Wednesday Trivia is All Talk!

We closed the books on May with Pour House Trivia on Wednesday evening, which was played by 173 teams across 21 locations!

FIRST ROUND:

Teams cruised through the opening round’s set of questions. We asked about former NFL quarterback and 80th-birthday boy Joe Namath, protected ourselves with an exoskeleton, read Three Clues about the state of Vermont, and had a viewing of Mel Brooks film Robin Hood: Men in Tights. After all that, 17 teams still had a perfect score.

SECOND ROUND:

The audio question on Wednesday showcased three songs with trumpets. About 34% of our teams earned bonus points there for naming all three musical acts: The Beatles (Penny Lane), Capital Cities (Safe and Sound), and OMI (Cheerleader). After that, a question about sweets turned out to be somewhat sour:

• In addition to numerous crunchy varieties of cookies, which former subsidiary of Kellogg manufactures Soft Batch chocolate chip cookies?

This was the least-successful wagering question in the first half, as just over a third of the field identified Keebler as that company. As for the first half’s hardest bonus chance, that came on a question in this round which asked teams to name singer Cyndi Lauper’s debut studio album; 24% did so by knowing She’s So Unusual. However, this was the only round with no perfect teams.

HALFTIME:

At halftime, teams had to name foreign foods, then match famous female film characters to the corresponding movie. An astounding 95 teams — almost 55% of the field! — earned all 20 points here, with an average score of 18.3 points overall. One squad reached the 90-point mark by the halftime break:

• Downtown Crown Family Jewels (Grape Escape): 90
• Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 89
• Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 89
• Quick Pink and the Vine Gang (Belles’): 89
• Einsteins of Beer (Memories): 88
• Black October (Grape Escape): 88

THIRD ROUND:

It took until the end of the third round to give a question that was truly tough for our teams. Before that, though, we visited The Hague in the Netherlands, discussed three terms with the word noir in them, and sampled some Prego sauce. For that tricky question, though, we went to the NBA coaching ranks:

• Who is the only coach in NBA history to lead eight different teams to the playoffs?
• For a two-point bonus: He was coaching which team when he won his lone NBA Championship?

The great Larry Brown was named by 32% of teams, while 20% also got bonus credit for knowing his only championship was earned while coaching the Detroit Pistons. This round featured six perfect team scores.

FOURTH ROUND:

A 6-4-2 about the color green secured a six-point boost for 67 teams which identified it from the first clue. Two questions in this round proved to be difficult overall. We dealt with architecture early on:

• A capital is often found atop which type of architectural feature? When it is carved into the shape of a woman, it is also known as a caryatid.

About 36% of teams knew an architectural capital is found atop a column or pillar. Two questions later, we looked back at some transportation history:

• Which technological breakthrough in the field of transportation was given its name in the 1960s to reflect the fact that a treaty had been signed to implement its construction?

A game-low 23% of the field correctly named the Concorde supersonic plane from that question. Other questions here referenced a trio of Shakespearean villains, Paul McCartney’s title track to Bond film Live and Let Die, and ablutophobia, the fear of washing. Eight teams earned perfect scores in this round. We swapped to a different venue for our top two teams after four rounds:

• Quick Pink and the Vine Gang (Belles’): 165
• Power Vacuum (Belles’): 162
• A New Hope (Rockwell): 162
• Downtown Crown Family Jewels (Grape Escape): 161
• Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 160

FINAL QUESTION (28.9% success rate):

• Who is the host of the TV show that has won seven consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Series?

We stayed in the 20s for the success rate here, but almost 30% knew that John Oliver‘s Last Week Tonight is on that seven-year Emmy win streak. Unfortunately, none of those squads used that correct answer to cement a Perfect 21 on Wednesday. At the end of the evening, these teams outscored the rest:

• Quick Pink and the Vine Gang (Belles’): 177
• Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 163
• Black October (Grape Escape): 162
• Knockin’ Puss and Boots (Hops N Shine): 162
• Frederick Trivia Team (Idiom): 160
• Donner Party Planners (Quinn’s): 159
• Carpet Stretchers (T.J. Stone’s): 158
• Oh, Wait (Hops N Shine): 157
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 156 POINTS

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Quick Pink and the Vine Gang  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure)

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

Quinn’s on the Corner in Arlington, VA: Donner Party Planners  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Historic Baseball Stadiums)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: What’s That Smell?  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1990s Albums)

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: What the Fork  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Apple Dumpling Gang)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Frederick Trivia Team  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2012 Baltimore Orioles)

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

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: Knockin’ Puss and Boots  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Samuel L. Jackson (audio))

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Grape Slushies  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Muppet Christmas Carol)

Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD: Cocky Tigers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1990s Alternative Rock)

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

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

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: Not the Doctors You’re Looking For  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Britney Spears Songs on a Glockenspiel)

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: No Trivia Left Behind / Where’s Joe?  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Anime Characters)

Thick-N-Thin Brewing in Hagerstown, MD: Second Breakfasts  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Ted Lasso)

Rough Edges Brewing in Waynesboro, PA: Vandelay Industries  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Beer)

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

Celtic House in Arlington, VA: Zac, Sak, and Associates  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Eurovision Song Contest)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fresh Off the U-Haul  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1990s Country Music)

Augie’s Mussel House in Alexandria, VA: Mussel Memory  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: LGBTQ History)