Veterans Day Trivia Recap!

We offered a full slate of Monday night games as we honored our brave veterans.  Overall, we welcomed 91 teams across 11 venues.

FIRST ROUND:

Opening round topics from Monday night included the novel “The Great Gatsby”, the largest islands of the Mediterranean Sea, and the psychological concept of Stockholm Syndrome.  In the first of two questions honoring U.S. veterans, we offered this query to the field:

–> Who is the only U.S. President to have been awarded a Purple Heart, after he was credited with saving the lives of several men near the Solomon Islands in 1943?

BONUS: What was the alpha-numeric designation of the ship on which this incident occurred?

Our history buffs did not disappoint on this question, as most of the field gave us the correct answer of John F. Kennedy.  Teams were less successful with the bonus answer, as only 23% of the field earned bonus points with PT-109.  That was the only sticking point for most teams, as Monday’s first round yielded 13 perfect scores.

SECOND ROUND:

Our teams breezed through Monday’s audio question, as dozens of teams picked up bonus points by identifying fruity song titles such as “The Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte, “Cherry Pie” by Warrant, and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye.  Later, we enjoyed a few cocktails by turning a Cape Codder into both a Bay Breeze and a Sea Breeze.  The first half closed with questions concerning the film role of God and the next two hosts of the Olympic Games.  We saw 12 perfect scores in Monday’s second round, including five teams who posted consecutive scores of 36 points in each of the first two rounds.

HALFTIME:

The top half of Monday’s halftime round featured films with ‘astronomical’ titles, while the bottom half asked our teams to identify the ten U.S. states that joined the Union immediately following the original 13 colonies.  As with most of our halftime pages that require a simple list of correct answers, we saw a relatively high average score of 17.2 points, but very few perfect scores, as only six teams notched a flawless 20 points.  Here is Monday’s halftime leaderboard:

• Thankful Dead (Mark’s):  91
• Great Heathen Army (Morgan Inn):  91
• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  90
• That’s So Clavin (Greene Turtle):  90
• Chef Goldblum’s Raptor Bites (Hershey’s):  89
• Morgan Station (Morgan Inn):  89

THIRD ROUND:

Monday’s second half began with a look at five-star general (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) George C. Marshall, who also spent one year as President of the American Red Cross.  Next, we asked a rather difficult question regarding classic rock bands:

–> Noted for its use of brass instruments, this band did not actually take its name from a quote by Winston Churchill.  For your wager, name this jazz-rock group whose songs “And When I Die”, “Spinning Wheel”, and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” all hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1969.

Only 28% of the field earned wagering points with the correct answer of Blood, Sweat & Tears, but this question had a huge impact on many of our games, as dozens of incorrect responses cost teams their five-point category bonus.  We closed the third stanza by discussing the city of Toledo, the Chinese board game Go, and the novel (and film adaptation of) “The Stepford Wives”.  Only seven teams earned the final two bonus points of the third round by knowing that the novel was penned by Ira Levin.  As a result, we did not see any perfect scores in the Monday’s third round.

FOURTH ROUND:

Apparently, most of our teams are quite familiar with the city of Newport, Rhode Island, as nearly three-quarters of the field picked up six points on the 6-4-2 question.  That success was short-lived, as Monday’s final round began with a treacherous bonus question.  In a three-part question concerning the nicknames given to Muhammad Ali’s boxing matches, only ONE team (Ask Jeeves from Bushwaller’s) scored two bonus points by knowing that in Ali’s final professional bout (nicknamed “Drama in Bahama”), he lost to Trevor Berbick.  We continued with a pair of difficult wagering questions:

–> Written over a period of 26 years, “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walküre”, “Siegfried”, and “Götterdammerung” comprise a 19th century epic German-language music drama that is commonly known by what name?

–> Gene Hackman once provided commercial voiceover for which American company that has used advertising slogans such as ‘Let’s Build Together’ and ‘Never Stop Improving’?

It was not surprising that only 21% of the field recognized the individual components of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, but an unexpected number of our teams mixed up their advertising slogans, as only 26% of the field gave us the correct answer of Lowe’s.  Though we closed the round with a relatively easier question concerning the former NBC drama “St. Elsewhere”, none of our teams posted a perfect final round score.  These were your highest scoring Monday teams heading into the final question:

• That’s So Clavin (Greene Turtle):  162
• Killer Snails (Hershey’s):  159
• Great Heathen Army (Morgan Inn):  158
• Quiztery, Inc. (Mark’s):  156
• F. U. Darts (Mark’s):  156
• Stink Floyd (Bushwaller’s):  156

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (32.7% success rate):

–> Which breakfast dish has a name derived from an Old French word meaning ‘the blade of a sword or knife’, possibly referring to its shape?

Just under one-third of our teams earned points on this final question with the correct answer of omelette.  After shedding plenty of blood, sweat, and tears, That’s So Clavin (Greene Turtle) posted the only Perfect 21 on Monday night by answering every wagering question correctly.  Two lengthy winning streaks were broken last night, as Killer Snails (Hershey’s) lost its first game of the season, while Notch Eight (Il Forno) lost its first game since late September.  Here is Monday’s final overall leaderboard:

• F. U. Darts (Mark’s):  168
• Quiztery, Inc. (Mark’s):  168
• Thankful Dead (Mark’s):  167
• Brain Freeze (Hershey’s):  167
• Pop Rocks (Morgan Inn):  165
• MAJ (DRP):  163
• That’s So Clavin (Greene Turtle):  162
• Dilly Dilly (Dawg House):  161
• Hue Jackson and the Trombones (Dawg House):  160
• I Say You He Dead (Flanagan’s):  159

MONDAY’S WINNERS:

DRP in Alexandria, VA:  MAJ   (Next week’s first category: Michael Scott)

Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD:  That’s So Clavin   (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50: #1 Hits of the 1980s)

Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD:  Pop Rocks   (Next week’s first category: Airport Codes)

Hershey’s in Gaithersburg, MD:   Brain Freeze   (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50: Hootie and the Blowfish or Darius Rucker Solo?)

Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD:  Weasigators   (Next week’s first category: “A Song of Ice and Fire” Novels)

Bushwaller’s in Frederick, MD:  Ask Jeeves   (Next week’s first category: “Star Wars”)

Rockwell Brewery in Frederick, MD:  Lion’s Den   (Next week’s first category: “Hey Arnold!”)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA:  F. U. Darts   (Next week’s first category: Pizza)

Dawg House in Waynesboro, PA:  Dilly Dilly   (Next week’s first category: Meteorological Equipment)

Flanagan’s Harp and Fiddle in Bethesda, MD:  I Say You He Dead   (Next week’s first category: “The Expanse”)

Il Forno in Frederick, MD:  Periodic Table Dancers   (Next week’s first category: Classic Cartoons)