Never Tell Me the Odds of Winning Thursday Trivia!
Apparently, there was some sort of sporting event being played on Thursday which led some of our venues to take a night off. I wonder how it turned out… Anyway, we still hosted games for 71 teams at nine venues:
FIRST ROUND:
Thursday’s opening round topics included the decade of the 1990s, Henry Ford, and this crunchy soothsayer:
A question about the fortune cookie gave us the most difficult bonus question of the first half. Only seven teams could name both of the cities which claim to be the birthplace of this snack: San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a result, only two teams began their night with 36 points: Here For the Beer and 1-2-3 Drink, both from Cushwa Brewing.
SECOND ROUND:
We enjoyed the tunes of Nirvana and played Last Word / First Word with Alexander the Great Pumpkin, before asking about this Irishman:
After a quick look at Shakespearean comedies, we closed with the most difficult wagering question of the first half:
–> Nearly five years since her last feature film role, which two-time Oscar winner returns to the big screen tomorrow in the lead role in the crime thriller “Hotel Artemis”?
I suppose the Hollywood marketing teams are not doing their jobs very well, as only 23% of the field earned points here with Jodie Foster, who took five years off since appearing alongside Matt Damon in “Elysium”. The second round yielded just one perfect score: Notecards (Fish Market).
HALFTIME:
Film characters and songs about brand names were featured on Thursday’s halftime page, which saw five teams earn perfect scores with an overall average of 15.3 points. Here are Thursday’s top scores at the break:
- Notecards (Fish Market): 87
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 86
- Uranus Fly Trap (Smoketown Brewing): 85
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 83
- FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 82 POINTS
THIRD ROUND:
The second half began quite easily, as the field breezed through questions concerning Buckingham Palace an turf toe. That success came to a screeching half with the fourth question of the round:
–> Which British landscape painter was born with the forenames of Joseph Mallord William?
He was best known by his initials J. W. M., but only eight teams across the board knew that those initials referred to a Romantic painter named Turner. We followed that stumper with most difficult bonus question of the second half, which concerned this classic TV series:
Only five teams earned bonus points by knowing that “Suicide Squad” actor Jay Hernandez will star in the title role when CBS reboots “Magnum P.I.” later this year. We did not see any teams run the table in the third round.
FOURTH ROUND:
The throwback to the 1980s continued in the final round as we asked our teams to name the company that created this piece of nostalgia:
Most of our teams answered correctly with Mead. We continued with a look at “Swan Lake”, the post-Presidential career of John Quincy Adams, and this chemical element which is (apparently) most effective for creating fluffy egg dishes:
For the second night in a row, the final round eased up a bit on our teams, as five teams recorded perfect final round scores. Here are Thursday’s highest scoring teams after four rounds of play:
- Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market): 160
- PC Principals (Fish Market): 159
- Notecards (Fish Market): 158
- Singing Inferno (Smoketown Brewing): 147
- Uranus Fly Trap (Smoketown Brewing): 147
THURSDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (53.8% success rate):
–> Which subsidiary of the Dart Container Corporation recently announced that it was “joining forces” in a cross-promotion deal with a blockbuster film?
I’m not sure if our hosts put in air quotes when reading this question, but either way, about half of our teams picked up on the intended pun to come up with the correct answer of Solo Cups. Get it? Congratulations to the art historians on PC Principals, who recorded the only Perfect 21 tonight with correct answers on all wagering questions.
THURSDAY’S WINNERS:
Quincy’s Bar and Grille in Gaithersburg, MD: NO GAME THIS WEEK (Next week’s first category: Famous People Named Vinny)
Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: NO GAME THIS WEEK (Next week’s first category: “The Untouchables” – film)
Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA: Cranius Maximus (Next week’s first category: Auto Mechanics)
Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: Singing Inferno (Next week’s first category: Shirley Temple Films other than “Heidi”)
Beef O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD: This is How We Go Down (Next week’s first category: The Notorious RBG)
Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: NO GAME THIS WEEK (Next week’s first category: Monster Movies)
Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD: 1-2-3 Drink (Next week’s first category: “Die Hard”)
Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Homestead Grays (Next week’s first category: Pittsburgh Titans of Industry)
The Grille at Flower Hill in Gaithersburg, MD: ALL CAPS (Next week’s first category: “Alien” film franchise)
Black Walnut Brewery in Leesburg, VA: Is That a Euphemism? (Next week’s first category: Shakespeare Villains)
Dawg House in Waynesboro, PA: Not Your Team (Next week’s first category: “The Simpsons: Tapped Out”)
Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL: Better Red Than Dead (Next week’s first category: Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Fish Market Restaurant in Alexandria, VA: PC Principals (Next week’s first category: Frank Zappa)
Guido’s in Frederick, MD: Unathletico Madrid (Next week’s first category: 2018 FIFA World Cup)