Scroll to the bottom for the answers…

If we had to steal an opening line from a Dickens novel to describe our recent trivia game at Ypsilanti’s YpsiAlehouse, A Tale of Two Cities‘ opening line would work!

(Clears throat): “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

It was the best as in us winning two first place prizes (which is an extremely rare feat for our team), but as for our low, low score going into the final for game two?

Yeah, that’s where the “worst of times” line comes into play! We were in dead last out of seven teams with 25 points going into the final, but by a phenomenal stroke of luck, we had a very, very nerdy final question that we managed to get correct – and all other teams missed. Now that is also a rare occurrence for our team (in this case we had a two-person team battling the questions).

Game One/Round One

1 Brands – What brand of paper products is a trademark of Kimberly-Clark, although its name is commonly used as a generic trademark in reference to facial tissue?

2 MLB Records – Who holds the record for most games played in an MLB career with 3,562 games?

3 Europe – What is the only European country that borders both France and Slovenia?

4 Toys – What brand of metal toy construction pieces introduced in 1913 includes parts named girders, base plates and perforated strips?

Mystery Round One

F in Geography – The correct answer to each clue is a city whose names begins with F.

M1 City whose airport is the primary hub for Lufthansa

M2 Sixth-most populous city in North Carolina or the second-most populous city in Arkansas

M3 Iraqi city known as the “city of mosques” that has been the site of several major military engagements in the 21st century

M4 City home to the Ponte Vecchio stone arch bridge and Uffizi Gallery

Missed #3.

Round Two

5 Presidents – Name one of the two 19th century U.S. presidents who were in office for less than a year.

NERD POINT: Name both.

6 Prisons – What maximum-security prison was officially known as Ossining Correctional Facility from 1970-1985?

7 1980s TV – Among actress Diahann Carroll’s many TV roles was as a singer and businesswoman named Dominique Deveraux on what series that debuted in 1981? My reaction to this question was “Holy f– they are asking about (this show) and NOT Dallas!”

8 Social Media – What does #tbt stand for when posting an old photo on social media toward the end of the week?

Mystery Round Two

Boxing Weight Classes in Order

Place the following weight classes from boxing in order from heaviest to lightest – welterweight, bantamweight, middleweight, lightweight

Got all of these.

We were in first with 51 points going into the final, just two points ahead of Out of Our Street Smarts, whom were the champions at their Globe Game at The Bowery last December (congratulations to them)! I remembered reading that they had won it all at that game, but was reminded of that when I saw that they had their trophy in tow at the game. Hey if we had to pick a good team to beat on that night, I guess we had to pick the best, huh?

Sorry was that a spoiler? Pretend you didn’t read that!

Isla’s College Fund was behind them with 44, 24-Hour Brunch had 43 points, titanic Swim Club had 41, Flancrest Enterprises had 27, and Sisters We’re Close had 16

Final Category – 1980s Hits

In the decade of the 1980s, Simply Red and Mike and the Mechanics each had #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with songs ending in what word?

These were the only songs with this word in their titles to reach # 1 in the decade, and they first topped the chart in 1986 and 1989, respectively.

Three teams wagered and got this correct, so we managed to stay on top with 66 points, with Out of our Street Smarts finishing second with 64 points.

Game Two/Round Three

9 Books – In the novel Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, what is Peter searching for when he unintentionally awakens Wendy Darling? Miss, we put in Tinkerbell as our guess.

10 U.S. Geography – Which U.S. state has a region called the “Bootheel,” which primarily includes the counties of Dunklin, New Madrid and Pemiscot? Miss.

11 College Sports – What athletic conference was created in 2013 following the breakup of the Big East Conference, alongside a “new” Big East? Miss.

12 Insects – What are the three main body sections of an insect? Yay a third grade science querstion for the points! We’ll take ’em!

Mystery Round Three

“New” Video Games

Name the video game franchise based on the title or subtitle that includes the word “new,” the year the game was released, and the console for which it was made.

M1 New Horizons (2020 – Nintendo Switch)

M2 – New Vegas (2020- Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows)

M3 New (blank) Snap (2021- Nintendo Switch)

M4 The New Order – (2014 – PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 Xbox One and MS Windows)

Miss, miss, miss and….miss.

Round Four

13 Stocks – Since July 2021, what restaurant chain has traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol DNUT after once again becoming a publicly traded company?

14 Cover Songs – In 2005, the Scissor Sisters were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the song “Comfortably Numb,” originally released by what band?

NERD POINT – The original version of the song was released on what album?
Points and point. Boy did we need ’em at this “point!”

15 TV Characters – What was the first name of the character played by Sarah Gilbert on Roseanne? All I could initially think was “not Becky,” but my brain didn’t disappoint…

16 Words – What word is derived from the Greek word for “fire” and the Latin word for madness?

Mystery Round Four

We got #4 correct. No others!

24 Hour Brunch was in first with 49 points, with Titanic Swim Club in second with 47 points. Clearly the teams possessing the best sports and video game knowledge were dominant in this game! We were at the bottom in seventh with 25 points (probably close to a record low for us). But we had good attitudes about it considering how well we’ve been doing in games lately (we know it all has to come to an end sometime)!

Final Category – Special Effects TV

What TV series that originally aired from 1995-2001 has more nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects than any other show with nine?

Both of us have watched the correct series before and both came up with it as our guess right away, But since we’re the Pods, we proceeded to do our damndest to talk ourselves out of the right answer. “Are you sure it isn’t (blank)?” And this: “Are we sure it was released in this year?”

Yup, winning the game was NOT what we expected, let alone being the only team getting it right!

Seriously, it really seems like the trivia universe is off kilter somehow with us having all of these great games.

We have another trivia game planned later in the week. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, David Gilmour! Your guitar solo in Comfortably Numb is among the best!

r1/g1

kleenex, pete rose, italy, erector

m1 frankfort, fayetteville, fellugia (sp?), florence

r1 WH Harrison/Garfield, sing sing, dynasty, throwback thursday

m2 middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, bantamweight

f years

Game 2/r3

shadow, missouri, AAC, head/abdomen/thorax

m3

animal crossing, fallout, new pokemon snap, wolfenstein

r4

krispy kreme, pink floyd/the wall, darlene, pyromania

m4 north stars, padres, atlanta hawks, broncos

f star trek voyager