“I Love Thursday Trivia!”… “I Know.”

Thursday was a busy night for Pour House Trivia, with seven venues welcoming ten or more teams.  Overall, Thursday’s game featured 113 teams across 15 venues:

FIRST ROUND:

Thursday’s game opened with a question concerning the various roles of actor Bryan Cranston, including this acclaimed role as the 36th U.S. President:

A surprisingly difficult astronomy question found its way into the opening round on Thursday night:

–> If the eight planets of our Solar System were arranged in a collinear path, which planet would be closest to Earth?

The distances between the planetary orbits increase as one travels away from the Sun, meaning that the path of Venus is closer to Earth than that of Mars.  Only 56% of our teams answered correctly here.  Later, we asked a Three Clues question about the Supreme Court and discussed the origin of the company name Google.  In spite of the Solar System question, 16 teams ran the table in the opening stanza.

SECOND ROUND:

Thursday’s audio question featured songs with 11-letter titles: “Abracadabra” by The Steve Miller Band, “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba, and “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons.  We continued by looking at Romanian gymnastics, the Texas / Oklahoma border, and this action film which created a sales boost for the Mini Cooper:

This final question of the first half also included the first true stumper of the night, as we offered two bonus points to any team that could name the African-American director of “The Italian Job”.  With just nine teams picking up bonus by knowing the correct answer of F. Gary Gray, only The Bends (Dawg House) managed to sweep the second round.

HALFTIME:

Thursday’s halftime page featured pictures of ten celebrities with a hidden theme: their first names match those of characters from “The Office”.  Teams who picked up on the theme earned extra points by going back and recognizing faces such as Pam Dawber and Toby Keith.  The bottom half proved to be more difficult that usual, as teams were asked to match candy brands to their respective countries of origin.  Despite a low scoring average of 13.8 points, seven teams posted perfect scores.  Here is your Thursday halftime leaderboard:

• PC Principals (Fish Market Restaurant):  90
• Uranus Fly Trap (​Smoketown Brewing Station):  90
• Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market Restaurant):  88
• Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards):  87
• FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 85 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

We began Thursday’s second half with questions regarding “The Love Boat” and films which featured apes in the cast: “Mighty Joe Young” (another Charlize Theron film?), “Bedtime for Bonzo”, and “Dunston Checks In”.  We continued with a look at this luxurious sports car:

Once again, a wicked bonus question kept many teams from securing perfect third round scores.  While most of the field knew that the city of Krakow once served as the capital of Poland, only 11% of our teams knew that the city’s largest airport is named for native son Pope John Paul II.  Four teams earned perfect third round scores: Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards), They’re Real and They’re Spectacular (Belly Love Brewing), PC Principals (Fish Market Restaurant), and Trivia Knowmads (Fish Market Restaurant).

FOURTH ROUND:

After the 6-4-2 question looked at the various projects of Jennifer Aniston, we asked a question regarding this kosher product:

Only 14% of our teams correctly spelled ‘Manischewitz’ to earn a two-point bonus.  Other final round topics included “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”, the #1 hit song “Broken Wings”, and the upcoming college football season.  Six teams posted prefect scores in Thursday’s fourth round.  These were your highest scoring teams heading into the final question:

• PC Principals (Fish Market Restaurant):  166
• Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards):  159
• Uranus Fly Trap (​Smoketown Brewing Station):  158
• Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market Restaurant):  156
• Lowered Expectations (Quincy’s):  155
• Castle Greyskull (Quincy’s):  155

THURSDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (50.0% success rate):

–> A model of the German Mauser C96 gun was modified to become which film character’s weapon, known as the BlasTech DL-44 heavy blaster pistol?

Exactly half of our teams turned in the correct response of Han Solo.  Though we saw several difficult bonus questions, seven teams recorded the Perfect 21 thanks to correct answers on all wagering questions.  Here is Thursday’s final overall leaderboard:

• PC Principals (Fish Market Restaurant):  172
• Castle Greyskull (Quincy’s):  167
• Uranus Fly Trap (​Smoketown Brewing Station):  165
• Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market Restaurant):  165
• Brain Freeze (Quincy’s):  163
• Not Your Team (Dawg House):  162
• Power Vacuum (Champion Billiards):  161
• Trivia Knowmads (Fish Market Restaurant):  161
• 1-2-3 Drink (Cushwa Brewing):  161
• Breadsticks (Quincy’s):  160

THURSDAY’S WINNERS:

The Grille at Flower Hill in Gaithersburg, MD:  Drinkin’ and Guessin’  (Next week’s first category: African-American History)

Black Walnut Brewery in Leesburg, VA:  Three Men and No Baby  (Next week’s first category: Ancient Civilizations)

Dawg House in Waynesboro, PA:  Not Your Team  (Next week’s first category: Wildland Firefighting Tools)