Caught in a Web of Thursday Night Trivia!
An intriguing final question resulted in plenty of shifting in the final standings at many of our Thursday venues, as we welcomed 102 teams across 13 venues:
ROUND 1:
Thursday’s game began with a question on this “father of modern conjuring”:
Only 22% of our teams earned the first two-point bonus of the night by knowing that Harry Houdini was born in Hungary (with the real name of Eric Weisz). Later, we traveled back to 1979 and enjoyed a B-52 cocktail, before closing the opening stanza with a question on the great state of Iowa. After only 17% of our teams could name of either one of Iowa’s two current U.S. Senators (Joni Ernst or Chuck Grassley), we saw seven teams begin their night with a perfect score of 36 points.
ROUND 2:
Thursday’s audio question featured clips from three TV sitcoms: “The Jeffersons”, “Night Court”, and “Scrubs”. We kept the laughs rolling with a look at the Bo Derek film “10”, and quizzed our teams on this Olympic sport sometimes called “Chess On Ice”:
Finally, we asked our teams to name any two of the three solo artists who teamed up to record the #1 hit “All For Love”. It’s only been about 25 years, but these names escaped many of our teams:
Yes, that’s Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting. With only about one-quarter of our teams earning bonus points with three correct answers, the second round yielded just five perfect scores.
HALFTIME:
Mononymous celebrities and ‘T’ animals were the subjects of Thursday’s halftime page. By far, the most difficult picture on this round was the topi:
With only a handful of teams recognizing this bovine, we did not see any perfect halftime scores. More than a dozen teams notched 19 points, so the overall average remained in the ‘normal’ range at 16.5 points. Here are Thursday’s top scores after the first half:
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 91
- Dilly Dilly (Belly Love Brewing): 89
- Syn Storm (Champion Billiards): 89
- Lowered Expectations (Quincy’s): 89
- FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 87 POINTS
ROUND 3:
Thursday’s third round included questions on the continuing investigation into the death of film star Natalie Wood, the South African rooibos tea, and the distinctive soles of shoe designer Christian Louboutin:
The third round went a bit easy on our teams compared to most nights, as five teams turned in perfect scores.
ROUND 4:
The final round included this question on folk tales which stumped a fair number of our teams:
–> The magical phrase “open sesame” first appears in the tale of what folk hero?
It looks like more than a few players mixed up their fictional Arabian characters, answering Aladdin instead of the correct answer of Ali Baba. Later, we asked about the NFL’s Man of the Year Award, which was re-named in honor of this “sweet” Hall of Famer:
Once again, we saw more perfect scores than usual to close Thursday’s game, with six teams answering all three bonus questions correctly in the final round. While each round yielded several perfect scores, PC Principals (Fish Market) recorded 36 points in ALL FOUR ROUNDS, becoming the first team to accomplish that feat in Season XVII, while standing just three points off of a perfect game heading into the final question. Here are Thursday’s top scores after the fourth round:
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 167
- Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards): 161
- Uranus Fly Trap (Smoketown Brewing): 160
- Coco Beware (Olde Mother Brewing): 158
- Dilly Dilly (Belly Love Brewing): 158
- Fan Club (Quincy’s): 158
FINAL QUESTION (42.7% success rate):
–> Though she is not one of the two main characters, a young girl named Fern Arable plays a key role in which 20th century children’s novel?
In the opening chapter, Fern saves a small piglet named Wilbur from being slaughtered, setting off the chain of events in the book “Charlotte’s Web”. A number of our first-place teams missed this final question, leading to several come-from-behind victories. The seemingly impenetrable force that is PC Principals was one of those teams who lost their lead. As a result, Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards) recorded the only Perfect 21 with correct answers on all wagering questions. Here are your top overall scores from Thursday:
- Coco Beware (Olde Mother Brewing): 170
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 168
- Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards): 165
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 164
- Uranus Fly Trap (Smoketown Brewing): 163
- We Drink and We Know Things (Smoketown Brewing): 163
- Breadsticks (Quincy’s): 163
- Harsh Reality (Beef O’ Brady’s ): 161
- FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 158 POINTS
An honorable mention goes out to Washington Foreskins (Bunker Sports Cafe), who notched 169 points while playing ‘over the limit’.
TONIGHT’S WINNERS:
Quincy’s Bar and Grille in Gaithersburg, MD: Breadsticks (Next week’s first category: Limp Bizkit)
Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Power Vacuum (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – Dark Matter or Dark Energy?)
Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA: Cranius Maximus (Next week’s first category: 2017 CrossFit Games)
Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: We Drink and We Know Things (Next week’s first category: Stormy Daniels Films)
Beef O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD: Harsh Reality (Next week’s first category: Diseases)
Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Coco Beware (Next week’s first category: College Mascots)
Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD: Slapsgiving (Next week’s first category: Women’s Gymnastics)
Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Rum Ham (Next week’s first category: “American Dad”)
The Grille at Flower Hill in Gaithersburg, MD: Blood Legion (Next week’s first category: “Saved By the Bell”)
Black Walnut Brewery in Leesburg, VA: Mouse Rat (Next week’s first category: “Parks and Recreation”)
Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL: Better Red Than Dead (Next week’s first category: World War II)
Fish Market Restaurant in Alexandria, VA: Brother of Menelaus (Next week’s first category: George Washington)
Guido’s in Frederick, MD: Astro Derps (Next week’s first category: Female Reproductive Organs)