We Made PHT History on Thursday Night!

It has been one hell of a month so far here at Pour House Trivia.  In the first three weeks of July, we’ve seen three teams top 180 points in a single game, one of which was a perfect game!  Tonight, we witnessed another remarkable feat, as The Fan Club became the first team in PHT history to win games on FOUR consecutive nights!  These folks are by far our most loyal players, as they have played at over a dozen venues over the years.  After numerous weeks with three wins, they survived a wicked third round tonight to top a field of 15 teams at one of our most competitive venues.  Congratulations!

On a busy Thursday night, we welcomed 104 teams across 12 venues, one of which was holding its inaugural game of Pour House Trivia.  Let’s welcome Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick to the PHT family!  Host Devan packed the house with 13 teams, and Three Fingers Worth took home the top prize, which included $50 in cash!

Olde Mother

ROUND 1:

We began the night with a three-part question entitled Also a Dog Breed, which included questions concerning Greyhound buses, Husky jeans, and this chart-topping trio:

Pointer Sisters

We continued by asking our teams to name the British actress who portrayed this trio of roles:

Jane Seymour

While most teams were able to come up with the correct answer of Jane Seymour, the bonus question here asked for the name of the character (pictured on the left) that she played in the James Bond film “Live and Let Die”.  This was by far the most difficult bonus question of the round, as only 10% of our teams came up with the correct response of the tarot card reader named Solitaire.  Host Ian at Quincy’s noted that most of his teams probably had no idea of the correct response, since many with the default ‘Bond girl’ guess of Pussy Galore.  As a result of this question, only seven teams swept the first round with a perfect score of 36 points.

ROUND 2:

As usual, our second round began with the audio question, with tonight’s version featuring three musical acts that scored hits with “Summer” songs.  Most teams earned their wager here by recognizing The Lovin’ Spoonful (“Summer in the City”) and Bananarama (“Cruel Summer”).  Earning bonus points proved to be quite difficult, as only six teams recognized the voice of Canadian singer Shawn Mendes from his 2015 hit “I Know What You Did Last Summer”.  The second round also featured a question about a young adult novel celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, though most of us probably know it better from the 1980s film adaptation:

Outsiders

We followed up with a question in the category of Human Physiology, asking what was by far the most difficult wagering question of the first half:

–>  Headaches and nausea are symptoms of hyponatremia, which is characterized by a low level of which chemical element in the blood?

Nearly half of the field answered incorrectly with iron, but those teams who remembered their Latin roots (and chemical symbols) noticed the ‘NA’ in this word, leading them to the correct answer of Sodium.  Only 27% of our teams earned their wager here.  We closed the round by asking which U.S. Cabinet position was served by both John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez in the George W. Bush administration.  Most teams remembered that these two gentlemen both served as Attorney General.  In fact, Gonzalez was the first Hispanic in U.S. history to do so.  The true kicker was the bonus question, asking for the third man to serve in this post under Dubya.  Only four teams (presumably comprised of lawyers) were able to earn two points by remembering Michael Mukaskey, who filled the role of Attorney General for the last 15 months of Bush’s term.  No team was able to land bonus points on both the audio and government questions, so the second round did not yield any perfect scores.

HALFTIME:

For the first time in PHT history, the halftime page involved opera!  Whether you think this is a good thing or a bad thing, most of our teams displayed a surprising level of knowledge here, as the average score came in at 16.8 points, with 21% of our teams earning a perfect 20 points.  Here are Thursday’s top overall scores after the first half:

ROUND 3:

On most nights of Pour House Trivia, the third round is the toughest, but Thursday’s game featured a pair of questions that wildly spread the field.  We began with a question in the category of The Animal Kingdom:

–> All apes are classified into one of two families.  As opposed to “Great apes” such as gorillas and humans, what name is given to the genus of animals that are found within the family Hylobatidae or “Lesser apes”?

Even with the crossword-style hint of a six-letter answer, only nine teams earned points on this question, with many teams missing high wagers with incorrect answers such as monkeybaboon, or simian.  Host Sean from Jerry’s Sports Bar also received one (not so serious) wrong answer of goblin.  I don’t think that team realized how close they were to the correct answer of gibbon:

Gibbon

Cute little guys, right?  Maybe not…  Most of our teams were able to bounce back on questions about Vanderbilt University and this popular Disney Channel film series, whose most recent installment is airing across five networks simultaneously tonight:

Descendants

We continued with our second-most difficult wagering question of the night, as only 23% of our teams answered correctly on this architectural question:

–> A capital is often found atop this type of architectural feature. When it is carved into the shape of a woman, it is also known as a caryatid.  For your wager, name this architectural feature.

Yes, caryatids are simply stylized versions of columns:

Caraytid

Not surprisingly, no teams turned in a perfect score of 36 points in the third round.  In fact, even if we exclude the bonus questions, only three teams answered all five wagering questions correctly!  Congratulations goes out to Slapsgiving (Cushwa Brewing), We Are Out (Belly Love Brewing), and Not Sure (​Smoketown Brewing) for escaping this trivia nightmare relatively unscathed.

ROUND 4:

The final round began with questions on Delta Airlines and Lord Nelson before moving on to our nightly Three Clues question, with only eight teams earning bonus points after these two clues were read:

CLUE 1: The title of a 1997 album released by U2.

CLUE 2: The second word in the stage name adopted by James Osterberg, Jr.

U2 PopIggy Pop

Most teams eventually earned their wager by waiting for the third clue, which asked for the nickname of legendary college football coach Glenn Scobey Warner.  Finally, we asked teams to name the 1980s comedy film which used the tagline: “The story of a rebel and his bike”.  We were looking for this classic Tim Burton film:

Pee Wee

Thanks to the Three Clues question, only one team (Power Vacuum from Champion Billiards) recorded a perfect score in the final round.  Here are Thursday’s top scores after the fourth round:

FINAL QUESTION (48.4% success rate):

–> The following is a complete alphabetical list of the home countries of nine men who share what specific distinction?: Austria, Burma, Egypt, Ghana, Norway, Peru, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden.

About half of our field knew that these are the home countries of the nine men who have served as Secretary-General of the United Nations.  Thanks to the third round, no team was able to score the Perfect 21 tonight, answering correctly on all wagering questions.   Here are your top overall scores from Thursday:

TONIGHT’S WINNERS:

Quincy’s Bar and Grille in Gaithersburg, MD:  The Fan Club  (Next week’s first category: African Borders)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD:  Power Vacuum  (Next week’s first category: James Joyce)

Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA:  Your Mom  (Next week’s first category: Ham Radio)

​Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD:  Not Sure  (Next week’s first category: John Waters Films)

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

Jerry’s Sports Bar in Hagerstown, MD:  We Are Groot  (Next week’s first category: Orioles Shortstops)

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA:  We Are Out  (Next week’s first category: “Game of Thrones”)

Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD:  Slapsgiving  (Next week’s first category: “Malcolm in the Middle”)

Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL:  Pen is Mightier  (Next week’s first category: 17th Century Poets)

Fish Market Restaurant in Alexandria, VA:  Brother of Menelaus  (Next week’s first category: 1990s One-Hit Wonders)

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