A Thursday Night Lesson in Morse Code…
Our last weeknight of trivia before World Series XVI featured 107 teams across 13 venues, including our newest Florida venue: the Bahama Bar at Esplanade Golf & Country Club. Let’s get to that recap!
ROUND 1:
Thursday’s first round opened with a look at the latest installment in this film trilogy:
We also talked about the fastest route from Albuquerque to Amarillo, before finishing with a question on the work of actor Paul Reiser, which included naming this show to earn a two-point bonus:
Unfortunately, the sitcom “My Two Dads” couldn’t exist today, as Maury Povich would have shortened this series to one episode. The first round was smooth sailing for the field, as 15 teams notched perfect scores.
ROUND 2:
Thursday’s audio question featured three “Good” songs: “Good Vibrations” (by the Beach Boys), “(Let the) Good Times Roll” (by The Cars), and “Good Girls Go Bad” (by Cobra Starship). We followed that with a question on this Los Angeles landmark:
The La Brea Tar Pits are one of L.A.’s most notable attractions. Moving on, we discussed the Super Bowl achievements of the San Francisco 49ers and the companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average. We closed the first half with a little history:
–> The year 1869 saw the completion of these two massive engineering projects: one on May 10 in northern Utah, the other on November 17 in northern Egypt. Name either one of these projects.
About one-third of our teams picked up two bonus points with the correct responses of the Transcontinental Railroad and the Suez Canal. Seven teams earned perfect scores in the second round, with five of those teams riding a perfect game into halftime.
HALFTIME:
Thursday’s halftime round featured pictures of mythological celebrities (e.g. Freddie Mercury and Ulysses Grant), while the bottom half looked at the film work of Meryl Streep. Our overall average score reached 16.1 points, with 12 teams notching a perfect 20 points. Here are Thursday’s top scores after the first half:
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 92
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 92
- Birds of War (Olde Mother Brewing): 92
- Breadsticks (Quincy’s): 92
- FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 90 POINTS
ROUND 3:
With nearly half of our teams sporting scores of over 80 points, confidence was riding high entering the second half, but things changed quickly with the first question:
–> In addition to her current role in Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary Elaine Chao also served in the Cabinet of George W. Bush. Name either one of the departments in which she served.
About half of our teams took home points by knowing that Ms. Chao currently serves as the Secretary of Transportation, but only 13% of the field took home bonus points by also knowing she served as Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush. Next, we asked our teams to name the non-profit organization that produces each of the two most widely distributed magazines in the country:
We closed the round with questions on Vincent Van Gogh and Hannibal Burress, but we did not see any perfect scores in the third round.
6-4-2 QUESTION:
For Thursday’s 6-4-2 question, the six-point clue led to a rather interesting response from our field:
–> In Scrabble, this letter is worth three points. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, it is represented by a male first name. In Morse code, it represented by two dashes. What is this letter?
It seems as though many of our teams started at the beginning of the NATO alphabet, progressing through Alpha, Bravo, Charlie… and immediately went for six points. Among those teams that guessed after this first clue, more than 80% answered incorrectly! Only nine teams scored the full six points with this correct response:
ROUND 4:
The final stanza included questions on recent Braodway musicals based on feature films (specifically “School of Rock” and “Waitress”), the work of Charles Darwin, and the only #1 hit in the United States for this classic rocker:
We snacked on some pimentos before closing the final stanza with a question on these three record holders who share a surname:
From left to right, that’s Darrell Green (most NFL games played by a defensive player), A. C. Green (most consecutive games played in NBA history), and Shawn Green (most total bases in one MLB game). Ours sports fans had no trouble with this question, as the final round yielded six perfect scores. Here are Thursday’s top scores after the fourth round:
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 161
- Killer Snails (Quincy’s): 158
- Birds of War (Olde Mother Brewing): 156
- Indians (Bunker Sports Cafe): 156
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 155
- Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards): 155
FINAL QUESTION (65.1% success rate):
–> Two works entitled “Pickles to Pittsburgh” and “Planet of the Pies” served as sequels to which children’s book?
Just under two-thirds of our teams responded correctly with the book “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”. Despite more than a dozen teams topping 160 points on Thursday, we saw just one team record the Perfect 21 with correct answers on all wagering questions. Congratulations to Power Vacuum from Champion Billiards! Here are your top overall scores from Thursday:
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 168
- Birds of War (Olde Mother Brewing): 168
- Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards): 167
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 167
- Lowered Expectations (Quincy’s): 167
- Vitrifiers (Champion Billiards): 166
- See You Next Thursday (Cushwa Brewing): 166
- It Could Be Anything (Champion Billiards): 165
- Quiz In My Pants (Cushwa Brewing): 165
- Smarty Pants (Beef O’ Brady’s): 164
TONIGHT’S WINNERS:
Esplanade Golf & Country Club in Bradenton, FL: J’s (NEXT GAME ON FEB. 22 – First category: History)
Quincy’s Bar and Grille in Gaithersburg, MD: Lowered Expectations (Next week’s first category: Human Immune System)
Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Power Vacuum (Next week’s first category: Big Cats)
Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA: Indians (Next week’s first category: Super Bowl History)
Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD (from Wednesday): Uranus Fly Trap (Next week’s first category: “Looney Tunes”)
Beef O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD: Smarty Pants (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – Backstreet Boys or N*SYNC?)
Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Dire Wolves (Next week’s first category: Serial Killers)
Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD: See You Next Thursday (Next week’s first category: Aviation)
Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Birds of War (Next week’s first category: “Frisky Dingo”)
The Grille at Flower Hill in Gaithersburg, MD: Jackie Cola (Next week’s first category: Comic Books)
Black Walnut Brewery in Leesburg, VA: Mouse Rat (Next week’s first category: Educational Acronyms)
Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL: Danzig (Next week’s first category: Christopher Walken)
Fish Market Restaurant in Alexandria, VA: Brother of Menelaus (Next week’s first category: The Russian Revolution)
Guido’s in Frederick, MD: Stranger Danger (Next week’s first category: Sewing)