A New Week and a New PHT Venue!

The final Monday night of Season XVI featured several teams trying to shore up a house championship, while one of our powerhouse teams was trying to complete a perfect season!  In addition, we also welcomed the Greene Turtle in Urbana as the newest Pour House Trivia venue.  Quite a busy night, which featured 82 teams across nine venues:

ROUND 1:

Monday’s game opened with a question on U.S. Cities, as we asked our teams to name either one of the two most populous cities in Texas whose names begin with the letter ‘A’.  Virtually every team earned their wager with the correct answer of Austin, but less half of our teams tacked on the two-point bonus with the second correct answer of Arlington.  This missed opportunity was especially painful for the teams playing at Cheesetique… in Arlington!  After a Triple 50/50 question on household pets, we closed the round with the most difficult bonus question of the first half.  We began by asking about this celebrity and her notable speech at last week’s Golden Globe Awards:

But we stumped nearly the entire field with the bonus question:

–> This woman earned her sole acting Oscar nomination for playing a character with what name?

Sure, most of of our teams would have earned bonus points if we had simply asked for the film “The Color Purple”, but where’s the fun in that?  Only five teams knew that Oprah earned her Oscar nod for portraying a character named Sofia.  As a result, the first round did not yield any perfect scores.

ROUND 2:

Monday’s audio question featured music from artists with five-letter stage names.  Most teams had no trouble recognizing Sting, but Drake and Usher were less obvious, leading to just 11% of the field earning two bonus points.  The rest of the round was a breeze, as teams rolled through questions on Buddha and Budweiser (those were separate questions).  We closed the first half by asking about this figure from U.S. history who earned his notable nickname at the Battle of Bull Run:

That is a painting of Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson.  Exactly one-quarter of our teams finished the first half with an extra two points by knowing his first name is Thomas.  With two difficult bonus questions in the round, only three teams notched a perfect score of 36 points: B-58s (DRP), Gorillas With Machine Guns (Il Forno), and Faith Plus One (Il Forno).

HALFTIME:

TV families and U.S. landmarks highlighted Monday’s halftime page.  The overall average score landed at 18.1 points, with 29% of the field turning in perfect scores.  Here are Monday’s top scores at the halftime break:

• H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP):  88
• Gorillas With Machine Guns (Il Forno):  88
• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  88
• Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique):  87
• SIX TEAMS TIED WITH 86 POINTS

ROUND 3:

Monday’s third round opened with questions about the two largest moons in our Solar System (Ganymede and Titan) and the work of Edgar Allan Poe.  Next up was a question that combined business and film, leading to a number of humorous (wrong) answers:

–> For your wager, what largest Australian airline is known for being the oldest continuously operating airline in the world?

2-POINT BONUS: This airline gained popularity after being continuously name-dropped by the main character in what Best Picture winning film of the 1980s?

Most of our teams answered the wagering portion correctly by naming this company:

The bonus answer?  Here’s a hint as to what popular answer was incorrect:

Indeed, “Crocodile Dundee” was inexplicably shunned by the Academy.  Fortunately, 19% of our teams remembered that Raymond Babbitt from “Rain Man” mentioned numerous times that Qantas had never experienced a fatal crash.  In a departure from the norm, Monday’s third round yielded the most perfect scores, as eight teams answered all three bonus questions correctly.

ROUND 4:

The final round opened with the most difficult bonus question of the night.  On a question about American innovator Henry Ford, we offered our teams two bonus points if they could also name the Dearborn, Michigan estate which today houses the Henry Ford Museum.  Only THREE teams earned bonus points with Fair Lane.  We paid tribute to Martin Luther King with a question asking for the final three words of his “I Have a Dream” speech.  Surprisingly, less than half of our teams gave us the correct response of “Free at Last!”.  I guess British singers are more in everyone’s wheelhouse, as nearly the entire field earned points on a question concerning this recent commercial:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alRtHXnZMOI[/embedyt]

 

Thanks to the first question of the round, Killer Snails (Hershey’s) notched the only perfect score of the final round.  Here are Monday’s top scores heading into the final question:

• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  166
• Gorillas With Machine Guns (Il Forno):  164
• H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP):  162
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle – Hagerstown):  160
• FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 157 POINTS

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (61.1% success rate):

–> What collaboration was created after friends Chris Wink, Matt Goldman, and Phil Stanton wore face paint while leading a New York City street procession entitled “Funeral for the ‘80s”?

About three-fifths of our teams gave us this correct answer:

Monday’s game saw seven teams notch a Perfect 21 by correctly answering all wagering questions.  An additional congratulations goes out to Killer Snails, who finished off their perfect season at Hershey’s by winning all 16 weeks this season.  Here are your top overall scores from Monday night:

• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  172
• Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique):  171
• It Ain’t Easy Being Cheesy (Cheesetique):  170
• Worst Case Ontario (DRP):  169
• Cher’s Zombie Army (Uno Pizzeria):  168
• Gorillas With Machine Guns (Il Forno):  168
• Del Boca Vista (Il Forno):  167
• J is For Jenius (Il Forno):  166
• Trash Pandas (DRP):  166
• MC (Il Forno):  165
• B-58s (DRP):  165
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle – Hagerstown):  165

TONIGHT’S WINNERS:

DRP in Alexandria, VA:  Worst Case Ontario  (Next week’s first category: Russian History)

Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD:  Arrondissements of Ouagadougou  (Next week’s first category: Danny Glover FIlms)

Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD:  Morgan Station  (First category: Alabama – music group)

Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg, MD:  Killer Snails  ** 16 WINS IN A ROW! **  (Next week’s first category: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”)

Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD:  Cher’s Zombie Army  ** SIX WINS IN A ROW! **  (Next week’s first category: “Arrested Development”)

Cheesetique in Arlington, VA:  Kitten Mittens  (Next week’s first category: “Jurassic Park III”)

Bushwaller’s in Frederick, MD:  Ask Jeeves  (Next week’s first category: “Star Wars”)

Greene Turtle in Urbana, MD:  Magic 8-Ball  (Next week’s first category: HOST CHOICE)

Il Forno in Frederick, MD:  Gorillas with Machine Guns  (Next week’s first category: Epitaphs)