A Magical Weekend of Trivia!
Our final weekend games before Christmas welcomed 42 teams across three venues, including a massive crowd of 26 teams at Vanish Brewery on Friday night!
FIRST HALF:
The opening rounds of last weekend’s games included such holiday topics as the name origins of Santa’s reindeer, the celebration of Boxing Day, and this classic TV character:
The most difficult first half question from last weekend was asked in the category of Name That Year, as our Saturday teams were given a five-year window (either way) to name the year in which all three of these events occurred:
EVENT 1: The NFL holds its first game to be officially dubbed the Pro Bowl.
EVENT 2: Elizabeth Taylor files for divorce from her first husband Conrad Hilton Jr.
EVENT 3: NBC broadcasts the holiday special “Amahl and the Night Visitors”.
While most of our teams turned in responses that drifted into the late 1950s, all three of these events occurred in 1951. Only four of our 16 Saturday teams earned their wager, with none of those teams also earning a two-point bonus by landing within one year of the correct response. Just before halftime, we snuck in some Christmas history for our Saturday teams, asking about the discovery of the Natal territory on the coast of southeastern Africa by Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama. None of our teams were able to earn a perfect score during the first half of last weekend’s games.
HALFTIME:
Halftime topics from last weekend included actors who have portrayed Santa Claus and celebrities born on Christmas Day. Overall, the average score reached 15.9 points as four teams ran the table with a perfect score. Here is your halftime leaderboard from last weekend:
- Smarty Pants (Belles’ Sports Bar): 86
- Momentary Lapse of Reason (Vanish Brewery): 83
- Cultured Heathens (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 83
- Uncle Jack (Belles’ Sports Bar): 83
- FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 82 POINTS
SECOND HALF:
Third round topics from last weekend including the Oscar-nominated work of Cate Blanchett, numbers in song titles, and the (actual) Saint Nicholas. Our Saturday teams dealt with a question regarding the Looney Toons character of Marvin the Martian, but only one team tacked on two bonus points by remembering the name of this oversized sidekick character:
Meanwhile, nearly all of Friday teams were stumped by this college football question:
–> At 154 games, the most frequent college football rivalry in the U.S. does NOT involve the service academies or the Ivy League. Rather, it has been contested by a pair of FCS schools located about 20 miles apart in which northeastern state?
Only three teams responded correctly with Pennsylvania, as Lehigh and Lafayette have played nearly ever year since 1884. We concluded our games with questions concerning the Strait of Gibraltar and the music group Pentatonix, but none of our teams were able to secure a perfect score in the second half last weekend. Here is your pre-final leaderboard from last weekend:
- Irish Beer Mafia (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 158
- Cultured Heathens (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 157
- Uncle Jack (Belles’ Sports Bar): 157
- Momentary Lapse of Reason (Vanish Brewery): 150
- Here For the Beer (Vanish Brewery): 147
FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (20.0% success rate)
–> In 1921, which European-born celebrity earned a patent for a type of diving suit that enabled people to ‘unhook’ themselves from the suit while submerged, in order to quickly break free and escape to the surface?
SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (55.5% success rate):
–> Manufactured by the company founded by Edwin Smith and Harold Binney, which brand name is derived from the French words meaning ‘chalk’ and ‘oily’?
Respectively, the correct responses on last weekend’s final questions were Harry Houdini and Crayola. None of our teams recorded the Perfect 21 last weekend. Here is your final overall leaderboard:
- Irish Beer Mafia (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 170
- Uncle Jack (Belles’ Sports Bar): 161
- Smarty Pants (Belles’ Sports Bar): 160
- Cultured Heathens (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 159
- Demented and Sad But Social (Belles’ Sports Bar): 156
- Momentary Lapse of Reason (Vanish Brewery): 150
- Empty Green Can (Vanish Brewery): 139
- Here For the Beer (Vanish Brewery): 135
- THREE TEAMS TIED WITH 134 POINTS
LAST WEEKEND’S WINNERS:
Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Stupid Sexy Flanders (NEXT GAME ON JAN. 18 – First category: “Pushing Daisies”)
Vanish Brewery in Leesburg, VA: Momentary Lapse of Reason (NEXT GAME ON JAN. 4 – First category: Types of Beer)
Whole Foods Market in Ashburn, VA: NO GAME THIS WEEK (NEXT GAME ON JAN. 11 – First category: World Cup Skiers)
Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Uncle Jack (Next week’s first category: Triple 50 / 50 AUDIO: “Star Trek” – 1960s TV series or “Star Wars” – 1977 film)
Pretzel & Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Irish Beer Mafia (Next week’s first category: George Washington)