Capitol City Brewing in Arlington, VA

It was another wild, hard-fought trivia match last night at Capitol City Brewing in Shirlington!  Several regular teams made their return this week after taking a break during last week’s icy weather, and they all came to play hard.  The questions started out smooth and steady, with references to a beloved Pixar classic, baby animals, and even some gentle Enya music.  A few teams tripped up on Round 2’s astronomy question – who knew that Saturn is visible from Earth with the naked eye?  I guess you just have to know where to look.

The halftime page was a fun one, allowing our movie buffs to really break out of the pack.  Tip of the Hat to team Thinken Kraken – formerly known as “Wins with Alternative Facts” – who were the only team to recognize Ryan Gosling’s super-unsettling stuntman mask from 2011’s Drive.  And if there was any doubt that our trivia squads are some hardcore Beltway insiders, the bottom half put that to rest: every team went 10 for 10 on President Trump’s cabinet picks!  Going into the second half, it was a mega cluster at the top, with the top seven teams all within three points of each other, and the Capitol City Goofballs leading the pack!

If this trivia set came in like a lamb, it went out like a lion, as Rounds 3 and 4 challenged our brains with geographic wordplay, Final Four history, and divisive alt-rock singers.  The Capital Hillbillies nosed ahead of the Goofballs by knowing their classic 80’s TV and taking 6 points in the 6-4-2, with several other teams staying in the mix.  “It’s anybody’s game!” is one of my more well-worn cliches, but this one really was that tight, right up to the finish.

How to Get Yelled At:  After the “DW” wordplay three-parter, I made the mistake of wondering aloud if dwelling, dwindle and dwarf were the only three English words beginning with “DW”.  It took zero seconds for the entire bar to start shouting “Dweeb!  Dweeb!” in my direction… really reminded me of junior high!

In Round 4, the scoreboard shuffled yet again – Show Me on the Doll surged into first, while a few very strong teams lost some high wagers on the SI unit of electric current.  The leading teams all nailed the Final, meaning Show Me on the Doll locked down the win!  Valley Girls and the Goofballs tied for second place, which brings us to…

Seriously, How Do You Know This: The Valley Girls – who were quick to point out that “HMS Pinafore” is an operetta, not an opera – showed themselves to be music geeks par excellence, and absolutely nailed the tiebreaker question of what year that show premiered. No hesitation!  I didn’t ask the date, venue, or original cast, but I have no doubt they could have supplied all that as well.  The Goofballs were only off by a couple years, for that matter, which on any other night would have been enough.  Bravo!  Anyway, here’s your final standings:

First Place:  Show Me on the Doll

Second Place:  Valley Girls

Third Place:  Capitol City Goofballs

Next week’s first category:  Pennsylvania breweries (other than this one…)

~ Austin

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD

Coming soon…

Next week’s first category:  Latin Words and Phrases

Cugini’s Restaurant in Poolesville, MD

Well that was one interesting night of trivia, wasn’t it?  Much love to you all for your support and kind words, it looked like I was going to make it all the way through the game without incident too.  I’ll never run a trivia game again with the flu.  It was Homecoming for Peter Parker, the alter-ego of Marvel’s web slinger as the answer to our MCU question.  I for one am looking forward to that film coming in the summer.  “Monster’s Inc.” was a VERY popular Pixar film as nearly all the teams not only got their wager, but a two point bonus as well.  We finished off round one with the multiple usage of the word calf, a couple of lesser known island nations, and the hugely popular “Breaking Bad” spin-off that is achieving accolades in its own right, and features this actor, shown here back when he was part of the comedy duo “Mr. Show”:

Our second round featured Akon, Enya, and Snow, and interesting audio amalgam for your ears.  We also visited Golden Corral, a must have destination for me when it is one of my “Atkins cheat Fridays”.  Food is a little better than “meh”, service “meh”, but when you limit your carb intake to less that 30g in a day, it is like rolling into Heaven’s version of the Russian Tea Room.  We were reminded that Japan and the U.S. are about to battle it out again on the baseball diamond, Harvard and Cambridge have more ties than just elite schools, and finally this celestial body, the second largest planet in our solar system, and so light, it could actually float on water.

Orioles Nest in Frederick, MD

This week at The Orioles Nest in Frederick, we started things out with a question about the HBO series ‘Big Little Lies’ (not to be confused with ‘Pretty Little Liars’), which most teams actually knew was set in the peninsula of Monterrey, California.  The audio question for tonight was great, asking about solo artists with four-letter names. It was great to hear Akon show up, as well as my favorite song by Enya.  I was impressed by how well teams did on this one, also getting the third artist, Snow!

Halftime asked teams to identify films or film franchises based on pictures of masked characters, as well as matching up the members of Trump’s cabinet to their actual positions.  Teams aced the matching part, and everyone got most of the masks right.  Most teams missed ‘Vanilla Sky’ though, and EVERYONE missed ‘Drive’.  In the second half things got pretty interesting, especially thanks to that dreaded Opera question.  Turns out people thought they knew Gilbert and Sullivan operas well enough to bet hard, but sadly got “Pirates of Penzance” mixed up with “H.M.S. Pinafore, which was a costly error”.

The final question of the night asked about humanitarians and some teams definitely bet rather defensively. Unfortunately this ended up hurting them, as most of our teams answered correctly.  It turns out most of us knew that the woman who was the first ever recipient of the “Citizen of the World” Award was none other than Angelina Jolie!  As a result of this third place went to The Book Club Babes, while second went to I Am Number Two, and the win went to Fill Stick!  Next week we start with a question about “Top Gun”, so put on your aviators and listen to some Kenny Loggins for me!  I’ll see you all then!

Until next time,

~ Chad

Tilted Kilt in Frederick, MD

There was no trivia this week at Tilted Kilt.  Nick will return next week with a question on theatre.

FireFlies in Alexandria, VA

Once again, eight seems to be our lucky number when it comes to teams at Fireflies in Alexandria, and while we sure do appreciate our regulars returning each week, we always love to see new faces too!  Round 1 didn’t have any major roadblocks – if a question was missed it was only missed by two teams at the most.  The toughest question was actually a bonus question, as most teams were able to name the spin-off show set in Albuquerque (“Better Call Saul”), but only half could remember the name of its star, Bob Odenkirk.  Three teams were tied for first at the end of first round.  The final question of the second round was another tough one – no, the sporting event abbreviated as WBC is NOT the Women’s Badminton Club, but rather the World Baseball Classic, which four teams were able to identify.  But only one team knew the bonus about where the championship game will be held: Dodger Stadium. By the end of this round, scores started to differentiate, with Finkle is Einhorn stretching its lead to eight points.

Tonight’s halftime puzzle had a few pictures which stumped our teams, as no one got a perfect score.  Teams had to identify a film by the masked character for which it is famous.  “Silence of the Lambs”?  No problem, but “Drive” and “The Purge” were not readily known by tonight’s teams.  Round 3 saw the night’s toughest question: the A of the A+B=C seemed easy, as Visa cards all start with a four, but naming the number on the solid orange ball in billiards?  Only one team could do it: five!  Lousy Smarch Weather really sunk the competition on that one.  They did it again in round 4 when answering the question about the “father of electrodynamics”, and correctly  named Ampere as the namesake of the SI unit for electrical current, often abbreviated to ‘amp’.  The final question was answered correctly by most of our teams, so places stayed the same after wagers in the final category.  Your winners were as follows:

First Place:  Finkel is Einhorn, Einhorn is Finkel

Second Place:  Bad Hombres (playing as ‘Lousy Smarch Weather’)

Third Place:  Fun Squad

Next week’s first category:  “Animal House”

See You Next Tuesday!

~ Kate

Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick, MD

Eleven teams in total, including at least two new teams (welcome to Pour House Trivia!!) came to throw down their gauntlets at our new favorite Tuesday Frederick venue: Shuckin’ Shack.  At the risk of monopolizing the attention, or speaking too much in the first person, I’m definitely developing a love for this venue and its regulars.  Donner Party. What can I say? They picked a righteously difficult first category: calculus. And it benefited them as well as a few others. With a 6/11 correct answer rate, including Donner, I’m thinking they know how this game is played. (I’ll also admit, as a lib arts major, I’d have been crushed by the question. But I can ask the question in four languages! That’s what I take with me to sleep, convincing me that I’m not stupid.)

Incredibly, one team to remain nameless chose “foot” as the answer to: “One can properly identify a baby whale by using this term, which is more commonly used to name the offspring of a particular land mammal, or a part of the human body.” Despite THREE repetitions of the question, this team still managed to mega-focus on just the last part.  I don’t even…  But it was absolutely hilarious!

There was some discontent among the natives for island countries.  I even heard more than one verbal smart-aleck (and completely incorrect) response to the question of whether Vanuatu, Comoros, and San Marino were island-nations or otherwise. Guess what? Most of you managed to fumble together a two-out-of-three.  Congrats?  But what if I had asked what languages were spoken in each place?  I would expect…

The first question of the second round taught me that you need to spend either way more time with my mom (Enya) or way more time with 1990s rap apologists (Snow). In either case, only four teams earned the bonus!  I personally believe that fortunes changed with the first question of round three: “Among U.S. cities whose names begin with the letter ‘D’, these THREE cities are each the most populous city in their respective home states.”  LOTS of folks either absolutely knew Des Moines or absolutely DID NOT know Des Moines.  If y’all want an invite to the World Series at the end of the season, I can give no better advice: study geography.  It will pay untold dividends.  Nonetheless, HERE are your finishers for tonight’s crazy game (and thank you! for tolerating the technical difficulties and the perpetual “mic check”, “mic check”):

First Place:  Tequila Mockingbird

Second Place:  Mother Shuckers (Go Navy, Beat Army!)

Third Place:  Donner Party

Next week’s first category:  “This is Us”

Until next week, stay warm/cool, sunny and happy, and most of all — Fair Winds and Following Seas!

~ Chief

Primanti Brothers in Hagerstown, MD

We had a great time at Primanti Brothers in Hagerstown at the Valley Mall last night!  We had new teams, we had old teams, and we crowned a new winner.  With seven trivia teams starting the evening, including three new ones, the first half had a hot leader who couldn’t be caught for the rest of the game, which included the only perfect 20 on the halftime puzzle page.  Yes, the ever popular team name of Alternative Answers not only led this bar at the break, but scored the highest first-half total among all PHT locations, with a whopping 90 points!

My favorite answer of the night was about the comedic opera that takes place on a ship.  The Thrill Seekers said it was the Love Boat!  I guess the H.M.S. Pinafore could have used an Isaac.

After a 6-4-2 question that kept all teams at bay until the second clue, we had a widening gap between first, second and third.  A bad wager on the final cost Give Me Your Beer Money the second spot as they slipped into third.  You Pick a Name picked up the slack and swapped places into second place.  But Alternative Answers was just too far ahead to be caught and took first place.

Next week’s winner’s choice is going to be all about pizza. Order a slice and we’ll see you next week.

~ Sean