An Unforgettable Night of Thursday Trivia!
Season XVI began for our Thursday night teams this week, and they came out in droves to get an early jump on those coveted standings points. We welcomed 96 teams across 13 venues to close out this opening week. Let’s check out which teams topped the overall leaderboard:
ROUND 1:
Thursday’s opening round began with a question about the many stops on the London Underground, as well as a bonus question about this famous statue of Peter Pan located at Kensington Gardens:
After quick hits on geography and the new Hillary Clinton memoir, we closed the round with our Three Clues question, with Thursday’s version discussing a certain film:
CLUE 1: This film was based on a comic book series created by James O’ Barr.
CLUE 2: Its sequel was subtitled “City of Angels”.These two clues were enough for 20% of our teams to come up with the correct answer of “The Crow”, while most of the field waited for the final clue which mentioned the tragic death of actor Brandon Lee:
After one round of play, seven teams were perched atop the overall leaderboard with a perfect score of 36 points.
ROUND 2:
Thursday’s audio question dealt with songs that mentioned NFL team names in the title. About one-third of our teams scored bonus points with three correct answers: “Bills Bills Bills” (Destiny’s Child), “Bennie and the Jets” (Elton John), and “When the Saints Go Marching In” (Louis Armstrong). We followed up with a question about this upcoming spinoff TV series:
We then discussed the mnemonic device “Red touch black, friend of jack; red touch yellow, kill a fellow”, which most of our teams knew was an easy way to tell the difference between a king snake and a coral snake. The next question dealt with Brand Names, and proved to the be the most difficult wagering question of the first half:–> Currently a subsidiary of Hormel, which brand of turkey products founded by Earl Olson was subsequently named for his daughter?Host Kyle told us that one of his teams at Lake Linganore Association submitted the response of Butterball, with the explanation that “Maybe Earl’s daughter was overweight and he didn’t really like her…”. Maybe not… Anyway, only 44% of our teams answered correctly with this response:
To close the first half, we quizzed our teams on Olympic Host Cities, asking for any two of the three most recent Summer Olympics hosts that were neither a national capital nor their home country’s most populous city. A majority of our teams earned wagering points with two correct answers, but the bonus was rather elusive, as only 12% of our teams came up with all three correct answers: Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), and Rio de Janiero (2016). Most of the field missed out on Rio, perhas not realizing that Brasilia is the capital of Brazil, while Sao Paulo is its most populous city. As a result, only one team swept the second round with a perfect scores: Charlie and the Vodka Factory (Champion Billiards).
HALFTIME:
Thursday’s halftime round featured pictures of women known as “Miss…”, with answers including Miss Moneypenny and Miss Peregrine, while the bottom half dealt with U.S. state parks. Six teams recorded a perfect score, with an overall average of 17.1 points. Here are Thursday’s top scores after the first half:
- Hans Gruber Preservation Society (Smoketown): 89
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 88
- Dire Wolves (Belly Love): 88
- Breadsticks (Quincy’s): 88
- SEVEN TEAMS TIED WITH 87 POINTS
ROUND 3:
The second half began with a question on everyone’s favorite category: African Geography! Staying true to form, only 31% of our teams knew that the term Malagasy referred to the language and culture of Madagascar. Of course, this question also gave us the most difficult bonus question of the night, as only eight teams knew Madagascar’s capital city: Antananarivo. We continued with a question on the bizarre name of this hair care product:
Next up was a question on matching song titles:
–> Separate current hits by country singer Thomas Rhett and hip-hop artist French Montana share the same title, which also names a third song which took home Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 1992 Grammy Awards. What is that shared title?
This question was asked with a potential crossword-style hint, but nine teams did not need that hint, earning a two-point bonus with the correct response of “Unforgettable”. Finally, the third round included the most difficult wagering question of the night, as only 29% of our teams earned points by recognizing the plot of the 2007 comedy film “Hot Rod”:
With a pair of difficult bonus questions, the third round did not yield any perfect scores.
ROUND 4:
The fourth round began with a question on literary detective Mike Hammer (and his author Mickey Spillane), before moving on a discussion of this Football Hall of Famer who won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Pittsburgh:
Most of our teams recognized the career achievements of running back Tony Dorsett, but only 15% of the field earned a bonus by knowing he finished his NFL carer with the Denver Broncos. Finally, we took a look at this Emmy-nominated Comedy Central series:
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 160
- Breadsticks (Quincy’s): 159
- Hans Gruber Preservation Society (Smoketown): 158
- PC Librarians (Fish Market): 158
- Charlie and the Vodka Factory (Champion Billiards): 157
- Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards): 157
FINAL QUESTION (33.3% success rate):
–> A Monsanto product known as Bollgard is a genetically modified brand of what plant?
Exactly one-third of our teams figured out the term Bollgard most likely meant something that guards against boll weevils, which led them to the correct answer of cotton. Congratulations to Just Good Enough (Champion Billiards) and Dire Wolves (Belly Love Brewing), as the only teams to record the Perfect 21 tonight by answering all wagering questions correctly. Here are your top overall scores from Thursday:
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 171
- Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards): 169
- Charlie and the Vodka Factory (Champion Billiards): 169
- Breadsticks (Quincy’s): 168
- Clever Team Name (Quincy’s): 167
- Just Good Enough (Champion Billiards): 165
- North Country (Quincy’s): 160
- PC Prinicpals (Fish Market): 160
- Thoroughly Screwed (Bunker Sports Cafe): 159
- Fat, Drunk, and Stupid (Champion Billiards): 159
- Vitrifiers (Champion Billiards): 159
- Hans Gruber Preservation Society (Smoketown): 159
TONIGHT’S WINNERS:
Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Us (Next week’s first category: Werewolves (outside of London))
Quincy’s Bar and Grille in Gaithersburg, MD: Breadsticks (Next week’s first category: “Boy Meets World”)
Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Power Vacuum (Next week’s first category: WWII Fighter Planes)
Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA: Thoroughly Screwed (Next week’s first category: National Football League)
Lake Linganore Association in New Market, MD: Faking Bad (Next week’s first category: Kyle Sings R.E.M.)
Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: Hans Gruber Preservation Society (Next week’s first category: Frederick Douglass)
Beef O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD: Harsh Reality (Next week’s first category: Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales)
Jerry’s Sports Bar in Hagerstown, MD: NO GAME THIS WEEK (Next week’s first category: World War II)
Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Dire Wolves (Next week’s first category: 20th Century Dictators)
Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD: Shakeweight (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – Trump or Putin?)
Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Birds of War (Next week’s first category: First Generation Water Pokemon)
The Grille at Flower Hill in Gaithersburg, MD: We Drink and We Know Things (Next week’s first category: 1960s Music – AUDIO)
Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL: NO GAME THIS WEEK (Next week’s first category: “Game of Thrones”)
Fish Market Restaurant in Alexandria, VA: Brother of Menelaus (Next week’s first category: Jewish Holidays)
Guido’s in Frederick, MD: Tuna Noodle Casserole (Next week’s first category: U.S. Civil War Last Word / First Word)