Scroll to the end for the answers.

You know how just about every trivia team has a favorite team to beat on their trivia nights?

Well, we must’ve decided that on a recent chilly Tuesday fall evening…

That team would be us!

Or more accurately, we essentially lost to ourselves 😆

On any given trivia night, our typical “talents” include overthinking, underthinking and talking ourselves out of correct answers.

That last thing is an important plot point as related to this game!

Fourteen points! Our score would have been 14 points higher had we not talked ourselves out of answers that were correct. Maybe weird witchy magicks were afoot (it is Halloween season after all), maybe we were overdue for a shitty game, or…or…like that scene in the 1989 comedy film UHF where a “Wheel of Fish” game show contestant named Phyllis opts for the prize “in the box” rather than winning her own weight in red snapper:

Truth be told, we were just trying to…log a score! 😔 Not make one bad decision after another!

It’s kind of nice having a trivia spot that has two trivia nights, and usually, the Thursday version works better for our schedules. This week, Tuesday proved to be the better day since we can’t play Thursday.

But man oh man…did that game ever SUCK! I mean, an even lower score  (48 points) than that one time a few weeks ago where I played by myself? Yeah, it was THAT bad!

Every team missed the final question. So I guess we weren’t the only team suffering on this trivia night? How well do YOU know your English poet laureates who didn’t actually write any poetry while they were poet laureates? 🤔

WIthout further ado…how about some abbreviated questions?

Round One

Time – If an analog clock face shows both the minute and hour hand pointed straight up, what time is it?

Animals – What type of animal told the wolf to f— off prompting the wolf to threaten to blow his house down? Paraphrased for adult audiences!

Now here’s a wolf you should not disrespect:

Bridges – What type of moveable bridge often sits at the entrance of a castle and is still used today?

No misses…so far!

Round Two

The Bible – What sea does Moses part in the biblical story?

Costumes – If you dress as Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard or Captain Hook for Halloween what six letter word describes your costume?

Writing – What poet’s sonnets 127-152 have been called the “Dark Lady” series?

No f— up yets (I know you all are just waiting to see what we missed, aren’t you)? 😉

Well, you don’t have to wait much longer 😂

Round Three

Legends – (this one is really abbreviated)…Jack ‘O Lanterns are based on a character named “Stingy Jack” originating in what country? That letter  “O” should’ve been a better clue, miss. We did think about this after turning in our slip! This does not qualify as talking ourselves out of a correct answer though!

Albums – Who recorded the multiplatinum album “Bat Out of Hell?”

Sailors – What term was used for a free-lance sailor receiving funding from the government to attack enemy ships? Argh, matey! Yes we got it right, I just wanted to talk like a pirate! Every day is “Talk Like a Pirate Day” for me! Pardon me while I walk the plank as punishment for all of the misses in this game!

Halftime: Halloween Classics

Answer the following questions about  Halloween classics in pop culture:

H1 1993 movie featuring Bette Midler as one of three witch sisters

H2 Peanuts character who waits for the Great Pumpkin

H3 Actor portraying Beetlejuice character in films in 1988 and 2024

H4 Actor originating role of Frankenfurter in 1973

We got all of these correct. Every other team probably did too! I’m curious as to whether Sally would have been accepted as a correct answer for the Peanuts question! She did wait in the pumpkin patch with the guy they wanted as the answer!

Halftime Scores:

Team Six, 25; Dead Guys, 32; Pods (Us), 34; Maddie Platters, 36; and Never Here, Rather Be, 3 and Spacecats all tied with 37 points.

Round Four

Athletes – In October, 2025, what basketball player became the first to walk a Victoria Secret runway? I wanted to go with Dennis Rodman because…hasn’t he been in drag before? Thankfully my “better half” talked me out of that silly guess. Though his guess was closer to the correct one, well, close ain’t good enough…miss.

Page to Screen – What title character created by author Neil Gaiman in a 2002 novella was adapted into a 2009  stop action dark fantasy horror film? My first guess was correct here, but the “horror” descriptor just didn’t seem right since we thought it was kind of a kids’ movie (even if a darker kids movie). So we talked ourselves out of our first four points here. To our credit, the other animated movie we guessed was released the  same year.

Weather – Which U.S. state had the lowest precipitation in 2024? We used our “answer of the week” freebie here to get six precious points without risk (yes, yes, we’d really regret this later).

Round Five

Innovators – What mathemetician conceived thefirst omnibus public shuttle in 1661 that would later be launched in Paris in 1662? Yay the only French mathemetician I could think of turned out to be correct! But for only two  points 😔  You may continue your doom scrolling, it’s gonna get much worse for us, be sure to grab some popcorn!

Walk of Fame – When NBC sponsored his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, what acotr and comedian requested that his star be placed on Hollywood Boulevard near where he was arrested for vagrancy years earlier? We went with a Michigan-born comedian known for  having a previous rap sheet, miss.

I was kind of hoping this question would be about John Carpenter and Robert England, whom are both getting stars on Halloween this year! How fitting for these horror legends!

World War 2 – What was the surname of the German Nazi who headed the police forces? We went with the wrong guy who was more of a miltary figure even though Mike did write down the name of the correct guy, so miss for SIX.

Why oh why didn’t they ask about which famous Nazi served time in Spandau Prison, for which the band Spandau Ballet took their name inspiration? I totally know that one! 😔

That’s Rudolf Hess!

Round Six

Math – What Greek mathemetician is considered the father of geometry? Mike’s guess was right, we went with the other guy, so four more points gone from second guessing ourselves.

Animated Movies – What animated movie released in 2025 under the subtitle Infinity Castle had the highest weekend gross (sorry I am unsure of all of the qualifiers). Miss. No talking oursevles out of the correct answer, we simply had no f—ing clue. Full disclosure!

Holidays – What holiday falls on the fourth Thursday of November in the U.S. annually? `

Scores heading into the final:

Pods, 48; Dead Guys, 50; Rather Be/Spacecats, 59; Never Here/Three, 67 and Maddie Platters, 68.

Final Category – Poets

Who became Poet Laureate of England in 1843 without ever having written any verses?

I guessed a poet who had died in a boating accident about 20 years earlier than this, talked myself out of a guy who wasn’t even born yet. Still not the right guy.

No teams got this, it all came down to wagers. I wagered all but one (my trivia partner went out to warm the car, he was fed up with our shitty game by then)!

We Were Never Here and Spacecats were tied for second, did not stick around for the results of that, Rather Be At finished third.

That is it for this week’s trivial pursuits. We’ll be back at it Monday for Sporcle Events music trivia and figure out where we’ll play after that.

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, William Wordsworth!

Answers

R1 12, pig, drawbridge

R2 red sea, pirate, Shakespeare

R3 Ireland, meat loaf, privateer

H hocus pocus, Linus, Michael Keaton, Tim Curry

R4 angel reese Coraline, Nevada

R5 pascal, Leno, himmler

R6 Euclid, demon slayer, thanksgiving

F William wordsworth