A Phantomly Menacing Night of Monday Trivia!
The next Pour House Trivia World Series may be four months away, but our Monday teams got a taste of what to expect at the next championship, as we closed September with what may have been the most difficult regular season game of trivia in PHT history. Overall, we welcomed 88 teams across 11 venues.
FIRST ROUND:
Teams hoping for an easy start to Monday’s game found just the opposite. In terms of affecting the scores, the first question of the night was perhaps the most significant:
–> Among the U.S. states whose names begin with the letter ‘N’, identify either the largest or smallest state based on land area.
The most popular responses were Nevada and New Hampshire, but BOTH of those answers were incorrect! In terms of area, New Mexico is slightly larger than Nevada, while New Jersey is slightly smaller than New Hampshire. Only 37% of the field earned wagering points with at least one correct answer, with just four of those teams earning two bonus points with both correct answers. To make matters worse, dozens of teams coughed up a nine-point wager or a five-point category bonus (and in some cases, both). Other opening round topics included former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe, the use of the word “Bad” in film titles, and the life of Marie Antoinette. We did not see any perfect scores in Monday’s first round.
SECOND ROUND:
Monday’s audio question featured the new song “Don’t Call Me Angel”, a collaboration between Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Ray as part of the upcoming “Charlie’s Angels” film reboot. We continued with questions concerning the human skeleton, the Powerball lottery, and the departure of John Bolton as U.S. National Security Advisor. The last of those three topics included an incredibly difficult bonus question, as only three teams knew that Bolton was replaced by Robert O’ Brien. The second half closed with a trip to Five Guys Burgers (founded in Arlington, Virginia). Thanks to the current events question, none of our teams swept the second round with a perfect score.
HALFTIME:
Animated dogs and outdoor concert venues were the featured topics on Monday’s halftime page. The inclusion of Mr. Peanutbutter from the Netflix series “BoJack Horseman” was the sticking point for most of the field, as the overall scoring average reached 14.3 points. Though numerous teams scored 19 points, this halftime page did not yield any perfect scores. Here is Monday’s halftime leaderboard:
- Killer Snails (Hershey’s): 86
- MAJ (DRP): 82
- George Washington’s Camel (DRP): 82
- Pop Rocks (Morgan Inn): 81
- Brain Freeze (Hershey’s): 81
THIRD ROUND:
Even after a slew of tough first half questions, the difficult level actually increased as we began the second half with a three-part question regarding reality television. We asked our teams to name the respective foreign countries which created the original versions of “The Voice”, “Survivor”, and “Shark Tank”. Only three teams earned wagering points with at least two correct answers: Netherlands (“The Voice”), Sweden (“Survivor”), and Japan (“Shark Tank”). None of those teams tacked on a two-point bonus by giving us all three correct responses. After visiting Egypt and discussing the work of Bob Dylan, we closed the third stanza with questions concerning the Jane Fonda film “Klute” and Trappist beer. Keeping with the theme of the night, each of these final two questions yielded success rates of under 20%. Needless to say, none of our teams ran the table with a perfect third round score.
6-4-2 QUESTION:
Though it usually does not have a major impact on the standings, Monday’s 6-4-2 question was noteworthy due to its diabolical level of difficulty:
–> 6 points: First mentioned by name in a 1931 comic strip, this character has the most appearances in comic books for any character that is NOT a superhero or associated with superhero comics.
–> 4 points: This character made his first onscreen appearance in the 1934 short animated film “The Wise Little Hen”.
Only a handful of teams ventured a guess before the two point clue was revealed. Exactly one team (Simple Minds from Uno Pizzeria) earned the full six points on this question. In fact, Simple Minds was the only team to earn more than two points on this question!
FOURTH ROUND:
Monday’s fourth round actually included several of the easiest questions of the night, as the field rolled through topics such as U.S. state quarters, assassins, and famous people (specifically, an astronomer and a hockey player) named Messier. With more than a dozen teams headed towards a perfect fourth round score, the final question of the round crushed those hopes:
–> Which American composer created open, slow-changing harmonies which evoke vast American landscapes and the pioneer spirit, as seen in works such as “Appalachian Spring”, “Rodeo”, and “Fanfare for the Common Man”?
Only 21% of the field responded correctly with Aaron Copland, while just three of those teams added a two-point bonus by also knowing that Martha Graham choreographed the ballet “Appalachian Spring”. Monday’s game marked the first time in Season XX that no team registered a perfect score in any of the four rounds. These were your highest scoring Monday teams after four rounds of play:
- Killer Snails (Hershey’s): 153
- MAJ (DRP): 147
- George Washington’s Camel (DRP): 143
- Pop Rocks (Morgan Inn): 143
- Joyride with Paul Walker (DRP): 142
MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (17.5% success rate):
–> The first appearance in print of this seven-letter neologism occurred in 1958 in reference to the second book in James Blish’s “Cities in Flight” series. This word was popularized in mainstream culture in reference to a trio of science fiction films released between 1999 and 2005. For your wager, identify this seven-letter word.
About one-sixth of the field recognized the time frame of Episodes One through Three in the “Star Wars” film series, leading them to the correct answer of prequel. With virtually every team missing the first question of the second half, none of our teams earned the Perfect 21 on Monday night. Here is your final Monday leaderboard:
- MAJ (DRP): 159
- Pop Rocks (Morgan Inn): 155
- Killer Snails (Hershey’s): 147
- Brain Freeze (Hershey’s): 145
- Rumpleforeskin Grinder (Il Forno): 141
- HTB Crew (Mark’s Pub): 141
- Chef Goldblum’s Raptor Bites (Hershey’s): 139
- Cheese Wizzes (Mark’s Pub): 138
- Morgan Station (Uno Pizzeria): 137
- Quiztery, Inc. (Mark’s Pub): 137
MONDAY’S WINNERS:
DRP in Alexandria, VA: MAJ (Next week’s first category: Joaquin Phoenix)
Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD: That’s So Clavin (Next week’s first category: “Revenge of the Nerds”)
Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD: Pop Rocks (Next week’s first category: “Indiana Jones” Films)
Hershey’s in Gaithersburg, MD: Killer Snails (Next week’s first category: Natural Disasters)
Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD: Morgan Station (Next week’s first category: “Arrested Development”)
Bushwaller’s in Frederick, MD: Trivia Newton John (Next week’s first category: Veterinary Medicine)
Rockwell Brewery in Frederick, MD: Fat Thor (Next week’s first category: OSI Model)
Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: HTB Crew (Next week’s first category: Structural Firefighting)
Dawg House in Waynesboro, PA: Dilly Dilly (Next week’s first category: Oscar Winners)
Flanagan’s Harp and Fiddle in Bethesda, MD: Outdoor Alcoholics (Next week’s first category: “Battlebots”)
Il Forno in Frederick, MD: Rumpleforeskin Grinder (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – “The Real World” or “Road Rules”?)