Boating Down the Mississippi to Weekend Trivia!
With Saturday night’s game at Belles’ Sports Bar doubling as our final playoff game of Season XIX, we welcomed a few more teams than usual last weekend, with a grand total of 56 teams across five games.
FIRST ROUND:
Opening round topics from last weekend included the sitcom acting siblings of Kirk and Candace Cameron, the basketball violation of goaltending, the mojito cocktail, and the recent resignation of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. The most difficult bonus question of the first half was asked in the form of a Friday night Three Clues question:
CLUE 1: This fictional character first appeared in 1939 in a story called “Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys”.
CLUE 2: One of his books made it into Forrest Gump’s suitcase, as he was Forrest’s favorite literary character.
Only four of our Friday teams earned bonus points with the correct early answer of Curious George. Seven weekend teams began their game with a perfect first round score.
SECOND ROUND:
Each of our weekend audio questions featured a rather wicked bonus question. For wagering points, our Friday teams were asked to identify the theme song to the TV sitcom “Family Ties”, but none of our 34 Friday teams earned bonus points by also knowing that Justine Bateman (and NOT Meredith Baxter) earned an Emmy nomination for the show. The following night, we played a cover version of the classic rock song “Come Dancing”. Some of our Saturday teams knew that the song was originally performed by the Kinks, while other teams recognized the voice of Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20 performing the cover version. Unfortunately, none of our 22 Saturday teams knew both answers in order to pick up bonus points. After that rough start, the field recovered nicely thanks to topics such as athletic politicians, the comic book hero The Phantom, and the Heimlich maneuver. Thanks to the audio questions, none of our weekend teams posted a perfect second round score.
HALFTIME:
Halftime topics from last weekend included rock guitarists and Danny DeVito films. With an overall average of 16.3 points, these halftime pages combined to yield five perfect scores. Here is your halftime leaderboard from last weekend:
- Urbana Ooh-Na-Na (Springfield Manor): 89
- Agreed (Springfield Manor): 88
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 86
- Orgy Planning Committee (Belles’): 86
- Meatballs (Springfield Manor): 85
- Fan Club (P.B. Dye): 85
THIRD ROUND:
Saturday’s third round also opened with a bonus question that stumped the field. The first wagering question of the second half asked our teams to name the Fox series which is the most recent broadcast network show to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama. Just over half of our teams knew that the correct response was “24”, but none of those teams knew that Regina King was the recent Oscar winner who appeared during the show’s sixth season. The difficult bonus questions continued for our Saturday teams. In a three-part question concerning current U.S. Cabinet Secretaries, only one team could name Robert Wilkie as the current U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Meanwhile, our Friday teams dealt with the Biblical author St. Paul and a Triple 50/50 question comparing the cities of Boston and St. Louis. Even after closing the third stanza with a relatively easier question concerning the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup, the third round did not yield any perfect scores.
FOURTH ROUND:
The incredibly difficult bonus questions continued into the final round, as each of our two weekend games featured at least one bonus question that stumped the entire field. On Friday, none of our teams knew that 12-year-old Mason Ramsey (the yodeling Walmart singer) became famous for his version of “Lovesick Blues”. Meanwhile, our Saturday teams were stumped twice: as no team knew that the Beatles song “Let It be” was recorded by the charitable music group Ferry Aid, nor did they know that F. Gary Gray directed the 1990s comedy film “Friday”. Obviously, the final round did not yield any perfect scores. Here is your weekend leaderboard heading into the final question:
- Urbana Ooh-Na-Na (Springfield Manor): 153
- Fan Club (P.B. Dye): 152
- Orgy Planning Committee (Belles’): 148
- Four Pours and Seven Beers Ago (P.B. Dye): 146
- Agreed (Springfield Manor): 146
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 146
FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (23.5% success rate):
–> The names Louise, Jack, Marie, and Milo do not refer to anyone in particular, but instead appear in the lyrics of the title track to which 1982 movie?
SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (45.6% success rate):
–> Which American writer is buried in Elmira, New York, alongside a granite monument which appropriately measures two fathoms tall?
The correct answers we were looking for here included “Footloose” and Mark Twain. None of our teams earned a Perfect 21 last weekend by answering all 21 wagering questions correctly. Here is your final weekend leaderboard:
- Urbana Ooh-Na-Na (Springfield Manor): 160
- OK’s (P.B. Dye): 154
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 153
- Agreed (Springfield Manor): 153
- The More You Know (Springfield Manor): 150
- Scared Money Don’t Make Money (Belles’): 149
- Offbeats (Pretzel & Pizza): 148
- Tokyo Tentacle Storm (Belles’): 145
- Fan Club (P.B. Dye): 144
- THREE TEAMS TIED WITH 141 POINTS
LAST WEEKEND’S WINNERS:
Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Urbana Ooh-Na-Na (Next week’s first category: 1980s TV Theme Songs)
Black Walnut at P.B. Dye in Ijamsville, MD: OK’s (NEXT GAME ON JULY 5 – First category: New York Jets)
Vanish Brewery in Leesburg, VA: NO GAME THIS WEEK (Next week’s first category: “Rick and Morty”)
Whole Foods Market in Ashburn, VA: NO GAME THIS WEEK (NEXT GAME ON JUNE 14 – First category: “The Office”)
Waynesboro Country Club in Waynesboro, PA: Bogeys (NEXT GAME ON JUNE 14 – First category: Golf Terms)
868 Estate Vineyards in Hillsboro, VA: NO GAME THIS WEEK (NEXT GAME ON JUNE 29 – First category: 1980s Films)
Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Smarty Pants (Next week’s first category: U.S. Naval Heroes)
Pretzel & Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Offbeats (Next week’s first category: Yiddish Words and Phrases)