Earning Our Stripes at Monday Trivia!

The start of a week of fantastic weather brought a total of 103 teams to nine Pour House Trivia locations on Monday!

FIRST ROUND:

Monday’s game started strong with words that are also bicycle parts and the 1992 film White Men Can’t Jump before reaching the most difficult wagering question of the round:

• Often used to make sushi in Japan, which culinary term describes crabs that have recently molted their exoskeleton?

Those would be your delicious soft-shell crabs, successfully named by 81% of the field. The toughest bonus question ended the first round; most teams were able to identify Valhalla as the mythological Norse warrior resting place, but just 41.7% of teams were able to identify Valhalla as the 2020 entry in the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise. A dozen teams on Monday came through the first round with a perfect score.

SECOND ROUND:

The audio question on Monday tasked teams with finding the common word My in a trio of song titles, and the round continued with topics such as the legal term habeas corpus and the reality show Cake Boss. The hardest wagering question of the first half was a Presidential effort, as just over half of the field correctly named Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Commander-in-Chief who used the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia as his personal retreat. Perfect scores in this round were earned by George Washington’s Camel (DRP), Team Holt (Bushwaller’s), and Quiz in My Pants (Ragtime).

HALFTIME:

For Monday’s halftime page, teams had to name television shows by their flashback scenes and musical acts by their concert tours. It was a very successful effort all around: 17.4 was the average score, while 11 teams aced the page with a perfect 20 points. The halftime leaderboard on Monday looked like this:

• Team Holt (Bushwaller’s): 92
• George Washington’s Camel (DRP): 90
• Hipster Fashion Consultants (DRP): 89
• Boom Boom Pow (William Jeffrey’s): 88
• Gong Gong and the Butt Demons (Cushwa): 88
• Legalized Gambling (DRP): 88

THIRD ROUND:

Round three on Monday started with the hardest bonus question of the night, as only five teams were able to name the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, and Arizona Cardinals as the only NFC franchises that have been in existence for over 100 years. We followed that up with the game’s toughest wagering question:

• After Walter Mondale passed away last year, who became the oldest living former U. S. Vice President?

81-year-old Dick Cheney is the current elder statesman among former veeps, a fact just over two-fifths of the field knew for their wagered points. The round went on with topics like the late Mr. Rogers, the Murray River in Australia, and the flower forget-me-not. That latter question came with another tough bonus chance; only six teams earned two extra points for knowing that the 1982 song named for that flower was sampled by Will Smith for the title track to the Men in Black soundtrack. Team Holt (Bushwaller’s) wasn’t forgetful, though, since they were the only perfect third-round team on Monday.

FOURTH ROUND:

A very successful 6-4-2 question on the spring season (with a third of the field getting all six possible points!) led us into round four, tackling topics like the former competition show American Gladiators. A question on the punk rock group Sex Pistols was the most difficult of the round, with 55% of teams knowing them from their musicians John Lydon and Simon John Ritchie (better known as Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious, respectively). Questions about Sherlock Holmes antagonist Professor Moriarty, the cult film Office Space, and three-million-year-old fossilized woman Lucy took us to the end of the round, with no teams able to secure a perfect score in the fourth. These were the top-ranked teams before the final question:

• Team Holt (Bushwaller’s): 168
• Hipster Fashion Consultants (DRP): 160
• Table 14 (Ragtime): 156
• Quiz in My Pants (Ragtime): 156
• Boom Boom Pow (William Jeffrey’s): 156
• Gong Gong and the Butt Demons (Cushwa): 156

FINAL QUESTION (26.2% success rate):

• Which military term was coined in the 16^th century to describe soldiers that were too young or inexperienced to fight in the cavalry?

Those youngsters became what we now know as infantry soldiers, and just over a quarter of the field secured their wager by getting that right. The only Perfect 21 on Monday was achieved by Quiz in My Pants (Ragtime), as they correctly answered every wagering question in the game. Monday’s final leaderboard:

• Table 14 (Ragtime): 168
• Quiz in My Pants (Ragtime): 168
• Hipster Fashion Consultants (DRP): 166
• Cobra Kai (DRP): 165
• George Washington’s Camel (DRP): 163
• Team Holt (Bushwaller’s): 162
• Bass Slappers (Il Forno): 160
• Jerk and Thrive (Rockwell): 160
• Socradeez Nuts (Il Forno): 158
• Oliver’s Army (DRP): 158
• FU Covid (Mark’s): 158

A shoutout to Bad Boys For Life (Rockwell) as well; there was truth to the team name, as they scored 163 points while playing over the maximum 7-team-member eligibility limit.

MONDAY’S WINNERS:

Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD: Gong Gong and the Butt Demons  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Julia Child)

DRP in Alexandria, VA: Hipster Fashion Consultants  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Naruto)

Bushwaller’s in Frederick, MD: Team Holt  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: New Wave Music)

Rockwell Brewery in Frederick, MD: Jerk and Thrive  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Mamma Mia! (film))

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: F.U. Covid  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Cannon Fodder)

William Jeffrey’s Tavern in Arlington, VA: Boom Boom Pow  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Winnie-the-Pooh)

Ragtime in Arlington, VA: Table 14  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Wives of Henry VIII)

Aslin Beer Co in Herndon, VA: Jeopardy Rejects  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Monty Python)

Il Forno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD: Bass Slappers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2010s Alternative Rock (audio))