Kickin’ It at Weekend Trivia!

alt text

Seventy teams attended one of our six locations over the weekend for the latest in Pour House Trivia.

FIRST ROUND:

The toughest bonus opportunity of the first half came early in Friday’s game, with a Three Clues question that began with these two clues:

  • This name is used for fictional characters in both the G.I. Joe and Transformers franchises.
  • This is the name of a piercing on the antihelix of the ear.

While almost every team figured it out on a chess-related final clue, just one team correctly named the rook beforehand for bonus points. Other Friday subjects included the inkblot test created by Hermann Rorschach and the tagline for Reese’s Puffs cereal. Saturday’s trickiest wagering question came on a three-parter about quotes from Dr. Seuss books in which 48% of teams named at least two and 12% got all three right for extra credit. Unfortunately, we started the weekend games with no teams achieving first-round perfect scores.

SECOND ROUND:

Cover songs in foreign languages and Owen Wilson film clips comprised the audio content in the weekend’s games; the latter topic was the toughest in the second round, as 41% named any two of Wedding CrashersStarsky & Hutch, and Marley & Me. A couple of TV-related questions also played tough. On Friday, this was the most difficult wagering question in the round:

  • Wrapping its 34th season last month, which CBS reality competition game show has been hosted by New Zealand TV personality Phil Keoghan since its inception?

Keoghan has presided over The Amazing Race for all 34 seasons; his name was given by 64% of the field. Saturday’s game brought this question to its players:

  • Both Stephen Colbert and David Letterman have taped their late night shows in the Manhattan theater named for which variety show host?

About 54% were correct with Ed Sullivan. Other topics in this round included the historic Pennsylvania Turnpike, artist Salvador Dali, and pop star Lady Gaga‘s studio collaborations with singer Tony Bennett. The latter topic saw only one team on Saturday receive bonus points for naming either of those collaborative albums: Cheek to Cheek and Love For Sale. The only perfect teams in this round both came from Flying Ace: That’s No Moon and Magnificent Seven.

HALFTIME:

Over the weekend, teams handled subjects such as famous TV sidekicks (Patrick Star and George Costanza, to name two) and animated characters with H-names like Helga from Hey Arnold and Huckleberry Hound. The average score was 14 points, but one team did manage to go the full 20-for-20! These teams led the field at the halftime break:

THIRD ROUND:

Friday’s third round contained the two trickiest wagering questions of the weekend sets, starting with these poetic bookends:

  • Penned by Max Ehrmann, what is the title of the poem that begins with the line Go placidly among the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence and ends with the line It is still a beautiful world, be cheerful. Strive to be happy.?

Nobody named the poem Desiderata before the crossword clue was revealed, but 12% managed it afterward for wagering points. The end of the crowd threw our teams a curveball:

  • These two pitchers spent four years as teammates with the New York Mets. From 1999 to 2016, they were ranked first and second for earning the highest percentage of potential Baseball Hall of Fame votes. Who are they?

Either Nolan Ryan or Tom Seaver were identified by 17% of the field, but just over 10% got both for bonus points. Saturday’s round featured this World War II-related question:

  • Taking place roughly five months after the Yalta Conference on July 26, 1945, the Allies asked for Japan’s unconditional surrender while meeting at a conference in this German city. Name this city, the largest city and capital of the German state of Brandenburg.

Potsdam had a 22% success rate among Saturday’s teams. In other third-round action, teams fielded questions on actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michelle Yeoh’s historic Best Actress Oscar nomination for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Fayetteville, North Carolina. Once again, a perfect score eluded our teams in this round.

FOURTH ROUND:

This weekend 6-4-2 topics included the phrase Mad Dog and less-mad dog breed beagle. Friday’s most difficult wagering question in the fourth round came at the midway point:

  • Which three men have served as U.S. President within the last 100 years with no prior experience being elected to any public office?

About 64% of our teams named at least two of Donald TrumpDwight Eisenhower, and Herbert Hoover for wagering credit, but 15% gave all three correct answers for two extra points. This scientific etymology question proved to be the fourth round’s toughest on Saturday:

  • What threadlike structure of nucleic acids and proteins takes its name from Greek words meaning colored body?

A little more than half the field figured out we were asking about the chromosome. Other topics in the round included singer Kelly Clarkson, 1958 Leon Uris novel Exodus, and three famous people with the last name Silver (namely actor Ron, online numbers guru Nate, and NBA commish Adam). We passed through the fourth round with zero perfect team scores. With only one final question up ahead, these were the top scores:

FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (15.38% success rate):

  • Although newer versions can vary slightly on the traditional form, which item first introduced as the Telstar in 1968 consists of 12 regular pentagons and 20 regular hexagons positioned in a truncated icosahedron?

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (25.81% success rate):

  • Who was the first United States-born winner of the Nobel Peace Prize?

On Friday, we got technical with the geometrics that make up a soccer ball while on Saturday, we were speaking (not so) softly about Theodore Roosevelt! However, no teams put together a Perfect 21 over the weekend with correct answers for each of our wagering questions. At the end of our weekend slate, these teams stood tall atop the leaderboard:

WEEKEND WINNERS:

South Mountain Creamery in Frederick, MD: D.C. Swampers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Civil War Generals)

Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD: Beer Pressure  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Clue (film))

Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA: No MSG  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Salvador Dali)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Slightly Agitated  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Pretzel and Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: That’s So Clavin  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Pro Bowling)

Mason Social in Alexandria, VA: Ten Thousand Dugongs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORYCocktails)