Trivia… in the Bar… with a Pitcher of Beer…

Thursday night trivia featured 97 teams across 12 Pour House venues.  Tonight’s second half featured a number of (unfortunate) surprises, so let’s get right to the nightly recap:

ROUND 1:

Thursday night’s game opened with a Name That Decade question, as we asked for the decade which featured these three events.  Since all of these events also occurred in the same year, we offered a two-point bonus for any team that knew the exact year:

EVENT 1: Manon Rhéaume becomes the first woman to play in an NHL pre-season game.

EVENT 2: More than 40 years after it was written, the song “Unforgettable” wins the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

EVENT 3: The most recent Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified.

Here is a shot of Ms. Rheaume in net for the Tampa Bay Lightning during the fall of 1992:

We moved along into the genre of horror films:

–> Which weapon replaces an arm on Ash Williams in “Evil Dead II”, is used by pig mask-wearing Vincent Smith in “Motel Hell”, and is the title weapon used by Leatherface in a horror film from 1974?

It was no surprise that the movie buffs earned their teams points with the ubiquitous chainsaw:

Most of our teams also earned a two-point bonus by knowing that actor Bruce Campbell portrays Ash Williams in the “Evil Dead” franchise.  We concluded the first round with a question on the Western Zodiac, asking for the three signs represented by human figures (excluding Sagittarius, which is a Centaur).  Once again, the  bonus points were flying as more than half of our teams knew all three correct answers: Gemini (twins), Virgo (virgin), and Aquarius (water bearer).  The sticking point for most teams was pinning down the exact answer of 1992, so only six teams earned a perfect score through the first round.

ROUND 2:

Our nightly audio question asked about three singers who share a last name, with tonight’s tunes featuring the extended Williams family:

By the way, did you know Pharrell Williams is 44 years old?  Maybe it’s the hats…  The second round continued with questions on Anarchy and the defending national champion Clemson Tigers, before landing on the subject of world leaders.  While most teams knew that Otto von Bismarck led Germany and Prussia in the late 19th century (and is the namesake for a U.S. state capital), only 15% of our teams earned bonus points on this question by knowing his most common nickname: “The Iron Chancellor”.  One of our Florida teams came up with the oh-so-close response of “Otto von Marky Mark”.  Just as in the opening stanza, six teams earned a perfect score through in the second round.

HALFTIME:

Tonight’s halftime round had our teams trying to identify cartoon characters simply by their outfits:

      

Overall, the average score reached 16.7 points, with nine teams scoring a perfect 20 points.  Here are Thursday’s top scores after the first half:

• Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market):  91
• PC Principals (Fish Market):  91
• Syn Storm (Champion Billiards):  88
• PC Librarians (Fish Market):  87
• Clever Team Name (Quincy’s):  87
• Turtles All the Way Down (Quincy’s):  87

ROUND 3:

The second half began with a question about everyone’s favorite double-landlocked country: Liechtenstein!  Our teams earned points by identifying either one of the two neighbors of Liechtenstein, both of which are also landlocked:

Most teams knew one of these two countries, but only 24% knew both.  The third round also included our nightly Three Clues question, which included a rather difficult two-point bonus:

CLUE 1: The name of a character voiced by Steven Root in the film “Finding Nemo”.

CLUE 2: The nickname of American opera singer Beverly Sills.

Nearly all of our teams opted to wait for the third and final clue, which (thanks to a question about a certain S.C. Johnson product) led them to the correct answer of Bubbles.  Only five teams were bold enough to earn the two-point bonus on this question.  We concluded the round by asking our teams to name either one of the two Academy Award-winning actors who are currently nominated for Emmy Awards.  More than half of our teams earned bonus points by knowing BOTH of these correct answers:

The difficult start to the Three Clues question kept the perfect scores off the board for the third round.

6-4-2 QUESTION:

Thursday’s 6-4-2 question was certainly unique in that we saw more than half of our teams turn in an incorrect response after the six-point clue was read, with nearly every one of these teams turning in the SAME incorrect answer.  Here’s the first clue:

–> Who was the first athlete to appear on the cover of a Wheaties cereal box?

For some reason, the answer of Bruce Jenner seemed to be stuck in the minds of many players, but the tradition of depicting athletes on Wheaties boxes goes back MUCH further than the 1970s.  In fact, the practice began in 1934, with this iconic baseball star:

Yes, that’s the “Iron Horse”: Lou Gehrig.  Across the board, only FOUR teams earned six points on this question.

ROUND 4:

For as many teams that slipped up on the 6-4-2 question, there were just as many that were cringing after the answer was given to the first question of the final round:

–> Known as “the Father of the Bill of Rights” for his drafting of the first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, this Virginian and future U.S. President was also one of the three co-authors of the Federalist Papers.  For your wager, name this historic figure.   2-POINT BONUS: What was the name of this man’s Virginia home?

In hindsight, the inclusion of this bonus question may have given some teams a false sense of security, with the idea that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were the only U.S. Presidents with famous Virginia homes that were given names.  Though Jefferson constructed the Declaration of Independence, he did not write the Federalist Papers or any part of the Bill of Rights.  That distinction went to the correct answer: James Madison (who lived at Montpelier).  This question saw about one-quarter of our teams miss with a nine-point wager, and several of those had also chosen U.S. Presidents as their bonus category.  Ouch…  Most of our teams recovered over the next few questions, with the round concluded in the category of Film Roles, as we asked for the historical figures respectively portrayed by the following pairs of performers: Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench,  Willem Dafoe and Jim Caviezel, Brad Pitt and Colin Farrell.  Your correct answers: Queen Elizabeth, Jesus Christ, and Jesse James.  The last role was the most difficult by far, as only 10% of our teams earned a two-point bonus here.  Once again, the final round did not feature any perfect scores.  Here are Thursday’s top scores after the fourth round:

• Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market):  160
• PC Principals (Fish Market):  159
• Clever Team Name (Quincy’s):  159
• Vitrifiers (Champion Billiards):  155
• Fan Club (Quincy’s):  154

FINAL QUESTION (69.8% success rate):

–> In the early versions of the game “Clue”, which miniature weapon was made of a toxic material, and therefore could potentially have been a real-life murder weapon?

Just over two-thirds of our teams arrived at the correct response of the lead pipe.  Congratulations to Clever Team Name (Quincy’s) and Hans Gruber Preservation Society (​Smoketown Brewing), as the only teams to record the Perfect 21 tonight by answering all wagering questions correctly.  Here are your top overall scores from Thursday:

• Brother of Menelaus (Fish Market):  172
• Clever Team Name (Quincy’s):  167
• Fan Club (Quincy’s):  164
• Thoroughly Screwed (Bunker Sports Cafe):  163
• Failed Phase Three (Quincy’s):  163
• Lowered Expectations (Quincy’s):  162
• Indians (Bunker Sports Cafe):  161
• Busch Lattes (Cushwa Brewing):  160
• Turtles All the Way Down (Quincy’s):  159
• Your Mom (Bunker Sports Cafe):  158

TONIGHT’S WINNERS:

Quincy’s Bar and Grille in Gaithersburg, MD:  Clever Team Name  (Next week’s first category: 2017 Solar Eclipse)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD:  Vitrifiers  (Next week’s first category: “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”)

Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA:  Thoroughly Screwed  (Next week’s first category: Major League Baseball)

​Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD:  Hans Gruber Preservation Society  (Next week’s first category: Alan Rickman Films)

Beef O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD:  Incognido’s  (Next week’s first category: Poker)

Jerry’s Sports Bar in Hagerstown, MD:  LB Cool J  (Next week’s first category: Circle of Fifths)

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA:  Tequila Mockingbird  (Next week’s first category: Loudoun County)

Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD:  Busch Lattes  (Next week’s first category: Automotive Parts)

Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD:  Three Fingers Worth   (Next week’s first category: 2 Live Crew Grab Bag)

Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL:  Thank God Scott Arrived  (Next week’s first category: “Jurassic Park”)

Fish Market Restaurant in Alexandria, VA:  Brothers of Menelaus  (Next week’s first category: 2000s One-Hit Wonders – AUDIO)

Guido’s in Frederick, MD:  Tuna Noodle Casserole  (Next week’s first category: Jon Sings Disco)