A Manifesto for Tuesday Trivia!

The first Tuesday of Season XXI welcomed 156 teams across 22 venues.

FIRST ROUND:

We began Tuesday’s game with a look at the recent cheating scandal that has rocked Major League Baseball this month, before asking a Three Clues question concerning the pencil.  The opening round also included topics such as the religious denomination of the Quakers and the element sodium, the latter of which gave us the most difficult bonus questions of the round.  Given a window of one either way, only 21% of our teams knew that sodium bears the atomic number of eleven.  A dozen teams posted a perfect first round score of 36 points.

SECOND ROUND:

Tuesday’s audio question featured a cover version of the classic Steve Miller song “Abracadabra” as performed by the band Sugar Ray.  Other second round topics included the history of Australia, the TV show “The Masked Singer”, and Swiss Cheese.  The second round also included the most difficult bonus question of the night.  After most of the field earned wagering points on a question regarding the Shakespearean character Ophelia, only three teams tacked on two bonus points by also knowing that John Everett Millais created a notable painting of the character in the 1850s.  One of those three teams (Del Ray Dummies from Charlie’s) ran the table in the second stanza.

HALFTIME:

Foods were the focus on both halves of Tuesday’s halftime page.  First, our teams were asked to identify pictures of foods whose names begin with the letter ‘C’, while the bottom half comprised a matching section of fictional characters and their favorite foods.  The field must have been hungry for those topics, as 27% of our teams earned a perfect score of 20 points, while the overall average reached an appetizing 18.5 points.  Here is Tuesday’s halftime leaderboard:

• Wiseacres (Champion):  90
• Get High… Scores (Olney Winery):  90
• Loyal Order of the Beefalo (Charlie’s):  88
• TEN TEAMS TIED WITH 86 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

We kicked off Tuesday’s second half with a three-part question regarding sports stadiums, before moving on to the philosophical concept of hedonism, the video game series “The Legend of Zelda”, and the surname of Cassini (shared by Oleg the fashion designer and Giovanni the astronomer).  In the most difficult bonus question of the round, only ten teams knew that “Four Swords Adventures” was the title of the 2004 Game Cube release in the “Zelda” series.  Two teams earned a perfect third round score: How Did I Get Here (Senor Tequila’s) and Cell Phony Baloney (Charlie’s).

FOURTH ROUND:

After the 6-4-2 question noted the unique connection between Russia and YouTube, Tuesday’s final round began with a look at comedian Eddie Murphy and author Thomas Hardy.  In between those two queries, we asked the most difficult wagering question of the night:

–> In Wellesley, Massachusetts, a particular street sign became a target for thieves last spring.  Six signs were stolen before the city stopped replacing them.  At least the sign wasn’t stolen 19 weeks in a row; that would be a record!  For your wager, identify this thoroughfare.

The reference to “19 weeks in a row” being a record was the biggest clue in this question, but only 23% of the field caught on by giving us the correct response of “Old Town Road”.  After closing the fourth round with a look at the cities of New Mexico and automotive models, we saw seven teams record a perfect final round score.  These were your highest scoring Tuesday teams after four rounds of play:

• Get High… Scores (Olney Winery):  162
• Wiseacres (Champion):  161
• Gang of Fools (Cuginis):  160
• Twerking For Shots (Union Jack’s):  158
• Bizarre, Interesting, and Essential (Dudley’s):  158
• Hipster Fashion Consultants (Dudley’s):  158

TUESDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (63.7% success rate):

–> Located in Highgate Cemetery in London, whose grave is marked with the epitaph, “Workers of all lands unite”?

Nearly two-thirds of the field gave us the correct response of Karl Marx.  Congratulations to the seven teams that recorded a Perfect 21 on Tuesday by answering every wagering question correctly.  Tuesday’s final overall leaderboard included these teams:

• Bizarre, Interesting, and Essential (Dudley’s):  170
• Hipster Fashion Consultants (Dudley’s):  170
• Get High… Scores (Olney Winery):  170
• Slime Puppies (Hometown Harvest):  169
• Lush Puppies (Olney Winery):  169
• Del Ray Dummies (Charlie’s):  168
• How Did I Get Here (Senor Tequila’s):  168
• Half Nelsons (Hometown Harvest):  168
• Hunchbacks of Notre Gone (Tommy Joe’s):  167
• Twerking For Shots (Union Jack’s):  167

TUESDAY’S WINNERS:

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD:  Wiseacres   (Next week’s first category: Impotent Potables)

Cuginis in Poolesville, MD:  Moons of Uranus   (Next week’s first category: Things Around Uranus)

Senor Tequila’s in Germantown, MD:  How Did I Get Here?   (Next week’s first category: Baseball Hall of Fame)

Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick, MD:  Pat’s Penguins   (Next week’s first category: Architecture)

Topgolf in Ashburn, VA:  Bonesaw   (Next week’s first category: “The X-Files”)

The Block in Annandale, VA:  Five Dollar Happy Ending  (Next week’s first category: “Cats” – 2019 film)

Upper Deck in Mount Airy, MD:  Chicken McThuggets   (Next week’s first category: 1960s Sitcoms)

Olney Winery in Olney, MD:  Get High…  Scores   (Next week’s first category: 1990s Hip Hop – AUDIO)

Cheesetique in Fairfax, VA:  Hoodies   (Next week’s first category: Minnesota)

Charlie’s On the Avenue in Alexandria, VA:  Del Ray Dummies   (Next week’s first category: Ulysses Grant)

Vola’s Dockside Grill in Alexandria, VA:  There is No Dana, Only Zuul   (Next week’s first category: “Ghostbusters”)

Funkstown Tavern in Funkstown, MD:  Irish Beer Mafia   (Next week’s first category: Karl Marx)

Dudley’s Sport and Ale in Arlington, VA:  Hipster Fashion Consultants   (Next week’s first category: Cy Young Award Winners)

Quincy’s Uptown in Damascus, MD:  Paradigm Shift   (Next week’s first category: “Arrested Development”)

Hometown Harvest Kitchen in Frederick, MD:  Slime Puppies   (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50: Garfield or Heathcliff?)

Ramparts Tavern in Alexandria, VA:  Trail Mix   (Next week’s first category: DC Comics)

Monk’s BBQ in Purcellville, VA:  Better Lucky Than Smart   (Next week’s first category: 19th Century U.S. Vice Presidents)

Quincy’s South in Rockville, MD:  Balls Out   (Next week’s first category: “The Godfather”)

Casa Tequila in Lovettsville, VA:  True Wit   (Next week’s first category: Arctic Animals)

Tommy Joe’s in Bethesda, MD:  Hunchbacks of Notre Gone  (Next week’s first category: Dixie Chicks – AUDIO)

Union Jack’s in Gaithersburg, MD:  Twerking For Shots   (Next week’s first category: Charge Coupled Device)

Miller’s Ale House in St. Petersburg, FL:  Poynter Pros   (Next week’s first category: “Star Trek”)