Lighting Up the Steps at Weekend Trivia!

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There were 71 teams at one of our nine venues this past weekend, partaking in a game of Pour House Trivia.

FIRST ROUND:

The most difficult wagering question in any of our first rounds came at the end of Friday’s round, on this film query:

  • After a 12-year hiatus, which British title character portrayed by Renee Zellweger returned to the big screen in 2016 for the third installment in a comedy film trilogy?

About 73% of our teams correctly identified Bridget Jones, while just over a fifth of them added bonus points for naming the second film’s subtitle, The Edge of Reason. A tricky bonus chance came up in Saturday’s game, on a question about the women’s Olympic heptathlon won twice by Jackie Joyner-Kersee; about 21% had both correct answers. Other topics in this round included the Evil origins of McDonald’s mascot GrimaceHead & Shoulders shampoo, and the Pilgrims’ departure from future namesake inspiration Plymouth. After this round’s conclusion, there were five teams left with perfect scores.

SECOND ROUND:

There were some toughies when it came to earning bonus points on the weekend’s audio clues. In fact, Friday’s clue about famous guitar riffs was that game’s most difficult bonus chance, with just 7.6% knowing the riffs of Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry), Day Tripper (the Beatles), and Jessica (the Allman Brothers Band). Saturday’s audio clue played TV theme songs, while Sunday’s was comprised of three songs with days of the week in the title. A video game question tripped up a majority of Friday’s players:

  • Released in 2022, the shooter game Extraction is the most recent video game in which series, based on a novel by the late author Tom Clancy?

That series, Rainbow Six, was named by 42% of the field. Across the weekend’s games, second-round subjects included the pomegranateGenghis Khan‘s prolific family tree, Nordstrom‘s clearance Rack chain, and the planet Neptune. However, the only team to achieve a perfect score in this round was Backyardigans (Springfield Manor).

HALFTIME:

If you played over the weekend, you could have encountered halftime topics such as beer brand slogans, biopic actors and the real life people they portrayed, the final NFL team for various Hall of Famers, and national food dishes by country. A tough Saturday page brought down the average score to 14.8 points, but two teams did enough to earn a perfect score. At the halftime break, these were the highest-scoring squads:

THIRD ROUND:

The third round once again contained the hardest question of a couple weekend games. But first, squads took in questions about the cellulose of plants, bicycle manufacturers Schwinn and Huffy, actor James Spader‘s roles on The Practice and Boston Legal, and Duke Ellington‘s signature song Take the A Train. On Friday, teams had this tricky question:

  • Which 13-letter word describes the key concept of characters in films such as Down to Earth starring Chris Rock, Heaven Can Wait starring Warren Beatty, and Chances Are starring Robert Downey, Jr.?

That trio of films all deal with reincarnation, which granted wagering points to 36% of the field. Saturday’s speed bump also came with a film question:

  • The title of this 2001 film is much shorter than the subtitle of the book on which it is based: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All. Name this film, based on the real life experiences of a man nicknamed Boston George.

Roughly 57% of teams knew that film, Blow, while just three earned extra points for naming the once and future Pee-Wee Herman, Paul Reubens, as the actor who played Boston George’s middleman in the film. A half-dozen perfect scores were earned in the weekend’s third rounds. 

FOURTH ROUND:

Over the weekend, we had 6-4-2 questions about the Chicago Bears, actor Rob Lowe, and Shakespearean title character Romeo. A pile of fourth-round questions ended up with this historical query as its hardest:

  • The subject of both a literary story and numerous film adaptations, the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask was never truly identified, but is said to have spent the last five years of his life in which European prison?

Just under half of our teams correctly named the Bastille. Elsewhere, teams encountered topics like Rammstein hit song Du HastSimpsons Clue murder victim Mr. Burns, and Italian dessert cannoli. A lucky seven teams scored all 36 points in this round. Before the final question, the standings featured these top teams:

FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (36.5% success rate):

  • What was the first Michael Jackson song to have a music video played on MTV?

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (63.2% success rate):

  • In Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, which character looked after Odysseus’ son Telemachus after Odysseus left to fight in the Trojan War? As a result, his name is now used to describe someone who offers wisdom and knowledge to a child or colleague.

SUNDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (40.0% success rate):

  • In March of 1988, which band won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance and Album of the Year, marking the first of its 22 career Grammy Awards? That total remains an all-time record for music groups.

Final answers over the weekend, respectively, were Billie JeanMentor, and U2That’s So Clavin (Pretzel and Pizza) was the only team to achieve a weekend Perfect 21 by answering all 21 wagering questions correctly. At the end of the weekend, these scores ruled them all:

WEEKEND WINNERS:

Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Five Heads, One Brain  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Saturday Night Fever)

P. B. Dye Golf Course in Ijamsville, MD: ON HIATUS  (FIRST CATEGORY AFTER HIATUS: Cryptozoology)

Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD: No Drama Llamas  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Hobbit)

Doc Waters Cidery in Germantown. MD: Beer Pressure  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: NFL Quarterback Alma Maters)

Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA: PTT  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORYAlfred Hitchcock)

South Mountain Creamery in Frederick, MD: D.C. Swampers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Health Care Policy)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Slightly Agitated  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORYPaul Schrader Films)

Pretzel and Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: That’s So Clavin  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORYNFL Hall of Famers’ Final Teams)

Mason Social in Alexandria, VA: Lone Strangers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Hamilton Songs)

Coast Tacobar in Hagerstown, MD: Talia  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Name That Disco Performer (audio))