Answers at the end.

When it comes to competitive trivia, it doesn’t get more “off the books” than a “bye” week. That means the scores don’t count for league supremacy, for those of you not in “the know.”

That said, it’s now been exactly a year since we started playing “fairly” regularly at McShane’s in Ypsilanti. It’s been a good place to play for us in a lot of ways – mainly because we don’t need to bring the equivalent of a basketball – or soccer – team to have a shot at winning prizes!

We just don’t have as many players coming out to trivia games as we used to have. We get that people occasionally have to move out of town, out of state, have life changes keeping them from coming to games, don’t want to drive to games and some people just decide they don’t dig the competitive trivia scene.

Like our cephalopod mascots? We do our best to adapt to the situation! If only we could rewrite our DNA like octopuses supposedly can do 🐙😊

We did have some trouble adapting to some of the rough questions! I mean…what would a couple whom have been married more than a quarter century know about… swinging? 🤔

Yes, it was “that” kind of swinging! 😉

There was a team of women rugby players in the room who immediately rushed up their answer when the question was about consensual romantic relationships involving multiple partners! Yay for knowing what you know! Maybe you have things to teach us?

We’re always willing to learn if you have something to teach! 😂

Yes I did just quote Depeche Mode song lyrics, from the song “Strangelove” if anyone wants to cue that up on whatever music streaming service you use (it’s a pretty good song and has some S&M themes if that entices ya)!

What? Songs with S&M themes aren’t a deal maker for you? Then you might not want to listen to the Depeche Mode “Dangerous,” either.

Despite the rough trivia seas, we did get the halftime question round about statehood 100 percent correct, finished with a third place prize AND actually knew the final question answer! That’s always the toughest thing about any MTL game – those pesky final questions! Like a legendary Kraken in the high seas, final questions have been known to take down even the strongest of trivia teams.

While we’re on the subject of trivia questions? How about some abbreviated questions from our game?

Round One

Patriotic Poetry – In the song “America the Beautiful,” what color are the mountains?

The Human Body – Which organ is responsible for the secreting the hormone insulin?

Children’s Media – What two-letter name is the name of the hero in “Kung Fu Panda” and also the name of a Teletubby?

So far, no bloopers…

Round Two

Diplomacy – What “sister cities” in Spain and Ohio share the same name? There was a lot more to this one…

Cuisine – What name of a French region is found in the name of a egg, custard and pork tart? Apparently we had to give the first and last name of this tart (yes it has a first and last name). We only gave her first name, so we missed it. Had the clue been “first name of Marty McFly’s mother in Back to the Future” we may not have missed it! Oh well, that’s trivia for ya!

Archaeology – What major archaeological site is located in Peru?

Sports – Aude Biannic competed in a bicycle race in 2024 while in what condition, which typically lasts a few months? Good guess. We remembered having a final question about a guy who won a horse race while…dead! We knew death wasn’t gonna be the answer to this one!

Video Games – What sort of invertebrate is Jim, the player/character in a 1994 video game  develped by Shiny Entertainment? Mike was the hero here, woot!

Chinese History – Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s collection of sculptures depicting his own armies are collectively called what? Mike all over this one too! Yay for the almost hat trick!

Halftime –

Identify four of the five U.S. states that joined the union immediately after the “Original Thirteen” states joined the union.

A bit of a thinker and brainstormer here, but yay we picked four correct states!

Halftime scores –

Keeping Up With the Joneses, 21; Never Forget, 25; Ypsi Starlings Rugby/Pants, 31; Crunch Wrap, 32; Pods, 36 and Spacecats, 37.

Round Four

Movies – What story by Richard O’Brien was adapted into a 1970s cult classic starring Tim Curry?

Olympic Mascots – What type of animal was “Smoky,” the only “real” animal mascot ever used in the Olympics, serving in that capacity in the 1932 games? Miss.

First Ladies – What first lady formally received 3,000 cherry trees as a gift from the Emperor of Japan in 1912? Had to think who was president at this time, thankfully we picked the right lady! Also thankful that first name wasn’t required (like it was for that quiche question earlier lol)! 

Round Five

From the Greek – The adjective “Stentaurion,” named for a Greek herald, describes a person whom is what? Miss. The word “herald” should’ve been a better clue for us.

Books – What author built on L. Frank Baum’s early series of books, one of which was adapted on Broadway and later, Hollywood? We used our freebie “word of the week” to avoid having to answer, yet still get our points.

Reality TV – What musical group was formed during the first season of ABC’s “Making the Band?” Ya know you missed this when you hear the host laughing when they look at your answer slip!  

We had no f—ing clue. We guessed “Partridge Family.”

Round Six

Stars – The constellation Böotes resembles what item that in the Peanuts universe, is frequently eaten by a tree when Charlie Brown plays with it?

Had the question actually been worded like this, we would have gotten it correct. However, there were a lot more fancy words involved in the “actual”  question, such as “asterism,” and “conflated.” We actually heard a player asking for host Stacy to explain to her what an “asterism” was, which she did for her, and later, also explained on the mic. That wasn’t enough to help us get the question correct. Unsure if any teams in the room got this correct.

It was apparent by the number of players going to the host stand that this question was quite confusing.

Had this been a bar where questions are projected on screen, I would use a photo of the question so y’all could see it in all of its entirety! 😂

I would rather reword this question entirely than not get the actual question given to us 100 percent accurately.

Relationships – The practice of maintaining multiple consensual romantic relationships is abbreviated EDSM – what does this stand for?

Our guess was close, but no cigar…miss.

Flags – Fifty of what pointed things appear on an American flag?

Scores heading into the final:

Keeping Up with the Joneses, 39; Never Forget, 47; Pods, 58; Spacecats/Pants, 61; Crunch Wrap, 62 and in first was Ypsi Starlings Rugby, 63.

What product, which started out as a wallpaper cleaner, became a popular toy in the 1950s and was purchased by Hasbro in 1991?

Nice when you know a final question answer right away! That does not happen very often for us!

Game winners: Pods, 116; Spacecats, 122 and Pants, 122 (they were in a tiebreaker for first).

That’s it for our trivial pursuits for the week. We’ll play some day next week (TBD).

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Frankenfurter!

Answers:

r1 purple, pancreas, po

r2 toledo, quiche lorraine, machu pichu

r3 pregnant, earthworm, terra cotta army

halftime VT, TN, KY, OH, LA

r5 loud, gregory maguire, o town

r6 kite, ethical non monogamy, stars

f play doh