Wednesday’s First Question: Is It Spring Yet?

Another winter storm rolled through the DC area on Wednesday night, cancelling most of our venues for (what is hopefully) the last time this winter.  Thanks to a few die hard trivia hosts, as well as couple of out-of-state venues, we managed to bring in 44 loyal teams across six game of Pour House Trivia:

FIRST ROUND:

Wednesday’s opening round was a breeze for most of our teams, as we looked at Harley Davidson motorcycles, Three Clues for the name Jean, and this musical comedy film:

Four teams began their night with a perfect first round score: Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s), Hipster Fashion Consultants (Quinn’s), The Dog Ate Our Team Name (Quinn’s), and Devan is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (Furnace).

SECOND ROUND:

Songs about February highlighted Wednesday’s audio question, as our teams were asked to identify the voices of Don McLean (“American Pie”), Foo Fighters (“February Stars”), and Josh Groban (“February Song”).  Next, we reminisced about these Public Service Announcements:

We closed the first half with questions concerning the Pony Express and Spring Training baseball.  Six teams swept the second round with a perfect score of 36 points.

HALFTIME:

Convenience store brands and world leaders were the featured topics on Wednesday’s halftime page, which yielded ten perfect scores and an overall average of 18.3 points.  Here is Wednesday’s leaderboard at the halftime break:

• Hipster Fashion Consultants (Quinn’s):  92
• The Dog Ate Our Team Name (Quinn’s):  92
• Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap (Beef ‘O’ Brady’s):  91
• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s):  90
• Devan is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (Furnace):  90
• Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers (Clover Theater):  90

THIRD ROUND:

The most difficult wagering question of the night kicked off Wednesday’s second half.  Only 28% of our teams knew that former ESPN college basketball analyst Digger Phelps spent two decades as the head men’s basketball coach at Notre Dame.  Next, we discussed the derivation of the word poltergeist and decorated ourselves with henna tattoos.  We closed the third stanza with a look at this current cable drama:

Only eight teams tacked on the last two bonus points of the round by knowing that the Showtime series “Homeland” was based on a similar series from Israel (“Prisoners of War”).  Four of the eight teams that picked up those bonus points completed a perfect third round: Shakeweight (Beef ‘O’ Brady’s), Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s), Hipster Fashion Consultants (Quinn’s), and The Dog Ate Our Team Name (Quinn’s).

FOURTH ROUND:

With TWO potential perfect games hanging in the balance, none of our Wednesday teams were able to pick up the full six points on the 6-4-2 question by knowing that Rodney King worked as a cab driver before gaining fame with his run-in with the L. A. P. D.  Undaunted, our top teams recovered nicely on questions concerning Human Growth Hormone, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and this science fiction novel series:

In what proved to be the most difficult bonus question of the night, only four teams identified melange as the actual name of “the spice” from the “Dune” novel series.  As a result, Hipster Fashion Consultants (Quinn’s) posted the only perfect score of Wednesday’s final round.  These were your highest scoring teams heading into the final question:

• Hipster Fashion Consultants (Quinn’s):  168
• The Dog Ate Our Team Name (Quinn’s):  166
• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s):  164
• My Black Hole Just Exploded (Quinn’s):  159
• Franconia Hair Cemetery (Quinn’s):  159

WEDNESDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (28.6% success rate):

–> Name either one of the two African countries which existed as independent nations on the first day of the 20th century.

Just over one-fourth of our teams answered correctly with either Ethiopia or Liberia.  Congratulations to the five teams that ran the table on Wednesday’s wagering questions to earn a Perfect 21: Hipster Fashion Consultants (Quinn’s), The Dog Ate Our Team Name (Quinn’s), Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s), Devan is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (Furnace), and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers (Clover Theater).  Your final Wednesday leaderboard featured these teams:

• Hipster Fashion Consultants (Quinn’s):  180
• The Dog Ate Our Team Name (Quinn’s):  178
• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s):  172
• My Black Hole Just Exploded (Quinn’s):  165
• Drill Baby Drill (Quinn’s):  164
• Mostly Dead (Beef ‘O’ Brady’s):  163
• What the Fork? (Quinn’s):  159
• Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers (Clover Theater):  158
• Devan is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (Furnace):  158
• Amigos (Clover Theater):  156

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Whole Foods Market in Vienna, VA:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: College Team Nicknames)

Valley Grill in Middletown, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: “Battlestar Galactica” – 2000s series)

The Tavern in Olney, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: Cocktails)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: U.S. Vice Presidents)

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD:  Mostly Dead  (Next week’s first category: World War II Aviation)

Nido’s Ristorante in Frederick, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: Sewing Terms)

Barefoot Bernie’s in Hagerstown, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: Foo Fighters – AUDIO)

Furnace Bar and Grill in Thurmont, MD:  Devan is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things  (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – Music Group or Solo Artist?)

Quinn’s on the Corner in Arlington, VA:  Hipster Fashion Consultants  (Next week’s first category: Christopher Guest Films)

Dragon Hops Brewing in Purcellville, VA:  Thunder Business  (Next week’s first category: “Star Trek: The Original Series”)

Black Hoof Brewing in Leesburg, VA:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: Baltimore Orioles)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: Educational Jargon)

Hideaway Pizza Pub in St. Petersburg, FL:  Over the Cold  (Next week’s first category: HOST CHOICE)

Clover Theater in Cloverdale, CA:  Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers  (Next week’s first category: Planets)

Memories in Mount Airy, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK  (Next week’s first category: Graphic Name Origins)

Brookside Inn in Jefferson, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK   (Next week’s first category: Abraham Lincoln)