Clearly this was one of those trivia games that could have gone either way! But by some strange magicks, it actually went our way!

The competition was fierce to be sure. The two top teams were a one-man operation – and ours – was also a one-man operation with a woman added! All three players have or represent trivia teams who’ve competed against each other too many times to count for the past decade (and change). Whether the competition is one-on-one, team against team, one player against an entire team – duo against duo…we’ve done it all! Every trivia team out there has “that” team to beat, and clearly both of these teams knew exactly which team they wanted to beat on this sultry late summer evening!

It all boiled down to a tiebreaker question for the top prize – and even in the tiebreaker the guesses were SO close – just TWO years apart in our guesses as to what year singer Harry Nilsson was born (but more about that in a bit).

As for me, trivia just isn’t any fun unless it gets a bit competitive! When you have the word “fighting” in your team name (Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods), fighting for trivia victories is par for the course!

It was definitely a nail biter! Our two teams were tied at the half – and also were tied going into the final. I thought for SURE that we’d be overtaken in the second half, when we got decimated by questions about purple helmeted warriors (JK – I’ll explain that more in a bit) and rivers.

Thanks to the recent presidential debates, a common theme for trivia team names involved Springfield, Ohio; cats, dogs, etc. Our own team name for the evening was “Haitians ate my pet octopus.” Our opponent used the team name “Furries invited to Haitian barbecue.” I’m unsure whether by “furries” he meant that class of people who decide to don animal costumes for social and kinky purposes – or was just a generic term for furry animals (we didn’t ask). But I do hope that he meant actual furries because they just…weird me out. Not that I think they deserve to be barbecued or anything but…I mean…LOOK at them! They’re just…just…unwholesome 🙂

This marked the first time we’d played a regular season trivia game at McShane’s Pub since July, 2021. It’s never been anything but an occasional trivia spot for us, though we do love the chance to have lunch there from time to time!

Here were our questions, which will be heavily abbreviated:

Round One

Public TV – What color is Big Bird on “Sesame Street?”

Sports – FIFA is the governing body of what sport in the United States?

Calendar – How man months of the year end in the letter “Y?”

Round Two

Psychology – What two-word phrase with a Swedish city named describes the feelings of a captive sympathizing with his or her captor?

1980s Movies – In what title movie role is Arnold Schwarzenegger on the hunt for Sarah Connor?
Actresses – What actresses promoted the Thigh Master exercise equipment in the early 1990s?

Round Three

Phrases – What phrases involving a clothing and weapon combo references activities such as spying?

Novelty Pets – Originally called “Instant Life,” what novelty pets did John Glenn take into space on the space shuttle Discovery?

Words – What five letter word describes a broom or a kitchen implement used for mixing and sauces? My mother is a big fan of this kitchen gadget, so much so I bought her an ergonomic handled one for Christmas from Williams and Sonoma years ago (only the best for my mom)!

Halftime – Musical Numbers

Given the artist and release year, identify the song title that includes a number (numbers do not repeat and can only be used once).

H1, U2, 1992

H2 Paul Simon, 1975

H3 Bob Marley, 1980

H4 Olivia Rodrigo, 2021

Missed #4. We were tied for first with Furries invited to Haitian Barbecue with 33 points.

Round Four

Trees/Teachers – What tree from the genus Malus shares its name with the last name of Bart Simpson’s fourth grade teacher?

Model Citizens – What former secretary of state referenced her time with the Barbizon modeling and acting school in her autobiography? We discussed three different lady SOSs, thankfully picked the right one (we argued that she was the best looking of the three, as crass as that makes us).

Architecture – How many different orders are used in ancient Greek architecture? My nerdy husband was not only all over this, but could name all three (gotta love him)! I love when he knows obscure stuff that would stump me!

Round Five

Cities – What port city on the east coast of the U.S. is the northernmost point on the deepwater Hudson River channel? We used our “get out of jail” word of the day to avoid having to answer this…

Sports – What was the nickname given to the defensive line of the Minnesota Vikings from 1967-1977? We knew our longtime trivia buddy Brad – who was not present at the game – would know this! We put down “Gods of Thunder” as our guess, even though we did joke that “Purple Helmeted Warriors” would be way funnier! Why oh why did they not ask about the nickname given to the Philadelphia Flyers during their 1976 season? I would have known that! Sure, that’s only because of the Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episode “The Devil and Homer Simpson,” but really…it doesn’t matter how you know an answer in a trivia game – as long as you know it (without cheating of course).

Sitcoms – What long-running sitcom has titles that always begin with the words “The One?” I was just talking about how even if you never watched more than an episode or two of this show on purpose (like me), the show just kind of seeped into your pop culture consciousness anyway because it was THAT popular. Whereas other shows – like Breaking Bad, for example – you either really knew a lot about them, or you couldn’t give more than a two sentence synopsis or so – you know – blue crystal, meth science teacher, cancer, drugs…

And why didn’t this series that we had to answer about in this particular game have an episode called “The one where they all have an orgy?” Ratings would be through the ROOF! 🙂

Round Six

Rivers – The longest river in Eurasia, what is the third longest river in the world? I leaned on Mike for this answer since he is more knowledgeable about rivers and bodies of water and maps and stuff, but…miss. He said the wording was confusing. These things happen…

Animals – What type of animals are part of the Vulpini species?

Medicine – If you get a rhinoplasty, what part of the body are you getting worked on?

The top two teams both had 65 points going into the final. Great, our opponents screwed up the same number of points in round two as we did!

Now which team would get the final question right? I would NOT have bet on us getting the final question right! We’re famously bad for not getting MTL final questions correct!

I attempted to give my husband/trivia partner a pep talk – saying various words that have been parts of questions he has helped our team get correct over the years:

“Aardwolf, astrolabe, lodestone, Aragon…”

Here was our final question in the category of Mascots:

FIrst conceived in 1954, what brand mascot was the subject of two video games in 1983 and Marvel and Archie comics where he fought villains known as “Thirsties?”

I don’t know if my lame attempt at pep talking actually worked or if this was just in his wheelhouse (yeah probably he is a bit of a comics nerd) – but he said he thought he knew this. We knew that being tied with one other team that I KNEW would not bet zero on this – that we HAD to wager all of our points on this!

And whew…we got it correct! And so did “they,” so…

Tiebreaker time!

MTL doesn’t do digital answering of questions, so no phones. One person from each team went up to the front window area of McShane’s and we had to answer this:

In what year was singer Harry Nilsson born?

I started writing down my guess right away, but my husband said “No, (trivia host Stacy) is going to play a song as a hint.” I said “Uh, I have a vague idea who this guy is anyway.” After hearing the song I didn’t change my answer – which was EXACTLY right!

Yeah, I can’t believe my luck! My opponent’s guess was only two years too early. I can’t recall a more evenly matched trivia game in recent memory, hats off to a truly worthy adversary! Maybe you’ll win the next trivia “gunfight!”

Unsure when we can get back in the trivia saddle again, it’s been a play by ear thing for us as of late.

Well, that’s all I have for now. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Olivia Rodrigo (whomever you are)!