Scroll to the bottom for the answers…

If I had to send an e-mail to an eccentric deranged billionaire justifying my job?

Well, if my “job” were going out and attempting to win prizes in local trivia games, that list would be super sad – look something like this:

• Played five different live trivia games at two different places over past month
• Got all questions correct in a Black History Month mystery round and a World Cup mystery round
• Got all questions correct in a halftime round about the moons of Jupiter
• Uh…we had a clever team name that one time referencing the Netflix series “Squid Game?”
• We won a $30/first place prize and were the only team knowing a final question answer about Las Vegas performers?

Yeah, if winning trivia prizes over the month of February was my job, I might want to think about looking for another job if the eccentric billionaire’s AI generator thingie didn’t like what I wrote! Or…something like that?

We tend to be hot and cold as a trivia team lately, we were on a bit of a hot streak throughout December and part of January, but we knew it would eventually come to an unceremonious end. We’ve been playing pub trivia games long enough to have the strong stomachs to ride out these slumps – and as Taylor Swift might say…

“Shake it off!” Though I still think that should be advice she gives out in a men’s restroom! Curse my overly literal mind…

As for our most recent game at McShane’s, it was the opposite of how we did last week at the Corner Brewery – where we were in the top 2-3 teams going into the final questions and missed BOTH of them. This time, we were second to last going into the final with 45 points (technically not a record low for us), and were the only team getting the final question correct!

But would that be enough to impress the eccentric deranged billionaire?

Meh, who gives a f—! We’ll take those trivia prizes and celebrate those little victories whenever we can get ’em!

We had three players on this trivia night – me, my trusty trivia partner slash husband Mike – and Kim S., who generously agreed to help us out on this relatively balmy (for February in MI) night. I only needed to wear my shacket on this night, not my winter coat!

Here were our very abbreviated questions:

Round One

Take a Trip – Pop up, fifth wheel and teardrop are all types of what items used for recreation?

France – As part of plans to ease crowding, what Paris art museum plans to build extra exhibition space to accommodate the Mona Lisa?

Isms – What 10-letter word describes the presenting of works or ideas of other people as your own?

Got all of these.

Round Two

American Poetry – What American poem and song’s third stanza describes the “havoc of war” and the “battle’s confusion?”

Miss, we guessed Battle Hymn of the Republic. Seriously – how many of us actually know – and can recite from memory – any part of the correct poem besides the first stanza (which we had to memorize for U.S. history class for a test grade)? Well, not us, apparently!
Now for some MORE questions about stuff that we didn’t know! You might not want to read on, it’s going to be tragic. A “Greek” tragedy, on par with Mamma Mia 2. You may be asking – “How awful was Mamma Mia 2?” Well, both my mother-in-law – and mother – hated it! I didn’t like it either, though I was mildly entertained seeing the cameo appearances by both of the ABBA guys (Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus).

Where was I? Oh yeah, trivia questions!

Hotels – What hyphenated luxury hotel chain is owned by Marriott and is referenced in a 1920s song by Irving Berlin?

Boo, our guess isn’t even hyphenated, and we totally thought it was (damn Mandela effect)! Miss. Clearly we are not up on our roaring ’20s hit songs! Or properties owned by Marriott. Shame on us! Make us stay in a seedy Motel 6 as punishment!

Same Name – What is the shared name of all actors working on a project – and an item used in the healing of broken bones?

Yay points in round two for us!

Round Three

Musicals – Costing more than a dime, what word describes a specific type of musical, including All Shook Up, Mamma Mia! and Rock of Ages? Watching these costs WAY more than a dime if you’re watching on Broadway! I just randomly searched for Broadway tickets – and an orchestra row seat for MJ the Musical is $934! That is a lot of dimes!

Food – What word describes a type of bread made with more than just the basic four ingredients – flour, water, yeast and salt?

Only one team managed to get this correct, and our host threw it out and gave us this replacement question:

World Capitals – Nairobi is the largest city and capital of what African country?

Presidents – What president, born in 1884, is the most recent to have served as president without having a college degree?

We got all of these correct, it was starting to look like our game might not be so tragic after all! What would Wednesday Addams have to say?

Our halftime category was…”Moonstruck.”

Our task was to name all four of Jupiter’s largest moons. Well, specifically, this was Mike’s job (and he did it very, very well, I’ll make sure to make a note of that in my report to the eccentric billionaire asking me to justify my job)!

Yay 10 points! That is roughly a quarter of the points that we’ll get for the whole game (SPOILER)! Sigh, there were not quite enough “words of the day” to save our asses in the second half of this game!

Moving on?

Round Four

Harry Potter – Which of Harry Potter’s father figures, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, advised him to judge a man based on how he treated his inferiors – rather than his equals?

We picked the father figure whose original actor in the HP franchise sang MacArthur Park, not the correct actor who played Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. To be fair – Harry Potter DID have a lot of father figures, didn’t he? Hagrid, that one-eyed guy, Dobby, Gandalf, Obi-Wan Kenobi, George Michael… Yes I know I’m being silly! Perhaps to shield myself from the tragic events unfolding in this game?

Anatomy – What part connects the jejunum to the large intestine? Miss.

Artist Aliases – Christopher Comstock is better known by what “squishy” nickname? We used our “word of the day” option to avoid having to answer this. Sadly this was our last opportunity to avoid having to answer questions we would not have known answers for!

Hey…you don’t have to continue reading even though this story will have a happy ending!

Round Five

New Sports – What sports league made its debut in the Sofi sports facility in California in 2025? Footage of this “sport” was actually airing during this game! I wonder how many teams capitalized on this freebie? Not us! It just wasn’t in our script to do anything this smart in this game!

Streaming Sequels – What Netflix series will drop its third season in June, 2025? The events of the second season take place four years after season 1. Miss. Don’t get me started on misleading titles of things!

Toys – What toy, named Toy of the Year in 1967, was designed by Denys Fisher and combines art and mathematics? Miss.

Round Six

American Languages – Birchbark Books published a phrasebook for what Great Plains dialect in the Algonquin family? Me: “What was that language the natives spoke in Dances with Wolves? Sadly that question didn’t help us get the right answer, miss…

Superhero Movies – Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn will star in First Steps, which will be the newest entry in the Marvel franchise involving which group? Do they think that the third time will be the charm with this “group?” Seriously – when will they give up on making movies about this superhero group – and just give us a good Ghostrider movie, damn it!

Yes we missed this…

Traditions – Christmas dot com suggests that a naughty child might find what in their stocking? Yay, one of only two questions we got correct in the second half (the other one we only got correct because we used our “word of the day” option).

We were in sixth out of seven teams going into the final with 45 points, Random Guessers had 55, Pants Team had 58; ??? had 63, Spacecats had 64, and 3 had 71 points.

Our final category:

Las Vegas.

Final Question:

Debuting at the New Frontier casino in Las Vegas in 1944, and eventually playing an extended gig at the Riviera in the 1950s, who is considered the first performance artist to have Las Vegas residency?

My Trivia Live lets players decide their final question wagers AFTER they hear the question. This gives the players a chance to…read the room. Are players handing in their slips right away en masse? This means the question was probably easy and teams wagered high. In this case, NOBODY was rushing up to hand in their slips.

This was a tough one! We debated our answer quite a bit. We actually talked about a couple of different possibilities, then I mentioned a guy who hadn’t been mentioned before. And since time was running out and our game was total shite anyway, we shrugged our shoulders and went with our answer.

We did not expect to be the ONLY team to get it correct! After eight consecutive misses in the second half of this game?

We finished first with $30, Spacecats got second/$20 and whichever team had 55 points going into the final got third (I didn’t write down every team name).

We’ll thank the trivia gods for being kind to us on this night!

We’ll be back at McShane’s next week, unsure which night, that is TBD. I have to work Wednesday, so a Corner Brewery game is not possible, can’t be there early enough to babysit a table for an hour (LOL). Our trivial “road adventures” and vain attempts to win prizes continue!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy….(drum roll)…Liberace!

r1

camper, louvre, plagiarism

r2

star spangled banner, ritz-carlton, cast

r3

jukebox, enriched/kenya, harry truman

h

io, europa, ganymede, callisto

r4

sirius black, ileum, marshmallow

r5 tomorrow golf league, squid game, spirograph

r6

cree, fantastic 4, coal

f liberace