We finished our attempt to play a “season” of trivia at Original Gravity on a recent Thursday evening. This bar does their games outdoors, so on nice nights, it’s ideal to arrive as early as you can to be able to stake your claim at a table! On this particular night, it was also kind of windy, so all four of us wound up wearing our hats!

The night was not without its nail-biting and tense moments! Like – “When can I actually get inside to get a beer and not leave my team too long because the line for beer and food is 10 people deep?” And…”Boy, I sure hope we wind up getting that final question correct!”

As of today, “Murphy’s Law” has been officially changed to “Pods Law.” Anything that could have gone wrong on this trivia night…did! You’d think that after nearly everyone agreed on the final question suggestion that it was OK for one player to go in to order some more beer?

Nope! Two of the other players outside decided to change their answer to one that was wrong. Yes, these things happen in trivia games, don’t they (especially on our team)? I overheard someone on the team sitting behind us say “Damn it!” after realizing they’d gotten the final question wrong in game two.

Yes, sometimes competition brings out the ugliest in us all. That’s probably good that we’ll be taking a short break from trivia games now that this Sporcle Events season is winding down, though the upcoming Globe Games are NOT off the table as of yet. Even if I have to go play by myself! 🙂

We wound up finishing second overall since two teams ahead of us at the end either did not play the required amount of games, or were not registered league teams. OK, we’ll take that! Makes up for not winning any prizes in this game!

This past season has been a struggle for us to find a spot where we can get our footing in the standings, mainly because of not having enough players, and also lots of…other stuff. Original Gravity was a late season trivia spot to start offering games again after five years, so we jumped at the chance to try to “make some noise.”

And now for the questions:

Game One/Round One:

1 Comic Books – What comic book villain, who first appeared in Batman #1 in 1940, has no superhuman abilities, but is an expert in chemical engineering?

2 Business Terms – An LLC is a limited liability company, while an LLLP is a limited liability limited what?

3 Audio clue…sorry no real info to share here, we missed it (band was Plain White Ts)

4 Oscar Winners – What 2016 film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture is based on an unpublished story by Tarell Alvin McCraney?

Mystery Round One – Rich Women

From the following list of seven women, choose the four who rank the highest on the Forbes 2024 list of the richest people.

Abigail Johnson, Alice Walton, Jacqueline Mars, Julia Koch, MacKenzie Scott, Melinda Gates, Miriam Adelson

Picked three correct women.

5 Sports Families -What is the last name off the Dominican family of MLB players whose members have included Felipe, Jesus, Matty and Moises?

NERD POINT – What MLB team is the only one for which all four of these players played?

Got the right family, missed the nerd point (thanks Dave and Brad)!

6 Related TV – Although not a spin-off, the TV series Wings exists in the same universe as what show that debuted eight years earlier, with several characters making guest appearances? Good guess.

7 What variety of quartz gets its eight letter name from the Greek meaning “not intoxicate,” due to the belief that it would protect its owner from drunkenness? And this is about the time in the game that we started talking about how and whether we’d be able to order a second round of drinks (the lines were pretty long)! And no, I wasn’t wearing any jewelry with this stone, even if it is my birthstone!

8 U.S. Cities – The city of Camden, NJ is located directly across the Delaware River from what major city?

Mystery Round Two – Yo-Yo

In honor of National Yo-Yo Day, each correct answer includes the letters YO in that order.

M1 Part of a pro sports season that follows the regular season

M2 Term for a grand champion sumo wrestler

M3 Term for near sightedness

M4 Technique of deep freezing the body after death in hopes that scientific advances will allow for revival in the future
Missed #2.

We were in first going into the final with 47 points. We bet it all on the category of islands.

Final Question Game One:

What is the most populous city on the most populous island in the world?

Two of us immediately came up with what WOULD be the correct answer. After that, I went in for beer and…yeah all Hell broke loose and they CHANGED their minds without telling us! The humanity!

Game Two/Round Three

9 Cocktails – The Cuba Libre is a cocktail that is also commonly known by what three-word name that references its two primary ingredients?

10 Countries – What Central American country has a name that translates to “rich coast” in English?

11 What wide receiver was selected with the 12th overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft by the New York giants before going on to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year?

12 Painters – The “Three Great Ladies” of impressionist painting, as coined by art critic Henri Focillion, include two French painters and what American artist? Miss. Typical of most art questions!

Mystery Round Three – TV Theme Songs

Identify the TV series based on the theme songs.

M1 Love and Marriage

M2 Woke Up This Morning

M3 With a Little Help From My Friends

M4 I Don’t Wanna Wait

These questions are abbreviated, I didn’t get them down exactly but this is the gist! We got ’em all, and #4 definitely sparked some memories for Dave, who remembers many conversations with a guy in his U of M lab who was also in love with the show (and the actors/actresses). Good thing we have him on the team, since I’ve never, ever watched the show!

13 Gaming – What video game series, which includes games subtitled Deadly Alliance, Deception and Armageddon, released its 13th main installment in 2023? Miss.

14 Anatomy – In humans, what is the term for the projection from the back-middle of the soft palate that contains a number of glands and is functional in both swallowing and speech? Picked wrong dangly throat thing, miss.

15 2024 Music – Name one of the three credited artists on the single “Like That,” which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in April 2024.

NERD POINT: Name two of three.

Miss. Where was Dave’s 16-year-old stepdaughter to help us out?

16 Language – What two-word term commonly heard when referring to high schools or colleges comes from the Latin for “nourishing mother?”

Ugh, rough round for us, only got two of these.

Final Question Game Two:

U.S. Congress – Two U.S. states have never had more than one representative in the house of Representatives at any given time. Name both of those states.

We wagered zero on this one.

That’s all I have for this recap, unsure when we’ll be back in the trivia saddle. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Tony Soprano?