A Heaping Helping of Weekend Trivia!

March 29, 2023

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With the return of Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD after a winter hiatus (for a 20-team game, no less), Pour House Trivia was up to 95 teams at eight locations this past weekend!

FIRST ROUND:

The toughest question in any opening round over the weekend came on Friday, where we asked about a certain fictional character:

  • Which nursery rhyme character calls himself a good boy in his self-titled poem, even though he sticks his hand in the Christmas pie and pulls out some of its filling?

That character, Little Jack Horner, was named by 69% of teams. However, a couple of bonus chances tripped up most teams. On Friday, a question about the DeBeers diamond company saw just two teams name the scholarly Cecil Rhodes as its founder. Similarly, only two teams earned bonus points on Sunday’s Three Clues by naming a certain letter after these first two hints:

  • The title of the first film to be nominated for Academy Awards for BOTH Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture.
  • This letter is sometimes used to represent an element’s atomic number.

A third clue about the letter being used to represent a character snoring made it much easier to name the letter Z. Other subjects in this round included the reality show Cake Boss, Japan‘s win over the U.S. in the recent World Baseball Classic final, and St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. A game-high eight teams earned perfect scores in this round.

SECOND ROUND:

Audio categories over the weekend displayed 8-bit covers, three-name singers (such as Stevie Ray Vaughn and Lee Ann Womack), and a trio of songs with the word Last in the title. Sunday’s game featured the trickiest question of any second round:

  • Henry John was the given name of this Pittsburgh native who grew one of the largest food companies in the United States starting in the 1860s. Identify the last name of this entrepreneur who is a distant relative of Donald Trump.

Roughly 38% of teams knew that was H.J. Heinz. On Saturday, this TV question proved to be the most difficult:

  • In the fall of 2022, the reality competition show Dancing With the Stars aired its 31st season, its first to air live on which streaming platform?

Exactly half of Saturday’s squads correctly named Disney+ as the new home of DWTS. Some other second round questions involved Civil War general and NSA headquarter namesake George Meade, the 1993 comedy film Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and the space race between the United States and the USSR. In all, the second round produced five perfect team scores.

HALFTIME:

At halftime over the weekend, teams encountered topics such as logos of deliberately misspelled brand names (like Cheez Whiz and Tumblr), answers with a mythological theme, and famous musicians matched to their instruments of choice. On average, teams scored 14.7 points on their puzzle page, but six teams did manage to get all 20 points. At the halftime break, these teams were in the lead:

THIRD ROUND:

Each of our weekend games featured a tough third round offering. Friday’s was a trip to the racetrack:

  • While the Pettys, the Allisons, and the Earnhardts have all won the Daytona 500 as father-son combinations, what is the last name of the only set of brothers to win The Great American Race?

The Waltrip brothers achieved that feat; Darrell in 1989, and Michael in 2001 and 2003. That was the least-successful wagering question of the weekend, at 16%. We got scientific for Saturday’s wagering question:

  • Any compound that contains a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom is part of a group of chemical compounds which are toxic to humans. The most dangerous of this group adds hydrogen to form HCN, a highly deadly gas. What is the common name of these compounds?

About 22% of teams knew the right answer of cyanide; HCN stands for hydrogen cyanide. For Sunday’s hard question, we experienced the great outdoors:

  • There are currently 424 units managed by the National Park Service. While these units are spread across all 50 states, which state was the last to become the home of a National Park Service unit, after Barack Obama signed the Antiquities Act of 2013?

That unit, First State National Historical Park, can be found in Delaware; even with a multiple-choice component, only 28% of teams earned points here. Other third-round topics included the refracting telescope, the character Queequeq from Moby-Dick, and tennis’s Davis Cup. The lone perfect score in the third round went to PB and J (Belles’).

FOURTH ROUND:

At the 6-4-2 portion of the game, weekend teams were clued in on Big Bird, the color grey, and the New York Stock Exchange. Saturday’s fourth round ended with two difficult questions, the night’s toughest coming on this movie query:

  • In his fourth turn as Dirty Harry Callahan, Clint Eastwood spoke the memorable line Go ahead, make my day. In which 1983 film does this quote appear?

Only three teams knew that quote came from Sudden Impact. After that came this 90s throwback:

  • Which two team were playing in Game 5 of the NBA Finals when the broadcast was interrupted by coverage of the O.J. Simpson car chase?

About 27% of the field named either the Houston Rockets or New York Knicks, while 16% knew both for extra points. In other fourth-round action, teams had questions about Sicily’s Mount Etna, Greek mathematician Euclid, and Gangnam Style singer Psy. Perfect scores in this round were recorded by Five Heads, One Brain (Springfield Manor) and Vandelay Industries (Garage). After four rounds, these were the top-scoring squads:

FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (16.07% success rate):

  • Sometimes used in a trivia context, this verb is defined as to provide someone with so much help that they do not need to think for themselves. It is the longest English word whose letters are in reverse alphabetical order. What is that nine-letter word?

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (83.33% success rate):

  • According to folklore, which food was created when a 17th Century choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral offered children a treat that would not only keep them quiet in church, but also remind them of the shepherds that visited the infant Jesus?

SUNDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (42.86% success rate):

  • Between 1957 and 1967, three different shows in this genre were each ranked as the highest Nielsen-rated show for at least one full season. Since 1967, a show in this genre has never topped the overall Nielsen ratings. What is that genre?

Friday’s word was spoonfeed, Saturday’s treat was the candy cane, and Sunday’s bygone TV genre was the western. Lone Strangers (Mason) was indeed the lone team to record a Perfect 21 all weekend. At the end of the weekend, these were the top overall scores:

WEEKEND WINNERS:

South Mountain Creamery in Frederick, MD: Vandelay Industries  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Roller Coasters of the Mid-Atlantic)

Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Five Chicks and Two Dudes  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Washington Nationals)

Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD: Sherlock Homies  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Prince (audio))

Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA: Gen Xers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Real Housewives of New Jersey)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Demented and Sad but Social  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bloodhound Gang)

Pretzel and Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Jeffrey Dahmer’s House of Ribs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

The Garage in Frederick, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bojack Horseman)

Mason Social in Alexandria, VA: Gwyneth Paltrow’s House of Ribs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Popes)

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