Ups and Downs at Wednesday Trivia!

July 7, 2022

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Fourteen local venues welcomed 131 teams for the latest Wednesday edition of Pour House Trivia.

FIRST ROUND:

Ironically enough, the easiest wagering question of the first round came bundled with the first half’s hardest bonus opportunity; a fill-in-the-blank query about the phrase knowledge is power granted bonus points to only six teams that knew the quote was from philosopher Francis Bacon. We moved on to a three-parter where each answer contained a military rank, then discussed animated TV series Futurama before hitting the tennis court for the round’s most difficult wagering question:

  • Doing so in 2002 and 2003 respectively, who are the two most recent American men to win the U.S. Open Men’s Singles Championship?

Teams had to name either Pete Sampras or Andy Roddick for their wager, which 70% of the field did; just under one-fifth of our teams got both answers for the bonus. Even with the difficult bonus chances, Sexual Chocolate (Memories) and Comfortably Dumb (Axes and O’s) managed perfect scores in the first round.

SECOND ROUND:

It’s been a while since the audio clue was the hardest wagering question of the first half, but that’s what happened on Wednesday. Three songs by bands with BLANK and the BLANK-formatted names were played for our teams, and 63% were able to get at least two of Kool and the Gang, Mike and the Mechanics, and Florence and the Machine. The round’s toughest bonus opportunity came at the midway point, where a question about the Men in Black film series saw just under 10% of the field name Barry Sonnenfeld as the director of the first three parts of the franchise. We concluded the first half with a question on British scientist William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, and a trip to -ada nations Canada and Grenada. This round had a game-high seven perfect scores.

HALFTIME:

Topics covered on the halftime sheet this Wednesday included Razzie Worst Picture winners and band name origins. Seventeen teams recorded a perfect score on a page that had an average team score of 15.5 points out of 20. Two perfect teams highlighted the top scores at the intermission:

THIRD ROUND:

Our teams certainly earned their points in this round, which was by far the toughest of the four in Wednesday’s game. We started with the three colonies that had capitals named for British monarchs in 1776, an Add a Letter question about the ace playing card and Pace University, and Three Clues about the mythical creature and Ford model namesake Thunderbird. However, the round ended with back-to-back knockout blows, the first of which got pretty animated:

  • First paired with a character named Beans the Cat, which Looney Tunes character made their debut in the 1930s short film I Haven’t Got a Hat?

Devised as a sidekick in a duo called Porky and Beans, Porky Pig debuted in that short film. Nine teams knew that to get their wager, a low for the night. After that, a scientific question proved to be another toughie:

  • What element with a single-letter symbol has a name derived from the Greek for light-bearing?

About 23% of the field named phosphorus, but only five teams added bonus points for getting its atomic number of 15. No teams were able to get through this round with a perfect score.

FOURTH ROUND:

Slightly less than one-fifth of Wednesday’s field scored six points on the 6-4-2 about the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. While still difficult in its own right, round four was much less of a trial than the previous one. Inaugural NBA Finals MVP Jerry West, the only man to win that award for the team that lost the Finals, and that year’s champion Boston Celtics were the subjects of the opening question. The country music airwaves came next, on what ended up being this round’s hardest wagering query:

  • Telling the story of a man wanting to sell his truck because it has too many memories of his ex-girlfriend in the passenger seat, the song 7500 OBO is a current top ten song from which male country music artist?

Roughly 18% of our teams had a correct answer of Tim McGraw on that one. The round kept on with topics like 2011 sci-fi western film Cowboys & Aliens, Tennessee Williams title word managerie, and a three-parter on balls. Quizards (Craftworx) very impressively got through the fourth round with a perfect 36 points! Before one final question decided our winners, these teams sat atop the standings:

FINAL QUESTION (42% success rate):

  • The population of which country decreased from over eight million in 1840 to just under three million in 1940, and today is estimated at around five million?

Due to the potato famine leading to widespread migration, Ireland‘s population had a massive decrease in that hundred-year timeframe. There were no Perfect 21 recipients on Wednesday, since no team was able to answer all 21 wagering questions correctly. These teams, however, would not be denied top ranks on the final leaderboard:

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Moe’s Peyton Place in Springfield, VA: 

Valley Sports Grill in Middletown, MD: Jeopardy Rejects  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Peaky Blinders)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Tokyo Sex Whale  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1980s Saturday Morning Cartoons)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Blacksmithing)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Archived!  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Stranger Things (season 4))

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: What the Fork  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Volcanoes)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Stinkfist  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Debutante Balls)

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: The Legend of Taylor Heinicke  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1840s U.S. History)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (novel))

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Overthinkers Anonymous  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Alaska)

Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD: NO GAME  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Impressionist Painters)

T. J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: Trending Towards Fourth  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Rocky (film series))

Craftworx Taproom in Gainesville, VA: Quizards  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: How I Met Your Mother)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Twizzlers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Billiards)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: DC Swampers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: First Growth Bordeaux Wines)

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: Stress Ball Change  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2022 Eurovision Song Contest)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Southpaws  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Carol Burnett Show)

Earn $100 for Referring PHT

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