Scroll all the way down to the end for the answers…

Sometimes fate has a way of bitch slapping you – yes, even on trivia nights!

Rewind a few days ago…maybe a week? A person on a longtime Corner Brewery sends me a smoke signal saying “Hey…there’s a new host at Corner, and he’s doing a great job – you should totally come back to play there!” I’m paraphrasing, I don’t think the word “totally” was used (you get the gist of it). We kind of abruptly quit playing there a few months ago for a variety of reasons, mainly because I just don’t have enough friends to fill a table there – so that we can effectively compete against the giant teams that play there every week!

Every trivia spot has its own personality – and the oversized teams at Corner are definitely a huge part of the trivia place’s personality!

All of that being said, I just sort of politely thanked the person for letting me know about the new host (his name is Ben – and he’s a former Jeopardy! champion), but playing regular games there just isn’t going to be in the stars.

Yes, I’ll confirm that this host is doing great! You can understand what he says on the mic, he played some interesting tunes (including “Tank” from the animated series Cowboy Bebop, which pleased my husband Mike immensely), and he really got the crowd going with a rousing chorus from Canada’s national anthem at one point.

Then we get a power outage at our home Wednesday night – less than an hour before a scheduled virtual game with a couple of friends who no longer live locally.

What’s a trivia junkie to do? Well, get out of the house while the power’s out – and find another trivia game!

We managed to get to Corner just in time for the final question in game one, which was:

Who is the only performer to earn an Academy Award nomination in an acting category for a role in the Star Wars film franchise?

Yes, this is one we would have known, no – we weren’t signed into the game yet.

There were no available tables when we first arrived, and were prepared for a standing room deal until I managed to find a couple of chairs that weren’t being used. A table close enough to the game action didn’t open up until the game was almost over.

So how did we do? About as well as two players playing under less than ideal conditions could be expected! The post-game recap I received from Sporcle Events gave me these details (does anyone else actually read these things after the games)? I do! 🤓

Here’s a snippet of Sporcle’s recap sent to me:

“Hello Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods, Thank you playing Pub Quiz by Sporcle last night at Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery! Your team earned 44 points, which was 15th overall at ABCMB. You ranked 242nd out of all teams in Michigan last night and 731st out of all teams nationally. This was your 153rd game at ABCMB and 851st game overall.”

Yes we have really played that many games over the past decade or so at this place! We started playing there at the very beginning – in February, 2012, as I recall, and we were weekly regulars until 2016, when I began looking at other places to wage our trivia battles (with varying degrees of success). We’ve continued to play hrere at least occasionally since then.

Don’t Forget to Strip Your Bartender wound up being venue champs for winning this end of season game, and You’re Resume Sucks were the overall champions for the season. We finished in 10th overall for the season after having played six games out of the 22 total games.

Here were our very, very abbreviated game questions (Game Two only)

1 Inventions – Ben Franklin was known for inventing what type of eyeglasses that help one see both long and short distances?

2 Medical Terms – What is the Latin word for “immediately” that is frequently used in medical emergencies?

3 Animals – What country is home to the world’s largest population of polar bears?

4 TV Settings – Wisteria Lane is the street in the fictitious town of Fairview on what series airing from 2004-2012?

Anyone else watch “Why Women Kill” on Paramount+? Same creator, probably same kind of vibe (but more streaming televisionish, so more racy stuff, nudity, violence, etc.) I never watched the show from this question, but I hear that it’s a similar vibe to the streaming series (only more tame). Sad it only lasted two seasons!

Mystery Round One

From the following list of celebrities, identify the ones mentioned by last name or full name in Madonna’s 1990 hit song “Vogue.”

Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Cary Grant, Joe DiMaggio, Ingrid Bergman

Got three of these correct.

5 Poems – In Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven,” what is the name of the woman whom he laments?

6 Movie Songs – Audio clue of Kiss Me by Sixpence None, had to identify which 1998 rom-com the song was used for (this question dedicated to Kim S. 😉 ). I’ll be she kicked herself for not playing on this night!

7 Economics – Prisoner’s Dilemma is a famous problem in which what two-word discipline that counts John Nash and John von Neumann as key figures? Glad we saved our second to the lowest points for this one, no clue, miss.

8 Superb Owls (no I’m not correcting it, this is how host Ben read the category) 🧛‍♂️ 😉 – Name one of the two teams defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in a Superb Owl. Name both for an extra point. We could name one, but not both.

Mystery Round Two – Odd One Out

Choose the items from the following four lists that do not belong with the rest.

M1 The Bachelor spin-offs – The Golden Bachelor, Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise, Bachelor Redemption

M2 Real-life people portrayed by Chadwick Boseman in film – MLK Jr, James Brown, Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall

M3 Players selcted first overall in the WNBA Draft – Caitlyn Clark, Sue Bird, Angel Reese, Diana Taurasi

M4 South Americna countries with Spanish as an official language – Guyana, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia

Killer mystery round for us. Only got #4 right. I don’t think ANY teams got #3 correct (is WNBA a test category for question writers to detect possible cheaters)? I’m sorry, I’m an awful person for even thinking this!

For #4, I remembered that cult leader Jim Jones brought his nearly 1,000 member cult to a compound in Guyana, so I figured he wouldn’t have picked a country that didn’t have an official language of English. So he could – you know – boss the locals around or whatever cult leaders do when they’re not subjegating their cult members, spending their life savings, keeping them hepped up on methamphetamines all night, impregnanting multiple women members (which is totally OK because they’re also his wives), talking wildly about end times on loudspeakers…). Sorry, did that get a bit too graphic? Oh the crazy researcoh paper topics I chose in college!

Also did you know that “Electric Avenue” singer Eddy Grant was born in what is now Guyana? That’s a more fun fact than all of that dark People’s Temple cult stuff I was just getting into in the last paragraph, isn’t it? 😂 And I didn’t even get into the whole Flavor-Aid incident (I won’t say anything more about it, pinky swear).

We were in eighth going into the final with 44 points, tied with Little Lebowski Urban Achievers. DFTSYB was in first with 53, tied with Smells like Poutine Spirit and My Type on Paypah, Smartyshorts was in second with 52, 24 Hour Brunch (see you guys Sunday at the Alehouse?) and Beers for Queers were in third with 51. Scores were tight in this game, with just one point dividing most teams.

We knew our wagering choices were not great in this game – bet it all, get it, and still not be in the prize zone – or not bet a thing, and possibly have a chance at moving up in the question is super hard and other teams wager it all and drop out? We chose the latter option.

Final Question Category – Presidential Elections

Since Abraham Lincoln’s convincing win in the 1864 presidential election, four people have won U.S. presidential elections with more than 90 percent of the votes in the Electoral College. Name any two of those presidents to accomplish this feat.

I didn’t catch the top finishers of this game, so let me consult my trusty post game recap! (Ahem) – DFTSYB, Smells like Poutine Spirit and My Type on Paypah all had 68 (guess they had a tiebreaker to settle, I didn’t catch those details).

And so another season at Corner comes to an end. I don’t have any immediate plans to play here at this point, but we may pop in from time to time!

I’ve managed to hustle three whole players for the league championship game Sunday at the YpsiAlehouse. This will be our sixty-second game at this place! We started playing there around when they opened in 2016, and played at least a few seasons. We can’t really commit to playing Sunday games these days because I have to work some Sundays, but I have this coming weekend off! Let’s hope we don’t suck on this trivia outing!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Richard Nixon!

Answers:

r1 bifocals, stat, canada, desperate housewives

1 hayworth, Davis, Dean, Dimaggio

r2

lenore, she’s all that, game theory, cowboys/green bay

m2

redemption, mlk jr, angel reese, guyana

f

nixon, lbj, reagan, fdr