Scroll all the way to the end for the answers.

We continued in our quest to play the remaining games left in the Sporcle Events season on a recent warm Tuesday evening.

The Tigers were playing at home, all three of us wore shorts out in public for the first time in 2026 and…and…

Uh, let’s not talk about how awfully we did in game one! 💩 🙄 Can we not?

Yeah, it was almost as precarious of a situation as this one in Suicide Squad (the good one not the awful one with the Jared Leto Joker):

We missed two science questions, drew almost a blank on a mystery round about recent Arab American literature, forgot that Rob Reiner played a dad in that one movie with Margot Robbie (no, not Suicide Squad), forgot which state was involved in Brown vs. Board of Education.  Ugh a Trivial Pursuit question if there ever was one.

To be fair though – unless you actually live in one of them, aren’t all of those boring Midwest states “flyover states?” Where the corn side is crispiest and the corn squeezings are “meh?”

You need to hit up one of the ‘Bama states for those! Alabama, Arkanbama, Missibama, or Floribama for the best shine! Or…Kentucky!

Before this turns into a silly opinion piece about whether we really need fifty states…how about a game recap?

We finished first in game two winning a $20 prize and first overall for the night.

Here were our questions:

Game One/Round One

1 Games – In the electronic handheld game Simon, players must memorize various sequences of colored lights, which are clue, red, yellow and what fourth color?

2 TV Hosts – The Late Late Show on CBS had four permanent hosts during its run from 1995-2003, including two who share what first name?

NERD POINT: What was the name of the human skeleton sidekick on this show from 2010-2014?

Miss and miss. Late night TV not our strong point. Some of us think Johnny Carson and David Letterman were the only important late night hosts (yeah we’re old).

3 Metals – According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the elements in Groups 3-12 on the periodic table are classified as what type of metals? Miss.

4 Naming Rights – Name one of the two companies that have held the naming rights to the home arena of the Los Angeles Lakers since it opened in 1999.

Strangely, we got this. Go figure…stadium names not usually very strong category for us!

Now for a mystery round we won’t know a damn thing about 😆

Mystery Round One

Arab American Lit

In honor of National Arab American Heritage Month, answer the questions about books written by Arab American authors.

M1 The 2024 novel My Friends by author Hisham Matar follows three individuals living in London as exiles from what North American country, where Matar’s family lived in Tripoli prior to moving to the U.S.?

M2 What term for an Arab conquerer of Iberia fills the blank of a 2014 novel by Laila Lalami that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize – The (BLANK) Account?

M3 What Lebanon-born writer is best known for The Prophet, a book of 26 prose poetry fables, which was first published in the U.S. in 1923?

M4 Did not get this question down. But it was not the one question in this round that we would get correct (which was #2).

That question is dedicated to the longtime trivia team The Moops!

Round Two

5 Supreme Court – The defendant in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education was a school system in what Midwest U.S. state?

Brad thought it was one state, I thought it was another. We were both wrong, but my guess was closer geographically. Still wrong!

Come on…just merge these two dreadfully dull states into one combined state! One less capital to memorize!

6 Geography Terms – What word can refer to the upper left corner of a flag, a political division in Switzerland that functions like a U.S. state and a former name of the Chinese city of Guangzhou?

Damn I live next door to a place with this name…miss.

7 Movie Dads – Rob Reiner portrays an accountant named Max, the main character’s father in what 2013 film that was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture?

Miss, we guessed Boyhood. I forgot he was in this movie that I saw… once.

8 Letters – In the NATO phonetic alphabet, the letter O is represented by what word that is a common man’s name?

Yay we actually knew this one! We have Army Brat Mike to thank here (he also taught me the whole NATO alphabet back when we used to fool around with walkie-talkies and wanted to sound all “special ops.”

Mystery Round One

#1 Hit Synonyms

Name the song that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 based on the year it was released as a single an an alternate synonymous title.

M1 2010 – Lift Your Goblet

M2 1974 – Shake the Schooner

M3 1982 – Black and White

M4 2017 – Unblemished

We snagged up eight precious points here. Boy did we need them!

We were seventh out of nine teams with (god I don’t even want to reveal this…but it’s the same number associated with the ages of Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse and Jim Morrison when they all ceased to be).

So how low was our score? Lower than low rider jeans in the early 2000s that showed off the tramp stamps!

Yeah, we “try” to set higher standards for ourselves in trivia! We keep our tramp stamps hidden 😆

Stiff Tutu was in first with 47, Lego Weapons and Chaos was in second with 46, 212 was in third with 40, Dairy Cream was in fourth – tied with Dangerous Nights with 35, 2 Hot Potatoes was in fifth with 27 (the poor dears were tied with us). Empty Nesters and the Dragoons were behind us.

Final Question Game One:

Category – Hall of Famers

Name two of the three players who primarily played tight end during their NFL career who have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame since 2010.

We wagered zero but that didn’t help us much. Though Brad did manage to name one correct guy.

One team got this correct – Lego Weapons and Chaos, who finished first with 61 points – every one else wagered zero but were already ahead of us. Opposite of what usually happens with sportsball questions at the Corner Brewery – where everyone bets – and only a handful – if any – get it. Every trivia crowd is different!

Game Two/Round Three

9 Alcohol – What type of berry is infused in a neutral grain spirit to create gin?

10 U.S. Geography – The Northwest Angle, the only place in the contiguous United States that is north of the 49th parallel, is located in what Midwest state? This time Brad and I agreed on the same state and it was correct!

11 Footwear – What comfort centered footwear experienced a boom in popularity in 2009 – three years after the release of the film Idiocracy, which featured the footwear in its costumes? FB host clue.

I got a pair of these for my birthday this year (love them):

12 TV Themes – Of the characters named in the Jetsons theme song, which one is mentioned last?

Mystery Round Three – Visual

I did not get the slide for #3. We don’t have the questions on screen at our bar, and I didn’t have the URL. I tried getting screen shots, but #3 got missed.

We got all of these. Oddly enough!

Round Four

13 Directors – The 1990s films Mallrats and Chasing Amy are the second and third films, respectively, in the directorial career of what individual?

NERD POINT: What 1994 film marked the director’s debut?

14 1960s Music – This was an audio clip of a song by the Queen of Soul with a single word title. This 1967 single that topped Rolling Stone’s 2024 list of the 500 Greatest song of All Time.

15 Earth Science – What is the “S” term for the geological process on which two tectonic plates converge with the lighter of the two rising above the heavier plate?

Second science flub of the night.

16 Hits – In September, 1985, Pete Rose collected his 4,192nd career hit, breaking the MLB record previously held by what Hall of Famer and longtime Detroit Tigers outfielder?

Nice work Brad!

Mystery Round Four

BB Kings

The correct answer to each question includes the letter B twice.

M1 Produced by Daisy Outdoor Products, the Red Ryder is what specific type of product?

M2 What is the stage name of the Canadian musician Alex Gumuchian, who refers to himself as the “Gen Z Enimem” in his song “It Boy?”

M3 What discontinued brand of mobile devices, prominent in the early 2000s, is known for having a full QWERTY keyboard?

M4 What ball-shaped “droid” character first introduced in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Missed #2.

We had an easier time with the second game questions, we were second with 52 behind Dangerous Nights, who had 53. Stiff Tutu and Lego Weapons and Chaos were tied for third with 47, DKLC was in fifth with 42, 212 was in sixth with 40, risk it for the brisket was in seventh with 31, and empty nesters were in eighth with 25.

This time we bet it all on the final category of:

Final Question Game Two

Category: Movie Presidents

Morgan Freeman has played a character who was either the U.S. president or the acting U.S. president in three films. Name two of those three movies, two of which are part of a 2010s action thriller film series.

We finished first with 72 points and were the only team getting it correct. Why? Because we’re brilliant/ Why, heavens no! We just happened to name one film outside the “franchise” series, which tripped up a number of teams – because the guy didn’t play the president in all three of the action thriller franchise movies. Mike only knew one of the movies from the series, which thankfully happened to be the correct answer.

So our lack of knowledge about the series actually helped us!

The other movie I remembered from the late 90s has a title that sounds like a porno and also has Elijah Wood and Tea Leoni (she’s played a few cougar roles lately, like in Only Murders in the Building).

We like to get our trivia done early in the week these days, so this is it for us until next week. As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Rob Reiner!

Answers:

R1 green, Craig/geoff, transitional, staples/crypto dot com

R2,

Canton, wolf of Wall Street, oscar

M1 libya, moor, joubran, Jordan

M2 raise your glass, rock the boat, ebony and ivory, perfect

F antonio gates, shannon sharp, tony gonzalez

R3 juniper, Minnesota, crocs, jane,

R4 Kevin smith/clerks, respect, subduction, ty cobb

M3 prince of egypt, spongebob, frozen, anastasia

M3 BB gun, bbno$, blackberry, bb8

F2 deep impact, Olympus has fallen