If you asked me to talk about this semifinal game five years ago – in the days before the global pandemic – I would be in a very different mental state than I was on a recent cold, windy winter afternoon when I met a couple of friends for a semifinal game…

And I pretty much destroyed our chances for advancing to finals singlehandedly. Yep!

But now that the global pandemic is in in the rear view? Honestly, I can’t be fucked to care about putting down 1917 as an answer instead of Dunkirk – or being one day off when answering a question about the “Day of Infamy” speech!

Truth be told, a few things made me NOT excited about the prospect of advancing to finals this time, One, the starting time has been moved an hour earlier, two – the West Bloomfield location (a long drive) and three – I’ve been so busy at work lately that having a Saturday off without obligations makes me feel like a kid having a snow day!

All of that being said, I’m still really grateful that we had at least a CHANCE to try advancing – or as it actually happened – fuck things up!

As my longtime dear friend Dave joked, “Hey it was really fun being dumb with you all today!”

Had we not blown eight points on those two questions in the first half – and missed one of the halftime questions, we might have been in a better position to endure what was arguably the roughest set of questions we’ve ever encountered in…

That second half though! Whew…I think my brain is still a little bruised!

And we might have been able to advance to the finals if we hadn’t zigged instead of zagged! Ah, coulda, woulda shoulda! Our record is typically only being able to advance to MTL finals on every other try anyway, so we have not disrupted the natural order of things!

We played our semifinals game at Dunleavy’s in Allen Park, which had a festive holiday display near the entrance:

The teams from our bar advancing to finals were Inconceivable, Sweep the Leg, The Dicks and Janes, and Lt. Dan’s Leg. Special shout out to Lt. Dan’s Leg for coming back from last to first after wagering it all and getting the final question correct! The Dicks and Janes also got it correct, but wagered more conservatively, no other teams got the final question correct.

Here were our questions, which will be heavily abbreviated:

Round One

Hip-Hop – Complete the Notorious BIG lyrics – “The more money we come across, the more (BLANK) we see?”

Same Name – What dog breed shares its name with the descriptive word used by the Gap for boy’s plus sized clothing?

Coffee in Art – What does “lait” mean in the name of the Camille Pissarro painting “Cafe au lait?” Starbucks 101 knowledge lol…

Round Two

Football – What two NFL teams traditionally play their home games on Thanksgiving?

I’ll explain the following image in a bit!

TV Messages – After not being able to watch new episodes of what 1970s series did actor Peter Falk record a message for the people of Romania assuring them that they would be able to watch the show? Did anyone else think of the show Futurama when we had this question? That episode where the Omicronians were upset about not being able to see the last episode of Ally McBeal (dubbed “Single Female Lawyer” on Futurama) – so that the cast of the show had to recreate it for them since the original episode was destroyed by Fry?

Speeches – On what day, date and year did Franklin Roosevelt deliver his “Day of Infamy” speech to Congress? Miss for one, off by one day.

Round Three

Initialisms – The initials UAP are used instead of what other three initials by the Pentagon to describe the same thing?

Animal Theories – What crustacean is named in a theory about the mentality of people attempting to gain favorable advantage over others despite it having no effect on people trying to stop them? We flip flopped between two crustacean cousins, picked the right one – which would be the last thing going right for us in this shit show of a game! 🙂

Speaking of shit show…

Film Debuts – Harry Styles made his film acting debut in what historical war drama film? Picked wrong historical war drama film, miss for FIVE. If you’re easily triggered and like happy endings, then you should have stopped reading after that crustacean question (don’t say I didn’t warn ya)!

Halftime – When given a title of a best selling book and the publication year, identify the author.

H1 – 1991, Delores Claiborne

H2 – 1998, Street Lawyer

H3 – 2015, Go Set a Watchmen

H4 – 2022, It Ends With Us

Good team work here, special thanks to Kim S. for knowing #4! We could not come up with a correct guess for #3.

We were tied for fourth with one other team with 27 points going into the final, with Sweep the Leg in the lead with 33 points.

Round Four

Slogans – What international company has used the slogan “It’s a great way to meet the Irish?” Miss.

Islands – What is the full name of the California island known as Catalina? I think this one of only a couple of correct guesses in this half (thanks Dave)!

TV Shows – According to a star of this show, ethics professors were frequently used on the set of what series to assure that what they were talking about on the show was correct? Miss, though we did hear a cheer from a team sitting next to us, so maybe they knew it? If so, “good” on you guys!

Round Five

Famous Names – According to early interviews, Meryl Streep’s agents wanted to change her name to what – which involved minor tweaks to the name she would ultimately continue to use as an actor throughout her career? Miss, though we guessed the correct last name.

Legal Latin – What Latin phrase translates to “body of the crime?” Miss.

Science! – What is typically stored in a leyden jar? If you jokingly guessed “brain,” you would not be correct, but the real answer is equally mad scientist-y! Miss.

Round Six

Country Music – Billy Gillman had his only top 20 hit at 12 years of age in 2000 with what song? Nope.

Michigan Monopoly – In the latest version of Michigan Monopoly released in the fall of 2024, what Michigan location is in the Boardwalk position? Miss.

Cars – The name of what Italian luxury car uses the words representing A and R in the NATO phonetic alphabet?

We had 37 points going into the final which is a record low for us in a MTL game – even a tournament caliber game! Glad we weren’t playing around a lot of teams who knew who we were! From what I heard from another hose though, other teams had a hard time in the second half too. What better way to “earn” your spot to a championship than trial by fire?

Our final category – Plays

What three-act play is the most notable play by playwright Tom Taylor born in Northeast England in 1817?

Two teams at our bar managed to get this correct, ours was not one of them!

Trivia games go on, right? We’ll see how we do in a Sporcle Events Globe Game today with a new player in our mix! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, John Wilkes Booth!