Swinging For the Fences at Tuesday Trivia!

Tuesday’s game of Pour House Trivia welcomed 148 teams across 21 venues.

FIRST ROUND:

It was a ‘marathon’ of an opening round, as we began the game with a question regarding the three most prestigious American marathons.  Next, we dove into our nightly Three Clues question, which began with these two facts:

CLUE 1: The folding takeout containers traditionally used in Chinese restaurants are named for this food.

CLUE 2: When carving poultry, the two small, round pieces of dark meat found near the thighs are named for this type of non-poultry meat.

Less than one-fifth of the field attempted to earn a two-point bonus by turning in their answer after these two clues had been read.  Most of those teams were successful, as 14% of our teams picked up two bonus points with the correct answer of oyster.  We closed the first round with a look at American painter Georgia O’ Keefee and the more recent version of the TV series “Battletstar Galactica”.  Nine teams posted a perfect first round score of 36 points.

SECOND ROUND:

Tuesday’s audio question featured three planetary song titles: “Heaven is a Place on Earth” by Belinda Carlisle, “Venus” by Bananarama, and “Drops of Jupiter” by Train.  We continued with questions concerning FedEx, the delicatessen scene from “When Harry Met Sally…”, and igneous rock formations.  The second round closed with the most difficult bonus question of the first half.  About one-third of our teams earned wagering points by knowing that Mount Aconcagua is located in the Andes Mountains, but only 11% of the field also knew that its name is derived from the language of Quechua.  As a result, only three teams swept the second round: Wiseacres (Champion), Tequila Mockingbird (Hometown Harvest), and E = MC Hammer (Quincy’s South).

HALFTIME:

For Tuesday’s halftime page, we asked teams to match celebrities with their respective impersonators from the series of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” sketches on “Saturday Night Live”.  A dozen teams notched a perfect score of 20 points, as the overall average landed at 15.4 points.  Here is Tuesday’s halftime leaderboard:

• Wiseacres (Champion):  90
• He Can’t Carry His Boss Strap (Dudley’s):  89
• Breadsticks (Upper Deck):  89
• EIGHT TEAMS TIED WITH 88 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

Hopes for a perfect third round were quickly dashed for virtually every Tuesday team, as we began the second half with a treacherous bonus question.  After most of the field knew that the song “Time On My Side” was recorded by The Rolling Stones, we offered two bonus points to any team that could name the album on which the song originally appeared.  Only ONE team (Hopeford Empire from The Block) responded correctly with “12 x 5”.  Other third round topics included the Biblical figure Lazarus, the educational backgrounds of U.S. Presidents, and the current film “Downton Abbey”.  We closed the third round with another incredibly difficult bonus question, as only five teams knew that the phrase “My body is ready!” spawned an internet meme after it was uttered by the former President of Nintendo.  Not surprisingly, none of our Tuesday teams recorded a perfect third round score.

FOURTH ROUND:

Tuesday’s final round began with a question regarding multi-talented performers, as many of our teams knew that Cher and Barbra Streisand are the only two women to have earned both a Best Actress Oscar and a #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  We continued with the most difficult wagering question of the night:

–> Monster Energy, Xfinity, and Gander Outdoors are the three main sponsors for the national divisions of what competition?

In the ever-changing realm of title sponsorship, most of our teams did not know that Monster Energy had recently replaced Sprint as the sponsor of the top-level NASCAR circuit.  Only 23% of our teams earned points on this question, with dozens of teams losing out on their five-point category bonus.  Other final round topics included former Soviet republics, the work of “Tarzan” author Edgar Rice Burroughs, and restaurant chain namesakes.  None of our Tuesday teams ran the table in the final round.  These were your highest scoring teams after four rounds of play:

• Pearls of Wisdom (Shuckin’ Shack):  160
• Breadsticks (Upper Deck):  157
• Stink Floyd (Monkey La La):  157
• I Am Smartacus (Quincy’s Uptown):  154
• Half Nelsons (Hometown Harvest):  153

TUESDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (62.3% success rate):

–> Which MLB team is its home city’s only representative in the ‘Big 4’ sports leagues (NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB)?

This trivia question didn’t exist two years ago, but with the recent relocation of the Chargers to Los Angeles, we now have an answer to this question: the San Diego Padres.  Congratulations to Momo (Cuginis), who was the only team to answer every wagering question correctly, thereby earning the lone Perfect 21 on Tuesday night.  Tuesday’s final overall leaderboard included these teams:

• Breadsticks (Upper Deck):  169
• Stink Floyd (Monkey La La):  169
• Bizarre, Interesting, and Essential (Dudley’s):  164
• Fawn Liebowitz’s Pallbearers (Charlie’s):  163
• Hipster Fashion Consultants (Dudley’s):  163
• Quiz in My Pants (Charlie’s):  162
• Maybe Just This Once (Charlie’s):  162
• Hunchbacks of Notre Gone (Tommy Joe’s):  162
• Hungry Hungry Georgia Hippos (Dudley’s):  162
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 161 POINTS

An honorable mention goes out to How Did I Get Here? (Senor Tequila’s), who amassed an impressive score of 169 points while playing ‘over the limit’.

TUESDAY’S WINNERS:

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD:  Comfortably Dum   (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – Cheryl Tiegs or Cheryl Ladd?)

Cuginis in Poolesville, MD:  MoMo   (Next week’s first category: Stephen Strasburg)

Senor Tequila’s in Germantown, MD:  Fan Club   (Next week’s first category: “Joker” – 2019 film)

Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick, MD:  Pearls of Wisdom    (NO GAME NEXT WEEK – First category on Oct. 22: Oliver Cromwell)

Topgolf in Ashburn, VA:  Captain’s Crew   (Next week’s first category: Anatomy)

The Block in Annandale, VA:  Five Dollar Dissin’ Terry   (Next week’s first category: “Beverly Hills Cop”)

Upper Deck in Mount Airy, MD:  Breadsticks   (Next week’s first category: Bundesliga)

Olney Winery in Olney, MD:  D.C. Swampers   (Next week’s first category: “The Great British Baking Show”)

Cheesetique in Fairfax, VA:  Rural Jurors   (Next week’s first category: Yacht Rock)

Charlie’s On the Avenue in Alexandria, VA:   Fawn Liebowitz’s Pallbearers   (Next week’s first category: TV Robots)

Vola’s Dockside Grill in Alexandria, VA:  Peele and Eat   (Next week’s first category: Ancient Greek Tragedies)

Funkstown Tavern in Funkstown, MD:  Spiritual Growth Hormone   (Next week’s first category: Biblical Prophets)

Dudley’s in Arlington, VA:  Bizarre, Interesting, and Essential   (NO GAME NEXT WEEK – First category on Oct. 22: U. S. National Women’s Soccer Team)

Quincy’s Uptown in Damascus, MD:  I Am Smartacus   (Next week’s first category: Sharks)

Hometown Harvest Kitchen in Frederick, MD:  Half Nelsons   (Next week’s first category: “Breaking Bad”)

Monkey La La in Frederick, MD:  Stink Floyd   (Next week’s first category: Films Featuring the Joker)

Quincy’s South in Rockville, MD:  E = MC Hammer   (Next week’s first category: “New Girl”)

Casa Tequila in Lovettsville, VA:  Pho Q   (Next week’s first category: Heavyweight Boxing History)

Tommy Joe’s in Bethesda, MD:  Hunchbacks of Notre Gone   (Next week’s first category: Sandwiches)

Union Jack’s in Gaithersburg, MD:  Twerking For Shots  (Next week’s first category: Care Bears)

Outta the Way Cafe in Derwood, MD:  Trumball   (Next week’s first category: Montgomery County History)

Miller’s Ale House in St. Petersburg, FL:  NO GAME THIS WEEK   (Next week’s first category: Ohio)