Now THAT trivia game we played a couple of days ago at McShane’s was way too spicy for the pepper!

You’ll see what I mean if you read on to that halftime round… Two of us went out for an almost end of the work week trivia bout and we were roughed up a bit by the question set, though some of the roughing up was completely our fault. We forgot all about a famous actor who died in September, though in our defense, we didn’t know that he had been a stutterer (which one of the clues in the question).

I’ve always thought that stuttering – when used as a comedic element in movies – is sort of cringey -and not at all funny. Sorry, but I don’t think speech impediments are funny! However – in the case of the movie A Fish Called Wanda – there are plenty of other funny things about the movie to make up for the scenes where actor (and former Monty Python regular) Michael Palin plays a man who stutters. Ditto for My Cousin Vinny, I’ll forgive the movie for having that scene with the public defender who stutters! Below is a photo from MCV not involving stuttering!

In the case of the actor they asked about who stuttered, well, I guess he got over that little speech problem with a little help from the Dark Side of the Force!

I’ve read that most stutterers tend to be male, and that it is sometimes overcome by…singing!

We did manage to get the final question correct, but we were too far down in the rankings to be able to take any prizes, finishing with 56 points before our final wager.

Here were our very, very abbreviated questions:

Round One

Driving – What shape is a typical yield sign?

Science Fairs – Mixing vinegar with what white powder helps kids simulate a volcano?

It’s all Relative – Children of divorced parents are what to the divorced parents children?

Round Two

Shades – Cyan, azure and cobalt are all shades of what primary color?

Snacks – Frito Lay’s “Stacks” potato crisps were meant to compete with what other potato crisp product made by Proctor and Gamble which launched in 1967?

Adaptations – Fire and Blood by what author provides most of the plot of House of the Dragon?

Round Three

Obituaries – What Hollywood legend described as a “Stuttering farm child” in his New York Times obituary in September, 2024 was also described as having a “voice of rolling thunder?” After we flubbed this, I remember news about this being all over my Facebook news feed, but honestly, I was so busy with work during the month of September that some of the current events are a total blur now! I should be strangled by someone from across the room for this mistake! 🙂

Percentages – What is 22 percent of 880?

Presidential Pastimes – What sporting structure was built near the West Wing of the White House in 1902 then moved to the west side of the South Lawn in 1909? The word “volley” was also used in the question which was a huge clue…

Halftime – Potpourri of Peppers

Given the names of five different peppers, put them in order in terms of Scoville (heat) rankings, from mildest to the most spicy. One of the peppers will be eliminated.

H1 Mild Hot – 2,000-50,000

H2 Spicy Hot – 100,000-250,000

H3 Very Hot – 250,000-500,000

H4 Fiery Hot – 1,000,000 to 15,000,000

Peppers – Carolina Reaper, Cayenne, Habanero Lemon, Naga Viper, Orange Scotch Bonnet

We got one of these correct. We were at the bottom of scores at halftime with 26, with the leaders having 33 points (I really don’t know all of the teams and didn’t write them down).

Round Four

Actresses – What Latina actress stars in both the Wednesday Netflix series and the recent film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?

Split Cities – The International Bridge spans between what two cities sharing the same name?

Keys – What key appears on both the left and the rights of the space bar on a typical ANSI keyboard? I know how to type, so I don’t have to look at the keyboard to see where the keys are! Miss.

Round Five

Organizations – What organization’s emblem looks like this?

Sorry, I was too lazy to try to recreate this question with words!

Cover Songs – What alt rock band known for “Move Along” covered Britney Spears’ 2008 song “Womanizer?” Miss, never heard of them – but the younger crowd playing on this night got all giddy for this question! We had to use our “word of the day” to avoid having to answer this.

Mulligans – For what reason did Tonya Harding get a redo from the judges at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer?

Round Six

Creation Myths – What archipelago was formed, according to mythology, by the sibling gods Izanagi and Izanami?

Same Name – What “J” word refers to both the London Underground and a character affiliated with Marvel’s “X Men?” Miss. It’s rare when we miss a comic question, we incorrectly guessed “Juggernaut.” Clearly we don’t know enough about public transportation in London, we need to get that sorted lest we flub another question at the pub!

Companies – What does GM stand for regarding names of car companies? A big fat “duh” question to wrap up this regular round!

We moved up a little bit since the half and were in fifth out of eight total teams (including a few two and three-way ties) with 56 points. Including all of the ties, there were seven teams ahead of us, so we knew that even if we got this right, our chances weren’t great!

Our final category was “inventions:”

Regulated by the Atomic Energy Commission, what safety device created in 1963 and allowed for home use in 1969 was accidentally invented by a Swiss inventor trying to invent a device for sensing poison gases?

Got this. We weren’t able to stick around for the tiebreaker so we don’t know how this ended.

Unsure what our trivia plans are for the next couple of weeks, I’ll be pretty busy with work!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Darth Vader!