We hadn’t paid a visit to McShane’s for its trivia scene since early March. But we revisited the place this week!

McShane’s has two trivia nights – Tuesday – and Thursday. We’ve been playing Tuesday nights at a Sporcle Events spot for the past couple of months in an attempt to qualify for Globe Games there. Thursdays have been generally bad for me to get out for trivia nights because of work.

Now my work days are shifting more toward the earlier days of the week, I decided that it was time for a Thursday trivia night!

We won a $20/second place prize after wagering cautiously on a final question that only one team managed to get correct. And that was a team who moved from the outer rings in the standings (I’m playing on words a bit there and you’ll understand why when you see the final question)!

On a personal note, I heard that longtime player Francis, who has been playing with a team called Spacecats for at least a few years now, has been having some health issues as of late! Our best wishes for a full recovery 🙏 😲

There are only so many other trivia players out there who share both a passion for trivia – and colorful pens with me!

For this recent game, I managed to hustle a couple of helpers – my husband Mike, and also occasional collaborator Kim.

Here were our abbreviated questions:

Round One

Proverbs – What does a Rolling Stone not gather? We put in a cross-off joke guess of “girlfriends their own age” in reference to 82-year-old Mick Jagger’s 38-year old fiancee Melanie Hamrick, whom he brought to the 2026 Grammy Award ceremony. Ah, those rockers! We know it’s not looks attracting these ladies, don’t we? Pssst, it’s the money! 😮‍💨 🤑

Geometry – A hexagon has how many sides? We bring a geometry teacher to our game and they lob this softball at us! 😂

Pokemon – Pikachu is primarily what color? Yeah we were thankful for this softball!

Round Two

Science! – What is the chemical formula for table salt?

Medicine – Fill in the blank for the following joint pain disorder involving repetition – “Repetitive (BLANK) injury?” Miss.

Games – What modern version of an ancient game involves a ball and 6-12 six-pronged pieces?

Round Three

What kind of vehicle is a Vetter Streamliner? Miss.

Oscars – What film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2017 despite Lalaland being announced as the actual winner?

Isn’t this kind of like when someone announces that a trivia team has landed in the prize zone at a cash tournament when they actually haven’t?  Uh, just asking… 🙄 🤔

Authors – What sci-fi author penned the Catwings series of books? Miss.

Halftime

21st Century Music

Given the release years and the artists, identify the songs mentioned on Billboard’s list of Greatest Choruses of the 21st Century.

H1 Carly Rae Jepsen, 2011

H2 Kelly Clarkson, 2004

H3 Outkast, 2000

H4 Jimmy Eat World, 2001

Missed 2 and 3.

We were in fourth with 24 points at the half, Ypsi Starlings Rugby were in first with 32.

Round Four

Movies – What 2014 film featured a conflict between teachers and students at Shaffer Conservatory? Miss.

Dinosaurs -In what South American country was a new long-necked dinosaur species,  Bicharracosaurus, recently discovered? Mike made correct guess here, “It’s always this country,” he said.

Presidents – Who was president when a phone was installed in the White House’s Oval Office in 1929?

Round Five

World Leaders – French President Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently made a gesture inspired by what anime series? Mike again with the correct guess.

Classic Literature – What Roman poet serves as a guide on a journey to Hell in Dante’s Inferno? We picked the wrong Roman poet. Yup, you might be too nerdy of a trivia team if you can name more than one ancient Roman poet! Mike has read this book countless times. Maybe we’ll have to have him work on his comprehension skills? Send him to an elementary school reading group 😂… Seriously he has a better memory for plots and storylines than he does for names. Our brains all work differently.

Royal Decrees – What monarch decreed that hot cross buns only be served on Good Friday, Christmas and at burials? We had a guess for this that would have been correct, but we didn’t want to risk the points after missing that Roman poets question, so we used our freebie option here.

Round Six

Skyscrapers – The Iconic Tower is the tallest African skyscraper and is located in what country?

Singers – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all belong to what numbered club, because of the ages they all were when they died?

Transportation – What color are school buses in the U.S. typically painted for maximum visibility?

We were tied with two other teams for third with 56 points going into the final. Keeping up with the Joneses had 31, Spacecats had 37, I didn’t get down the names of the two teams tied with us, ??? Had 58 and Ypsi Starlings Rugby were in first with 68.

Final category – The Universe

What heavenly body was studied in the Homestake Experiment, which involved collecting elementary particles from the heavenly body’s surface?

Two Dorks moved up from third to get this and win the top prize with 112 points, we finished in second with 33 points, and Keeping Up with the Joneses finished third with 31 points.

Thursday games at McShane’s might be happening more often now that my work schedule is changing! Our next scheduled trivia outing is Sporcle Events music quiz at Arbor Brewing Company next week.

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Virgil the poet! Even if I didn’t read any of your stuff in college but did plod my way through a work by Ovid! Maybe someday Ovid will be a correct answer!

Answers

R1 moss, six, yellow

R2 nacl, strain, jacks

R3 motorcycle, moonlight, ursula leguin

Halftime call me maybe, since u been gone, Ms jackson, the middle

R4 whiplash, argentina, hoover

R5 dragon Ball z, virgil, liz I

R6 egypt, 27, yellow

F sun