If Tuesday night’s game of trivia taught us on anything, it is that there are way too many TV shows currently on the air.  Oh well, maybe that wasn’t money well spent.  On to tonight’s recaps, which featured five different venues with double-digit teams, and even more with games that went right down to the wire.  Included in tonight’s games was an unprecedented FOUR-WAY tiebreaker!  Check out the recaps:

TUESDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (102 teams across 13 venues):

–> Highest Overall Score: Screaming Death Monkey (Quincy’s South) with 169

–> Highest Score after Round 4: Kelly’s Heroes (Top Golf) with 165

–> Highest First Half Score: Crystal Methodists (Champion Billiards) with 90

–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Einhorn is Finkel, Finkel is Einhorn (FireFlies) and The Freebirds (Blue Parrott)

–> Our halftime page featured beer labels, playing to an average of 16.4, with about 15% of our teams notching a perfect 20 points.

–> Our toughest question of the night was asked during Round 3, with only 12% of our teams earning points (thought it certainly led to the most creative wrong answers!)

–  As a slang term, this word is sometimes used as a synonym for ‘drunk.’  It is also the title of a current TBS comedy series which parodies the former TV drama “Lost”.  For your wager, name this word.

TUESDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (72.4% success rate):

–> On June 9, 1943, this man was three days shy of his 19^th birthday when he became the youngest Naval pilot in U.S. history.  During World War II, he flew 58 combat missions in an airplane nicknamed ‘Barbara’.  Who is this American?  (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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Capitol City Brewing in Arlington, VA

Another pleasantly warm evening in Shirlington – a perfect night to grab a round of cold beer with friends and compete at Northern VA’s premier weekly trivia showdown!  Ten squads turned out, including a few very impressive newcomer teams, to test their brainpower and, as icing on the cake, watch the Nats clobber the execrable St. Louis Cardinals.

Round One was a nod to the science historians in the house, with a double dip of questions on famous scientists thanks to our winner’s choice: “Scientists and their Units”.  We tried to recall our old subway maps of NYC and bade farewell to a pair of similarly-named entertainment legends.  I did not think this was by any means a “softball” round, but six teams recorded a perfect 36 points – a testament to how sharp our regulars are, at least at the start of the night before the beer and wings have set in.  Round Two started with a change-up to the usual three audio clips formula, instead featuring one prolonged clip of a noted 80’s song and three questions relating to it.  This was all around a good night if you love the 1980s – we saw 80’s basketball, 80’s music and later on, 80’s movies.  And me without my parachute pants!  Bar mainstays Show Me on the Doll showed us how well they remembered a now-obscure George Clooney film from 1997, as they were the only team to pick up a two-point bonus on a question about the genesis of Dreamworks SKG.

Celebrity Dead or Alive?: Just about everyone knew that Chuck Berry was the famous rock-and-roller who passed away last month, but as for the late game show host with the same first name, some teams were at sea.  More than one guess for game show host Chuck Woolery – who is alive and well!  And doing commercials on cable news!

I was duly impressed by everyone’s performance on the beer label picture round at halftime, especially considering that we play at a brewery, meaning none of those beers is for sale at Cap City!  Having to do it all from memory, our teams did quite well (although Schlitz’s maroon parallelogram threw most of us for a loop) with newcomers Gals & Geezers taking down the sole 20-point score!  Tip of the Hat – these newcomers definitely are off to a strong start!  After the half, the Capital Hillbillies were on top by just two points, with the Goofballs, Gals & Geezers, Valley Girls, and Green Machine all jostling for position close behind.

Clever Name Alert: The Hillbillies competed last night under one of their signature topical team names: “United: Putting the Hospital in Hospitality”!  Keep ’em coming, folks, I love these and I’m always tempted to bring back door prizes for funny team names and joke answers.

Round Three took us to North Africa for a savory staple, then inside our very heads for a question on the anatomy of the inner ear.  Menace 2 Sobriety leapt ahead in the standings, as they were the only team to know about TBS’ Lost parody show, Wrecked.  Although the incorrect answers all sound like entertaining programs: Hammered, Wasted, Blitzed, etc.  The Valley Girls, in turn, were the only team to take 6 points in the 6-4-2; plenty of teams jumped in with N as their guess after the first clue, but in fact N refers to the set of natural (positive) integers only, and not the set of all integers.  Where my math majors at?

Finally, Round Four brought us home with a three-parter on the best character from one of my favorite movies (Edward the Longshanks!), magical tree houses, and polar zone landmarks.  The Hillbillies pulled ahead of the pack by being the only team to remember Ben Stein’s inimitable drone, extolling the benefits of Clear Eyes, and went into the Final with a 10-point lead – almost (but not quite) untouchable.  Our Final on a certain WWII aviator split the field, with almost half our teams losing their maximum 12-point wagers, and the other half ascending toward Trivia Valhalla.  At the end of the night, here are your top three:

First Place:  United: Putting the Hospital in Hospitality (a.k.a. Capital Hillbillies)

Second Place:  Gals & Geezers

Third Place:  Capitol City Goofballs

~ Austin

Next week’s first category:  “Burn Notice”

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Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD

Even with all the sunshine out there, a full tank of gas, and some damn good music on the radio – I would still rather be with you all at Champion Billiards on a Tuesday night or Pour House Trivia!  Thanks for coming in and hanging out with me, some traditions just stand strong no matter what the season!  We had a good game tonight, steady with teams playing it somewhat safe and sticking to what they knew to stay in the pack before the final.

Round one was interesting as a miscommunication lead to a quick question rearrange in order to find a “That 70’s Show” question to close the first half.  No worries, we worked our magic and came at you with a good one in the second round!  The only real kicker in that first round was the last question of the round – the Chuck and Chuck question. I can’t believe some of you thought that Chuck Norris could ever die!  Come on now…

Our audio question tonight was strong, with quite a few of you left to Google the video for that Paul Simon song – you know the song for sure, it’s on heavy rotation in my play list 😉 Dreamworks and Keebler you took in stride – even that Lincoln had his own patent… but Kelso!  Kelso is where you drew the line.

The big one in round 3 was “Wrecked” – I’m not going to lie, I had more fun than I should reading all your synonyms for ‘drunk’.  You may not be right, but you are funny!  That statement held true in Round 4 when we got to the incarcerated question… some of you have very dirty minds… Dirty minds but clean eyes (Or clear, see what I did there?) thanks to Mr. Ben Stein.  Admit it, you checked YouTube because you’re still convinced it was Visine.

Our final was no challenge to you all tonight, leaving Jungle Fever and Other Sarah to battle it out in a sudden death birthday duel for first place.  Other Sarah took the prize, leaving Jungle Fever in second place and Crystal Methodists taking the bronze.  It could be worse than their category next week: “The Fifth Element”!  Good movie.  Study up and I will see you next week.

~ Sam

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Cugini’s Restaurant in Poolesville, MD

Cugini’s in Poolesville is apparently the Tuesday night “place to be” as we had yet another packed house of Pour House Trivia players!  Tonight’s first category was the currently tied for first place Washington Nationals and their most “senior” outfielder; ouch on losing SS Stephen Drew to a hamstring injury in their win tonight against the Cards though.  We had three teams tied for first at the end of the first round with three more teams just off pace by a max of three points. Subjects were the late Chuck(s) Berry and Barris, Sir Isaac Newton’s political career, some sports team nicknames, and this NYC borough which says goodbye to its visitors with this sign.

The game remained tight through round two which featured “Honest Abe the Inventor”, the creators of tastiness known as the Keebler elves, and the effect Jennifer Aniston had on hairstyle in the 1990’s.  They also scored well with DreamWorks Studios, though only one team could name their first film release which featured George Clooney.  We opened up the round with a little (pun intended) Paul Simon, and a much more svelte version of Chevy Chase, who should probably be called “Chunky” Chase today. Is that Chevy Chase on the right, or Karl Rove? You decide:

Purely unintentional I assure, the third round is once again where things started to get a little hairy for some of our teams.  The teams all did well with (the highly overrated imho) Radiohead and their successful albums of the 1990’s, as well as a tasty dish of couscous, but things fell apart when it came to a TV parody of “Lost” currently airing on TBS, and the back to back Super Bowl failures for the Minnesota Vikings.  Our anatomy question did well however, causing a “balance issue” for only a couple of our teams:

The final round started off with a number of teams worrying over King Edward the First of England, until they were reminded that he was the ultimate “baddy” in Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart”, then they all rushed in with a ton of correct answers.  Ben Stein as the spokesperson for Clear Eyes caused a few woes, but they all recovered well with solid answers for Magic Tree House, Antarctica, and this 1980 comedy film that caused quite a positive “stir” for audiences and critics alike:

The final had a high success rate, and with a tie for first, one of the first place teams strategically wagered zero.  They answered correctly which would have forced a tiebreaker, but when you look at the numbers, it was the correct bet since it guaranteed them a third place finish. Here are the results:

First Place:  Never Mind

Second Place:  Drunk N Disorderly

Third Place:  MoMo

I HAVE to remember to bring my official wand with me next Tuesday as our first category is Universal Studios “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter”

~ Ronnie

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Orioles Nest in Frederick, MD

I’m really digging this weather so far this week, even if it’s already starting to feel more like summer than spring.  At the Orioles Nest in Frederick this week, we opened up with a question about the film “The Shawshank Redemption”, where we learned that the fictional Shawshank prison is located in the state of Maine (like nearly all of Stephen King’s works).  The audio question asked about one of my favorite songs, “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon; most teams got this right as well as knowing the video for the song featured Chevy Chase.   Halftime asked teams to identify beer brands as well as matching musicals to their composers.

I think my favorite question from tonight’s set asked about “everyone’s favorite 13th century monarch”, as if anyone actually had a favorite monarch in mind; of course we were talking about King Edward the First!  Overall in the second half we had several lead changes, with three different teams holding the top spot.  The team that held the lead going into the final question managed to hang onto that lead and take the win after a final question about Famous Americans.  This meant that third place went to Suck It Trebek, while second went to The Book Club Babes, and the win went to We Are Number Two!

Until next time,

~Chad

Next week’s first category:  “The Young Ones”

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Senor Tequila’s in Germantown, MD

For the first time in a long time, it was as hot outside as the game of Pour house Trivia inside Senor Tequilas!

Highlights of the Night:

In “Might-Be-A-Giveaway…”: The audio question tonight saw three teams turn in all three correct answers after only hearing the first two notes of the song.  And while Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” is certainly very recognizable, they all said the same thing: As soon as you said “Comedian in the Music Video” we called what it was gonna be. Oops!  To be fair, those teams were the only ones who got it, the rest did not earn credit, but still might be a bit much!

In “Most-Popular-Wrong-Answer-of-the-Night”: I think we were being a bit fast and loose with the term “often” when describing the rarity of using the term Wrecked to describe being drunk.  I’ve certainly used it, but certainly not as often as say ‘Trashed’, ‘Smashed’, or tonight’s most Popular Wrong Answer ‘Wasted’.  I’d say ‘occasionally’ would be more appropriate.

In “I’m-Getting-Mixed-Messages-Here”: Y’all were so adamant about me singing more, that you asked if I would be singing the audio question tonight.  But I do one impression, and suddenly everyone’s against me doing anything other than read the questions.  What do you want from me?? TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO!!

The final was crucial tonight, and saw a last second podium swap occur.

In third place tonight, Beer Pressure!

In second place tonight, Hookers and Blackjack!

In first place tonight, the Fan Club!

Great game tonight guys!  Next week we’ll kick things off with a category on the 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates! Study up, and we’ll see you next time!

Until then,

~ Ian

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FireFlies in Alexandria, VA

Keeping up with current events is not only a great head start to doing well at trivia, it’s also a genius way to come up with an awesome new team name every week.  Bad Hombres has done it again, playing under the name of ” Beating the Competition in the United Way”.  Oooh, too soon?  😉  Round 1 started fairly simply with a Dukes of Hazzard question, and got tougher when naming the two boroughs of New York City found on Long Island.  Only EIF-FIE (it’s an acronym) named both Brooklyn and Queens to earn the bonus points on that one.

In Round 2, a couple teams knew all three answers before I even started the music for the audio clue!  I guess hearing “name the singer, the song, and then what comedian was in the video” was easy for those 1980s music lovers because they got Paul Simon, “You Can Call Me Al”, and Chevy Chase before even a few notes played.  Question 5 was a tough film biz question – half of the teams were able to name Dreamworks as the new Hollywood studio developed in 1994.  But not a single team could name its first movie – “The Peacemaker”.

Halftime was a challenge, with no one able to name all the beer labels correctly (for shame!).  Apparently Schlitz was hardest to recognize and also ardently the the hardest to swallow according to the crowd.  A new TBS comedy stumped the crowd in Round 3 – only one team barely eeked out the answer “Wrecked” as the Lost parody that sounds like a drunk person.  Round 4 brought some flashbacks in question two – what “ocular treatment” did Ben Stein hawk in the early 2000s?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller? Nope, not Voodoo Economics, or even Visine!  The answer were were looking for is Clear Eyes.  Throughout the game EIF-FIE kept the lead with United a steady second place.  The final question was answered correctly and quickly by our top three teams – they were:

First Place:  Einhorn is Finkel, Finkel is Einhorn

Second Place:  Beating the Competition the United Way

Third Place:  Inertia Wins

Next week’s first category:  New York Islanders

See You Next Tuesday!

~ Kate

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Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick, MD

Frederick’s first real attempt at late-Spring weather certainly brought out the crowds! 12 teams participated, all to the bitter end (here, and here.)  Coinciding with the weather, there were certainly a lot of skirted women and shorted men, occasioning my admonishment for pasty white legs. 🙂  Another caution: teams choosing the first category for next week’s play should really know the topic.  I say this as only two teams earned points on the first question tonight, and neither were the conspirators.

Also! Folks, please don’t forget to check us out at facebook.com/pourhousetrivia where we post HINTS every day before game play. Don’t let easy points get away from you!

We definitely learned collectively that Radiohead is not a popular band among Shuckin’ Shack regulars, as that question posed quite the challenge to the majority of you. (Not naming names!) Humorously, the bar was pretty evenly divided on “As a slang term, this word is often used as a synonym for ‘drunk.’’, with half endorsing “wrecked” and the other half with some variant of “hammered”, “torn”, “ripped”, etc.  Perhaps methinks by this time in the evening, the slang moniker was apropos.

For the first time in Shuckin’ history, and for the first time for me as a host, we experienced a TIE for second place, with the penultimate champion being crowned by being closest to “In what year was Sidney Poitier born?” Answer: 1927.  As always, it was a blast, and I can’t wait to make it back next week to trade pointed barbs and laugh at your misfortunes. (I feel compelled to add another bit o’ nautical trivia here: do you know the origin of the term “three sheets to the wind?” Well, here’s your sign.)  Your winners tonight:

First Place:  Butter Balls

Second Place:  Tequila Mockingbird

Third Place:  Mother Shuckers

Fair Winds and Following Seas, friends. Until we meet again – a final gift!

~Chief

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Top Golf in Ashburn, VA

Hey Ashburn!  Spring break is here and it was a fun, fast paced game of Pour House Trivia tonight at Top Golf!  The game was filled with a lot of cheers and groans, with the first round being a good one for everyone, including the audio where almost everyone knew all three clues, which was surprising!  Then there was the presidential question where everyone seemed to put Lincoln but bet one point – have some faith folks!

Most everyone did well on the halftime puzzle page.  Everyone but one team didn’t know about the unfortunately titled Schlitz beer!  Kelly’s Heroes was dominant out of the gate, posting the top score of 90 points, which included a perfect 20 on the halftime page.  The second half included our most difficult questions, including back-to-back questions on a current TV series (“Wrecked” on TBS) and the first team to lose consecutive Super Bowls (Minnesota Vikings).  We finished with a question on the film comedy “Stir Crazy”, which was also answered correctly by less than half of our teams.

Kelly’s Heroes continued their great night, as they only missed one question and racked up a record high score here at Top Golf: 165 points!  They were just three points off of a perfect game.  Here are your top three teams for tonight:

First Place:  Kelly’s Heroes

Second Place:  Artisan Sausage

Third Place:  Talk Nerdy To Me

Next week’s first category:  MotoGP…that’s motorcycle racing folks.

See you soon!

~ Zach

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Primanti Brothers in Hagerstown, MD

Tuesdays are pizza and Pour House Trivia night here at Primanti Brothers in the Hagerstown Valley Mall.  I want to welcome our newest team, the Deal Makers, who seem to be very keen on coming back and fighting for a place at the championship!

They got to witness quite a performance by one of our best teams: Give Us Your Beer Money.  This team went flying out of the gate, earning all ten wagers in the first half and racking up an impressive 89 points at the break.  As the second half continued, we discovered that most of us may not know how to spell couscous or cochlear, but we really don’t have anyone who’s a fan of the TBS comedy “Wrecked” either.  ​Another tough bonus question tonight asked for the name of any 1990s Radiohead album.

Give Us Your Beer Money was able to pull out all three answers on their final bonus of English Monarchs!  Bill even told me to “get outta my house!!” when he slammed his answer sheet on the table!  Congrats again.  After picking up 11 points on that question, Give Us Your Beer Money was poised to run away with the game!  Maybe they got a little overconfident, as they were the only team to MISS the following question, asking for which company Ben Stein hocked eye drops in the early 2000s.  Not only that, they lost their seven-point wager, giving our trailing teams new hope!

Our final question was answered correctly by about half of our teams tonight.  With a well positioned wager of zero, The Lone Stranger held on to third place when they couldn’t come up with the correct answer.  Our new comers, The Deal Makers, knew the right answer of George H. W. Bush and climbed into second, only one point behind Give Us Your Beer Money.  Despite that fourth round mistake, they couldn’t be caught tonight and also wagered zero safely ahead of the pack.

Next week, we’re going to be asking about The History Of the Royal Navy for our opening category.  See you then!

~ Sean

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Blue Parrott in St. Petersburg, FL

A gorgeous spring night here at the Blue Parrott in St. Petersburg!  The night was begging for a strawberry margarita… and we didn’t fight it at all.  We started out the night with our Winner’s Choice category of “The Big Bang Theory” (the TV show, thank god).  What did Sheldon’s meemaw call him?  Moon Pie.  Other topics in this round include Isaac Newton, New York boroughs, and the NFL.  Bazinga!

In round 2, our audio clue asked for THREE ANSWERS in reference to one Paul Simon music video, that featured Chevy Chase (What?).  Also on that round, our Hint of the Day question asked about Abe Lincoln (take advantage of HOTD guys!  It’s on Facebook every day at 3:00p).  Other topics include sandwiches and cookies.  Yum.  What a close first half we had, with FIVE teams topping 80 points.  Nice work!

The second half of the game was TENSE.  Each team was only a few points behind each other and everyone knew how close they sat.  After we announced (and corrected) a scoring discrepancy, a team member shouted “Cash Me Ouside How Bout Dah” and it made my night.  Also, Quizknows gave me donuts, thanks again Pat!.  Our second half topics included Radiohead, eyedrop commericals, and a Richard Pryor film.  The Freebirds were the only team to earn all ten wagers in the second half, and it gave them a comfortable lead heading into the final question.  They were able to surmise the correct response of George H.W. Bush, and hung on for the victory.  Congrats to our winners, and a special shoutout to CT Connections for a great first trivia night!

Much Trivia Love,

~ Melissa

Next week’s first category:  Michigan State Football

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Monkey La La in Frederick, MD

Monkey La La in Frederick was home to an extremely competitive game of Pour House Trivia on Tuesday night.  This evening all seven teams were competitive throughout the game and started out on fire.

Sad & Demented but Social started out strong with a perfect first round, with four teams only two points back and two additional teams only four points back.  Not a single question was missed by any team in the first round.   My favorite question of the last couple months came tonight in the form of Meatloaf: the singer or dinner!

Monkey La La’s teams did not experience any problems in the game tonight until the final question of round two – film business!  “What film production company was created in 1994 as an attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to create a new Hollywood studio?” (DreamWorks SKG) Less than half of the teams could answer the question and no one was able to nail the Clooney bonus!  At the half, the top 4 teams were separated by three points: Southpaw Fish (89), Sad & Demented but Social (88), Alternative Facts (87), and Sloppy Seconds (86).

The third round was similar to the second round – the teams kept pace with one another and there was one stumper of a question that, this time, hurt every team except one!  Current TV shows was most team’s downfall this round! “As a slang term, this word is often used as a synonym for ‘drunk.’  It is also the title of a current TBS comedy series which parodies the former TV drama “Lost”.  For your wager, name this word.”  The common answer was wasted, but the correct answer was wrecked, which only Sloppy Seconds nailed!  The top four teams were all within striking distance with the scores being: Sad & Demented but Social (125), Southpaw Fish (122), Sloppy Seconds (122), and Alternative Facts (119).

The final round saw the top teams go on autopilot and nail most of the questions but the final changed the landscape!  Sloppy Seconds looked poised to nail 2^nd with S&D but S looking to win with Southpaw Fish and Alternative Facts to go to the tiebreaker for 3^rd but political figures was outside of Sloppy Seconds realm of knowledge and the final scores looked like:

Sad & Demented But Social (165)

Southpaw Fish (162) – won the tiebreaker only 1 year away from the Syndey Poitier tiebreaker!

Alternative Facts (162)

Next week’s first category:  “Airplane!”

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Quincy’s South in Rockville, MD

At Quincy’s South in Rockville, we hosted an exciting night of trivia tonight with twists, turns, and a whole mess of stuff happening that we just did not expect!  Most of our regular teams were back this week, but we also saw the first outing from The Smurfs!  It’s great to have new teams, I hope you all enjoyed yourselves enough to come back next time and match wits with these trivia powerhouses.  It’s a tough venue here so it’s kinda hard for a new team to walk in and win but The Smurfs held their own considering!  Wingardium Triviosa was just a single player this week so that lone player joined forces with Dr. Emo and looked to rise to the top of the leaderboard tonight while facing a strong, strong field of competitors.

Uncle Jack, a weekly favorite, fell behind early, missing a few bonus points that kept them from being in the lead at the half, a spot they normally find themselves.  They would need a good second half to have a shot to beat our top teams, in which there were three tied at the half.  A three-way tie for first place between Sofa King Smart, Screaming Death Monkey, and Balls Out as we entered the third round.  Balls Out took themselves out of the running with a miss on the Science question in the third round which cost them a big wager AND their five-point bonus chip.  If that wasn’t enough, Sofa King Smart missed their five-point chip on the Super Bowl Q, so it was Screaming Death Monkey who was all alone in the lead!

We saw some good play from some of the teams who were behind, namely Uncle Jack and Dr. Emo, and they moved into a tie for third place going into the final.  A rather easy final tonight as teams were able to convert the final question into positive points, so it would come down to wagers.  Well, Screaming Death Monkey bet enough to cover the second place team so they take down the win in tonight’s game!  Congrats!  Another exciting finish tonight happened AFTER the final question as we saw FOUR teams in a tie for second place; we’d need a Closest to the Pin question to determine the prize winners!

After a heated tie breaker, with lots of CLOSE answers, it was Dr. Emo who was just ONE YEAR off of Sidney Poitier’s birth year and they took second place!  Third place went to Sofa King Smart!  Great finish, a very close one, good win to Screaming Death Monkey!

PLEASE NOTE: Next week’s game will take place on WEDNESDAY, April 19 (same time of 7:30p).  There will be NO TRIVIA at Quincy’s South on Tuesday.

~ Bill

Next week’s first category: “Parks and Recreation”

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Black Eyed Suzie’s in Bel Air, MD

We now have a winner’s streak here at Black Eyed Suzie’s in Bel Air.  Team Dammit came in first place for the third week in a row, dominating all four rounds of the game.  They notched the top score of 19 points on the halftime puzzle page, to take a double-digit lead into the second half.  They were tripped up by two question late in the third round, but our other teams were unable to capitalize on those two misses.

Backstreet Boyz danced their way into second place, while a little S&M took home our third place prize tonight – their first time finishing in the money.  There is a rivalry sprouting between the Quizard of Oz and Team Dammit, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for our game next week!

~ Natalie

Next week’s first category:  Bourbon