Hooray for Monday Night Trivia!

After the whirlwind weekend, our regular teams were back in action, as Monday night’s game featured 72 teams across nine venues:

ROUND 1:

Monday’s game wasted no time with the difficult bonus questions, as we kicked off the game with a question about the infamous Zapruder film which captured the Kennedy assassination.  Only 22% of our teams knew Mr. Zapruder’s place in history well enough to recall his first name of Abraham.  We closed the round with an equally difficult bonus question regarding this former Comedy Central series:

After most of the field earned their wager with the correct answer of “Reno 911!”, only 19% of our teams scored bonus points by knowing the lead character of Lieutenant Jim Dangle was portrayed by comedian Thomas Lennon.  The only two perfect scores of the first round were turned in at the same venue, as Kitten Mittens and Free Association each notched 36 first-round points at Cheesetique.

ROUND 2:

After an audio question on movie music, Monday’s second round stumped many of our teams in the category of Change a Letter:

–> If you change one letter among these two words, you’ll go from a slang term for a poor golfer to the surname of the boxing announcer who has earned over 400 million dollars for his trademarked catchphrase “Let’s get ready to rumble!”.

Just under half of our teams gave is the correct answers of duffer and (Michael) Buffer:

After a few vodka cocktails, we closed with a question on this dating website which uses a particular Natalie Cole song in its advertising:

Only 17% of our teams closed the second round with a two-point bonus by knowing the title of that song: “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)”.  The second round produced seven perfect scores.

HALFTIME:

Monday’s halftime page featured celebrities named Rose.  The faces of Ruby Rose and Rose Kennedy were certainly tough to pin down, leading a slightly lower average score of 15.4 points.  Only ONE team notched a perfect 20 on Monday night: Free Association (Cheesetique).  Here are Monday’s top scores at the halftime break:

• Free Association (Cheesetique):  90
• Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique):  90
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle – Hagerstown):  88
• Bohs Before Hoes (Bushwaller’s):  87
• Hidden Valleys (Bushwaller’s):  87

ROUND 3:

Monday’s third round opened with a Triple 50/50 question on European Geography, asking whether each of Denmark, Liechtenstein, and Hungary bordered Germany.  Only nine teams earned a two-point bonus with three correct answers, as Denmark was the only one of the three which was a YES:

Next, we test drove several Nissan SUVs and reminisced about the scariest parts of “The Shining”.  We even translated a bit of French by quizzing teams on the historic phrase spoken by Louis XV: “Apres moi, le deluge”.  Just under half of our teams knew that it meant “After me, the flood“.  Finally, we closed the third round with a question on this racecar driver (and her new boyfriend):

Apparently, they have yet to be photographed together, but Danica Patrick and Aaron Rodgers are officially “an item” (according to Danica, anyway).

6-4-2:

Exactly one-quarter of our teams earned six points with this clue:

–> Who is the most recent U.S. President to have NEVER attended an Ivy League university?

Sorry folks, Donald Trump is indeed Ivy League educated, having attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.  You didn’t have to go too much further back to find Ronald Reagan, who graduated from Eureka College in Illinois and did not attend graduate school.

ROUND 4:

Monday’s final round opened with a question on The Beatles, as we learned that the phrase “Let It Be” is sung 41 times in its namesake song (even more than “Hey Jude”!).  The final round also included our nightly Three Clues question:

CLUE 1: When separated by a hyphen, these two numbers denote kingside castling in algebraic chess notation.

CLUE 2: A space with these digits is found on an American roulette wheel, but NOT a European roulette wheel.

Our gambling degenerates sprung into action, as one dozen teams earned bonus points by turning in this correct response after the second clue:

We closed the fourth round with an interesting look at American Authors in Pop Culture:

–> Fans of the animated TV series “King of the Hill” have noted that Hank’s neighbor Dale Gribble physically resembles this author, while the unintelligible banter of Hank’s neighbor Boomhauer resembles this author’s speech pattern.

“King of the Hill” creator Mike Judge confirmed that author Hunter S. Thompson served as inspiration for both of those characters:

Six teams closed their night with a perfect fourth round score.  Among those six teams was the Cheesetique house champions Kitten Mittens, who notched perfect scores on ALL FOUR rounds.  The team’s only blemish tonight was two missed points on the halftime page.  Damn you Rose Kennedy!  Here are Monday’s top scores heading into the final question:

• Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique):  168
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle – Hagerstown):  162
• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  162
• Morgan Station (Morgan Inn):  157
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 154 POINTS

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (78.4% success rate):

–> Also known as the toyon or the Christmas berry, a plant of the Heteromeles genus is thought to be the namesake for which west coast neighborhood?

We must have been feeling a bit generous tonight, as the final question was one of the easiest in recent memory, with more than three-quarters of the field giving us this correct answer:

Congratulations to H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP), Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique), Killer Snails (Hershey’s), and Gorillas With Machine Guns (Il Forno), who each recorded the Perfect 21 by correctly answering all wagering questions.  Here are your top overall scores from Monday night:

• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  174
• Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique):  168
• Free Associations (Cheesetique):  167
• H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP):  166
• Wingardium Mimosa (DRP):  166
• Gorillas With Machine Guns (Il Forno):  164
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle – Hagerstown):  164
• It Ain’t Easy Being Cheesy (Cheesetique):  163
• Leprechauns (Greene Turtle – Hagerstown):  163
• B-58s (DRP):  163

TONIGHT’S WINNERS:

DRP in Alexandria, VA:  H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff  (Next week’s first category: Boy George)

Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD:  Arrondissements of Ouagadougou  (Next week’s first category: 1980s Pop Songs that Peaked at #3)

Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD:  Morgan Station  (First category: U.S. Nuclear Submarine Service)

Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg, MD:  Killer Snails  ** 17 WINS IN A ROW! **  (Next week’s first category: The Eagles – band)

Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD:  Cher’s Zombie Army  ** SEVEN WINS IN A ROW! **  (Next week’s first category: Bill Murray Films)

Cheesetique in Arlington, VA:  Kitten Mittens  (Next week’s first category: Famous Internet Cats)

Bushwaller’s in Frederick, MD:  Holt  (Next week’s first category: Frederick, MD)

Greene Turtle in Urbana, MD:  U-Haul  (Next week’s first category: Medicine)

Il Forno in Frederick, MD:  Del Boca Vista  (Next week’s first category: “The Godfather”)