I decided that a recent “Michigan warm” Sunday afternoon was as good of a time as any to get out of the house for a couple of hours and hit up a local trivia game!

My normal trivia “pardner” had other stuff he wanted to do at home anyway, so why not hit up a game a couple of miles away so that he could do what he needed to do – and I could do what I wanted to do?

Now that weather is finally warming up and might stay that way  (pardon me while I burst into insane laughter which insinuates that as a lifelong Michigan resident, I know better) – I might just make this a semi-regular Sunday afternoon spot! Even if I have to go by my mad (I mean sad) self to play. 🤔

It’s an excuse to drink something… purple!

I wound up finishing third overall (no prizes), but there were only five teams, so it was… not a really competitive scene!

I honestly don’t even know how many teams normally show up to play here on Sundays…let’s see. Yeah, it looks like maybe around 6-7 (haha I said that new dictionary word) teams show up, so that game was maybe a little lighter than usual.

Here were the game questions:

Game One/Round One

Toys – When it was first introduced in 1952, what toy consisted only of plastic parts that could be pressed into a real vegetable? Replacing the wildly unsuccessful “Mr. Rutabaga Head” because too many kids injured their hands by trying to press the plastic parts into tough rutabaga flesh! JK…

2 Countries – What country is divided into two main islands by the Cook Strait, which is around 14 miles wide at its narrowest point?

3 Mascots – From 1991-2020, what retailer headquarterered in San Diego used a logo featuring animal characters named Blue Mews and Red Ruff? Wish I knew sportsball stadiums better, because this city –  and company is a clue here. No points for me.

4 1990s Music – What band had its final top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the 1991 single heard in the following clip?

I’m not fancy enough to be able to share audio clips, so I’ll just tell ya that the song talks about the singer’s inability to Dance.

When I heard “1991” I was hoping the song would be of the more “deep cut” variety and be “The Show Must Go On,” which was a Queen single released that year (it did not chart in the U.S.).

Looking back, in some ways, the “show” did go on for this artist. There were some high charting Queen singles after Freddie Mercury’s death (thanks to the Wayne’s World movie and…his death), also there was the Oscar winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which, like Wayne’s World, made Queen songs popular yet again. So the show kind of did go on, didn’t it?

Speaking of moving things on…

Mystery Round One – Twist & Shout

Name the work with a plot twist that includes the given shouted line:

M1 “That’s not true – That’s impossible,” film franchise.

M2 “Oh man! I can’t believe you figured it out […} Eleanor, you really suck!” TV show.

M3 “Sit, would you kindly? Stand, would you kindly? Run! Stop! Turn. A man chooses, a slave obeys. KILL! […] OBEEEEY! Video game.

M4 “She’s my sister and my daughter!” Film.

I only got one of these correct. Talk about deep cuts!

Round Two

5 The Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens, was signed by 68 women and 32 men at the Seneca Falls Convention held in what decade? FB clue, glad that this time I actually paid attention to it this time! 😂

6 Team Colors – Good Land Green, Cream City Cream and Great Lakes Blue are among the official colors used what what NBA franchise? I initially put in my guess for one team, then slapped myself when I realized that I should have paid more attention to the actual names of the colors. Whoops. Missed that three pointer! How do you all like my lame attempt at using basketball lingo? Yes I really did wager three points on this, too!

7 Chemistry – Pure water is closest to what pH number, which is considered neutral on the pH scale? Miss.

8 Stocks – What is the only American automaker that currently uses a single-letter stock symbol on the New York Stock exchange?

Mystery Round Two – Visual

Scores heading into the final:

Two’s Company, 32; Tardy Boys/Meth Lab for Cutie (me), help all my oil is on fire, 47 and 24-Hour Brunch, 48.

Final Question Category – Nobel Prizes

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was  awarded to three men: David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper. What seven-letter word for a complex molecule fills the blanks in the following rationale given for why they received the prize?

Baker – “for computational (BLANK) design”

Hassabis and Jumper – “for (BLANK) structure prediction”

My “team” that day was me, myself and I – and none of those people are experts in Nobel Prize stuff, so I wagered zero.

Two teams got this correct – and they were both ahead of me, so…no prizes for me. Oh well!

Game Two/Round Three

9 Abbreviations – What do the letters “PA” stand for when referring to a type of sound sytem commonly used for music or announcements?

10 Disney – What Disney animated film features a scene in which the title characters share a spaghetti dinner at Tony’s Restaurant?

11 Biology – What is the “M” term for the process by which an animal sheds its skin, feathers, or hair to make way for new growth? This was one of three science questions we had on this night, and the only one I’d get correct! Reminder of why you should  normally bring a team along on trivia nights, right?

12 Borders – Name one of the three countries in South America that share a border with both Brazil and Argentina. Speaking of trivia teams, one of my longtime trivia teammates, who happened to be sitting in the adjacent bar area to watch the U of M/MSU basketball game on TV, stopped by my table around this time and chipped in on this question. I didn’t invite him out fo play with me officially because it was a last minute decision for me to go out and play. And…it looks like U of M won, so Go Blue! Honestly I don’t really officially take sides in the U of M/ Spartan sports rivalry, since I know so many fans of both schools. But my dad is a big U of M fan and works for the sports organization, so I’ll say “Go Blue” again here!

Mystery Round Three – Add ‘Em Up

Answers to each of these clues are numbers that when added up will total 56.

M1 Number of sides of a rhombus

M2 Number of “Days of Night” according to the title of a 2007 horror film

M3 Number of current Canadian teams in Major League Baseball

M4 Number that is the sum of the diviors of the first three positive integers

Didn’t have any teammates to check my maff, so  my total was off. Oh well, got six points out of this round.

Round Four

13 Rules – The Marquess of Queensberry Rules is a code of generally accepted rules in what sport?

14 Album Covers – What 2000 album by NSYNC, which has a cover that depicts the band members as puppets, produced the singles “Bye Byne Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” among others? Will have to quiz my music trivia pardner Kim to see if she would know this because I did not!

15 TV Casts – Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly and Daniel Dae Kim are among the main cast members on all six seasons of what TV series that aired from 2004-2010?

16 Parliament – The Parliament of Canada consists of the monarch, the Senate and what third part?

I had low points left to burn and decided to just f — it and put in a joke answer of “Poutine Advisory Committee.” Which made our sub host Griffen think of “South Park,” apparently! He asked whether there were any fans of the show in the room lol!

Mystery Round Four

Easy as 1, 2, 3

The correct answer to each question is three letters long

M1 Aircraft can rotate along three axes – “pitch,” describes moving the nose up or down, “Roll” describes tilting the wings left or right and what third  term describes moving the nose left or right?

M2 The fermentation of molasses, followed by distillation and barrel storage, produces what product?

My “part time” teammate was here just long enough for me to make a joke about the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, where Jack Sparrow says “Why is the (answer for #2) always gone?” I went on to say, “If he asked why his money is always gone, it’s because he bought an island in the Bahamas.”

I was beginning to wonder if someone bugged my table at this point (which was as far away from the host as it could possibly be). Why? Because he made the same joke about the Pirates of the Caribbean quote! If my table wasn’t bugged, then we were just on the same pop culture wavelength 😂

M3 Since 2019, Liberty Mutual has used advertising that features a character named Doug accompanied by what type of animal?

M4 What term used to describe athletic clothing in the UK is also a term for a juvenile fox?

I didn’t get down the scores heading into the final, but full disclosure – I was in last place! Sadly this will not be the type of final question that will allow a bottom dwelling team to rise from the trenches and finish among the top teams, but at least it will be points for everyone!

Final Question Category: Big States

As part of the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, the United States paid $15 million for 530 million acres of land, which included parts of 15 present-day states. Other than Texas, name one of the two largest of those 15 states by total area.

It would have been a more difficult question had they asked about the smallest Louisiana Purchase states, especially since so many western states are…big. Now I’m going to have to look that up!

Ah yes, it looks like Iowa and Arkansas would be the correct answers here. I’ll save the rest of you trivia junkies the trouble of looking it up yourselves! 

But if you’re looking for the Louisiana Purchase state that touches the most other U.S. states (not necessarily ones that are part of the Louisiana Purchase), I think that would be Missouri. I think Louisiana and Tennessee are the states that get all touchy feely with the most other states. I also saw this morning that they are both also listed in “those” files. JK, JK! I know I should not be joking about this absolutely disgusting subject matter 😔

Our next trivia outing will be our normal music quiz meetup at Corner Brewery Monday. We’ll have ur “lead singer” Kim back this time, so hopefully we’ll do better! We’ll most likely be out for one more trivia night next week.

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Elizabeth Cady Stanton!

answers:

r1 mr potato head, new zealand, petco, genesis

r2 1840s, bucks, seven, ford

m1 empire strikes back, the good place, bioshock, Chinatown (why did I think of Woody Allen here lol)

m2 indira gandhi, princess diana, serena williams, eleanor roosevelt

f protein

r3 public address, lady and the tramp, moltig, paraguay/uruguay/bolivia

r4 boxing, no strings attached, lost, house of commons

m3 four, 30, one, 21

m4 yaw, rum, emu, kit

f montana, new mexico