Scroll down to the end for the answers.

Not exactly a notable trivia game “for the books” in any way, yet there we were – the three of us – Heb, Mike and Dave – battling a strange, strange battery of trivia questions on a mild summer evening.

How mild was it? I got to wear an actual T-shirt instead of a tank top!

Maybe the T-shirt that I wore helped inspire the name we chose to use for our team name that game! When host Stacy read it on the mic, it elicited laughs from at least one team in the room. It was a team with lots of players – so it was a bit LOUD for a second there!

What was our name for the game?

“Hentai Appreciation Society.”🐙🦑 📽️

If you already know what Hentai is, that’s great! Because it’s definitely something that you should NOT do an Internet search for!

Hey…I see what you’re doing – you’re searching for “Hentai,” aren’t you? Tsk, tsk…all right, all right..just don’t do an image search! And can you not use the “dark web?” And whatever you do…don’t use the word “schoolgirl” in your search terms! Or “Legend of the Overfiend.”

One of the players from the Ypsi Starlings Rugby team just HAD to find out which team in the room was using this name! I just happened to be wearing one of my favorite T-shirts – which my niece gave to me several years ago as   Christmas present. So it didn’t take her long to figure it out once she saw me!

Maybe we should have just stayed home watching Hentai rather than attempting to answer the rough, rough questions in this game!

We’ve already watched the two octopus documentaries floating around in streaming TV land, the one narrated by Phoebe Waller-Bridge – and the other narrated by Ryan Reynolds. Who knew that actor Tracy Morgan was such an octophile? Could he be into…Hentai? 🤔🐙

Before you ask, we watched “My Octopus Teacher” years ago (what a tearjerker).  I guess you could call those “tame” versions of Hentai! 😂

You could try arguing that The Shape of Water is a Hentai film that won best picture, but…that Swamp Thing monster in the movie didn’t have any tentacles. Or DID it? Maybe only Guillermo del Toro knows for sure!

Only one team managed to get the final question correct, all others succeeded by doing the “zero wager” thing. Wagering zero would not have helped us unless we finished in the top three. Which we…didn’t. No prizes for us this time. Though we did have a lot of laughs in this game (and we’re glad we could make some other players laugh too…we like to bring the funny when we can)! 😂

If you all aren’t too busy searching for Hentai and schoolgirl Hentai on the Internet (shame on you), how about reading some super abbreviated trivia questions?

Round One

Backyard Fun – What is the name of the original backyard water slide manufactured by Wham-O?

At the Pharmacy – Zyrtec, Flonase and Claritin are brand names of remedies for what common affliction?

Sweet Treats – What circus staple is made from spun sugar?

So far, so good…

Round Two

Shopping – In 2017, what competitor acquired the Home Shopping Network?

Geography – The CIA World Factbook describes what country as “densely populated region along the Yangtse and Yellow Rivers?”

Bartending – What bartending tool looks like two shot glasses welded together at the base?

No doom for us yet (wait)…

Round Three

’90s Nickelodeon – This question made us groan. But I prayed it would be early ’90s enough to not be terrible. And thus our luck in the game would be used up here! Ahem…

What ’90s Nickelodeon title character eventually falls in love with Patty Mayonnaise? You know how your trivia trammates sometimes try to “voir dire” you and ask how you know an answer? Well, in this case, I had to kind of prove to them why I was so utterly “uncool” in knowing this answer! My defense was that this show was on around the same time “Ren and Stimpy” was on to prove how I was able to know anything about this other show! Honestly, I didn’t pay that much attention to it, but I guess I paid enough attention to it to get this right 🤔

It doesn’t matter how you know a trivia answer, as long as you know it!

Science – What type of clinical trial involves both the participants and the researchers not knowing the results? I don’t think I have the wording quite right here, so as a hint, I’ll  just give the answer here (psst – it’s “double blind”). You’re welcome!

Same Name – What four-letter word is all of the following things – A 1986 Burt Reynolds film, a NBA team name and a cologne endorsed by Beyonce? Miss, though we did consider putting the right answer on our slip.

Halftime – Identify the four U.S. states that host the 20 highest peaks in the U.S.

We came up with three correct states. My bad, guys (sorry I talked you out of your correct answer, Dave…)!

Halftime Scores:

Pursuit of O Snappiness, 31; four way tie for third – Hentai Appreciation Society (Pods), Nope, Dead Guys and Keeping up with the Joneses; Scotty, 35 and tied for first were Spacecats and Ypsi Starlings Rugby (who might just be fans of Hentai 😉).

Round Four

American Slang – I’m just gonna reword this one entirely…

What hyphenated phrase, popular on social media, refers to a positive personal transformation, often involving noticeable changes in appearance and style, among other things? This is not even remotely how it was worded, something about one-letter off…so I’ll give the hint that it starts with the letter “G.” Dave helped us get this one (thanks man)!

Marine Life – Coral polyps get their vibrant color by ingesting what photosynthetic organism?

Sports- In 2025, Armand DuPlantis broke his own world record for the 12th time in what track and field event? Miss.

Round Five

Trivia Math – How many states contain the letter Y?

We all worked really hard on this and yes we got it!

Governments – What Roman word for the alternative to democracy refers to “rule by the few? ?

Poetry – What classical poet serves as a guide in The Divine Comedy by Dante? Miss. And this is a book Mike has read for pleasure – more than once! It’s “bathroom reading for him!” 🚽 📚 🕶️

Round Six

Biblical Rivers – what biblical river played a central role in two of the plagues?

We used our “word of the day” to avoid answering this.

Musical Groups – What musical group performed “Everybody Plays the Fool?” The hint was given that Cuba Gooding Jr.’s daddy – aptly named Cuba Gooding Sr.- was in this group. You know – the dad of the  “Show Me the Money” guy from Jerry Maguire?” 

I could not stop thinking that  this song was covered by that guy with the very “unique” voice – Aaron Neville. Yep he covered it in 1991. Why couldn’t the question have been worded this way (whine)? None of us had ever heard of the group they asked for in the question, though apparently one team got it right.

Animals- What basic pet is a cocker spaniel?

Scores heading into the final:

Keeping up with the Joneses, 48; Hentai Appreciation Society, 54; Nope, 56; Dead  guys, 60; Pursuit of OSnappiness, 61; Scotty, 63; and tied for first were Ypsi Starlings and Spacecats, 67.

Final Category – Location, Location, Location

What location, managed by the National Park service, served as the location of James McGurk’s execution in 1802, the first performance of the United States Marine Band, a 1937 Boy Scout Jamboree and a 1976 visit by Queen Elizabeth II as a visit to an American castle?

I’m gonna guess everyone was as thrown off by the word “castle” as we were. I mean – America isn’t like Great Britain, we don’t exactly have a lot of castles lying around in this country. We have White Castles, Ann Arbor has a very good liquor store on the west side called Wine Castle, there may be some ostentatious rich folks or rich rappers who have castles as private residences, but they’re not exactly common. We got to thinking that maybe old military forts may be castles, so that’s where our incorrect line of thinking went. And we thought that a particular fort in Maryland might be a great place for a – I dunno – Marine Band – to play something anthemy (don’t fight me I’m deciding that “anthemy” is a word so there)!

Yeah, we were dead wrong and when we found out what the correct answer, we were like…

One team bet and got it (team Scotty). Starlings got second, and OSnappiness got third.

That’s it for our trivial pursuits for the week. We’ll be back at it next week – possibly Tuesday, if we get back in town in time.

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Aaron Neville!

Answers:

R1 slip and slide, allergies, cotton candy

R2 QVC, China, jigger

R3 Doug, double blind, heat

Halftime

Alaska, Colorado, Washington, California

R4

Glow up, algae, pole vault

R5

6, oligarchy Virgil

R6

Mike, main ingredient, dog

F national mall (Smithsonian is apparently a castle)