Three friends – Mike, Heb and Dave – who’ve known each other since the 1990s (anyone else remember that decade) and began playing pub trivia together at a bar that recently closed that used to be called Wolverine State Brewing Company circa 2010? I think they’re rebranding into a cocktail bar called Suite 103, I don’t know all of the details…

Yeah – we all met up recently at an Ypsilanti bar called McShane’s Pub, that used to be called Roundtree when we visited there for the first time in the mid 1990s. We were apartment dewellers then, so we thought it would be excellent time management for us to have some drinks and play cards at Roundtree while washing our clothes in a laundromat a couple of doors down. We had no fear of anyone trying to jack our clothes and towels! I think the Sanaa coffee shop sits where the laundromat used to be!

While we’re on the subject of Ypsilanti’s bar history – I’ll throw out a list of former Ypsi bars – and see who remembers ’em!

The Edge, Cross Street Station, Wooden Nickel, Theo’s, TC’s Speakeasy, Buffalo Wild Wings (original location under the name BW3), Woodruff’s, Cultivate, Tower Inn, Red Rock Downtown Barbecue, Elbow Room, that one club they had on Washington by the Vu for a minute (can’t remember the name)… I know that some of you extra smart folks can name a bunch more bars that I didn’t include here!

Some of these places used to offer trivia nights (Red Rock), now offer trivia nights under different names (BW3 as YpsiAlehouse now) or became bars that were trivia spots but stopped offering trivia and later divided up their bar space to share with a pot dispensary (Theo’s, which was taken over by Wurst Bar). I know someone who watched the Holyfield/Tyson fight on Pay Per View in 1996 when it was Theo’s. We had a few successful My Trivia Live seasons at Wurst. We took way too much advantage of “Whiskey Wednesday” specials!

I’ll let y’all reminisce about all of those bars and the trivia nights until you’re ready to find out how we did in our My Trivia Live game at McShane’s – and read some abbreviated trivia questions!

We finished first with a $30 prize! Sadly we didn’t finish first for actually KNOWING the final question answer (no teams got it correct). But we are excited to report that this was the second time during this MTL season that we logged the highest score of the week (61 points)! It’s quite competitive at McShane’s – there are some great teams playing here that are not only among the top “travel” or “barhop” teams but also top dogs at the bar, and there are two nights of trivia here every week. We’ll celebrate our little victories at this spot with great competition – and very interesting players!

Here I go with the questions, answers in the comments:

Round One

Mascots – Chester Cheetah is the mascot for what Frito-Lay snack?

Communications – Including the area code but NOT the country code, how many digits are in a North American phone number?

Fun With Flags – The flag of what country is represented with the major components of caprese salad – including basil, fresh mozzarella and tomatoes?

Round Two

Same Name – Merriam-Webster defines what word as meaning a statement offered in explanation or justification – and also something that supports a conclusion or fact? This was a thinker, but I pulled it from the stinker (sorry I know that’s a bad joke)! This wasn’t the first time during this game that my brain performed a weird miracle! Maybe because Dave used to go to Catholic school and he was sitting across from me? Divine Intervention? 🤔

Europe – How many oceans border Europe?

Web Sites – What four-letter abbreviation did the home repair web site Angie’s List change its name to in 2021?

Round Three

American History – Joseph H. Rainey was the longest serving black congressman during what post Civil War period?

Sitcom Characters – What ’80s-’90s sitcom chartered at Gary’s Shoes and Accessories for Today’s Woman?

Did any other guys do their best impressions of this character in some fashion after getting this question? Like putting a hand down the pants – or dramatic bathroom exit? No? Just us (the first thing) 😂

European Cities – Grenoble is a city in what European country? Dave and Mike looked at me really funny here when I said that I knew this – “Dudes, they had an Olympics here! Trust me!”

Halftime – Volcanoes

Identify the countries where you’d find the following volcanoes:

1 Mauna Loa

2 Mt. Kilimanjaro

3 Popacatépetl

4 Semeru

Missed #2, as did many other teams who were probably torn between the same two answers that we were! Thanks Mike for not believing me on #4 (you the volcano man)!

We were tied for first with 33 points with Caesar Salad, with Turtle behind us with 30, and Spacecats behind them with 28.

Round Four

Explorers – What did Leif Ericsson originally call America? Miss, this time it wasn’t my mistake! I’m famous for thinking the right explorer is Magellan when it isn’t – and vice versa.

Music Definitions – A 2013 song by Vance Joy shares its name with what word describing a strong usually narrow flow of water offshore?

For those who’ve never heard of Vance Joy who might prefer an older music reference here, this name was also the name of the eighth studio album by an English singer in 1985. Also an ’80s TV series airing on NBC for three seasons from 1984-1986.Thankfully Dave came up with the right guess based on the clues actually given to us, or we’d drown!

SNL – Who was the first person to serve both as musical guest and host of Saturday Night Live? Miss. We didn’t go back far enough.

Round Five

Olympic Records – Who broke a world record for the long jump in 1968 by jumping 29 feet 2.5 inches? Miss.

Organizations – What children’s literacy organization was founded in 1966 and is known by what three-letter acronym? I remembered this from elementary school…

Quotes – in 2016, what late billionaire and chairman of BP Capital said (I’m paraphrasing here didn’t jot down quote in Its entirety and I couldn’t find it online) “The oil industry is dead in the water unless oil prices rise?” We used our word of the day to give us six free points here since we had no clue…

Round Six

Emperors – What Mughal Emperor commissioned the building of the Taj Mahal? I usually don’t like handing in answers that aren’t spelled 100 percent correct. But I only had the sound of this guy’s name in my head, so we spelled it the way it sounded in my head and somehow…we got the points!

Mountains – What mountain located in Turkey is supposedly the resting place of Noah’s Ark?

Brands – Aquafina, Dasani and Fiji are all brands of what bottled beverage?

We held onto our lead and were in first heading into the final with 61 points. Caesar Salad (I think their whole name was any Salad can be a Caesar Salad if you stab it hard enough) was right behind us with 59, Turtle was in third with 56, Spacecats in fourth with 54. Three teams were tied for fifth with 52 – Lab Rats, Nope and Crazy; Dead Guys had 51 and Ypsi Starlings had 49.

Final Category

What did MuchMusic USA, launched in 1994, change its name to after a re-launch in 2003, using the anti-MTV slogan “Where the Music Went,” with its focus later shifting away from music after being acquired in 2014?

I hope this is a reasonable facsimile of this question, I didn’t write it down word for word, but I used the Internet to help fill in the blanks.

For the second trivia game played this week by us, no teams got it right. This time we wagered zero and crossed our fingers…

Second prize win of the week – first place! This sort of makes up for all of the times we’ve gone weeks without winning any trivia prizes (like those seven weeks at the YpsiAlehouse in 2024)! We’ll take what we can get!

We’ll wrap up our “March Madness” trivial pursuits next week – and may possibly be back here the last week of the MTL season.

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, T Boone Pickens! Sorry we thought your name sounded like a music artist when it was read on the mic!