Wednesday Trivia Breaks Guard!

September 23, 2023

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Pour House Trivia’s Wednesday night game was played at 19 locations for a total of 173 teams.

FIRST ROUND:

The only real bump in the road during Wednesday’s opening round came on the evening’s Three Clues about a name:

  • This name derives from Latin and Greek words which mean pearl.
  • It’s the first name of a prominent world leader of the 1980s.
  • It is usually the formal name of someone nicknamed Peggy.

The name Margaret was given before the final clue by 8% of the field, the lowest bonus success rate in the first half. Other topics here included high-altitude NFL teams, the aardvark, and the bibliography of former TV personality Bill O’Reilly. This round’s perfect quartet was Donner Party People (Quinn’s), Have You Seen My F-35? (Shipgarten), A New Hope (Rockwell), and Vandelay Industries (Rockwell).

SECOND ROUND:

Wednesday’s audio question played a trio of famous songs as (incorrectly) sung by Homer Simpson. Later in the round, we asked about a certain video game series:

  • Originally developed by Core Design, which video game series has featured subtitles such as The Curse of the Sword, Prophecy, and The Angel of Darkness?
  • Bonus: Who played the protagonist of this series in a 2018 film?

About 27% of teams recognized those subtitles as entries in the Tomb Raider game series, while 9.8% tacked on a pair of bonus points for naming Alicia Vikander as the rebooted Lara Croft. Tug and the Heart Strings (Idiom) and Comfortably Dumb (Axes and O’s) were the only perfect teams in this round.

HALFTIME:

First, teams had to identify items that start with CHI before moving on to match female world leaders to their respective country. There were 21 perfect scores, while the average tally was 16.7 points. These were the top-scoring teams at the halftime break:

  • Donner Party People (Quinn’s): 93
  • Tug and the Heart Strings (Idiom): 90
  • Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 88
  • SIX TEAMS TIED WITH 87 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

We got geological just in time to start the second half:

  • What is the name of the geological era in which we are currently living?

The Cenozoic era was identified by 21% of the field, but 5.7% did so before an additional crossword-style hint was revealed. The last question in this round was a work of art:

  • A French Neoclassical painting currently housed in The Met depicts a historical event from 399 B.C. For your wager, identify either the painting or its artist.

A night-low 16% earned their wager for naming either The Death of Socrates or its creator, Jacques-Louis David. Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s) recorded the lone perfect score of the third round.

FOURTH ROUND:

A rare zero was notched at the 6-point clue of Wednesday’s 6-4-2:

  • This is a hotel chain. It is the only hotel chain mentioned in the lyrics of the Tone Loc song Funky Cold Medina.

No teams were able to get all the way near the end of the song’s lyrics, in which Tone Loc took his date to the Hilton. The night’s last round began with a question about Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan‘s league-first pitch over 100 mph, thrown for the then-California Angels. That query ended up being the toughest bonus chance of the night, as only six teams knew Ryan wore number 30 for the Angels. We moved on later to this question about a TV guest star:

  • Passing away in December of 2016, which star of stage and screen appeared on the TV sitcom Will & Grace as Grace’s mother, Bobbi Adler?

Debbie Reynolds was named by just under a quarter of our teams. This round’s lone perfecto was twirled by Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape). We reached the final question with these teams in the lead:

  • Donner Party People (Quinn’s): 160
  • Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 159
  • Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 158
  • Tug and the Heart Strings (Idiom): 157
  • Satan’s School for Girls (Memories): 150

FINAL QUESTION (18.5% success rate):

  • Which former child star serves as the namesake for the ship piloted by Peter Quill in the Guardians of the Galaxy film franchise?

The Guardians fly in the Milano, named for former Who’s the Boss actress Alyssa Milano. Unfortunately, that answer did not make a Perfect 21 for any teams. The final overall standings were topped by these teams:

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Stink Floyd  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Fictional Spaceships)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Satan’s School for Girls  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Disney Princesses)

Quinn’s on the Corner in Arlington, VA: Donner Party Peple  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: James Bond Villains)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Fashionably Late  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Marvel Comics)

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

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Tug and the Heart Strings  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Guardians of the Galaxy)

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: Comfortably Dumb  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Quentin Tarantino Films)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: Titanic Was an Inside Job  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Pat Benatar)

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Two-Wheel Tricycle  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Original Star Wars Trilogy)

T.J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: Carpet Stretchers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Washington Nationals)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Friends)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: Not the Doctors You’re Looking For  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Emperor’s New Groove)

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: TCA  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Hello Kitty)

Thick-N-Thin Brewing in Hagerstown, MD: Pink Mambas  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1960s British TV Shows)

Rough Edges Brewing in Waynesboro, PA: RBFs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Radiology)

Rockwell Riverside in Frederick, MD: A New Hope  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Infectious Diseases)

Foster’s Grille in South Riding, VA: Uncle Tim’s Bedtime Stories  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1970s TV Sitcoms)

Celtic House in Arlington, VA: Boldly Arrowski  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2017-18 Washington Capitals)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fresh Off the U-Haul  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Dawson’s Creek)

Earn $100 for Referring PHT

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