We brought a fearsome foursome of females to a bar in the vain hopes of trivia glory on an early snowy Sunday afternoon, but…it was not to be!

I joined forces with three very smart women from longtime Sporcle Events league team Sparty On (Detroit). All of the women’s names either start with “K” or at least sound like they might – Kim and Kirsten – both friends since childhood – and also their teammate Cathy.

I’ve known Kim for almost a decade now, and we’ve become frequent trivia collaborators, both in general knowledge – and music based trivia.

Though I have waged trivia battle with all-women truvia teams occasionally in the past, this was our first time attempting this in a “money” game.

Also special shout out to our longtime friendly trivia rivals More Beer Less Pants for being the lucky winners of the random $100 prize! 🤜

Finishing second and third today with cash prizes were Team Awesome (third, $150) and Team Awesome, (second, $250).

Benny’s Pizza set up tables in a creative way I’ve never seen in a trivia tournament before. Extra small tables were added to the ends of the booths to add fifth seats. This worked out well for us since not everyone on the team is a fan of sitting in booth seating! I managed to have a whole booth seat to myself (though I had to share space with a couple of winter coats) 😁!

Here were our abbreviated questions:

Game One/ Round One

1 Presidents – Name either of the presidents who serves as both vice president and secretary of state prior to entering office. Both did this in the 19th century.

2 Diamond Albums – Name the solo artist who had nine diamond certified albums in total who recorded the 1993 album titled “In Pieces.” There were more qualifiers, but I didn’t get all of these down. We got this.

3 College Teams – There are five teams in the football bowl division known as the Tigers including Clemson, Auburn, LSU< MO and what school in the American conference? Miss.

4 South America – Besides Peru, which is the only other South American capital that has the same number of letters as its capital city?

Mystery Round One

Discontinued Automobiles

Identify the parent companies making the following vehicles – Thunderbird, El Camino, Challenger, PT Cruiser

PT Cruiser should’ve been called “PT Barnum” because of all of the suckers who bought these pieces of junk!

We got all of these correct.

Round Two

5 Colors – Harlequin, myrtle and celadon are all shades of what color?

6 Adaptations – The 2025 film One Battle After Another is an adaptation of what author’s novel “Vineland” that was the second to be turned into a movie by Paul Thomas Anderson? Miss.

7 Cocktails – Creme de menthe, creme de cacao and cream in equal parts compose what cocktail that shares its name with an animal studied by specalists by acridologists?

8 Broadway – What alliteratively named composer known for a partnership that produced three Tony Awards for best musical is the namesake for a theater that housed the most best musical winners?

Mystery Round Two

Before and After – Video Games Edition

Put the following clues together – one of which is a video game – to make a combined word.

M1 First person adventure by Samus Arant and place where western and eastern hemisphere meet

M2 Nintendo plumber mascot’s adventure first introduced in the US as Rosalina and sci-fi Tim Allen comedy tribute to Star Trek

M3 2016 indie farm simulator inspired by Harvest Moon and site of encampment of George Washington’s Continental Army

M4 Vehicular style video game with elements of demolition derby and organization based in Geneva during the interwar years

#2 was the only one we got correct 😔

I am kind of intrigued by the idea of that soccer video game incorporating demolition derby elements! 🤔 ⚽ 🚙

We were in sixth going into the second half  with 43 points. Moose Stuff was in first with MBLP was right behind them with 49.

Game Two/Round Three

9 Social Media – What South American born musician is second in terms of followers with only Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of them?

Miss.

10 Sequels – What was the first Pixar film to have a third sequal following Toy Story 2 in 1999 and Toy Story 3 in 2010?

11 Organs – What organ that fuctions as a gland is located behind the stomach and is the largest in the endocrine system by weight?

12 Languages – In addition to real world languages like Esperanto and dead languages (like Latin), two fictional la nguages for English speakers are offered in Duolingo. Name both franchises on which those languages originated.

We got one, but were surprised by the one that was second. Miss.

Mystery Round Three

Give the first and last items in the following list:

M1 Western zodiac signs alphabetically.

M2 Winter Olympic host countries – first – and most recent as of December, 2025

M3 Greek Olympian gods and goddesses, alphabetically.

M4 Noble gases, alphabetically

Missed #2.

Round Four

13 Novels – What animal appears in the title of a novel by John Grisham and is a symbol of the state where most of the action takes place? 14

14 Slogans – The “Game of Sweet Revenge” shares its title with a 2015 #1 single?

15 Chemistry – What term in chemistry is derived from the Latin word for strength and refers to the configuration of the outermost electrons in an atom to combine with other atoms to form a molecule? Cathy was the hero here…

16 Sitcoms – In three consecutive years from the 1980s, three of the four lead actresses of aht sitcom won three Emmy Awards for outstaning lead actress in a comedy series?

Mystery Round Four

Swapped Biographies – Athletes

Combine the first name of the first person described in the following clues with the last name of the second person names of the second clue which will form the name of a famous athlete.

M1 Actor who held elective office due to the recall of Gray Roberts AND Simply Irresistible singer

M2 Scream Queen from “Pearl” and “X” actor AND actor originally known as Dick Whitman

M3 Either of the last two men nominated for vice president for the Democratic party AND an  actor who played John Coffey in a Stephen King adaptation

M4 Actress who played DJ in Full House AND jazz saxophonist known as “Bird”

Got all of these, #3 was kind of a lucky guess!

Scores heading into the final:

Top 10:

Last Best Hope for Humanity, 78; Twins/A Team 2, 80; Team Awesome, and one other team whose name I didn’t catch, 87; Sparty On (us), 88; More Beer Less Pants, 94; Moose Stuff, 101.

Final Category – Academy Award Names

Five people whom have won Academy Awards for best leading actor or actress since 2000 (meaning movies they won Oscars for need to be released 2000 or later) have initials matching  the abbreviations of U.S. states. Identify the capitals of two of those U.S. states whose abbreviations match the initials of the pepole. Shakira

We came up with one correct person, one of our guesses was just a bit too early.

Congrats again to the winners! We’re flying casual with our trivial pursuits this month and will focus on music quiz games at Ypsilanti’s Corner Brewery for a bit.

As always, Go Pods, Go Sparty On, and stay classy, Shakira! Isn’t there a dollar sign in her name? Or am I thinking of Ke$sha? This is why I’m not the “modern music” go to on music quiz nights!

Answers:

r1 thomas jefferson/martin van buren, garth brooks, u of memphis, paraguay

r2 green, thomas pynchon, grasshopper, richard rodgers

r3 shakira, cars 2, pancreas, star trek/game of thrones/language of ice of fire (both were accepted)

r4 pelican, sorry, valence, golden girls

m1 ford, chevrolet, dodge, chrysler

m2 metroid prime meridian, supermario galaxy quest, Star Dew Valley Forge, Rocket League of Nations

m3 aquarius/virgo, france/china, aphrodite/zeus, argon/xenon

m4 arnold palmer, mia hamm, tim duncan, candace parker

f boston (m. ali), harrisburg (patricia arquette), jackson (meryl streep), hartford (charlize