We did get the rest correct.

Rougher round for us, we were in sixth going into the final with 30 points. Josh Pit and Ryan and the Ladies were tied for first with 51 points.

This time we actually decided to wager full points on the final question category of…(20th Century Fox drum roll and trumpet fanfare):

High Grossing Films

Would this strategy be a good idea…or bad idea?

Come on…it’s the Pods we’re talking about here! If we’d done anything as triumphant as get a damned final question correct, I wouldn’t bury the lede about it – you’d probably already know that answer!

Speaking of “knowing” answers (a highly overrated pastime, by the way)…Pardon me while I blow a raspberry…

Final Question Two:

What film, released in the decade of the 2020s, is the highest grossing movie at the US box office to have NEVER been the top grossing in any week? It grossed around $330 million domestically, nearly $1 billion worldwide, and spent four weeks at #2.

Josh Pit got this and held onto their lead, 10 pts to hufflepuff moved ahead and won second. Boo on us for not knowing this, this was definitely a “face slap” question – ya know…the question that – when they reveal the answer, you’re like “God damn, I shoulda known this!” Or maybe profanity isn’t your thing, so you instead say, “Gosh darn it all, I should have known this! Well, shucks! Con sarn it!” Even though admittedly – I haven’t really paid attention as much to high grossing movies as much as I did before the plague hit, I definitely was not totally living under a rock last summer! Or WAS I? 🤔😛

I did notice an awful lot of moviegoers wearing pink when I wandered into a movie googleplex last summer to see Heathers on the big screen!

A “life event” will keep us from playing at this spot next week, no guarantee we’ll play any trivia anywhere else that week.

We’ll return here the next time my Thursday schedule allows! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Donna Summer!