A Bouquet of Wednesday Trivia!

Wednesday night’s game of Pour House Trivia was played at 19 locations throughout the region for a total of 196 squads. The most-attended game was at Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD, which welcomed 20 teams.

FIRST ROUND:

The first regular question of the night took us back to the late-80s:

• Starring Robin Williams as a war-time disc jockey, which film topped the U.S. box office exactly 35 years ago today?

Wednesday was the 35-year anniversary of Good Morning Vietnam reaching number one at the domestic box office. For that question, 31% of the field earned bonus points for knowing Williams played a character named Adrian in that film. Other topics in the round included the various uses of the word calf, a Triple 50/50 on island nations, and the Breaking Bad spinoff TV series Better Call Saul. This round had the most perfect team scores, with 18 securing all possible points.

SECOND ROUND:

Four-letter musical stage names comprised the audio question, which wasn’t an easy way to earn points. We played songs by Akon, Enya, and Snow; almost half of our teams named at least two of that trio for wagering points, but just 15% had all three names for extra credit. English university (and Harvard’s city namesake) Cambridge, Jeff Foxworthy’s run as host of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, and John F. Kennedy‘s feat as the first U.S. Navy veteran to become U.S. President all came next. For the last question of the round, we got sporty:

• Often abbreviated WBC, which international sporting event will begin play early next month?

That was the hardest wagering question of the first half, as 47% of the field was able to name the World Baseball Classic. However, the bonus was the least successful on Wednesday, with just over 10% notching two more points for knowing that Japan won each of the first two WBC events in 2006 and 2009. Even so, five teams were able to put together a perfect second round!

HALFTIME:

The puzzle page at halftime asked teams to first match reality TV stars to the show that turned them into celebrities, then figure out answers that ended with the letters us (such as Big Bird’s friend Snuffleupagus and the geometric rhombus). The average score on this page was 14.8 out of 20 points, but nine teams were perfect. One team snuck ahead of a solid group in the overall standings at the halftime intermission:

• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 91
• Three Fifes and a Drum (Craftworx): 89
• What the Fork (Fridays): 89
• Einsteins of Beer (Memories): 89
• Raccacoonies (Idiom): 89
• Carpet Stretchers (T.J. Stone’s): 89

THIRD ROUND:

We started the second half with D-cities Denver, Detroit, and Des Moines, each the most populous in their home state. The night’s Three Clues question was made up of three references to the name Bailey; 14% of our teams provided that answer early for bonus points. The end of the round brought with it this college sports question:

• By defeating Ohio State on both occasions, which university won NCAA Division I championships in both football and men’s basketball during 2007?

Almost two-fifths of our teams knew Florida knocked off the Buckeyes both times, while 18% went for two (bonus points) with both Florida head coaches that year, Urban Meyer for football and Billy Donovan for basketball. With that, we pitched a shutout among our teams, as none were perfect in the third.

FOURTH ROUND:

Wednesday’s 6-4-2 dealt with the TV series Glee, and 45% of the field took six points with a correct answer on the first clue. The fourth round started with topics like Frenchman and electrical unit namesake Andre-Marie Ampere, current country title liquors whiskey and tequila, and R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps literary series. As with the two previous rounds, we waited until the end to stump our players:

• Which war resulted in the U.S. taking control of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines?

That happened because of the Spanish-American War, named by 52% of our teams; 16% added points for knowing that war ended with the Treaty of Paris. We bounced back in this round with seven perfect team scores. We were all tied up after four rounds of trivia:

• Guy at Bar (Quinn’s): 162
• Triple Doge (Quinn’s): 162
• Downtown Crown Family Jewels (GearHouse): 160
• Knocking Puss and Boots (Hops N Shine): 160
• Satan’s School for Girls (Memories): 159

FINAL QUESTION (37.24% success rate):

• The best-selling Hallmark card in history depicts which flower deriving its name from the French word meaning thought?

More than a third of the field used either their knowledge of cards or their grasp of the French language to turn in the correct answer: the pansy. Wednesday’s Perfect 21 teams were Power Vacuum (Belles’), Triple Doge (Quinn’s), and Raccacoonies (Idiom). They also made the overall top-10 leaderboard at the end of the night:

• Triple Doge (Quinn’s): 174
• Satan’s School for Girls (Memories): 171
• Power Vacuum (Belles’): 169
• Alcoholics Unanimous (Belles’): 169
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 168
• Raccacoonies (Idiom): 167
• Comfortably Dumb (Axes): 167
• Oh Wait (Hops N Shine): 167
• H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff (Hops N Shine): 166
• Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 166

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Alcoholics Unanimous  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Goodfellas)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Satan’s School for Girls  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Mongolian Mythology)

Quinn’s on the Corner in Arlington, VA: Triple Doge  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: You’ve Got Mail)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Those Guys  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Board Games)

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: What the Fork  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: British Punk Bands)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Raccacoonies  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: Comfortably Dumb  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Gemstones)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: Oh Wait  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Formula One Racing)

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Bam Gurlz  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1980s MTV)

T.J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: Carpet Stretchers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bruce Springsteen Songs)

Craftworx Taproom in Gainesville, VA: Three Fifes and a Drum  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Mountain Ranges)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Chicken Paw Clan  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Pittsburgh Steelers)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: Titanic String Quartet  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Middle School Math Word Problems)

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: Yinzers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Elder Scrolls)

Thick-N-Thin Brewing in Hagerstown, MD: Cutthroat  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Baking)

Kitzie’s Restaurant in Martinsburg, WV: Prestige Worldwide  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Petrology)

Celtic House in Arlington, VA: We Googled Everything  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Catholic Saints)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fresh Off the U-Haul  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Game Show Hosts)

Augie’s Mussel House in Alexandria, VA: Good Charlie  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Dog Breeds)