There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here….
THURSDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (88 teams across ten venues):
–> Highest Overall Score: Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market) with 170
–> Highest Score after Round 4: PC Principals (Fish Market) with 160
–> Highest First Half Score: Brother of Menelaus with 89
–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Give Us Your Beer Money (Cushwa Brewing)
** HONORABLE MENTION goes out to Lowered Expectations from Quincy’s, who put up the highest score of the evening at 172 points, but was playing “over the limit” tonight.
–> Our 1990s music-themed halftime page garnered an average score of 14.9, with 12% of our teams scoring a perfect 20 points.
–> About 24% of our teams scored six points on our 6-4-2 question by knowing that the San Antonio Spurs currently hold the longest playoff streak among the four major sports leagues.
TONIGHT’S FINAL QUESTION (44.1% success rate):
–> For your wager, what ten-letter word logically links all of the following entities: Chloe Sullivan, the Battle of Guadalcanal, Bob Dylan, the Justice League, and Jehovah’s Witnesses? (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)
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Quincy’s in Gaithersburg, MD
Tonight… well tonight’s game of Pour House Trivia certainly wasn’t pretty at Quincy’s, but we got her done. It took us a bit, but it was all OK in the end. With a ton of new folks mixing it up with the house veterans, we learned that not everyone is as big a fan of visual puns as I am, not many people knew that Richard Nixon was a U.S. Senator or what Dave Chappelle sounds like, and that Lithuania and Luxembourg are not one and the same.
Also, yes, Ian does sometimes get a little…shall we say itchy when things are going to plan. The final tonight was tricky, and correct answers were key! Honorable mention tonight goes to Lowered Expectations for getting the high score! Unfortunately they had a few too many team members to get there.
In third place tonight, the Fan Club!
In second place tonight, Clever Team Name!
In first place tonight, Killer Snails!
Good game tonight guys; next week we’ll kick things off with U2’s “The Joshua Tree”! Study up (or perhaps, listen up), and we’ll see you next time!
Until then,
~ Ian
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Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD
It was nice to see you all joining me at Champion Billiards on Thursday for a little summer lovin’! It was the first night of our Summer Fling here, and if you’re not up on the rules you should check out our website for all the information. Good things happening, who doesn’t love a saucy summer fling! If you haven’t joined us here on Thursday night you are missing out on some serious sass…
Our Motorhead question managed to talk about both the rock band and wrestling – didn’t see that one coming! Our teams handled it gracefully though and we were off to a good start. Round 1 was pretty straight forward and teams took advantage of it to settle in and enjoy those cold, crisp beers. Good thing they didn’t get too comfortable though as Round 2 brought some zingers, both Luxembourg and etch a sketch were making sure those brain cells were spinning in the search for the top of the podium.
Our puzzle page was a fun one with 90’s bands in picture form, and while teams did well only Power Vac and Just Good Enough were actually good enough to pull off the perfect score! Our second half had a great mix, just enough challenge to get teams celebrating our presidents, Black Beauty and Zubrowka in Round 3, and as much as I wanted to leave our six-point clue at I am a sports team, we followed though and a surprising amount of teams pulled it on the first clue or six points! Funny enough, this sports bar seems to struggle with sports questions! The hardest question of Round 4 was absolutely the Chipettes which I find hard to believe, but then again I loved that Chipmunks movie with the hot air balloon! Chipmunks have nothing on the Chipettes moxie!
Our final question was a good one tonight with only a few teams coming up with the all important connection! It would have been Syn Storm in third place, but since the team was roughly the population of Delaware, they were out of the running. Third place ended up going to Smarty Pants by default! Second place was Just good Enough (nice to see you!) and first was no surprise – Power Vacuum! Nice pull with the “Supernatural” connection. That feeds in to next week, which will start out a question on the TV series “Supernatural”. See you then!
~ Sam
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Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA
It was another great night of Pour House Trivia here at Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, as we kicked off this year’s Summer Fling tourney. We started off the game with a little “Game of Thrones” action courtesy of our last game’s winners, and followed it up with this tasty candy that been around for quite awhile.
The round went pretty smoothly for all of the teams, as we tore through some post-Easter egg salad, identified the first and last word found in the King James Bible, and then got crushed at chess with Magnus Carlsen.
Round two started off with some live humor from these three gentleman.
The teams also scored very well with the band Dire Straits, and the aluminum inside the classic Etch-a-Sketch toy. We were split just a bit on the country of Luxembourg, but it was points abound for this Eddie Murphy sidekick and former talk show host.
The third round remained strong for most of the teams as everyone could name at least one of the world’s two smallest horses from the supplemental clues provided. We mashed together an Amazon original TV series with a little Stephen King, and identified the three most recent Presidents who also served as Senators. Here is an example of the “Hudson River School” of landscape art.
Finally for the third round, we visited the fictional Republic of Zubrowka. The train ride was a bit rough though.
We still saw a very close game even into the final round, with only nine points separating first place through sixth place. The first category was the inspiration for some Belgian chocolate, followed by some science terms beginning with the letter N. I never new this was called nacre as well.
B.B. King’s guitar, Lucille.
Lastly in the final round, what appeared to be the toughest question of the night, “The Chippettes”.
Three of our seven teams tonight answered correctly for the final question, leading to these final results:
First Place: Your Mom
Second Place: Thoroughly Screwed
Third Place: Indians
Next week’s first category: 2017 Washington Nationals
~ Ronnie
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Smoketown Brewing in Brunswick, MD
Tonight, I filled in for Zach at Smoketown Brewing Station as he was out this week, but will be back next week! We had a packed house at Smoketown as nine teams came out to battle for the top spot! After a smooth start, the entire bar was stumped by a second round question asked for the metal which composes the small filings inside of an Etch-A-Sketch. While Iron was a popular answer it turns out that the toy is filled with aluminum.
The Hans Gruber Preservation Society took the lead coming out of halftime as they were up five points on two teams tied for second: Help! My Harry Potter Has Hogwarts and BFF. Hans Gruber had a great game as they only missed one question in the second half! However, the question that they missed (Cartoon Characters) was their bonus category which ended up costing them a total of six points and giving Suck it Trebek the lead going into the final question of the night! Suck it Trebek was one of just two teams to get the final question right in securing their win in the first week of Summer Fling 2017! Finishing in second was BFF, and rounding out the top three was Hans Gruber Preservation Society!
I had a great time filling in this week, and Zach will return next week as we begin the game with an opening category of The Muppets.
Until next time,
~ Devan
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Beef ‘O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD
Beef o Brady’s was a blast on Thursday evening as seven lucky teams made their way to trivia glory for the first week of Summer Fling season.
Right off the bat, Perennials, Question 1 Round 1 was giving half the teams trouble. The question “A Perennial plant is a plant that lives for more than two years. There is a class of perennials which retain a mantle of leaves throughout the year. Most types of conifers are this class of perennial. For your wager, names this class of perennial.” The answer is evergreen! The missed answers were all types of evergreens!
Round 2, question 4 provided an even greater challenge with only 1 team getting the correct answer! In the category “Toying with Science” the question was: The powder inside an Etch-a-Sketch toy is made from what element with atomic number 13? The most common answer was iron or iron fillings – while the correct answer was aluminum.
The top 4 teams going into the half were:
- Full Frontal Nerdity – 88
- Griffindorks – 82
- The Homedogs – 81
- Corndog Squad – 80.
Round 3 was extremely tough with only 19 out of 30 questions answered correctly. The First Words Last Words question was particularly tough with only 1 team answering correctly.
Round 4 didn’t provide much change and the final question just strengthened the lead of the top contenders. The top 4 teams all go this final question correct in the category of common bonds: “For your wager, what ten-letter word logically links all of the following entities: Chloe Sullivan, the Battle of Guadalcanal, Bob Dylan, the Justice League, and Jehovah’s Witnesses?” And that answer was watchtower!
Full Frontal Nerdity took 1st, with the homedogs in 2nd followed by Incognido in 3rd. The category for next week is ballet!
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Rocklands Farm Winery in Poolesville, MD
THERE WAS NO TRIVIA AT ROCKLAND FARMS THIS WEEK. WE WILL RETURN ON JUNE 22nd.
Next week’s first category: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.
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Jerry’s Sports Bar in Hagerstown, MD
Kids these days! Don’t they listen to all the music the older generations listened to when we were their age? It is fun to come to trivia and watch the millennials ponder certain questions, but rock out on others at Jerry’s Subs and Pizza on the square in Hagerstown on Thursday nights. We had a great time with four veteran teams, though #LB Cool J was only represented by a single player; but that doesn’t stop a true trivia champ!
Only half the teams (the ones over 30 years old) knew their 1980’s rock songs. Also, only one team remembered the Dog Pound from “The Arsenio Hall Show”. Congrats to Sanford and Son on that one. #Back to the Future Reference knew that the noblewoman of Coventry was Lady Godiva, and that the chocolate company was founded in Belguim.
Going into the final, the distance between our rivals was too far for any team to catch up. Shirts and Skins had been holding at third all night and kept it for the last question. Sanford and Son grabbed second, and #Back to the Future Reference wagered zero to stay at the top.
Next we’re going to start it up with a question about Flying Dog Beer. Coincidentally, next Thursday will be the Flying Dog Tap Takeover, so come on out to Jerry’s and grab a cold one next week!
~ Sean
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Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA
Coming soon…
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Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD
It was a great first night of trivia at Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport! Thank you to all the teams that came out and played. A couple of veteran teams came from other venues to join the competition while we had brand new teams established tonight, such as Three Jeffers and the Creamers, Made in the 80’s, and Pontoon Predators. The new teams took little to no time at all to pick up all the rules of the game and we quickly got started. All of the teams picked up their wagers for the first round. Only three teams earned their bonus for the second question, while Quality Guesswork was the only team to earn a bonus on the third question.
With the top of the halftime sheet confusing a couple teams in the beginning, everybody performed really well. No perfect scores going to anybody, with the highest being 19 points going to Give Us Your Beer Money. The average score came out to be around 17 points. Round 3 is when we had some teams slip up. While about half of the teams earned their wagers for the first question, nobody knew the bonus. Going on to the last question, made in the 80’s were the only team to energetically run their answer up and win those bonus points.
Congrats to Three Jeffers and the Creamers for being the only team to pick up six points on the 6-4-2 question. Only two other teams earned any points, both of whom waited until the two-point clue.
Only two slip ups in Round 4, otherwise every team earned their wagers, with a couple of teams picking up bonus points. Only three teams answered or final question correctly, Quality Guesswork taking third place, bumping Bees? from fourth place to second place, and keeping Give us Your Beer Money in first place for the inaugural victory at Cushwa (and $50 cash!).
Thank you once again for coming out!
~ Skye
Next week’s first category: Superman
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Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL
The monsoon rolled in but we were still able to have a five team night at the Bar Right Around the Corner. Two new teams graced the arcade bars presence, Killer Kittens and Pigs and Suds with an extremely adorable but unhelpful addition of Brody the dog. Our returning veterans of Better Red than Dead and Over 140 struck up the old rivalry and fully expected to run away with first and second, but nay, the Rainy Day Baes had some tricks up their sleeves.
The first round contained the Reese Witherspoon topic chosen by the Rainy Day Baes last week, who turned in the answer before I finished the question. At least they correctly chose their strong suit. Only Better Red than Dead knew the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” one-hit wonder artist, and practically dominated the whole round, only missing the bonus question for the last word in the Bible. We had a roundhouse with everyone getting the question right for what holiday has a week after it dedicated to egg salad, and the ELO ratings taking a lot of people down with their lack of knowledge in chess.
Round two started off splendidly with a roundhouse for all three comedian audio clips. Only to be shattered by just Better Red than Dead knowing about the partner of the Prime Minister of Luxembourg. No one opted to help me do Arsenio Hall’s whooping into halftime, of which the halftime challenges of name these 1990s bands being significantly easier for people than the six letter word starting with B. The two new teams were struggling with points, as our three veteran teams taking the top three spots. Better Red than Dead only missed one question in the first half.
Many people made my evening by shouting “Little Sebastian” (from “Parks and Recreation”) for the answer to the smallest horse in the Guinness book of records, however; no one got the actual answer of Thumbelina. The U.S. Presidents question also tripped up many teams, since it was a surprising fact that besides president Obama, the most recent President to have also served as a U.S. Senator was Richard Nixon. Only half our teams saw “The Grand Budapest Hotel” or have an idea of Wes Anderson sounding republic names. The first comment I received when people saw the categories was relief at no sports questions. So they were all thrilled the 6-4-2 was about the sports team with the current longest postseason streak. Two teams chose not to wait for the super obvious San Antonio Spurs two-pointer.
In the final round, Lady Godiva tricked many teams who were convinced her chocolate was from Germany and not Belgium. Redemption came later, with almost everyone knowing Michigan had the most coastline of a non-oceanic state. My favorite “Walking Dead” bat is also the name of B.B. King’s guitar (which the youths did not get…) and everyone got the female counterparts of Alvin and the chipmunks correctly.
The final question all came down to Better Red than Dead knowing the Jehovah’s Witnesses newsletter is called “The Watchtower”, because no other team was able to make the connection between the list of seemingly unrelated items that I read. Running away with it and securing the final question, congratulations to Better Red than Dead, and I hope to see Killer Kittens and Pigs and Suds!
The best moment of the night was absolutely when I said Red Wings like Elmer Fudd. That is an insanely difficult team name to say.
Next week’s first category: Melissa McCarthy
~ Anne
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Fish Market in Alexandria, VA
An awesome night for trivia as we had a large number of teams ready to start off the Summer season! Some returning teams tried out some new team names, notably Ant Farm Keyboard redesigned themselves as Brother of Menelaus. I didn’t even know who that was and after looking Menelaus up, all I remember is he has something to do with mythology! I think his brother is…. Agamemnon? (EDITOR’S NOTE: yes) I could be way off and I don’t care to look it up! Either way, trivia happened and I was locked in on the next set of 20 questions!
PC Principals were here tonight, coming off of a top ten finish at the World Series; they looked in good form tonight, putting up a score that was enough to keep them in the lead at the half! An unexpectedly hard Science question kept teams from keeping it close. Etch-a-Sketch powder is made with what element? Well, most teams guessed “Iron” but “Iron”ically, it is NOT iron — it’s Aluminum! Only a few teams getting that right, this left only a small number of teams near the lead.
Atomic Dogs, Brother of Menelaus, and PC Principals were our top three for the majority of the game and that’s how it was slated going into the final. PC Principals made kept up some good play and held a solo lead with one question to go. A correct response would be a win for them but with a hard question coming up, nothing was guaranteed! Only one team getting the final question correct, and that team would win the game. Was it PCP? Was it Atomic Dogs? No, it was Brother of Menelaus, jumping from 2nd place to take down a win with “Watchtower”!
A good question (maybe I’m biased as I wrote it) to finish the game off and a well deserved victory after being the ONLY team to get the final! A fun one to start off the season with, we’re back in a week with more PHT, tell your friends, bring that nerd who you never usually invite to things! He’ll be real real good at this, you’ll find yourself making a new friend 🙂
~ Bill
Next week’s first category: The Kardashians
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Guido’s Speakeasy in Frederick, MD
We had a lot of back and forth happening between our teams for our Thursday night game at Guido’s Speakeasy! Two teams seemed to keep trading 1st place with each other throughout the game, while the teams in 3rd through 5th also kept moving up and down the ladder with each other. With all the movement happening with so many teams, I was excited to see who our top 3 were going to be at the end of the game.
When we reached the final question, we got to see one last crazy flip flop happen, as only 2 teams answered the final correctly! And unfortunately dropping from 1st to 3rd place was Tuna Noodle Casserole! Moving up to 2nd place as one of two teams to get the final was Butt Stuff!! They kept moving in and out of 1st place, but moved back in when it mattered most. Our winners were Unathletico Madrid!!! They decided to keep the “Jon Sings” winners choice category, so for week 8 in a row, I actually get a group which I’ll enjoy playing, Jon sings Red Hot Chili Peppers! So I’ll see everyone next Thursday for some more fun at Guido’s!
~ Jon J
