Weekend Trivia’s Got You, Babe!

Seven venues and a total of 69 teams took part in some weekend festivities with Pour House Trivia, including a packed house of 24 teams at Doc Waters Cidery!

FIRST ROUND:

Weekend trivia action kicked off with opening round topics such as vowel-heavy states Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama, the Nordstrom Rack clearance brand, film director Steven Spielberg, and classic toy Lincoln Logs. Friday’s teams were mostly hung up on this wagering question:

• Despite airing for 54 seasons and over 2,500 episodes, which current primetime CBS program has never used theme music, instead only featuring a certain trademarked sound effect?

That show, 60 Minutes, was correctly guessed by about 72 percent of the field. In all, 14 teams earned perfect scores in the first round.

SECOND ROUND:

Audio questions on songs with the word happy in the title and a three-parter about Paul Simon‘s 1986 hit You Can Call Me Al began the second round on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The following question on each night, however, ended up being the most difficult wagering opportunity of the game. On Friday, a question on former president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff being removed from power carried a 33% success rate. Saturday’s toughie went to the science lab:

• Contrary to popular belief, which chemical compound with the formula of CH₄ is actually odorless at room temperature?

About 38% of teams were able to name methane to get their points. Otherwise, teams handled topics such as MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks, the 19th-century novel Little Women, cartoon character Dudley Do-Right, and the St. Lawrence River bordering New York and Ontario. Perfect efforts in this round were achieved by Cultured Heathens (Pretzel and Pizza), Ten Thousand Dugongs (Mason Social), and Tar Heels (Mason Social).

HALFTIME:

Teams on Friday had to identify fictional characters played by two different actors, then figure out terms that use the words push and pull. On Saturday, halftime topics were famous TV characters and pro athletes with retired jersey numbers. Through the entire weekend, teams averaged 13.9 points while there were three perfect scores. The first-half standings were led by these teams:

• That’s No Moon (Flying Ace): 90
• Ten Thousand Dugongs (Mason Social): 89
• Beer Pressure (Doc Waters): 89
• Cultured Heathens (Pretzel and Pizza): 89
• Silent Thunder (Doc Waters): 88

THIRD ROUND:

The third round on Friday started with a three-parter on athletes with alliterative names, then visited psychiatrist Carl Jung and made a Three Clues stop in Istanbul before reaching the toughest wagering question of the round:

• Which legendary figure has been portrayed on the big screen in over a dozen films, with most critics still considering Errol Flynn’s swashbuckling 1938 version to be the most memorable performance?

Robin Hood was successfully named by 37% of teams for wagering points. Question subjects on Saturday included boxer Sonny Liston, the weather concept known as wind chill factor, and the country of Saudi Arabia. A perfect score in this round was not recorded by any weekend teams.

FOURTH ROUND:

Weekend 6-4-2 questions on fast food chain Popeyes and Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana each saw two teams hit on the correct answer after just one clue for the full six points. Coincidentally, each night’s fourth round started out with a musical query that became the entire game’s hardest wagering question. First, Friday’s teams learned about title repetition:

• Which one-word title corresponds to three different songs released by Warrant in 1989, Los Lonely Boys in 2004, and John Legend in 2006?

All three musical acts released popular songs called Heaven, which was correctly named by 31% of the field. Saturday went to the same song released by two different artists:

• While this classic rock star never recorded a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, his song Blinded by the Light was covered by a band that topped the charts with their own version. Name the solo artist, or name the man whose group topped the charts with that song.

Originally released by Bruce Springsteen in 1973, that song became a smash hit for Manfred Mann‘s Earth Band four years later; one-third of Saturday’s groups named at least one of those men. Other Friday topics included the ode form of poetry, late TV pitchman Billy Mays, and eccentric British billionaire Richard Branson; Saturday’s teams encountered questions on NYC department store Saks 5th Avenue, 2001 film Memento, and legendary warrior Achilles. DC Swampers (Pretzel and Pizza) and Ten Thousand Dugongs (Mason Social) each went perfectly through their fourth round. We reached the final question with these teams in the lead:

• Ten Thousand Dugongs (Mason Social): 158
• Beer Pressure (Doc Waters): 156
• Shady Deductions (South Mountain): 153
• Cultured Heathens (Pretzel and Pizza): 151
• Tar Heels (Mason Social): 151

FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (22.9% success rate):

• A real-life episode of the game show Jeopardy! was featured in which comedy film released in February of 1993, which has since been added to the National Film Registry?

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (52.4% success rate):

• Joining the list in August 1976, which company with an alphanumeric name is the oldest company to still be a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

We celebrated Groundhog Day a few months late on Friday’s final question, while Saturday’s Dow Jones company was 3M. A Perfect 21 once again eluded the weekend field, as no teams were able to answer all 21 wagering questions correctly. However, these teams were the pick of the trivia litter:

• Ten Thousand Dugongs (Mason Social): 164
• Clueless (Mason Social): 158
• We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Mason Social): 158
• Mouse Rat (Flying Ace): 158
• Lone Strangers (Mason Social): 157
• Cultured Heathens (Pretzel and Pizza): 156
• Sexy Bitches (Mason Social): 156
• Shady Deductions (South Mountain): 153
• What the Cuss (Flying Ace): 150
• Nerd Birds (Pretzel and Pizza): 149
• DC Swampers (Pretzel and Pizza): 149

WEEKEND WINNERS:

Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: NO GAME  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: NFL Teams)

P. B. Dye Golf Course in Ijamsville, MD: ON HIATUS (FIRST CATEGORY AFTER HIATUS: Cryptozoology)

Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD: Stranger Danger  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1970s Album Covers)

Doc Waters Cidery in Germantown. MD: Beer Pressure  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: High School Geometry)

Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA: Mouse Rat  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Freaky Friday (2003 film))

South Mountain Creamery in Frederick, MD: Shady Deductions  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Seinfeld Cameos)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Murph’s Masters  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Waltons)

Pretzel and Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Cultured Heathens  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Tropical Fish)

Mason Social in Alexandria, VA: Ten Thousand Dugongs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Cocktails)