A Tribute to Monday Trivia!

The first Monday in November welcomed 81 teams across ten venues.

FIRST ROUND:

Monday’s game began with our nightly Three Clues question, which looked at the term ‘red shirt’ in reference to Italian history, college sports, and the anonymous ill-fated members of the U.S.S. Enterprise.  We continued with a discussion of the Reuben sandwich and the claymation character Gumby, both of which included difficult bonus questions.  In each case, only 17% of our teams knew that Jacob was the father of the Biblical figure Reuben or that Gumby first appeared on the TV show “Howdy Doody”.  By answering both of those questions correctly, only two teams began their night with a perfect first round score: MAJ (DRP) and Morgan Station (Morgan Inn).

SECOND ROUND:

Monday’s audio question featured three songs whose lyrics mention the names of sports teams.  We listened to “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo (Minnesota Vikings), “Deacon Blues” by Steely Dan (Alabama Crimson Tide), and “It Was a Good Day” by Ice Cube (Los Angeles Lakers and Seattle Supersonics).  The second round also included one of the most difficult bonus questions of the night, as only two teams knew that actor Keanu Reeves was born in the nation of Lebanon.  Other topics from the second stanza included the Schnauzer dog breed and the nation of Malta, but thanks to the Keanu Reeves bonus question, we did not see any perfect second round scores on Monday night.

HALFTIME:

The top half of Monday’s halftime page featured pictures which were also the name of a current Las Vegas casino, while the bottom half asked our teams to name the eight Best Picture Oscar winners whose titles begin with the letter ‘S’.  Six teams earned a perfect score of 20 points, while the overall average reached 15.9 points.  Here is Monday’s halftime leaderboard:

• MAJ (DRP):  88
• H. R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP):  88
• Morgan Station (Morgan Inn):  87
• Hue Jackson and the Trombones (Dawg House):  87
• Kitten Mittens (Mark’s):  87

THIRD ROUND:

Monday’s second half kicked off with a three-part question regarding lyrics from classic Motown songs.  We continued with a look at the god Dionysus, the geography and history of Poland, and the film “Catch Me If You Can”.  We bookended the third stanza with another music question, but in this case we took an operatic route:

–> Which Italian opera about a clown is usually performed in a double-bill with Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana”, the two of which are often called “Cav and Pag”?

Only 19% of our teams earned wagering points with the correct answer of “Pagliacci”, while just two teams tacked on two bonus points by also knowing that this opera was composed by Leoncavallo.  Neither of those teams was able to complete a perfect third round.

FOURTH ROUND:

After a quick discussion of the automaker Ferrari in the 6-4-2 question, we quizzed our teams on such final round topics as the human jawbones, Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, the Italian sparkling wine Prosecco, and the life (and death) of Jean-Paul Marat.  With just 12% of the field knowing that Jacques-Louis David painted “The Death of Marat”, we saw four perfect scores in Monday’s final round: George Washington’s Camel (DRP), H. R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP), Sharkfin Pizza (Rockwell), and Outdoor Alcoholics (Flanagan’s).  These were your highest scoring Monday teams after four rounds of play:

• MAJ (DRP):  160
• H. R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP):  160
• Kitten Mittens (Mark’s):  159
• Morgan Station (Morgan Inn):  157
• Sharkfin Pizza (Rockwell):  157

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (61.2% success rate):

–> Which novel series is set in a country that takes its name from a line written by the Roman poet Juvenal, who criticized his contemporary Romans for only being interested in “bread and circuses”?

Many of our players must have spent some time eating in a Panera Bread restaurant, as more than three-fifths of the field responded correctly with “The Hunger Games” (which takes place in the fictional nation of Panem).  Though they faced some incredibly difficult bonus questions, six teams earned a Perfect 21 on Monday night by answering every wagering question correctly.  Your final Monday leaderboard included these teams:

• MAJ (DRP):  172
• George Washington’s Camel (DRP):  168
• Potent Potables (Flanagan’s):  167
• Kitten Mittens (Mark’s):  166
• The House Never Wins (DRP):  166
• F. U. Darts (Mark’s):  165
• Great Heathen Army (Morgan Inn):  165
• Befuddled (Greene Turtle):  165
• Dilly Dilly (Dawg House):  164
• Outdoor Alcoholics (Flanagan’s):  164

MONDAY’S WINNERS:

DRP in Alexandria, VA:  MAJ   (Next week’s first category: “The Shining”)

Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD:  Befuddled   (Next week’s first category: “I Love Lucy”)

Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD:  Great Heathen Army   (Next week’s first category: 1980s One-Hit Wonders)

Hershey’s in Gaithersburg, MD:   NO GAME THIS WEEK   (Next week’s first category: 1950s Rock and Roll – AUDIO)

Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD:  Weasigators   (Next week’s first category: “A League of Their Own”)

Bushwaller’s in Frederick, MD:  Stink Floyd   (Next week’s first category: Boba Fett)

Rockwell Brewery in Frederick, MD:  Sharkfin Pizza   (Next week’s first category: American Saints)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA:  Kitten Mittens   (Next week’s first category: Veterans Day)

Dawg House in Waynesboro, PA:  Dilly Dilly   (Next week’s first category: Human Anatomy)

Flanagan’s Harp and Fiddle in Bethesda, MD:  Potent Potables   (Next week’s first category: “Toy Story” franchise)

Il Forno in Frederick, MD:  Notch Eight   (Next week’s first category: Depicted in a Painting)