Weekend Trivia is All-American!

July 12, 2023

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Over the weekend, 106 teams played Pour House Trivia at any of our nine locations.

FIRST ROUND:

The hardest bonus question in the first round came on Sunday, which was in fashion:

  • Mentioned in the lyrics of a #1 hit from the early 1990s, what city joins London, New York, and Paris to make up what is known as the Big Four fashion weeks in the design world?
  • 2-POINT BONUS: This city is the capital of which administrative region of about ten million residents?

Milan was an easy answer to get for our teams, but only 9.5% knew Milan is the capital of the Lombardy region of Italy. A Triple 50/50 to end Saturday’s round asked teams to decipher whether each of a trio of titles was actually a Magic: the Gathering card or a death metal album; 16% of teams earned their bonus for getting all three guesses right. Other topics in this round included the meteorological wind chill, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the names of young animals. Nine teams earned perfect scores in this round.

SECOND ROUND:

Friday’s audio question played three song titles that are also years, Saturday’s gave three songs all titled All My Life, and Sunday’s aptly wrapped up the weekend by playing the closing notes to a trio of singles. The toughest wagering question in Friday’s second round came in the film category:

  • Featuring both an anime sequence as well as black-and-white flashback footage, which 2003 film carried the tagline Here Comes the Bride?
  • 2-POINT BONUS: What is the actual first name of this film’s female protagonist?

The Bride was the focal point of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill; 46% of teams got that right, while 17% also gave her real first name, Beatrix. On Saturday, an historical hockey question put a lot of teams on ice:

  • Which Original Six team is the only current NHL team to predate the founding of the league, as it was a part of the National Hockey Association from 1910-1917?

The Montreal Canadiens have that distinction. The success rate here was 44%, with 11% notching bonus points for getting within three years of their last Stanley Cup in 1993. Some other subjects here gave Three Clues about the word Parliament, the recipe for pesto, and the political term tyranny. Once again, this round produced nine perfect teams.

HALFTIME:

Depending on the game, teams encountered multi-sport metropolitan areas, films with bathroom scenes such as Bridesmaids and Scream, and political figures who had to be matched to their birth country. The average score was 15.7 points across the weekend, while only five Sunday squads picked up all 20 points. These were the top teams at the halftime break:

THIRD ROUND:

We went back to an infamous art rivalry for Saturday’s trickiest wagering query:

  • While studying at the Academy of Ancient Art in the Medici Palace, this Renaissance artist supposedly upset a rival named Torrigiano, who struck this artist in the face with a mallet, crushing his nose and disfiguring him for life. Who was that artist?

About 22% of teams correctly named Michelangelo as the victim of that assault. Another tough question came late in Friday’s third round:

  • On the TV comedy Friends, one of these magnetic drawing toys is visible in Joey and Chandler’s apartment displaying various messages referencing plot points, current events, inside crew jokes, or just random drawings. Name this toy invented in 1974 by Tyco.

While many teams thought that toy was an Etch-a-Sketch, it is actually a Magna Doodle, which was named by 28% of the field. Some other questions in this round dealt with Ivan the Terrible, the Citgo gas station chain, and the inspiration for Velcro. A perfect score was out of reach for our teams in this round.

FOURTH ROUND:

Friday’s 6-4-2 about Germany had only one team get it right for all six points: Jeopardy Rejects (Springfield Manor)! The other 6-4-2s were about the boy band 98 Degrees and coffee. On Saturday, we asked this question:

  • In addition to numerous technical awards, the original Star Wars film also earned Oscar nominations for both Best Picture and Best Director, but lost both of these races to what comedy film?

Annie Hall beat out Star Wars in those categories. A third of Saturday’s teams got that right, but none could also name musician Paul Simon for his small role in the film to receive bonus points. In other fourth-round action, we asked questions about the Japanese island of Honshu, MLB hit king Pete Rose, and Three Clues about nitrogen. The only perfect score in this round was earned by Lone Strangers (Mason). We headed into the final question with these teams in the lead:

  • Sexual Chocolate (Garage): 162
  • Innovations (Mason): 156
  • Virtual Cigar (Mason): 154
  • Titanic String Quartet (Belles’): 149
  • Jarley’s Angels (Mason): 148

FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (43.28% success rate):

  • After living in Honduras for six months, American short story writer O. Henry coined which two-word political term that he originally used to describe the fictitious country of Anchuria?

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (55.56% success rate):

  • In the board game Risk, which is the only territory that shares its name with a U.S. state?

SUNDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (42.86% success rate):

  • With just under four months of hostilities, what was the shortest of the United States’ formally declared wars?

O. Henry was the coiner of the phrase banana republic, Risk features the Alaska territory on its board, and the U.S. was in the Spanish-American War for just that short period of time. The weekend’s Perfect 21 teams were Sexual Chocolate (Garage) and Innovations (Mason). These were the highest-scoring weekend squads:

Honorable mention to Hold Back the Rain (Doc Waters), which played over the limit of seven players, but racked up 158 points.

WEEKEND WINNERS:

South Mountain Creamery in Frederick, MD: Priscilla’s Posse  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Triple 50/50: XFL or USFL?)

Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Five Heads, One Brain  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Norse Mythology)

Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD: G Money  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1960s Science Fiction Novels)

Doc Waters Cidery in Germantown, MD: Beer Pressure  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Duran Duran)

Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA: Middle Aged  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Proctology)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: PB & J  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Sandwiches)

Pretzel and Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Quality Guesswork  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Veep)

The Garage in Frederick, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Maryland Terps Basketball Greats)

Mason Social in Alexandria, VA: Innovations  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Geography)

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