Scroll to the end for the answers.

Has anyone else out there had this happen to them? You’re online and soaking up whatever random facts that pop up in your news feed, or are interesting to you. Or if not interesting, per se, you think to yourself:

“Hmmm – wouldn’t it be cool if they ask about this in a trivia game?”

Like that one time 10 years ago or so that I decided to look up who did the “We have the meats” voice in Arby’s commercials (it’s Ving Rhames, BTW). Then lo and behold, we had a question in a trivia game about…that! When a teammate asked me how I knew it, I nonchalantly said “I looked that up because I figured it would get asked about in a trivia game.”

This time, they wanted to know who wrote the book No Country for Old Men, which was adapted into a best picture winning film with Javier Bardem sporting a very questionable haircut (seen in the above meme).

I literally just read a Cracked article or something similar where I randomly stumbled upon this fact.

You can bet that I was excited to be able to trot out this tidbit in a trivia game!  “Hey, I know this, I just read about this a couple of days ago.” 😂

It’s one of those oddball things that happen maybe once out of a few hundred trivia games if you’re lucky!

We had five players for this game at McShane’s – two couples – my husband Mike and I, and our friends Kim and Brent S. Our longtime friend Dave also joined in on the fun. For the most part, we teamed up well, but things got kind of screwed up on an art museum question in round six!

We won a $20/second place prize and had the second highest score of the night of 62 points. This was the third consecutive second place prize we’ve won. Call it a “bridesmaid” prize if you like, but a trivia prize is a trivia prize! And any prize is better than none!

Here were our abbreviated questions:

Round One

Universities – In what U.S state would you find Harvard University?

Animals – What endangered animal serves as the mascot for Florida’s only NHL franchise?

Rebranding – What company was formerly known as National Biscuit Co. Before changing to an abbreviated name in 1971?

So far so good

Round Two

Automobiles – What Toyota truck model shares its name with a city in Washington?

Comedy – The Chris Farley SNL character Matt Foley lives in a van near what?

Races – What race is considered the longest in the world and is held every March in Alaska?

No f— ups yet!

Round Three

Hygiene – What company manufactured an air blade hand dryer released in the UK in 2006? First hit for Kim!

Olympics – In 2012, farmers from what country pushed for sheep shearing to be an Olympic sport? Miss.

Rock Bands – Which band formed in 1985 released its third studio album called OK Computer in 1993? Lively discussion among the team about this band here… with comments such as “They’re awesome,” and “Overrated…I don’t see the appeal.”

Halftime

Identify whether the following movies, when given the release years, were based on true stories.

Rudy, 1993; Bernie, 2011; 12 Years a Slave, 2013 and The Greatest Beer Run Ever, 2022.

Missed the last one.

Halftime scores:

Straw Hats, 23; We Were Never Here, 29; Spacecats, 31; Rather Be At/Pods/Dead Guys, 33 and in first with 37 points, Three.

Round Four

Geography – The Pillars of Hercules flank the entrance to what strait connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea?

Measurement Math – How many square inches are in a square foot?

Page to Screen – The 2005 book No Country for Old Men was later adapted into a 2007 film and was written by what author?

Yay it was cool knowing this answer! 😃 So far good in the second half…

Round Five

Governors – Terry Branstad is the longest serving governor of which US state?  Miss for 2.

DJs – What DJ and record producer released his debut album “Endtroducing” in 1996, which was mostly samples from vinyl albums? Miss for four.

Journalists – In 1995, who became the first journalist to report from the New York Stock Exchange? No idea, used our Answer of the Day  here for six.

Round Six

Science – What type of chemical bond creates cohesion between individual water molecules? Yay Dave the Science Guy!

Museums – What museum on New York is located in a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright? I put down what I thought was correct, but Mike and Dave (rightfully) talked me out of it. But they weren’t sold on the answer they wanted to put down instead, so they went with my wrong answer even though I insisted that it wasn’t right. So we missed this! 😂 Dave joked that he and Mike “mansplained” their way out of the correct answer!

Beverages – What country introduced a touch screen soda dispensing machine in 2015? Again, differences of opinion about whether these are “wonderful” or “gross.” I don’t like that I have to immediately go wash my hands after touching these things (oh the trials of being a germophobe)!

Kim was all over this one ..

Scores heading into the final:

Straw Hats, 49; Spacecats, 53; Dead Guys, 54; Maddie Platters, 55; We Were Never Here, 57; Rather Be At 58; Pods  (us), 62 and Three, 65.

Final Question – What product launched in 1937 was touted by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as having saved the Soviet Army during World War 2?

At least three of us came up with what we all thought was correct. Thankfully it was correct!

Game winners – We Were Never Here, 114; Pods, 122 and Three, 124.

I think this is it for our trivial pursuits for the week. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, that weird guy with the awful hair in No Country for Old Men!

Answers

R1 Massachusetts, panthers, Nabisco

R2 Tacoma, by the river, Iditarod

R3 Dyson, new Zealand, Radiohead

H yes to all

R4 Gibraltar, 144, Cormac McCarthy

R5 Iowa, DJ shadow, Maria Bartiromo

R6 hydrogen, Guggenheim, coke

F spam

RIP Terry Jones!