Thursday Trivia’s Farewell to Arms!
After almost tying the all-time mark last week, we forged ahead to set another record for team turnout this past Thursday! There were 252 teams across our 20 locations, with Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA leading the way by hosting a 31-team game.
FIRST ROUND:
We got a little meta for Thursday’s holiday, as a question about Groundhog Day was followed by a three-parter about the film Groundhog Day, the latter of which proved to be the most difficult way to earn wagering points in the first half:
- 1) Groundhog Day was directed by which late comedian who appeared with Bill Murray in Ghostbusters?
- 2) What is the occupation of Ned Ryerson, Phil’s former high school classmate who is eventually punched in the face by Phil?
- 3) Also found in the title of a Beatles song, what is the lovely first name of the character portrayed by Andie McDowell?
Roughly 56% of teams got at least two of the right answers: the film was directed by Harold Ramis, Ned Ryerson was an insurance salesman, and McDowell played lovely Rita. One of the two toughest bonus chances came at the end of the round on a query about the Weihenstephan brewery in Germany which has been in operation since 1040 AD; just 5.9% of teams earned extra points by knowing Hamburg is Germany’s second-most populous city. A trio of teams earned perfect scores in the opening round: One Wheel Short of a Unicycle (Smoketown), Trivia Newton John (Champion), and Gong Gong and the Butt Demons (Interchange).
SECOND ROUND:
The theme of Thursday’s audio clue was songs with city names for titles: Will Smith’s Miami, Marty Robbins’s El Paso, and Boston by Augustana. Two questions later, we asked about the doubly-advertised candy bars Almond Joy and Mounds, where 14% of the field earned bonus credit for naming Peter Paul as the company that introduced those candies. The final question of the round concerned NFC Champion quarterback Jalen Hurts and his college endeavors at both Oklahoma and Alabama. A game-high eight perfect team scores occurred in this round.
HALFTIME:
Teams started halftime by identifying brands by their stylized-H logos (such as the Houston Astros and Holiday Inn), then had to match first names to the corresponding TV family surname. While the average score was 17.4 points, almost 30% of the field (74 teams in all) secured the 20-point bag. A perfect team stood tall above the rest at the halftime break:
THIRD ROUND:
After a question about Forkies, or devoted fans of the nighttime TV soap opera Dallas, we moved to Thursday’s toughest wagering question overall:
- At the age of 20, which notable American began living by a specific set of 13 virtues, including humility, temperance, sincerity, and tranquility?
Shockingly enough considering the 32% success rate, that man was Benjamin Franklin! Three Clues about the name Tandy came next, with a round-low 19% of the field getting it right early for bonus points. At the end of the round, we asked about back-to-back Mets who won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in the 1980s: outfielder Darryl Strawberry and pitcher Dwight (Doc) Gooden. This time, Samurai Trivia Players (Bear) and One Zoomer, Six Boomers (Aslin) finished the round perfect.
FOURTH ROUND:
We couldn’t outsmart our teams even early on with the evening’s 6-4-2 about the IHOP restaurant chain: over 95% of the field knew it from a single clue to receive the full six-point bump. Thursday’s last round started with its toughest question:
- In order to publish her novels Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, and Middlemarch, a female British author of the 19th Century used which male pseudonym?
A little more than a third of our teams correctly identified George Eliot as the pen name. However, this was the other bonus entry with the lowest success rate, as only 5.9% knew that author’s real name, Mary Ann Evans. Other topics in this round included the current horror film M3GAN, musical sisters Beyonce and Solange Knowles, and a three-parter on northern geography. The only team to reach perfection in the fourth round was Reese’s is My Co-Pilot (Fourscore). We headed into the final question with these teams rocking the highest scores:
- Vapors (Mile 20): 164
- One Zoomer, Six Boomers (Aslin): 162
- Trivia Newton John (Champion): 162
- Educated Friends (Fourscore): 159
- FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 158 POINTS
FINAL QUESTION (38.49% success rate):
- Created by using the semaphore signals for the letters N and D, standing for nuclear disarmament, the logo for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has come to be known by what other name?
That more common name would be the peace symbol, named by almost two-fifths of the field. A half-dozen teams notched a Perfect 21 feat in Thursday’s game, each squad giving correct answers for all 21 wagering questions. These were the highest overall scores at the end of the night:
- Trivia Newton John (Champion): 174
- Educated Friends (Fourscore): 171
- Painful Burning Sensation (Smoketown): 170
- Crabcakes (Champion): 169
- Scared Money Don’t Make Money (Champion): 169
- Samurai Trivia Players (Bear): 168
- Stop Thinking, Keep Drinking (Solace Outpost): 168
- We Drink and We Know Things (Smoketown): 168
- P2 (Bear): 167
- Gong Gong and the Butt Demons (Interchange): 166
THURSDAY’S WINNERS:
Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: Painful Burning Sensation (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Hair Metal Bands)
Fourscore Beer Co. in Gettysburg, PA: Educated Friends (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Algebraic Geometry)
Michaux Brew in Waynesboro, PA: Suspect Tuna (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Chocolate)
Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Trivia Newton John (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: King-Size Homer (The Simpsons episode))
Loudoun Kitchen and Bar in Leesburg, VA: Cat in the Chat (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Teen Wolf (2023 film))
Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Andrew’s Only Fans (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: SpongeBob SquarePants)
Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Three Brains, One Answer (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: World War II in Europe)
Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA: Scotty Doesn’t Know (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Cars)
Brewery Fire in Taneytown, MD: Great Heathen Army (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1980s MLB)
Crooked Run in Sterling, VA: Transparent Eyeballs (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Arrested Development (seasons 1-3))
Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA: Stop Thinking, Keep Drinking (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Supreme Court Justices)
Interchange Tiki Bar in Williamsport, MD: Gong Gong and the Butt Demons (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1990s MLB World Series)
Bear Brick Oven Pizza in Silver Spring, MD: Samurai Trivia Players (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 20th Century Baltimore Orioles)
Preston’s Pub in Manassas Park, VA: We Are Bob (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Philosophy)
Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA: One Zoomer, Six Boomers (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Broadway Showtunes)
Kalypso’s Sports Tavern in Reston, VA: Bad Rhino (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Iceland)
Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD: Just Good Enough (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2000s Super Bowl Halftime Artists)
Mile 20 at the Breeze in Herndon, VA: Vapors (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Super Bowl History)
Comus Inn in Dickerson, MD: Fat, Drunk, and Clueless (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Motley Crue)
Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Snowblind (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Historic Diseases)