Answers at the end.

As part of our “Take it Easy” plan for November, 2025, we decided to play another virtual trivia game on a recent Wednesday evening.

We’ve been taking a break from live trivia games during November, except for the Sporcle Events music quiz games Monday nights at Ypsi’s  Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery (which we and most locals call “Corner Brewery”).

We just wrapped up that season, we flubbed both final questions and missed out on winning the bar championship, though we were bar leaders for the season.

Our “break” from live trivia is not etched in stone, and is subject to resume at any time! We just don’t want any hard commitments during a month that is typically the most stressful work month for me.

It’s kind of too bad we didn’t actually go “out” instead of playing the game virtually – because we did quite well! We finished first for the night (out of only four teams but hey we’ll take it), got both final questions correct, and finished with  126 points.

It was just my husband and I battling questions on this night, and here they were:

Game One/Round One

1 Calendars – What calendar, which has widely replaced the Julian calendar, went into effect in October, 1582?

2 Social Media – What do the letters “OP” stand for when appearing in a thread or series of related messages on social media?

3 Ads to Film – The 2018 film “Uncle Drew,” which is based on Pepsi Max advertisements from earlier in the decade, is centered on characters who play what sport? Not only did I remember these silly ads, but I remembered when I had a brief obsession with Pepsi Max (that stuff kicked)! It was good to drink when you wanted to stay up late ☪

4 Presidents – What U.S. president, born in the Carolinas, was the first to be born outside of what is now Virginia or Massachusetts?

Mystery Round One: 

Album Mashups

Name the artist based on a mashup of words in the titles of their studio albums.

M1 Mother’s Sugar by the Stadium

M2 Dream Rhythm All for Discipline

M3 Beerbongs & Bleeding Toothache

M4 Definitely Here Standing on the Truth

Missed #4, got #2 and #3 on pure guesses (#3 was a total uneducated wild guess). Don’t you love it when trivia questions go that way for you? Maybe we should have spent our evening in a casino or buying lottery tickets instead? 🤔 🎲 😂

Round Two

5 Sitcoms – Before taking a leading role in “Black-ish,” Tracee Ellis Ross was the star of what sitcom that aired on UPN and the CW from 2000 to 2008? Miss.

6 Baseball – Game three in 2018 and game three in 2025 each set a World Series record by lasting how many innings? We were one off in  our guess. Neither of us really follow sportsball much unless it’s occasionally watching a Lions game, we just figured it had to be a “ridiculous” number. Apparently it wasn’t “ridiculous” enough 😂

7 Science – What process, by which a cell divides to form two identical cells, gets its name from the Greek meaning “warp thread?”

8 Borders – Name one of the two mountainous countries that border only China and India.

NERD POINT: Name both countries.

Mike was able to name both right away (he’s good at maps stuff which will also come in handy on a question later!) I would have only been able to name one correct country for this question without thinking too hard.

Mystery Round Two – Visual

Final Question Category Game One:

2024 Movies

The ten highest-grossing films of 2024 at the domestic box office include three films whose titles end in either the number “2” or the word “two.” Name two of those three films.

We somehow managed to come up with two correct movies, but it was not enough for us to make up for our previous flubs (there are almost always teams with perfect or near perfect scores in virtual games, do with that information what you will 😉 ). 

Game Two/Round Three

9 Unique Attractions – Visitors to Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY have been known to put “I Voted” stickers on the tombstone of what woman, who passed away in 1906? Funny they mentioned that particular cemetery, I was watching a documentary series about cars earlier that eveing and one of the people they mentioned on the show was also buried in that cemetery. George Selden for inquring minds. Doesn’t anyone else Google things while they’re watching TV? He was the focus of a massive lawsuit with Henry Ford (which Henry Ford won).

10 Gaming – A 2025 game subtitled “Silksong” was the sequel to what 2017 indie game, noted for its difficulty? Miss. Mike put in a guess for “Eve” even though he thought it was too old.

11 Hit Songs – The song in the following clip is the highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 by what singer? We did not have this as an audio question, so we were given the clues that the artist’s other top 10 Billboard hits were “Heart Attack” and “Sorry Not Sorry.” Nope for us! You know you’re old when you think of Olivia Newton-John when you think of the song “Heart Attack!” Anyone else remember that one?

12 2025 Hit Series – Sheriff Country is a spinoff of what 2022 series? I remember seeing ads for something that seemed like it would be a spinoff of this, thank the gods I was right (we never watched either show).

Mystery Round Three – Founding a Company

Given a list of three different years and the name of a company, choose what year the company was founded.

M1 Chuck E. Cheese – 1947, 1977, 1997

M2 Costco – 1983, 1988, 1993

M3 Taco Bell – 1942, 1952, 1962

M4 Dollar General – 1919, 1939, 1959

We got all of these correct. For #1, we watched a toy documentary show a couple of days ago that mentioned the guy who founded this company along with Atari which definitely helped here. Maybe watching documentary shows helps with trivia games?

Round Four

13 Similar Titles – What 2015 film starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad has a title that is only one letter different than that of a 1998 comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore?

14 Book Titles – What book by Janet Evanovish, the first in the Stephanie Plum series, was released in 1994 and followed two years later by Two for the Dough? Glad we looked up the FB host clues this night! 😌

15 Geography – Which of the eight U.S. states that border Missouri has a name that is closest alphabetically to Missouri? 

16 Nobel Prizes – Both the first and second married couples to share Nobel Prizes, doing so in 1903 and 1935, respectively, are part of what notable science family?

NERD POINT: These Nobel Prizes were awarded in what two categories?

We were a little confused by this question, and initially put in Nobel Prize categories as our main answer when the host sent our answer back. Eventually we figured out what the question was asking. Got this for the points and the nerd point.

Mystery Round Two

Going for a “Ride”

The correct answer to each clue is a word that includes the letters RIDE in that order.

M1 Showing many bright colors that change with movement

M2 A step or the distance covered by a step

M3 Informal term for a woman who is extremely demanding with regard to the details of her wedding

M4 1984 single by U2 subtitled “In the Name of Love”

The first one tripped us up for a bit, but eventually Mike came up with the right answer, got all of these correct.

We had 52 points going into the final and were tied with one other team.

Final Question Category Game Two:

World Travel

A person traveling due west from Warsaw, Poland will encounter four other sovereign European nations before eventually reaching Canada. Name two of those four sovereign countries.

Did I mention earlier that Mike is good at maps questions? Yup, he was the hero here.

This put us in a tiebreaker with the other team that was tied with us…

Tiebreaker game two:

To the nearest whole number, Warsaw, Poland sits at how many degrees east longitude?

We put in a guess of 13, the other team guessed 21, which was amazingly one off from the correct answer 🤔  Good job? Meh, there’s no real prizes in virtual games, right? Except being able to dress super casually, have a private bathroom and sit in the comfiest chair in your house house?

We may do another virtual game next week, whether we find players to join us – or not!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Nolan Bushnell (the guy who founded both Chuck E. Cheese and Atari).

R1 Gregorian, original post/poster, basketball, a Jackson

M2 rhcp, j Jackson, p maline, oasis

R2 girlfriends, 18, mitosis, Nepal/ Bhutan

M2 donkey Kong country, mass effect, red dead redemption, Minecraft

R inside out 2, Moana 2, dune part two

R3 sb Anthony, hollow knight, Demi Lovato, fire country

M3 1967, 1983, 1962, 1939

R4 wedding ringer, one for the money, curie/physics

M4 iridescent, stride, Bride Zilla, pride

F Germany, Netherlands, UK, Ireland