The Trivia Set of Brotherly Love!

The end of summer is just a few days away, but the competition is heating up here at Pour House Trivia as many of our Monday teams were in fine form while preparing for the Summer Fling Finals this weekend.  On Monday, we welcomed 68 teams across eight venues:

ROUND 1:

The opening round provided few surprises, with most of the field topping the 30-point plateau to begin the game.  We opened the game with a question about the meter, with about half of our teams earning a two-point bonus by knowing that a meter is equal to 39 inches (when rounded to the nearest whole number).  After a question about California Pizza Kitchen, we closed the round with a pair of bonus questions that kept most of the field from securing a perfect first round score.  On a three-part question in which the answers all contained the letters “M-A-D”, a question about this cocktail stumped most of the crowd:

To close the opening round, a question concerning Jack the Ripper also asked for the section of London in which his murders took place, with the correct answer being Whitechapel.  On each of these last two bonus questions, we saw correct answers from about 20% of the field, leading to just five perfect scores in the first round.

ROUND 2:

Monday’s audio question dealt with music groups whose names contain NFL team names.  While most of our teams easily recognized The Eagles and They Might Be Giants, a song by Paul Revere and the Raiders was by far the most difficult, with just 17% of our teams earning a two-point bonus with three correct answers.  However, the most difficult bonus question of the second round came up later in the form of an astronomy question:

–> In 1930, eleven-year-old schoolgirl Venetia Burney supposed gave this heavenly body its name because of her interest in classical mythology.  Name this entity which later inspired the name of a chemical element and a cartoon character.

Arriving at the correct answer of Pluto (the namesake for plutonium and Mickey’s pet dog) was no issue for our teams, but we then offered bonus points to any team that could name the astronomer that discovered Pluto.  Only five teams could name Clyde Tombaugh to earn an elusive two points.  We closed the round with a question on the Oscar-nominated actress who appears on this current Netflix series:

Thanks to the first two bonus questions, only one team swept Monday’s second round with a perfect score of 36 points: H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP).

HALFTIME:

Monday’s halftime page dealt with fictional brand-name products as well as items which share their names with Arnold Schwarzenegger films.  Across the board, we saw an average score of 17.1 points, with nine teams securing a perfect 20 points.  Here are Monday’s top overall scores at the halftime break:

• Gorillas with Machine Guns (Il Forno):  86
• H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP):  86
• It Ain’t Easy being Cheesy (Cheesetique):  85
• Tequila Mockingbird (Uno Pizzeria):  85
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle):  84
• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  84

ROUND 3:

Monday’s second half opened with an art question, one that proved to be the most difficult bonus question of the night:

–> In his book “The Cubist Epoch”, art historian Douglas Cooper described Early Cubism as being developed by which two artists, one Spanish and one French?

Teams earned their wagers with just one correct answer, which for virtually every team came in the form of Pablo Picasso.  But only ONE team (Gorillas with Machine Guns from Il Forno) knew that the second artist in the question was Frenchman Georges Braque.  The third round continued with a question about this non-profit organization (and its new slogan):

Later, we asked our most difficult wagering question of the night in the category of Female Singers:

–> Gaining fame with three top ten Billboard hits in 1998, what Canadian female singer-songwriter will soon release her fifth studio album entitled “Now”, her first studio album in nearly 15 years?

Many teams were confident with their incorrect answers of Alanis Morissette or Celine Dion, but both of those singer have each released albums steadily over the last 15 years.  Only 26% of our teams answered correctly with this Ontario native:

We closed the round asking about the recent record winning streak rattled off by this baseball team, who is hoping to avenge their loss in last year’s World Series:

As expected, the only perfect third round was posted by Gorillas with Machine Guns (Il Forno).

6-4-2 QUESTION:

Monday’s 6-4-2 question presented a rather interesting (but not surprising) statistical anomaly.  First, here’s the six-point question:

–> This company was co-founded by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp.  In a 2016 study, MIT Professor Christopher Knittel linked minority customers with poorer service, such as longer waiting times and higher prices.

At our six Maryland venues, we saw just 14% of our teams answer correctly for six points.  But at our two Virginia venues (both of which are less than five miles from Washington, D.C.), the six-point success rate was 71%!  Why is that?  Perhaps because those players are more likely to be customers of this company: Uber.

ROUND 4:

We began the final round discussing birds, specifically the largest living bird on Earth (ostrich) and this bird with the longest wingspan:

The final stanza also included our nightly Three Clues question, with Monday’s version involving a foreign country:

CLUE 1: It is home to Canaima National Park, in which you will find a notable landmark named for a U.S. pilot.

CLUE 2: In 2008, it introduced a new currency called the bolivar fuerte.

Since only a handful of teams even ventured a guess at this juncture, it was no surprise that only four teams earned a two-point bonus on this question.  Most of the field waited for this third and final clue:

CLUE 3: It is a South American country named for a European city.

There aren’t many countries to run through at this point, but nonetheless we saw correct answers from just 38% of our teams, who knew that the city of Venice is the namesake for the country of Venezuela.  The notable landmark in the first clue?  That would be the world’s tallest waterfall, Angel Falls:

Believe it or not, this South American landmark is named for pilot Jimmie Angel.  We closed the round by asking about TV show titles which include a stand-alone letter.  Answers included “The X Factor”, “The L Word”, and this police drama:

Just as in the third round, the only perfect score of the final round was turned in by Gorillas with Machine Guns (Il Forno).  After missing three bonus questions in the first half, this powerhouse team did not miss a single point from the halftime page through the end of the fourth round.  Here are Monday’s top scores after the final round:

• Gorillas with Machine Guns (Il Forno):  164
• Wingardium Mimosa (DRP):  156
• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  155
• It Ain’t Easty Being Cheesy (Cheesetique):  154
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle):  153

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (36.7% success rate):

–> Among the ten most populous U.S. cities, which one shares its name with a city mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Holy Bible?

Just over one-third of our teams answered Monday’s final question correctly with Philadelphia.  The modern-day Turkish city of Alaşehir was known in ancient times as the “City of Brotherly Love”, a phrase which is translated directly into Greek as “Philadelphia”.  Only two teams scored the Perfect 21 on Monday by answering correctly on all wagering questions: Killer Snails (Hershey’s) and Gorillas with Machine Guns (Il Forno).  Here are your top overall scores:

• Gorillas with Machine Guns (Il Forno):  165
• Wingardium Mimosa (DRP):  164
• Chariots of Dyer (DRP):  163
• Worst Case Ontario (DRP):  163
• Eat Ham (DRP):  162
• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  161
• Alternative Best Answer (DRP):  158
• H.R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff (DRP):  157
• MC (Il Forno):  153
• Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle):  152

TONIGHT’S WINNERS:

DRP in Alexandria, VA:  Wingardium Mimosa  (Next week’s first category: University of Mary Washington)

Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD:  Arrondissements of Ouagadougou  (Next week’s first category: World Deserts)

Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD:  Westward Ho  (Next week’s first category: Led Zeppelin – AUDIO)

Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg, MD:  Killer Snails  (Next week’s first category: “Guardians of the Galaxy” films)

Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD:  Litigators  (Next week’s first category: “Batman: The Animated Series”)

Cheesetique in Arlington, VA:  Heavy Metal Parking Lot  (Next week’s first category: Van Halen Albums)

Adam & Eve Gastropub in Frederick, MD:  Dead Starks  (Next week’s first category:  )

Il Forno in Frederick, MD:  Gorillas with Machine Guns  (Next week’s first category: UNESCO World Heritage Sites)