A Gangster’s Paradise at Thursday Trivia!

A 20-venue slate of games went down on Thursday evening for a total of 195 teams, including 20 teams at Solace Outpost and a 19-team event at Aslin Beer Co. This night also kicked off Pour House Trivia action at two new locations: Mile 20 at the Breeze in Herndon, VA and the Comus Inn in Dickerson, MD!

FIRST ROUND:

For the opening round, we started off by swimming a medley and examining our eye with an ophthalmoscope (easy for you to say). A question about the two most populous U.S. counties saw a round-low 16% get both Los Angeles County and Cook County (Illinois) for bonus points. The most difficult question of the round came at the end on the night’s Three Clues query:

• CLUE 1: This instrument resembles a trumpet with a wider and more conical bore.
• CLUE 2: Chuck Mangione played this instrument on the instrumental hit Feels So Good.
• CLUE 3: Its ten-letter name is partially taken from the German word meaning wing.

About 43% of the field was able to name the flugelhorn at any point in this question, but 17% did so before the final clue for extra credit. This round had the most perfect scores of any on Thursday, with eight teams getting all the points.

SECOND ROUND:

The audio clue in this game played three HBO TV theme songs, specifically The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and True Blood. We hit on the tumultuous life of Shakespeare’s King Lear before reaching the round’s hardest bonus chance; just 10% of our teams were able to get both Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon as the two 20th century U.S. presidents who were of the Quaker faith. Again, the last question of this round proved to be its toughest:

• Based on the release date of the films, what were first three feature films based on recurring Saturday Night Live characters?

A little more than two-thirds of our teams named at least two of The Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World, and Coneheads, but about a third knew all three! Three teams were perfect in this round: Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen), Street Sharks (Fourscore), and The Gang Plays Bar Trivia (Steinhardt).

HALFTIME:

This evening’s halftime page asked teams to name TV shows with possessive titles (such as Bob’s Burgers and Hogan’s Heroes), then use chemical element names to spell out U.S. cities with their chemical symbols (like gold, sulfur, titanium, nitrogen spelling out AuSTiN). Our teams averaged a solid 17.9 points on this one, while 37 perfect scores were achieved. One team passed the 90-point threshold at the halftime intermission:

• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 91
• Ask Me Know Questions (Smoketown): 89
• Samurai Trivia Players (Bear Brick Oven): 88
• Sexy Abe Lincoln (Fourscore): 88
• SEVEN TEAMS TIED WITH 87 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

Round three began with topics like a Triple 50/50 on Snoop Dogg and Tom Petty, the basal-cell carcinoma form of skin cancer, and the film The Help. On the latter subject, a night-low 8.7% of teams earned bonus points for naming author Kathryn Stockett as the creator of the novel that was adapted into the film. The toughest question of the third round came next:

• A Frenchman named Marcel dropped the H from the end of his last name in order to create which brand of disposable consumer products?

It could even be possible that many players were using one of these to answer the question, but only 28% knew that brand was Bic, created by Marcel Bich. Scarecrow Boat (Solace Outpost) and Risky Quizness (Fourscore) earned the only perfect scores of the round.

FOURTH ROUND:

The 6-4-2 about Belgium had a six-point success rate of about 15%. The round began with the rapid aging of child characters of 80s sitcoms Family Ties and Growing Pains, but we followed that up with the game’s hardest wagering question:

• The small white container also known as a Chinese take-out box was originally named for which type of seafood?

That container was first called an oyster pail, and that seafood was named by 17% of the field. Another tricky question came next:

• The Prime Meridian intersects the Equator in a gulf named for which African country?

This question eventually had a four-option multiple-choice clue, but just under half of our teams got points for naming the Gulf of Guinea and 10% earned two extra points for getting it right before the choices were revealed. Concluding topics in this round were the Red Hot Chili Peppers and author Pearl Buck’s works about China. The only perfect score in this round was recorded by YOLO Swaggins (Crooked Run). With only one question left, these teams had the top scores:

• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 160
• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 158
• Reese’s Pieces (Fourscore): 158
• Slime Puppies (Steinhardt): 157
• FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 156 POINTS

FINAL QUESTION (20% success rate):

• Before passing away in 1947, which American carried business cards referring to himself as a used furniture dealer?

The game came to an end with a final question about apparent used furniture dealer Al Capone, more famous for more infamous things. Another Thursday came and went with no teams getting a Perfect 21 for answering all 21 wagering questions correctly. The high scores went to these squads:

• Slime Puppies (Steinhardt): 157
• The Gang Plays Bar Trivia (Steinhardt): 167
• Bams (Aslin): 171
• Butt Sparklers (Aslin): 168
• 42 to 27 (Aslin): 168
• Pringles (Bear Brick Oven): 88
• Painful Burning Sensation (Smoketown): 169
• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 167
• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 167
• Here For the Boooos (Aslin): 171

THURSDAY’S WINNERS:

Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: Painful Burning Sensation  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Triple 50/50: Sean Connery or Roger Moore?)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Crabcakes  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Tim Burton Films)

Loudoun Kitchen and Bar in Leesburg, VA: Washington Foreskins  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Retired NHL Logos)

Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Doodle Party  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Canine Illnesses)

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Hillbilly Geniuses  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: New Girl)

Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA: Scotty Doesn’t Know  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Richard Donner Films)

Brewery Fire in Taneytown, MD: Not Georges Enough  (NO GAME NEXT WEEK — FIRST CATEGORY ON NOV. 3: Real Ships Named Enterprise)

Fourscore Beer Co. in Gettysburg, PA: Reese’s Pieces  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Harry Potter)

Crooked Run in Sterling, VA: YOLO Swaggins  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Virginia Cavaliers Men’s Basketball)

Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA: Last to the Party  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: World Capitals)

Interchange Tiki Bar in Williamsport, MD: No Brainers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Harry Potter)

Bear Brick Oven Pizza in Silver Spring, MD: Pringles  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Seinfeld)

Preston’s Pub in Manassas Park, VA: Bazinga  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Physics)

Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA: Bams  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Pittsburgh)

Kalypso’s Sports Tavern in Reston, VA: Diamond Dogs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: False Advertising Slogans)

Two Story Chimney Ciderworks in Gaithersburg, MD: E=MC Hammer  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Seinfeld)

Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD: The Gang Plays Bar Trivia  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: McGruff the Crime Dog)

Mile 20 at the Breeze in Herndon, VA: Stressed  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Musical Instruments)

Comus Inn in Dickerson, MD: Golden Girls  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: MLB Playoffs)

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