Answers at the end.

It was the roughest set of trivia questions we’d battled since very early in the 22-week season!

OK, maybe the  second roughest – if scores are any indication!

Our score in the most recent trivia game at McShane’s was pretty poor – 49 points – even for my low standards! Usually my benchmark is “If it’s higher than 50 it’s…OK!”

This was our second lowest score of the season. We had a crappy 46 point game early on, and though I said I’d never speak of it again…

It feels like we’ve reached the finish line of a long race! What’s that Stephen King movie about the really long walk called again? Oh yes, “The Long Walk!”

Don’t you just love it when a movie title doesn’t make you wonder too much about what the movie is about? Like “Snakes on a Plane,” “Phone Booth,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Batman.” Clear and to the point. The way things SHOULD be.

Unlike that misleading “Monster’s Ball!”

I digress! But yes, it feels good to reach the finish line of this very, very long trivia season!

We’ll have to wait until Wednesday, September 10 to find out for sure how we finished for the season – and whether we qualified for semifinals or not.

You might want to have some tissues handy because I have some sad news. We didn’t win any trivia prizes in our most recent game. 😢

This ended our four game streak of winning prizes.

If you need time to go quietly – or loudly sob about this, we’ll wait patiently 😂

We know that all hot streaks gotta end sometime!

Here were our abbreviated questions:

Round One

Albums – What singer released their second album in 2000 titled “Oops I Did it Again?”

Presidents – How many U.S. presidents were divorced before taking office?

Count Your Days – In English, what day of the week has the most letters?

So far, so good…

Round Two

Inventors – Who was the first person to invent and patent the telephone?

Encyclopedias – What media format was used for the Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia?

Theater – The classical form of musical drama abbreviated HOF originates in what country? I don’t know how my teammates Mike and Dave knew this, but I’m happy that they did! 👍

Round Three

Reality TV – Which Dirty Dancing actress won Dancing with the Stars in 2010?

Baseball – How many MLB teams use a color from a standard 16 pack of Crayola Crayons in their names? Teamwork was key here…got this!

Wars – What war is associated with the Yalta Conference?

So far, so good…

Now for a Halftime round to screw us! You know how teamwork can help your team get answers correct? You’re about to behold the opposite of that! Yup, one of our team’s special talents is talking ourselves out of correct answers!

Halftime – Identify four of the five U.S. states that are lowest in population. I’m assuming this means the most U.S. Census data or something like that (it’s not in my notes but may have been a qualifier anyway).

We hotly discussed a state out West that I insisted was NOT on this list based on my knowledge of the Yellowstone TV series. “(X city) and (X city) are both becoming really populous and gentrified.” Turns out one of those cities is actually in a different state than the one I was thiniking of, but…

That’s not important right now!

Turns out that I was right to fight against putting down this state, but I also talked the guys out of a super far west state (or super far east, depending upon perspective) that they wanted to put down  that wound up being correct. And I was talked out of putting down one of two Eastern states that also wound up being correct.

Does this mean that this all balanced out in the end?

Not really!

Halftime scores: Wise Guys, 19; Maddie Platters, 24; Random Answers, 26; We Were Never Here, 30; Pods, 33; Two (formerly known as Three), 34 and Spacecats, 36.

Round Four

Words – What seven-letter word is used to describe a window positioned above a door? Miss.

Classic Literature – What is the first name of the woman mentioned in The Divine Comedy whom is considered Dante’s principal inspiration and acts as a guide in the story? We leaned on Mike for this one, since he is the only one of us who has ever actually read anything by Dante. Nope, he didn’t know this…

Recent Music – In August, 2025, what fictional K-Pop group hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts? Miss. Used our “Answer of the Week” freebie to avoid answering this. Of COURSE we’d regret this decision in the next round (woe  was us)!

Round Five

American Pioneers – What American missionary and doctor known for leading settlers on the Oregon Trail was killed following a misunderstanding which led to the Cayuse War?

Miss, we guessed Brigham Young. Never heard of the correct person.

Geography – Known as the Door to Hell, the Darvasa Gas Crater has been burning since 1971 in what Central Asian country? Miss.

Football – What New York Jets linebacker has been credited with starting Tom Brady’s career? There were more qualifiers to this, didn’t write them all down. Miss.

Round Six

Hats – What type of head covering for men was outlawed in Turkey in 1921? Miss.

Vegas – In 2019, what sibling duo closed their act after a residency of 11 years? This time I was happy to be talked out of my guess! Dave was all over this.

Idioms – Describing a situation going from bad to worse (not unlike our performance in this game lol) , finish the phrase “Out of the frying pan an into the (blank)?”

Forty-nine points! When our game is that poor, we always kind of hope that other teams had a hard time too!

Scores heading into the final: Wise Guys, 22; Maddie Platters, 42; Pods, 49; Random Answers, 54; We Were Never Here/Spacecats, 58; and Two (Formerly Known as Three), 64.

Final Category – Infamous Tweets

In 2011, fictional character Kevin Butler retweeted a post mentioning a USB dongle key used to circumvent security on what device that sold 87 million units worldwide?

Big nope for us…

Game Winners – We Were Never Here, Spacecats, Two (Formerly Known as Three).

We don’t have any trivia plans next week beyond our music quiz game Monday at Corner Brewery. We may play one other game beyond that.

Thursday this week, we may play at the Sawmill Saloon in Big Rapids. Yes there are My Trivia Live shows up North!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Donny and Marie Osmond!

Answers

R1 britney spears, two, Wednesday

R2 bell, CD, Japan

R3 jennifer grey,four, ww2

Halftime ND, SD, Alaska, VT, Wyoming

R4 transom, Beatrice, huntRix

R5 Marcus Whitman, Turkmenistan, mo Lewis

R6  turban, osmonds, fire

F PS3