This year got off to an interesting start when it came to our trivial pursuits!

We started out eyeing one goal, wound up pursuing a completely different goal, and it looks like we’re ending the year pursuing the goal of taking things easy – like the lyrics in the Eagles song “Take it Easy”  would say.

“Lighten up…while you still can – don’t even try to understand…just find a place to make a stand…and take it easy…”

Those are good words to live by, aren’t they? This can easily translate to trivial pursuits, right? That is kind of where we are now, as the year comes to a close.

Return to “Corner Brewery?” 🤔

Rewind to January, 2025 …Where oh where did we decide to “make a stand?” To start the year off, I had a vain, ambitious goal of trying to make some noise at a local watering very close to us – and familiar to us. That’s “Corner Brewery,” or “Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery” if you’re not into brevity.

Sporcle Events offers weekly music quiz games here Mondays and general trivia games Wednesday nights.

After all, I did think that I actually  had a “team” to put up a fight at this competitive trivia spot known for its “megateams.” I feel that I should pay royalties to whatever trivia person that I know coined it about a decade ago (probably a bit longer ago than that). Until this person files the appropriate paperwork, “megateam” is in the public domain 😂

In case you can’t figure it out, “megateam” means “plus sized team,” usually averaging eight players or more.

I “thought” that I had a team to compete here – an expat from a trivia team that broke up during the pandemic, 3-4 players of my own, and a new guy I hustled to join us for a Globe Game in late 2024. I was actually pretty excited about having a chance to play here with a “real” team again!

Well, as the Styx song “Nothing Ever Goes as Planned” might say…

“Nothing ever goes as planned…it’s a hell of a notion…even pharoahs turn to sand…like a drop in the ocean.”

Well, what are you waiting for? Go to your favorite streaming service and look up the “Paradise Theater” album by Styx! 😂

Back to the Drawing Board?

Yeah, that didn’t work out so well, did it?

The new guy I hustled, without giving me many specific reasons, just didn’t seem to dig either the vibe of the trivia spot – or didn’t dig the vibe of playing with us – or both. That happens, and it’s completely understandable.

When you have a player abruptly leave after the first question while appearing to have a panic or anxiety attack, that isn’t something you can unsee.

Sadly, we kind of needed him to be able to compete in this spot (younger player), so after he told me – with zero words – that he didn’t want to play here anymore, I recalibrated our trivia strategy. I decided not to try playing any more trivia games at this spot until further notice.

It wasn’t actually zero words. He actually told me that he never liked playing with teams of four players or more. Not a good thing to hear when you’re trying to compete at a “megateam” spot! He wasn’t going to work out. I kind of need flexibility with our trivial pursuits, I can’t accommodate all requests.

It turns out that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t enjoy playing here. I was not exactly enjoying it, either, nor was my husband.

For one, you have to arrive extra early for each game, and smaller teams are kind of discouraged from playing here (even if not officially).

A few months ago, I did overhear a server on a trivia night there actually TURN AWAY a couple of parties for not having enough people! On a night where there were a few empty tables! 🤯

I remember arriving extra early to snag a table on a trivia night with my husband, only to be asked by the host to move to a much shittier table to accommodate a team who showed up last minute to play. I had to go to a chiropractor afterwards to have my neck tended to after sitting in a spot right in front of the big screen (JK, JK)! It was embarrassing – and annoying. I know I’m reading too much into this, but it made us feel like we were the ones doing something wrong by not having a megateam – not the team who showed up last minute.

I can’t be bothered with that kind of drama – or hassle! I’m lucky if I can get my husband to consent to a trivia night with me, let alone have anyone else come to help us out!

Interesting note, the month or so that we spent trying to play games at Corner happened while we were on a “break” from McShane’s Pub! This bar trivia games on Tuesday and Thursday nights in the competing My Trivia Live league.

Cheating Accusations 😡

A couple of teams here actually accused us of cheating late in 2024 after we won a couple of first place prizes two weeks in a row. Me and some other players were kind of pissed off about that, so I decided that the best thing would be to take a break from this place (my plan was to take at least a month off).

Mcshanes Again Then? 🤔

So we started playing again at McShane’s in February, and after a couple of months (ish), we decided that we were going to “go for it” – with the “it” meaning a semifinals spot.

We’d have to finish the season among the top teams to be able to do this, so we went to “work!” Which meant playing at least once a week. My main trivia “pardner” slash husband Mike and I talked it over, and agreed that’s what we’d try to do – for at least one season.

I’ll let Elle Woods summarize the rest…

My Trivia Live Tournament Bound!

We managed to finish in the top teams at a local semifinal game, so we headed to the finals in early October.

You probably know one of “those” trivia players who like to say “It’s all about the final question!” Maybe you’re one of those people! 

Yes, yes – it’s all true! 😔

We were top dogs going into the final question at the championship game with a whopping 70 points (a perfect score is 73 points). I don’t want to say that’s impressive for a tournament game, but yes, it is an impressive score!

A trivia veteran sitting at the table next to us named Francis said he’d never seen such a high score in a MTL tournament game. That counts for something 👍

We were just four points ahead of the nearest competitor, a team with players I compete against fairly regularly. I always consider them “the” team to beat – whether it’s a weekly trivia bout, or a tournament. I hope that they feel the same way about us!

Nope, nope NOPE! We were taken down from our high perch by a Disney final question! I think that only a handful of teams in the room managed to get it correct.

Special thanks to Kim and Cathy from team Sparty On for greatly helping us in this game! 😊

I’ve grown up enough to know that it’s pointless to cry over spilled trivia, there’s no crying in trivia (though I’ve seen it before), shake it off, get over it, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!

I decided that the best way to distract myself from that bit of disappointment was to focus on a different trivia goal! Which was…continue trying to dominate the music quiz scene at the Corner Brewery!

Sorry I didn’t mention earlier that all of this time we were waging music trivia game battles Mondays at “Corner Brewery.”

I know most followers of this blog whom are here for trivia tend to prefer general knowledge trivial pursuits as opposed to the more “topical” trivia.

Up until September, music trivia games (previously music bingo) were only offered every other Monday. The bar management decided to make the games weekly starting in the fall.

During the month of October, we played some theme trivia games – battling questions about the Addams Family, Letterkenny and Stranger Things.

Around Halloween, I had to spend 22 hours in a hospital! That meant that my trivia adventures in November would be very, very casual.

Let’s Try Topping the Music Quiz Charts, Shall We?

We only had about six weeks or so to go in the season, so my other “trivia pardner” Kim and I decided to push to try remaining in the top spot at Corner for its music quiz nights. Which we managed to do! Though we did kind of flub the final bar championship game 😂

Globe Games, Ho! ⛵

I was able to RSVP for a spot on the second day  or “Tier 2,” so I signed us up to play a 2 p.m. Saturday, December 6 game at Benny’s Pizza in Westland. One of the players who was supposed to join us informed me that the 2 p.m. time wasn’t going to work out. Fortunately, there was an earlier time was available at Aubree’s in Howell, so I made the switch.

Funny, I was actually considering playing here at first, but I thought against it – because I worried it would be too long of a drive for one of our players!

As it turned out, that “one” player I was concerned about was the one who needed to play the game earlier for it to work! 😂

As the song “Down in it” by Nine Inch Nails states:

“Isn’t it funny how everything works out? I guess the joke’s on me!”

For the first time since before the pandemic, I was able to summon a FIVE person team for  this Globe Game – I had myself, my husband Mike (whom has been at my side for every single tournament game we’ve played under our team name since 2012), Kim S., MTL trivia host Stacy L., and Kim’s 14-year-old daughter Molly – playing her very first tournament game! She mostly kept her nose in a book she was reading, but that’s  OK! She did step in to help answer a few questions, and the rest of us were happy to do a majority of the “heavy lifting.”

It was almost a scene-for-scene repeat of the most recent tournament game we played. Great game destroyed by the final question!

We were in second place going into the final question with 99 points, and the heartbreaking category (especially for a majority female team with no sportos) was…

MVPs…

We had no choice but to bet nothing and hope that no teams would get it correct. We knew that it was a hope beyond hope (as it turned out to be).

Like the Squeeze song “Heartbreaking World” states:

“It’s fiction live before our eyes…it leaves me cold and my heart cries.”

Oh ALL right, maybe it wasn’t quite THAT dramatic! I just wanted to stick with the whole “Song lyrics” theme.

For the first time ever, I was able to play on both days of the Globe Games, since my friend Kim had an open spot on her team.

So I drove out to Benny’s Pizza and Westland and played with Kim and two other women on her team. This was the first time I’d ever played with an all women group for a “money” game.

We did pretty well, but not great. Ultimately, the final question took us down. We guessed an actor for an Oscars final question whom was just one year too early to fit the criteria.

Yeah, Kevin Spacey won his two acting Oscars for movies released in 1999 or earlier, and the question wanted answers from 2000 or later. He was such a close guess – but not correct – and probably too canceled!

So what’s next? Not much! Beyond the Monday music quiz games I’m leaving things open until 2026. After that? We’ll see!