Thursday Trivia is B-E-A-Utiful!

On Thursday, Pour House Trivia was played by 229 teams across our 20 locations, with the highest attendance being 26 teams at Aslin Beer Co. We also added another location to the PHT family: Joanna’s game at Mookie’s BBQ in Great Falls, VA!

FIRST ROUND:

It took for a Last Word/First Word question to trip up a majority of our teams in the first round:

• Which four-word name would you have if the late African-American actor who starred in the film The Green Mile also sold a line of dessert baking products currently owned by Conagra Brands?

The linked name Michael Clarke Duncan Hines was given by 38% of the field, which was the lowest success rate for any wagering question in Thursday’s game. We followed that up with a question about Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, in which a game-low 8.2% of teams earned bonus points for getting within ten years of her birth year, 1797. After the first round, six teams still had perfect scores.

SECOND ROUND:

This game’s audio clue presented a trio of song titles with the word First in the title. After questions about former President Theodore Roosevelt and new Baltimore Raven Odell Beckham Jr., we had another tricky run. First off, this wagering question about a certain animal:

• This semi-aquatic marine animal is the largest of the pinnipeds (or fin-footed animals).  It shares part of its name with that of a large land mammal. What is the two-word name of this animal?

Roughly 41% of our teams were able to name the elephant seal. The round concluded with a query about the state of Arkansas in which only 11% of teams knew its current official nickname, the Natural State. This round had seven perfect team scores.

HALFTIME:

Topics covered on Thursday’s halftime sheet were celebs with EB initials such as Elizabeth Banks and Ernest Borgnine, followed by determining whether each listed nation was a former member of the Soviet Union. This wasn’t the easiest puzzle page; the average score was 13.4 points and only six teams were able to handle it perfectly for all 20 points. We reached the halftime intermission with these teams ahead:

• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 88
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 88
• Soft Pretzel (Loudoun Kitchen): 88
• Mad Facts: Query Road (Loudoun Kitchen): 156
• Tokyo Sex Whale (Smoketown): 88

THIRD ROUND:

In a game where the tough questions waited until the late portions of each round, that trend continued here. The second half’s hardest wagering question took place at the end of this round and discussed chemical elements:

• Bearing the chemical symbol Mc, one of the newest elements added to the Periodic Table is named for a national capital, which is home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. For your wager, name either that city or that element’s atomic number within five either way.

The element of Moscovium is named for Moscow and is found with the atomic number of 115. Just over two-fifths of the field recorded their wager on this question, while 12% earned bonus points. Before that, the third round featured topics like multi-sport athlete and Pennsylvania town namesake Jim Thorpe, Three Clues about the word Dutch, and actress Jessica Biel. In this round, perfect scores were recorded by Tokyo Sex Whale (Smoketown), Educated Friends (Fourscore), I Don’t Know (Aslin), and Dancing Queen (Mark’s).

FOURTH ROUND:

There were 61 teams (more than a quarter of the field) able to name Mel Gibson off the first 6-4-2 clue for all six points. Staying on brand for this game, the last round ended with another tricky question, an eggcellent three-parter:

• 1) In which work of 18th century satire does war escalate from a disagreement over the correct side to crack an egg?
• 2) The lyric I am the Eggman is included in the chorus of which song from The Beatles?
• 3) Often credited with the first Easter Egg in video game history, a game titled Adventure was created by which company?

In order, those answers are Gulliver’s Travels, I am the Walrus, and Atari. About 43% of teams had at least two of those answers, but 17% added that third correct answer for bonus credit. Otherwise, teams went through this round with questions on Shakespeare’s Othello, Princess Diana, and the game Barrel of Monkeys. This round had nine perfect teams, the highest mark of any on Thursday. Scores were close after four rounds of play:

• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 163
• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 161
• Dancing Queen (Mark’s): 158
• Know Nothings (Bear Brick Oven): 158
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 157 POINTS

FINAL QUESTION (37.12% success rate):

• Last year, which Oscar winner became the oldest person to appear on the cover of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People issue?

Doing so at the age of 76, Helen Mirren is the holder of that record. Mad Facts: Query Road (Loudoun Kitchen) and Dancing Queen (Mark’s) had beautiful games as well, each putting up Perfect 21 on Thursday. They also notched a top-three effort on the final overall scoreboard:

• Dancing Queen (Mark’s): 170
• Know Nothings (Bear Brick Oven): 170
• Mad Facts: Query Road (Loudoun Kitchen): 169
• We the Peephole (Loudoun Kitchen): 169
• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 168
• Comfortably Dumb (Loudoun Kitchen): 167
• Titanic String Quartet (Bear Brick Oven): 164
• Unemployed (Bear Brick Oven): 163
• Loose Vowels (Loudoun Kitchen): 162
• Quibbles and Chips (Olde Mother): 162

Honorable mention goes out to Moist Gang (Mile 20), which earned 168 points while playing over the limit with more than seven players.

THURSDAY’S WINNERS:

Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: Third Round Meltdown  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Sarah Sings Metallica)

Fourscore Beer Co. in Gettysburg, PA: Educated Friends  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Daisy Jones & the Six (novel series))

Michaux Brew in Waynesboro, PA: Fab Four  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1980s Song Lyrics)

Mookie’s BBQ in Great Falls, VA: Dashing Duo  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Barbecue)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: 

Loudoun Kitchen and Bar in Leesburg, VA: Mad Facts: Query Road  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Ice Cube)

Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Quibbles and Chips  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Snack Foods)

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Hillbilly Geniuses  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)

Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA: Teachers Have Class  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: A Goofy Movie)

Brewery Fire in Taneytown, MD: Five Heads, One Brain  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bill & Ted (film series))

Crooked Run in Sterling, VA: Quarter Century  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Stardew Valley)

Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA: Snyder’s Out  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Latin American Geography)

Interchange Tiki Bar in Williamsport, MD: Shirts and Skins  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Australian Survivor (post-2015))

Bear Brick Oven Pizza in Silver Spring, MD: Know Nothings  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Indigenous Peoples of Japan)

Preston’s Pub in Manassas Park, VA: We Are Bob  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Folklore)

Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA: Porn on the Job  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Expanse)

Kalypso’s Sports Tavern in Reston, VA: Speed Dating  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Monty Python)

Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD: Deck Chairs on the Titanic  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Caddyshack)

Mile 20 at the Breeze in Herndon, VA: Vapors  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: WWF Attitude Era)

Comus Inn in Dickerson, MD: Quizard of Oz  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Automobiles)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Dancing Queen  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Pre-World War II Cocktails)