After the longest winning streak of the season was broken last week, one of our top teams was looking to start a new streak in order to become the first team to clinch a house championship for Season XV.  Meanwhile, our most competitive venue saw three teams with a chance to break the 170-point plateau.  Check out the details!

MONDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (68 teams across seven venues):

Highest Overall Score: Del Ray Dummies (DRP) with 171

Highest Score After Round 4: PC Principals (Basic Burger) with 163

Highest First-Half Score: PC Principals with 89

Perfect 21 (correct on all wagering questions):  A swift one-two punch on back-to-back questions in the third round (dealing with 1990s films and historical scientists) meant that NO TEAM scored the Perfect 21 tonight.

–> Monday’s halftime round featured celebrities with April birthdays and famous foursomes.  Playing slightly easier than normal, our average score on the round was 17.8, with 23% of our teams scoring 20 points.

–> About 15% of our teams scored six points on the 6-4-2 question, by knowing that a game of rock-paper-scissors was used to determine which auction house would be able to sell a pricey Cezanne work.

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (68.4% success rate):

–> Who is the only male actor on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest screen legends with an alliterative name?  (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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DRP in Alexandria, VA

Were you hanging around with nothing to do but frown?  Rainy days and Mondays always get you down?  Not here at Monday night trivia at DRP!  It was a 16-team affair as teams, old and new, raced to answer questions and earn points.  So, how did our rainy day and Monday go?

Round 1 had a question not about a Teflon president, but rather Teflon itself.  Our teams also had to determine which company first produced it.  Then, teams had to locate Attica prison—easy by itself—but they also had to identify the movie the famous quote, “Attica!  Attica!” originated.  Moving into Round 2, teams were able to use their foreign language knowledge to figure out the U.S.’ oldest continuously-occupied state capital.  And some creative thinking led teams to figure out the Bulls won six titles, but haven’t been back to the finals in almost two decades.

The halftime puzzle sheet on the easier side, as the lowest score was 17, I guess our teams knew all about April birthdays and famous groups of four.  Round 3 was a round of deduction as teams had to deduce Saskatchewan’s location and what U.S. states border it.  Teams also had to deduce who the inventor of the mercury thermometer was.  Luckily, by piecing together a unit of temperature with the inventor, most teams got Fahrenheit, but some answered incorrectly with Celsius or Kelvin.

Our 6-4-2 was written by yours truly.  Christie’s earned the right and commission of a Cezanne painting auction by playing rock-paper-scissors against Sotheby’s.  But it was such an obscure fact, only three teams took a guess and got the six points.  Other teams held back, but were only able to get four from it.  Round 4 contained our biggest trap of the night.  Teams were asked to name the organization that holds the Great American Smoke-out and the Relay for Life.  But, some teams were thrown off by the Smoke-out and guessed the American Lung Association or the American Heart Association instead of the real answer: American Cancer Society.

So, our final question of the night involved the only actor with an alliterative name in AFI’s Greatest Film Legends.  Only a few got thrown by answering Robert Redford, Sylvester Stallone, and Dom DeLuise.  But, most were able to think further back and get Charlie Chaplin as the correct answer.  This led to our medal table for tonight:

First Place:  DRD

Second Place:  B-58s

Third Place:  TBD

Next week’s first category:  “Community”

Until next time,

~ Chris

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Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD

At the Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, we kicked things off with a question about the film “A Few Good Men”, asking about Tom Cruise and Demi Moore’s occupations in the film.  Most teams knew that the acronym we were looking for was “JAG”, or Judge Advocate General.  I loved the audio clue today, as we asked for three different actors who all portrayed The Joker in some capacity; teams did quite well recognizing Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, but Mark Hamill was definitely much tougher for teams to surmise.  We also had a fun question about the NBA, where a few teams learned that Dwyane Wade actually plays for the Chicago Bulls this season, and he’s the oldest player on that team!  Halftime asked teams to identify celebrities with April birthdays as well as matching up the famous foursome to their missing member.  The hardest part of the page was definitely Hayley Atwell, who only one team recognized.  I Googled her and I still did’t know who she is.  Apparently, she portrayed Agent Carter in the Marvel Comics universe (both film and TV).

In the second half, things got tougher as we had a difficult movie titles question where we asked about a 1990 military film starring Martin and Charlie Sheen which was called “Cadence”.  We also had a tough science question where we asked about the inventor of the mercury thermometer, which was none other than Mr. Fahrenheit himself.  I loved that the 6-4-2 was about Rock Paper Scissors, as we talked about a $12 million painting being the subject of one such match; that’s some pretty high stakes right there.  In the end we wrapped things up with a question about Classic Hollywood, and most teams actually performed admirably on this question.  This meant that scores didn’t really change much, where third place went to Quality Guesswork, second went to That’s A Niner, and the win went to The Arrondissements of Ouagadougou, congrats!  Next week we start with a question about All-Time Tennis Greats, so study up!  I’ll see you all then!

Until next time,

~ Chad

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Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD

Thanks again to everyone for coming out to Morgan Inn for our Monday night Pour House Trivia, it was nice to get inside from this “Scottish” weather.  Our first round went fairly well with the lowest scoring question of the round being the winner’s choice category of “premium cigars”.  We asked for the more common name of Polytetrafluoroethylene, which most of the teams got correct, and then followed it up with a famous prison found outside of Buffalo, New York.  Folks knew that kung fu originated in China, not ABC in the early 70’s, and we had a three clues for a “sick” word spoken famously here on SNL:

Round two took us to the beautiful city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where we lit some Yankee Candles, and watched some old footage of the Chicago Bulls when they could actually WIN a championship.  Folks here at Morgan Inn dread ANY hip hop question, but they did well on identifying rapper Drake, so great job!  Our audio clue tonight featured some famous actors portraying The Joker, Batman’s arch-nemesis, but no one could pull this guy, who is very famous in the comic-con circles for his portrayal of the insane clown:

The scores really remained tight throughout our game tonight, with only the cigar question from round one and a question from round three giving fits, a Martin and Charlie Sheen film from 1990.  Most teams got at least one of the two U.S. states that border Saskatchewan, one of the two Roman/Greek gods of the Underworld, and everyone nailed the dinner time invention known as the “Lazy Susan”.  We only had a couple of misses on the physicist who created the mercury thermometer, but they “kept their cool”:

The final round stayed close with four of the six teams in the running by the time we hit the final question.  Subjects included the great work done by the American Cancer Society, a reminder that author Jack London was known by a pen name, and topped those of with a little “Muscle Beach” reps.  We found out that Ozzy Osbourne pulled a song “hook” from a baby shampoo slogan, and finally we had some “kingly” answers with three things all begin with K-I-N-G, including this hilarious Farrelly brothers film starring Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray:

It was strategic wagers that won the day for two of our teams tonight, guaranteeing a second and third place finish after our Charlie Chaplin final was all said and done. Here are the results:

First Place:  Morgan Station

Second Place:  Men and Pausers

Third Place:  Menace 2 Sobriety

Next week’s first category is the FBI’s Most Wanted List, so I guess there will be a guest host next week since now I have to go on the run.

~ Ronnie

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Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg, MD

Our Monday game at Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg got rather exciting at the end!  The current winner from last week looked to be on a roll to another win after the puzzle page was graded, as they had a 21 point lead.  But the team in second place fought back in the final two rounds to close the gap to ten points!  So, they still had a chance at the final question!

After the wagers were in and the question was answered, this is how it looked…  In third place was I’m Just Making This Up as I Go Along!  They put up a GREAT fight in the second half but had to settle for second place: J.H.C.!  Our current points leader can add another victory to their current win streak (and she pulled it off just herself AGAIN!), congratulations to Jon Jeffries Fan Club!  Because a certain team didn’t show up, they decided to pick the same Winner’s Choice category again:  One Hit Wonders of the 1980’s!

Study up and come join us for a game on Monday at Hershey’s Restaurant!

~ Jon J

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Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD

Another Monday night game is in the books for Pour House Trivia here at Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, and for the second week in a row, we had ourselves a thrilling race to the finish!

Highlights of the Night:

In “They-Can’t-All-Be-Stumpers”: The eye rolls I got when I asked the kung fu question.  My goodness xD  You guys complain when the questions are too hard, then turn around and complain when they’re too easy?  Y’all gotta make up your minds on this!

In “Coinflip-for-the-Win”: When asked about the inventor of the mercury-in-glass thermometer, everyone did manage to go straight to one of the primary temperature scales.  Unfortunately, it was a pretty even split tonight between Celsius and Fahrenheit, which left a sour taste in a few mouths unfortunately.  Hey, you were on the right track!

In “Making-it-Easy-For-Me-Tonight”: Notorious snark masters Tequila Mockingbird were feisty tonight.  So when I have easy toss-ups to fire back at them, you KNOW I’m gonna let ’em have it.  I won’t go into details for their sake, but when the whole bar lets out a long “OHHHHHHHHHH”?  Satisfying as all get out.  Love you guys 😉

My teams made quick work of the final tonight, so the podium was pretty much set.

In third place tonight, Tequila Mockingbird!

In second place tonight, Stink Floyd!

In first place tonight, finally breaking into the top spot, Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies!

Great game tonight guys!  Next week we’ll kick things off with a question on the AMC television series “Better Call Saul“!  Study up, and we’ll see you next time!

Until then,

~ Ian

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Basic Burger in Arlington, VA

ANOTHER beer night at Basic Burger with Port City Brewery joining us tonight (one of my personal faves)!  The odds were ever in their favor tonight as teams had no problem answering the first question of the night about the probability of the first two cards in a deck creating a natural blackjack.  The toughest question of the round came at the end of the round when trying to name the prison that witnessed a four-day standoff in 1971, and the subsequent movie that had a notable quote in relation – ATTICA!  From “Dog Day Afternoon”, of course.  The toughest question of Round 2?  Pop culture!  Give these guys literature, science, even sports and they nail it…but popular music was a tough category for this crowd on Monday.  Only two teams recognized Drake as the rapper who refers to his new album as a ‘playlist’ – and not a one could name the title of said playlist (“More Life”).  I really thought the question about a candle store would trip up these teams, but every single one was able to identify Yankee Candle from the clue!  Made me think of the SNL skit “There’s another Christmas Savior besides Jesus Christ!” The Candle!

Halftime went very well, as the top half involved identifying pictures of celebrities with April birthdays – I must admit I had to look up Hayley Atwell myself, she was the most missed picture of the night.  Three teams earned a perfect halftime score, so she must be more well-known than I thought!  In the third round, the toughest question for this group came when trying to label modulation in the voice which is also the title of a military movie with Martin and Charlie Sheen.  With time, and the crossword hint, four teams correctly guessed “Cadence”.  A shoutout to PC Principals for being the only team to earn six points on the 6-4-2 question.  I cannot believe a game of rock-paper-scissors is what determined the outcome of a 12 million dollar Cezanne painting!  While the Round 4 literature question was the most missed of that round, half our field did manage a correct answer.

In the end, it all came down to the final question.  There was more than just the regular loot at stake – Port City provided a coveted tap handle that I promised to the first team with the correct final answer.  Password is Taco immediately jumped up after the question was read, answered correctly, and earned their prize.  Not only that, but it helped them jump from third to second place.  Other teams were not so lucky…  When trying to name an alliterative screen legend, many teams went for RR names such as Ronald Reagan or Roy Rogers, and only three teams correctly guessed Charlie Chaplin.  Your winners were:

First Place:  Kitten Mittens

Second Place:  Password is Taco

Third Place:  Walking Talking Stephen Hawking

Next week’s first category:  Washington Wizards (and other wizards)

Cheers!

~ Kate

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Il Forno in Frederick, MD

Last week at Il Forno in Frederick, we saw the Jeff King Experience drop its first game of the season.  Tonight they returned, looking to start from square one.  A large chunk of regular teams that have looked very good recently were attempting to prevent this from happening and hoping to put Jeff King at 0-2 over the last two weeks.

It started off a little slow tonight as The Jeff King Experience missed a few bonus points here and there and ended up with a 78 point total after the first half, putting them near the bottom of the standings.  Our leaderboard was filled with Blank Space, Alternative Facts, and Much More Deeper around the half; good to see a handful of new teams making noise tonight!  No game is over at the half as long as you’re playing against some good teams and tonight we definitely had some good ones.  MC and The Jeff King Experience were back but looked to make it a game with some steam in the 2nd half.

A few difficult questions met our team in the third round tonight; Jeff King picked up six points on the 6-4-2 (along with Alternative Facts), the only two gets for that many points.  Lots of teams dropped big wagers on our American Cancer Society question and MISSING!  We saw four teams drop their nine-point wager and lose it with various other charities including the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.  These misses helped get some of the behind teams back in the game!

As we may have imagined, the Jeff King Experience had a great second half and climbed back into the lead, tied with MC at the conclusion of the final round.  Tonight’s final question didn’t stop any of our top teams, so we went into a tiebreaker for the game tonight.  We needed the closest to a population combination of North Dakota and Montana. Jeff King said 2.2 million whereas MC said 4.1 million. The COMBINED populations of those two states was about 1.8 million, giving The Jeff King Experience the win tonight after falling short last week!

We’re gonna be back here in a week!  We’ve got a solid month before the post season, everyone is looking much better and stronger!  Get those points so you can qualify for the playoffs, keep coming out and upping your game, hopefully everyone here has what it takes to win!  Until next time guys, be safe and take it easy!