Living on a Thursday Trivia Prayer!

Among our Thursday locations for Pour House Trivia were Solace Outpost‘s 26-team event and another 22 squads that played at Aslin Beer Co. We also started a new Thursday night game at Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD! In total, the game took place at 18 venues for a total of 209 teams.

FIRST ROUND:

Thursday’s groups had no trouble with the wagering questions they received in the opening round. We discussed animals in various brand logos, the origin of the Fantastic Four, and the National Parks in the state of Utah. The aforementioned Fantastic Four question featured the round’s most difficult bonus chance, though:

• What is the FIRST and LAST name of the lead actress from the most recent film adaptation of this story?

For those extra two points, the correct answer was Kate Mara, given by a quarter of the field. There were 27 teams with perfect scores at the end of the first round.

SECOND ROUND:

Theme songs for a trio of TV police dramas and the certainties of death and taxes comprised the opening pair of questions in round two. There were a couple of speed bumps after that, beginning with this baseball record-setter:

• In addition to several positive records, which Hall of Fame pitcher is by far the MLB career leader in walks allowed?

That would be Nolan Ryan and his record 2,795 free passes to first base offered; 56% of the field knew that name, while just under a fifth of our teams knew he started his MLB career with the New York Mets. Next up, we took a trip back to the ’70s radio dial for the most difficult wagering question of the first half:

•  The only #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for Eric Clapton was a 1970s cover version of which song written by Bob Marley?

I Shot the Sheriff was correctly named by 54% of our groups, with six of them getting those points en route to a perfecto in the second round.

HALFTIME:

At halftime in this game, teams had to name various herbs and spices, then name the sport that was the central plot point of several different films. Our teams had absolutely no problem with this page; the average score was a whopping 18.9 out of 20, with a full 44% acing it for all the points. We went to halftime with one perfect team and a bunch not far behind:

• Jews in All Hues (Mark’s): 92
• Educated Friends (Fourscore): 91
• Teachers Have Class (Solace Brewing): 91
• ELEVEN TEAMS TIED WITH 90 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

A question about musician and birthday girl Halsey kicked off the second half, followed by the Government Employees part of the GEICO company acronym and the Japanese word midori. After that, we visited the young adult section of the library and found by far the toughest wagering question on Thursday:

• Created by Francine Pascal, which young adult novel series chronicles the lives of identical teenage twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield?

About 28% of the field had the correct answer, Sweet Valley High. The 1-2 punch was completed with the next question about the constellation Orion. Most teams knew the star Betelgeuse found in Orion, but only 10% knew the brightest star is actually Rigel. This round had the fewest perfect scores, but Teachers Have Class (Solace Brewing), I Don’t Know (Aslin), and Jews in All Hues (Mark’s) pulled out all the stops and got all the points.

FOURTH ROUND:

A 6-4-2 about Proctor & Gamble preceded the fourth round, where we had topics such as Indiana-born veeps Mike Pence and Dan Quayle, the first Hocus Pocus film, and Three Clues about the word squeeze. Again, a literary question proved to be the hardest of the round:

• A character in The Canterbury Tales is named for which British city that is also the location of numerous mineral hot springs?

You could say some of our teams took a Bath on that one, with a correct-answer rate down to 56%. The last question of the round, about TV show Will & Grace, saw a round-low 21% of teams get bonus points for naming the last names of either of the title characters, Will Truman and Grace Adler. We were back to the double digits in perfect scores, as 16 teams got all possible points in the fourth. These were the top-scoring teams heading into the final question:

• Teachers Have Class (Solace Brewing): 165
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 164
• Menace to Sobriety (Aslin): 162
• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 162
• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 161 
• Alley Cats (Solace Brewing): 161

FINAL QUESTION (15.8% success rate):

• According to the CIA World Factbook, which three foreign countries are each home to at least 80 million Roman Catholics? These countries are located on three different continents.

Teams had to name all three countries to get credit: Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines. Scott’s Tots (Belly Love) did just that and more, becoming the only Thursday team to earn a Perfect 21 by answering all 21 wagering questions correctly! A high-scoring night overall featured these teams atop the final scoreboard:

• Teachers Have Class (Solace Brewing): 174
• Alley Cats (Solace Brewing): 173
• We Drink and We Know Things (Smoketown): 172
• Jews in All Hues (Mark’s): 171 
• Joe’s Hoes (Kalypso’s): 171
• Scotty Doesn’t Know (Solace Brewing): 170
• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 169
• Scott’s Tots (Belly Love): 168
• Menace to Sobriety (Aslin): 168
• Amish Paradise (Mark’s): 166
• Giddy Up (Solace Brewing): 166

THURSDAY’S WINNERS:

Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: We Drink and We Know Things  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Neuroscience)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Just Good Enough  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Internal Combustion Engines)

Loudoun Kitchen and Bar in Leesburg, VA: Cat in the Chat  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Ghostbusters (original))

Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Corn in the USA  (NO GAME NEXT WEEK — FIRST CATEGORY ON OCTOBER 13: Chris Cornell (audio))

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Scott’s Tots  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Abbott Elementary)

Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA: Teachers Have Class  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Anne of Green Gables)

Bad Habits Bar & Grill in Martinsburg, WV: NO GAME THIS WEEK  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Rock Music)

• This game is temporarily being played at O’Connell’s Irish Pub in Martinsburg.

Brewery Fire in Taneytown, MD: Great Heathen Army  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Elvis Presley Songs)

Fourscore Beer Co. in Gettysburg, PA: Bird Brains  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Birds of Prey)

Crooked Run in Sterling, VA: Heavy Lettuce  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Geography)

Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA: Aw, There He Goes  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: White Christmas (film))

Interchange Tiki Bar in Williamsport, MD: Gong Gong and the Butt Demons  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The League (TV show))

Bear Brick Oven Pizza in Silver Spring, MD: Flux Capacitors  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Potent Potables)

Preston’s Pub in Manassas Park, VA: Philly Cheesesteak  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Geography)

Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA: Menace to Sobriety  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Military History)

Kalypso’s Sports Tavern in Reston, VA: Joe’s Hoes  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: My Chemical Romance)

Two Story Chimney Ciderworks in Gaithersburg, MD: Tyrian’s Law  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: College Football Teams)

Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD: I Don’t Know  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Linguistics)

Lake Linganore Association in New Market, MD: Diamond Dogs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Martin (TV show))

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Jews in All Hues  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Musical Theatre)