Wednesday Night Trivia From the Roof of the World!

With a bit of inclement weather hitting the area, we saw a slightly lighter schedule than normal.  Overall, Wednesday night’s games featured 87 teams across 11 venues.  Don’t forget to check the end of the blog for next week’s schedule, as some venues will be skipping trivia due to Valentine’s Day!

ROUND 1:

Wednesday’s game opened with a question on the many uses of the abbreviation ‘CO’: it’s the U.S. postal abbreviation of Colorado, the top-level internet domain for Colombia, and the chemical symbol for Cobalt (sorry folks, Copper is Cu).  After a quick trip back to high school trigonometry class, we closed by asking our teams to name either the first or most recent city to host the Super Bowl.  While most of our teams knew that last Sunday’s game was played in Minneapolis, only 19% of the field earned bonus points by knowing that the first Super Bowl was played at the Coliseum in Los Angeles:

The first round began with nine teams notching a perfect score of 36 points.

ROUND 2:

Wednesday’s audio question featured film scores of the 1980s.  Recognizing the themes from “E.T.” and “Beverly Hills Cop” was a cinch for most of our teams, but the music from “Peewee’s Big Adventure” was not as well known, leading to just 22% of the field earning bonus points with three correct answers.  The second round also included the most difficult wagering and bonus question of the first half, coming in the form of a Last Word / First Word question:

–> What three-word title would you have if the DC Comics superhero series which premiered last month on the CW Network featured an animated racecar voiced by Owen Wilson?

Just under half of our teams earned their wager with the correct answer of “Black Lightning McQueen”, while only six teams earned two bonus points by also knowing that the aforementioned superhero is being portrayed by Cress Williams:

We closed with a brief history lesson, discussing the Barbary Wars of the early 19th Century.  The U.S. allied with Sweden to fight Ottoman pirates off the north shore of Africa.  These conflicts led to the coining of the lyric “to the shores of Tripoli” in the opening of the “Marine Corps Hymn”.  This final query of the half also included a rather difficult bonus question, as only nine teams could peg the start of the Barbary Wars within five years either way (1801).  With a trio of tough bonus questions, we did not see any perfect scores in the second round.

HALFTIME:

Wednesday’s halftime page included pictures of films featuring former cast members of the “The Daily Show”, as well as a section on famous people named George.  The average score came in at a relatively low 14.7 points, with just two teams notching a perfect score: Phil’s Tick (Bennigan’s – Frederick) and Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg).  Here are Wednesday’s top scores after the first half:

• Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  90
• Shakeweight (Valley Grill):  87
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories):  87
• Thanksgiving Day Parade (Quinn’s):  87
• Shadynasty (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  86

ROUND 3:

Wednesday’s second half began with a question on Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.  We continued with what proved to be the most difficult wagering question of the night:

–> Unrelated to the Russell Crowe film of the same name, this program was developed as a spinoff of “Entertainment Tonight”.  Its anchors have included Pat O’ Brien, Debbie Matenopoulos, and Donny Osmond.  Name this show whose title once included the letters “omg!”.

Believe it or not, this show ran for 13 years, and only aired its final episode within the last six months:

With only ten teams answering correctly, I guess that explains why the show was cancelled…  After that speed bump, the rest of the round was a breeze for our teams, as they answered correctly on topics such as Buckingham Palace and the Andrews sisters.  But for the THIRD WEEK IN A ROW, the only perfect score of the third round was turned in by Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg).

ROUND 4:

Wednesday’s final round opened with a difficult question on these two authors who share the same name:

Later, we looked at “Star Wars” actors and the Aztec Empire.  We closed with a three-part question on the most recent batch of Super Bowl commercials, which included a reference to this ad:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09FfrNpcjag[/embedyt]

Once again, we saw just one perfect score in the final round: Trix Are For Kids (The Tavern).  Here are Wednesday’s top scores after four rounds of play:

• Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  166
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories):  159
• Stephen Hawing’s Karaoke Machine (Memories):  158
• It’s Muller Time (Quinn’s):  155
• Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers (Clover Theater):  154

FINAL QUESTION (53.7% success rate):

–> Abbreviated NPT, the time zone named for which independent country is set five and three-quarters hours ahead of London time?

Just over half of our teams answered correctly with Nepal.  Congratulations to Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg), who recorded the only Perfect 21 on Wednesday by answering every wagering question correctly.  These were your top overall scores from Wednesday:

• Stephen Hawing’s Karaoke Machine (Memories):  170
• Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  168
• Worst of All Time (Quinn’s):  165
• Thanksgiving Day Parade (Quinn’s):  164
• Trix Are For Kids (The Tavern):  163
• Fan Club (The Tavern):  163
• HoJo MoJo (Bennigan’s – Frederick):  162
• Momma Lu’s (The Tavern):  161
• Caps (Delirium Cafe):  161
• Teachers (Bennigan’s – Frederick):  160

TONIGHT’S WINNERS:

Valley Grill in Middletown, MD:  Shakeweight  (Next week’s first category: New Edition)