Answers in the comments now…

There are a variety of reasons a person may venture out by themselves for a trivia game in a competitive scenario! One, maybe they’re a barhop player trying to just log the points – two, maybe the rest of their team ditched them for the evening, three, maybe they’re performing an experiment!

I had three objectives on a recent Tuesday evening when I went out to a game at McShane’s Pub by myself – one, try beating our most recent lowest score of the season of 45 points (failed at that by two points), two wanted to see how I did on my own (not too shabby), and three, wanted to remind myself why I really, really appreciate my teammates on trivia nights (mission accomplished)!

I hadn’t even really planned to go out for the solo game on that night at all, but it turned out that my husband didn’t feel like going out on that night, and the one other person I’d asked to join us was unavailable. So…why not?

I’ll let this AI generated image say the rest here (I think he’ll find it funny):

I wound up with 43 total points going into the final and won a second place/$20 prize!

Any questions I’m showing here are going to be very, very abbreviated versions of the ones that were asked. Check back later for the answers in the comments.

Round One

Spelling – What is the third letter in the word that represents the shortened term R&B?

Sponsorships – What underwear brand was, for years, Michael Jordan a pitchman for?

Organizations – What national organization is described in French as OTAN?

Yay, the questions haven’t killed me yet…just wait!

Round Two

Logos – What symbol appears in the logo for rogerebert dot com? I used to love the show he co-hosted with Gene Siskel called “Sneak Previews.” I still remember the whistling theme song! The best parts of the show were when they argued with each other! It’s like hockey – the best parts are the fights! The world loves a train wreck! I’ll refrain from commenting on politics here…

Dances – What Cuban dance shares its name with a percussion instrument? I picked the wrong percussion instrument – and one that sounds so, so much like it would be a dance, too (marimba). I handed this in at the very last second. But yeah, that was a big “d’oh” when the actual answer was revealed. Another miss in round two – not looking good so far! Will I have to abandon ship? No!

TV Stars – What color is the swimsuit Farah Fawcett is wearing in the iconic 1970s poster that is now in the Smithsonian until a deranged billionaire absconds with it and puts it in his man cave? Because, you know, the government is just more efficient if one has racy posters, right?

Round Three

Toys – The Spin Master company recently purchased what toy company, which was originally founded in 1988 by a married couple with the last name Bernstein, which specializes in “open play” toys? I work in a place that used to sell their products, though we haven’t gotten any more since before the pandemic. So the lowest points I could wager here (1) prevailed. I hear one other team got it correct. Damn, should have wagered higher!

Science – Who is credited with the creation of the polio vaccine?

Madonna – What mystic belief system involving bracelets among other things does Madonna espouse? Damned if I’m gonna miss a question about the Queen of Pop, damn it! Glad this word floated into my brain just in time!

Halftime – Tom Hanks Movies (UGH)!

Words to self? “Power through it…power through it….power through it!”

When given the names of actors whom have co-starred with Tom Hanks, identify the movie. Yes, that’s it. I’m not heavily abbreviating this one. No release years or anything that might have helped a bit more (diabolical indeed)! AND HE HAS BEEN IN SO MANY MOVIES! Why oh why did he stop making comedies? Oh yeah…money.

Here we go:

Michael Clarke Duncan, Tom Sizemore, Laura Linney, Alan Alda

You know it’s not gonna be good when you put the same guess for two (or more) halftime answers and vainly hope that at least one of them will be correct. So I put The Terminal for two of these, and nope, none of these were that boring movie I watched with my in-laws that one time. I got one of these correct. Why did I think it was Tim Robbins in that movie with Michael Clarke Duncan instead? Oh yeah, I must’ve been thinking of Shawshank Redemption! Teammates would have definitely checked me here!

One of my other “goals” on this solo outing was to not be in last at the half or going into the final. And amazingly enough, I wasn’t!
There were eight teams, with scores ranging from 18 to 32, with “Three” in first. Right behind them were our old Wurst Bar rivals Pants with 27 points, and I was behind them with 25 playing under the old “girls only” moniker GDX.

Round Four

Geography – Of the countries bordering Russia, which one has the longest border? My “first mate” Mike definitely, definitely would have been a huge help here! When I shared this question with him after the game, he came up with the correct answer immediately. Miss for me.

Speaking of misses…

Broadway – What is the name of the 2025 Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Alicia Keys, which also won a Grammy for best musical album? I used my “word of the day” to avoid having to answer this but still get the points. Would I wish I had this option later in the game? Yeah!

Poets – What Amherst poet wrote these words:

“Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves— 
And Immortality.”

Full disclosure, these weren’t the words from the poem given to us in the trivia game. Instead, these are words from a poem I thought was wicked cool that I read in high school! Man was she goth before her time!

Our poem given to us had something about flowers…honestly, I didn’t write it all down and my attempts to google the words that I remembered and finding it weren’t successful. Meh…

Round Five

Presidents – Which U.S. president was responsible for the appropriation of books for the first Library of Congress? Off by one, miss.

Wars – What 218 B.C. war featured Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants? I was not specific enough here, I guess there were two of these wars with the same designation? Not even sure that my world history aficionado husband would have been specific enough here either. Maybe if we had the words “be specific” in the question it would have helped? Not sure it would have helped me, though!

Rock Bands – What band had a pop hit with “One Thing” and a rock hit with “Paralyzer?” Even when the answer was revealed, I did a “who dat?” Miss.

Round Six –

Quotes – Who said “Welcome to Mrs. Bush, Mr. Bush and my fellow astronauts?” I knew there were two possibilities for the person saying something this dumb, thankfully I picked the right one!

And another question I would likely need my husband’s help with:

Civilizations – What civilization predicted disaster would occur December 21, 2012? Miss.

World Capitals – What is the capital of Mexico City? Seriously, that was our question…

I was in fourth with 43 points going into the final, tied with Dead Guys using some team name mentioning Viagra, Pants was in third with 47, Three was in second with 54 and Matty Platters was in first with 59 points. There was some heckling going on about this other team being in first instead of the one who wanted to be in first? Sometimes trivia nights get rowdy!

Our final question was in the category of:

Sports Oddities

Frank Hayes is cited in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the only known jockey, doing so in the 1923 Belmont Stakes race, to be doing so while what?

I went through two different slips here with guesses before finally deciding my guess. I tried to be “strategic” with my wager, though my “points man” was absent.

No teams got this. Cautious wagers prevailed – I wagered just enough to be one point ahead of the first place team if I were lucky enough to get it.

Game winners were Spacecats, 20; GDX, 26; Pants, 47 (zero bet, brilliant)!

We’ll be here again Thursday and we’ll be celebrating the triumphant return of…Dave! He will apparently be available for the next couple of games! The poor soul has been through quite a lot in the past month, so we’re very happy that he wants to get out again!

We’re still hoping to visit a couple of different spots soon, but that will likely have to wait until April. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Dan Quayle! I would gladly trade having a buffoonish national leader and or VP to having…this (long sigh).