Special Delivery: Wednesday Night Trivia!

Wednesday night featured 15 games of pub trivia and 103 teams across five states, and every one of those teams had their eyes on that first place prize!  Some familiar names were found among our top teams tonight, but in the end it was clear which venue had tonight’s toughest crowd:

ROUND 1:

Our first round began with a question on world cities, as nearly all of our teams knew that the cities of Belgrade and Casablanca each have names which relate to the word white (Belgrade means white city, while Casablanca means white house).  After a Triple 50/50 question on “dead or alive” music groups, we asked about a short-lived theme park based on a Japanese multimedia franchise created in 1995.  A few of our teams mixed up their dates, as Nintendo and Hello Kitty are much older.  Yes, we were looking for this exciting / frightening creation:

(Officially, it was called Pokepark)

The first round closed with a surprisingly difficult question in the category of U.S. History:

–> During a certain battle in New Jersey in June of 1778, what legendary nickname was supposedly given to Mary Hays, an American soldier’s wife who brought water to thirsty soldiers in the summer heat?

Only about half of our teams remembered that this is the origin story of the nickname Molly Pitcher.  While traditional history taught us that the name refers to one specific person, recent research seems to contradict that origin story, as Molly Pitcher might instead be a composite of numerous women who performed a similar task for Revolutionary soldiers.  Meanwhile, only seven teams also scored a two-point bonus on this question by knowing that the “certain battle” referenced in the question was the Battle of Monmouth.

As a result of the final question of the round, only two teams notched a perfect score of 36 points: We Need an Adult (Furnace) and Dusty Baker School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg).

ROUND 2:

A spoken word clue was the focus of our audio question on Wednesday, as we played a trailer from the upcoming film sequel in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise.  Teams earned a two-point bonus by recognizing the voice on the audio clip as well as the full title of the upcoming film.  About 18% of our teams earned that bonus by remembering “War for the Planet of the Apes” and by recognizing the voice of this world renowned primatologist:

Continuing on the zoological theme, a question on “The Simpsons” quizzed our teams about the species of animal Bart won in a radio contest.  Despite being offered a cash prize of $10,000, Bart instead chose the “joke prize”: a full-grown African elephant.  The die-hard “Simpsons” fans (of which there are many) had no trouble earning a two-point bonus here by remembering that character’s name:

Other fun facts uncovered in the second round included the rule (or lack thereof) limiting the size and diameter of the pole used in Olympic pole vaulting, and that Mozart composed the melody to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.  We closed the first half by asking about the children’s book written by Janette Lowrey, which is considered to be the best-selling hardcover children’s book in U.S. history.  This proved to be the most difficult wagering question of the night, as only 27% of our teams knew we were talking about “The Poky Little Puppy”.  While the Pokemon question in the first round favored the younger generations, this question was a blessing for the elder trivia players in the field, as many in the under 35 crowd were unfamiliar with this literary classic.

Only two teams ran the table in the second round with a perfect score of 36 points: Many Bothans (Bennigan’s – Frederick) and Satan’s School for Girls (Memories).

HALFTIME:

The picture section of tonight’s halftime page dealt with Celebrity Doppelgangers.  Are these people long-lost siblings or what?

 

The resemblance between Will Ferrell and Chad Smith is uncanny, especially when they dress the same and play the drums together…  Our teams performed admirably during halftime, with the average score coming in at 17.9, and 23% of our teams landing a perfect 20 points.  Here are Wednesday’s top overall scores after the first half:

• Dusty Baker School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  90
• Satan’s School for Girls (Memories):  88
• FOWL (Memories):  88
• Deaf Squirrels (Memories):  88
• We Need an Adult (Furnace):  86

ROUND 3:

The second half began with baseball, asking a multiple choice question about the only MLB pitcher n history with 200 wins AND 150 saves.  About one-third of our teams scored a two-point bonus by answering correctly before the multiple choice was given.  Most of our teams eventually earned our wager after hearing the choices and responding with the correct answer of John Smoltz.  After a question about John Candy’s final film, we asked about the three colors on the Bisexual Pride Flag:

A question on foreign phrases concluded the round, as we asked which phrase meaning “extremely or over zealously enthusiastic” was derived from Chinese words which mean “work” and “together”.  Most of our teams were successful with the correct response of “gung ho”, but this question also provided our host Kyle with his favorite wrong answer of the night at Applebee’s in Waynesboro: “chop chop”.  This question included what proved to be our most difficult two-point bonus of the evening, as only six teams earned two points by knowing that the phrase “gung ho” is also the title of a film directed by Ron Howard.  Hey, wasn’t his daughter on the halftime page?

In a departure from the norm, the third round of the game was actually the easiest of the night, with the overall correct answer percentage (on wagering questions) coming in at 81.2%.  But the difficult bonus question to conclude the round led to just three teams sweeping the round with 36 points: Stupid Sexy Flanders: Tokyo Drift (Valley Grill), Southpaw Fish (Valley Grill), and Bruisual Suspects (Barefoot Bernie’s).

6-4-2 QUESTION:

The six-point clue on our 6-4-2 question was one of the most difficult in recent memory.  We asked our teams to name the U.S. state currently represented in the U.S. Congress by 11 people, ALL of which are Democrats (two in the Senate, nine in the House).  This question involved figuring out which states are not only very liberal, but also have a population which would equate to nine Representatives in the U.S. House.  That’s quite a daunting task in 60 seconds…  This first clue garnered very few guesses, and ZERO correct answers for six points, though many teams admitted to immediately having the correct answer, but being afraid to turn it in.  The four-point clue revealed that one of its former Governors (oddly, a Republican) lost the 2012 U.S. Presidential election.  Nearly 80% of our teams earned four points with Massachusetts.

ROUND 4:

Our final round began just as the third round had concluded: with a relatively easy wagering question followed by an extremely difficult bonus question.  Most teams were able to earn their wager by knowing that this cartoon character was based on real-life singer Helen Kane (and her signature song “I Wanna Be Loved By You”):

The two-point bonus would be well-deserved on this question, as only eight teams knew that ol’ Betty was created by animator Max Fleischer.  Our Three Clues question involved the nation of Qatar, which OF COURSE sparked numerous debates about its correct pronunciation.  Let’s just skip over that…  We continued with a question on celebrity couples:

–> Though he has never married, which American singer-songwriter has been romantically linked to Jessica Simpson, Minka Kelly, Jennifer Aniston, Katy Perry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Taylor Swift?

Apparently, THIS is the wheelhouse subject for many of our players.  As host Chris at TopGolf noticed: “Every team turned in the correct answer in under 30 seconds”.  I’m guessing that there is also a segment of our trivia population that did NOT know this fact (or even care to know it), but I guess that’s the benefit of having a well-rounded trivia team.  After a three-part question on 12-letter words, we were left with one team that scored a perfect 36 points in the fourth round: Witiots (Nido’s Ristorante).

Here are Wednesday’s top overall scores after the fourth round:

• Dusty Baker School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  161
• Satan’s School for Girls (Memories):  160
• Witiots (Nido’s Ristorante):  158
• FOWL (Memories):  158
• Deaf Squirrels (Memories):  158

FINAL QUESTION (82.1% success rate):

–> From 1987 to 1994, what agency of the United States Federal Government purchased over 100,000 trucks known as the Grumman LLV, a vehicle known specifically for having their drivers sit on the right side?

Yes, we were talking about the U.S. Postal Service.  Congratulations to the four teams that scored the Perfect 21 tonight, by answering correctly on all 21 wagering questions: Satan’s School for Girls (Memories), FOWL (Memories), Deaf Squirrels (Memories), and Pen Island (Barefoot Bernie’s).  Here are the top ten scores overall:

• Satan’s School for Girls (Memories):  171
• FOWL (Memories):  170
• Deaf Squirrels (Memories):  170
• Witiots (Nido’s Ristorante):  169
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Tokyo Drift (Valley Grill):  167
• Dusty Baker School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  165
• Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap (Valley Grill):  162
• Olney the Lonely (The Tavern): 162
• Summer Solstice Fan Club (The Tavern): 162
• We Need an Adult (Furnace):  162

TONIGHT’S WINNERS: