The Greek Life of Wednesday Trivia!

Eighteen locations in the area hosted Wednesday evening’s Pour House Trivia for a total of 190 squads, including a 22-team excursion at Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD.

FIRST ROUND:

The most difficult first-rounder with regard to both wagering and bonus opportunities came midway through, on this Hollywood question:

• The scar on the chin of which Hollywood action star was not from a bullwhip or a lightsaber, but rather a 1962 car accident?

Figuring out that actor is Harrison Ford was generally not an issue with a 90% success rate, but just 10% of teams received bonus points for naming Ford’s most recent big-screen outing, Call of the Wild. We finished with Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens estimating the distance between the Earth and the Sun in the 1650s and the historic comeback win for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings after a 33-0 halftime deficit. In this round, there were 11 perfect team scores.

SECOND ROUND:

An audio question asked teams to identify female singers behind famous Christmas song covers. After that, we discussed the military court-martial, Muhammad Ali’s famous Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman and Thrilla in Manila versus Joe Frazier, and Jude Law’s time as The Young Pope. The toughest wagering query in Wednesday’s first half came at the end, on this South American geography question:

• Which two South American national capitals are located on the river estuary known as the Rio de la Plata?

Just under three quarters of the field named either Buenos Aires, Argentina or Montevideo, Uruguay for wagering points, while 32% had both correct answers for bonus credit. Seven teams recorded perfect scores in the second round.

HALFTIME:

Teams had to identify pop culture title characters in onscreen holiday works, then match various ways of writing Merry Christmas to the appropriate language. There were 28 perfect scores in this part of the game, which carried an average score of 17.5 points. We headed into the halftime intermission with these leaders:

• Marco Polo and the Peanuts (Idiom): 90
• Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Barstool): 89
• Shipwrecked (Idiom): 89
• Stinkfist (Idiom): 89
• Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine): 89

THIRD ROUND:

A three-parter on holiday TV episode titles began Wednesday’s second half, followed by the corduroy fabric and the late singer Jim Croce. The last two wagering questions of the round were its hardest, and we started this portion of the game with a science abbreviation:

• In human cells, molecules known by the abbreviation mRNA transfer genetic information from DNA to the ribosome.  Within this abbreviation, what does the letter m stand for?

Roughly 62% of teams knew it stood for messenger. Another geography question stumped a significant portion of our teams as it pertained to earning bonus points:

• Among the tributaries of the Colorado River, the longest shares its name with a color, while the second longest lends its name to a venomous lizard native to the area. Name these rivers.

Respectively, those are the Green and Gila Rivers; 54% of teams got at least one of those right, but a game-low 9.4% got both for two extra points. Your perfect third-round squads were Satan’s School for Girls (Memories), Last Trivia Team on the Left (Memories), and Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine).

FOURTH ROUND:

We gave three clues about the Christian patron Saint Nicholas for the night’s 6-4-2 question, and 29 teams named him from the first clue for the maximum six points! The last round of the night began with Three Clues about the first name Theodore before we got into the toughest way to earn bonus points in this round:

• Despite being the smallest of all modern constellations, this constellation appears on the national flags of five different countries. Identify this constellation that shares its name with a 1982 song by Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

While 59% of teams knew the Southern Cross, we also asked teams to name the only non-Oceania nation to feature that constellation on its national flag; 12% guessed right with Brazil. For the hardest wagering question on Wednesday, we opened our poetry books:

• Edward Estlin was the given name of which American poet, whose work is easily recognizable thanks to the omission of capital letters?

edward estlin provided the initials for the pen name of american poet e e cummings, the correct answer given by exactly half of wednesday’s teams

We had a callback to the 2007 film Balls of Fury and its subject matter, table tennis, for the round’s last question. Just as in round two, there were seven perfect scores here. Before one final question settled things, these teams were on top:

• Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Barstool): 160
• Tokyo Sex Whale (Idiom): 158
• Power Vacuum (Belles’): 158
• Alcoholics Unanimous (Belles’): 157
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 156 POINTS

FINAL QUESTION (36.3% success rate):

• What is the only U.S. state named for an area of Greece?

This may have been the Colossus of the night, with a little more than a third of the field naming Rhode Island, which took its name from the island of Rhodes. Five Perfect 21 feats were achieved on Wednesday, each team giving correct answers to each of our wagering questions. The night came to a close with the overall leaderboard shaking out like this:

• Power Vacuum (Belles’): 170
• Alcoholics Unanimous (Belles’): 169
• Tokyo Sex Whale (Idiom): 168
• Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine): 168
• Black October (Grape Escape): 168
• Oh Wait (Hops N Shine): 167
• Little Menorahs (Idiom): 167
• Island Banshees (Celtic House): 166
• Stinkfist (Idiom): 166
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 166

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Power Vacuum  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Elephants)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Angevin Empire)

Quinn’s on the Corner in Arlington, VA: Donner Party People  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Triple 50/50: Trojan or Troy?)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Peeping Tom Cruises  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Seinfeld)

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: Inquizitors  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Three Clues/One Bird)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Tokyo Sex Whale  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: He-Man)

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: Blinded by the Wine  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Film Sequels)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: Titanic Was an Inside Job  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Hawaii)

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Black Zexcellence  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Wu-Tang Clan)

Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD: Hoof Hearted  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Ways to Prepare Eggs)

T.J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: Wonder Boys  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: New Year’s Eve)

Craftworx Taproom in Gainesville, VA: Just For Fun  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1980s Music)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Foreign Currency)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: Black October  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Sopranos)

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: Feds  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Office)

Elysium Axe Bar in Purcellville, VA: NO GAME  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation)

Thick-N-Thin Brewing in Hagerstown, MD: Sack of Marbles  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1990s Rock Music)

Celtic House in Arlington, VA: Island Banshees  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Ambassadors to Ireland)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: FU COVID  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: New Year’s Day)