Weekend Trivia is in the Zone!

June 12, 2023

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A 22-team showdown at Springfield Manor Winery led the weekend for Pour House Trivia, which had 85 total teams attend one of its eight locales.

FIRST ROUND:

Wagering questions in the weekend’s first rounds were no match for our teams. They handled topics such as various mascots introduced by Burger King, Three Clues about the month of February, and phrases used in Boston Market‘s logo over the years. We had one for the 90s kids at the end of Friday’s opening round:

  • In 1994, this late R&B singer accidentally burned down the mansion she shared with her boyfriend, a wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons. Name those celebrities.

Naming either late TLC member Lisa (Left Eye) Lopez or NFL player Andre Rison wasn’t too tough for wagering credit, but 28% went all the way and had both names for bonus points. Sunday’s round concluded with a question about the Paralympics, but no teams got within five years of its first event in 1960 for extra credit. However, nine teams over the course of the weekend notched a perfect first round.

SECOND ROUND:

Friday’s audio question dealt with three pop culture works that start with the abbreviation Mr. (namely Styx song Mr. Roboto, TV show Mr. Belvedere, and film Mr. Popper’s Penguins). On Saturday, teams heard a trio of songs by bands featuring a person’s first name while Sunday’s audio clue played three covers of tracks by the Weeknd. On the latter, 18% of the field earned two bonus points for naming all three songs being covered. The two most difficult wagering questions in the first half came in Friday’s game. First, we went to the literary section:

  • Set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, the 1945 novel Cannery Row features characters named Lee Chong, Mack, and Dora Flood. What American author penned this novel nearly a decade after writing the novel Tortilla Flat, also set in Monterey?

Author John Steinbeck was correctly named by 39% of Friday’s teams. At the end of the round, we went through a certain actor’s filmography to track some interesting roles:

  • Which actor has appeared in film roles that include a third baseman for the Chicago White Sox, an air traffic controller nicknamed The Zone, a professional assassin, a writer investigating a haunted hotel room, and President Richard Nixon?

Those are all roles taken by John Cusack. He was identified by 41% of the field, while 15% knew Cusack portrayed Nixon in The Butler for bonus points. Two teams reached second-round perfection: Murph’s Masters (Belles’) and Member Berries (Pretzel and Pizza).

HALFTIME:

For halftime topics, we offered up app logos, screenshots of movies with a mystery theme (that being each film starred Morgan Freeman), and novel titles. The average halftime page returned a score of 14.9, while just two perfect scores were recorded: one each on Saturday and Sunday. One venue monopolized the top of the halftime break’s leaderboard:

THIRD ROUND:

Friday’s trickiest wagering question started that evening’s second half:

  • Serving for 34 and 28 years respectively, who are the two 19th century Americans who served the longest tenures as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court?

About 28% of teams could name either John Marshall or Roger Taney, but 9.4% knew both men to receive two bonus points. Saturday’s third round also kicked off with a toughie:

  • In 2002, this rap star wrote and recorded his debut single after his jaw had been surgically closed following a car accident. Name this musician who would later earn a Grammy nomination for the song.

Kanye West debuted with the single Through the Wire; 31% named Kanye for wagering points, while 12% added that song title for a bonus. Sunday’s most difficult wagering query also occurred in the third round, this time with a TV news question:

  • Collectively dubbed The Big Three, these men respectively hosted the nightly news broadcast on each of the three major networks from the early 1980s into the 21st century. Name those news anchors.

A quarter of Sunday’s teams got at least two of those names submitted, but 18% got those important extra points for naming all three: Tom Brokaw of NBC, Dan Rather of CBS, and ABC’s Peter Jennings. The lone perfect score in any third round went to Five Heads, One Brain (Springfield Manor).

FOURTH ROUND:

Our 6-4-2 weekend clues described the cherry, Best Picture winner Driving Miss Daisy, and the element potassium. Saturday’s least-successful wagering query came in the final round:

  • Which literary title character created by E.B. White in 1945 has parents named Frederick and Eleanor?

Just 12% of teams knew that question named Stuart Little‘s parents. We took a look at a 2023 sports Hall of Famer on Sunday:

  • In addition to short stints with the Buccaneers, Patriots, and Chiefs, this cornerback spent the majority of his career with the New York Jets. Name this player, who is part of the 2023 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Darrell Revis was not on an island for that one, as his name was given by 31% of teams. Other topics in this round included comic book-turned-film antihero Deadpool, Singapore’s location off the tip of the Malay Peninsula, and Shakespeare’s Othello. El Gato Loco (Springfield Manor) and Better Lucky Than Smart (Flying Ace) had perfect scores in the fourth round. After four rounds, here’s how the weekend leaderboard looked:

FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (15.09% success rate):

  • Which country of about 5.2 million residents straddles the Alpine Fault, a boundary between two tectonic plates which leads to activity in the Taupo Volcanic Zone?

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (68.75% success rate):

  • When the Revenue Act of 1935 took effect, its highest income tax bracket was a whopping 75 percent. However, this tax bracket contained just one person. Name this magnate, whose peak net worth (adjusted for inflation) reached nearly 350 billion dollars.

SUNDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (25% success rate):

  • While the Oscar category we know today as Best Picture has existed since the inaugural ceremony in 1929, a ten-letter word replaced the word Picture in the category’s name from 1930-1941. Which word fills in the blank in the category phrase Outstanding BLANK in those years?

Friday’s country is New Zealand, Saturday’s wealthy (and heavily taxed) man was John D. Rockefeller, and that 12-year span replaced Best Picture with Outstanding Production! Unfortunately, the Perfect 21 eluded our group of weekend teams. These teams ended the weekend atop the final standings:

WEEKEND WINNERS:

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

Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Pampered Daddy’s Bab Ganoush  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: American Gladiators)

Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD: G Money  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Blazing Saddles)

Doc Waters Cidery in Germantown, MD: NO GAME  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The New Testament)

Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA: Squircle Jerks  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 14th Century Romantic Poems)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Demented and Sad but Social  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: American Dad!)

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

The Garage in Frederick, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2022-23 English Premier League Season)

Mason Social in Alexandria, VA: Fellowship  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Silmarillon)

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