Trivia Recap: 10/26

The Players: Mary (English teacher), Hannah (English teacher), Alex (coffee shop owner), Darren (math professor), Victoria (veterinarian), Ben (social studies teacher), Brock (technology stuff, marketing stuff, animation stuff, and graphic design stuff)

Opening Category: Harry Potter

Hint of the Day: Saw

Round One:

Mary got King's Cross without a moment's hesitation, Ben and I thought KitKats were divided into "arms" or "legs," but Darren corrected us with his deduction that the correct answer was "fingers." Four fingers, four KitKats. It makes so much sense, yeah? We got it right. We also got Bodies of Water (Lake Tahoe; we all knew it!), Sporty Anniversaries (Darren and/or Ben got this, but we missed the bonus), and Halloween TV (a few of us knew Friends, but Darren knew Sean Penn was at the Halloween party). It was a decent round.

Round Two:

Halloween Music was fun. We listened to three songs and identified them: "Werewolves of London," "Zombie," and "Monster." Then we figured out "Movember" (No-Shave November) for Charitable Causes, "Teddy Roosevelt" for US History, and "elephants" for Zoological Terms. I was thinking the answer might be either "hooves" or "parliament" (as in a parliament of owls, what with owls being a Halloweeny creature) and was pleased to see that my idea of "parliament" was actually in direct relation to the clue, which required us to know which group of animals a "memory" referred to. And then we got Horror Films too because of the clue: Saw. Darren told this great story about someone who's kid is named Sebastian Artemis Something-with-a-W because the person's favorite movie is Saw. I thought this was a Billy Ocean Moment because I didn't realize Darren was sharing the story due to the hint of the day. But then as soon as the clue was read, Brock was all like, "Oh, I know!" and wrote down "Saw" on a napkin and slid it across the table. I thought it was great because, like I just said, it seemed like a Billy Ocean Moment (which I do realize Kristin has yet to explain in the Facebook comments...), but Darren said it wasn't a Billy Ocean Moment because he told the Sebastian story because he suspected the next answer would be "Saw." But I argued it was a Billy Ocean Moment because I wasn't aware of the intent. So maybe Kristin can clear that up when she reads this blog. Regardless, we got the answer right but missed the bonus.

Halftime Sheet:

I KNEW EVERY SINGLE ANSWER ON THE BOTTOM AND WAS SO EXCITED! I WAS SUCH AN ASSET! NOT ONLY HAD I READ THE MAJORITY OF THE BOOKS, BUT I'D WATCHED SOME OF THE MOVIES AND I TEACH SOME OF THE CONTENT! YAY! IT WAS AN AMAZING FEELING! The top part was hard, though, and we missed two. 18/20

Round Three:

We got the question about the NBA (I just hate the sports questions, unless they're about swimming), and a bunch of us knew "Mothman" for Creepy Creatures. We got one of the two answers for Solar System, which meant we got the points but not the bonus. American Artists was figured out by Ben and confirmed by Darren, and then Working Film Titles was pretty much the same thing. Brock was a real asset with all things actors/actresses, though, so we got some bonuses.

6-4-2:

This was about a new M&M color that caused controversy and the answer is a color that rhymes with "urple." If you said "Purple," you're correct. We got it for four points.

Round Four:

Beer Me required us to know Jimmy Buffett songs, and while we all knew Jimmy Buffett was the answer, we did not get "Fins" as the two-point bonus (even though this was Brock's prediction). Classic TV had to do with that Charlie Brown Halloween special. Brock was convinced it would come up tonight so he researched the proper title beforehand, but it wasn't the title we needed to know: it was what Charlie Brown received in his Halloween basket instead of candy. The answer? Rocks. Mary got it right away. She wrote down the answer on a napkin and promptly dropped her pen as if it were a mic. It was right and we got seven points. World Geography required us to know things that started with K and ended with I. Ben figured this out. (Please see the map) Halloween History is where things went to shit. The team was almost split. I forget exactly how the question was worded, but it was something about what the Irish used as jack-o-lanterns in place of pumpkins. We had options and I think they were cabbage, turnip, coconut, and maybe... watermelon? I'm not sure about the fourth one. Darren, Victoria, and I were confident that it was Turnip. Know why? Because it WAS Turnip. But we went with majority rules -- Cabbage -- which was wrong wrong wrong. I was very disheartened because I grew up eating turnips. My grandfather on my mom's side used to tell me that if I ate turnips, my hair would be curly, and my hair is curly(ish) so I think he was right. Anyway, that cost us a point.

It was around this point that Victoria and I got involved in a deep conversation about the Irish and their crops. Specifically, we discussed how similar turnips and potatoes are. At one point, Victoria thought I said that I didn't like potatoes... but who doesn't like potatoes?! I said this aloud. Victoria countered with, "There are so many good things that come from potatoes."

"Vodka," I said.

"And French fries," she added. "Vodka, French fries... there are so many options!"

A bit later, Victoria went up to pay her tab and came back to the table acting just as she normally would. Maybe three to five minutes passed. Then, out of nowhere, she seemed to be bitten by an enthusiasm bug and exclaimed quite out of nowhere, "Hannah! Hannah! Hannah!" And then she ducked her head, produced a maroon hat with a pom-pom on top, put it on her head, and said with great exuberance, "I got this hat!"

This made me laugh... and then I laughed again when, a few minutes later, Ben (who was very dad-like in taking a selfie) counted down from three to one and told all of us to smile... and then Victoria, in the midst of the photo op, ducked her head once more in order to put on her new hat.

The answer to Getting Into Costume was Uma Thurman and the bonus was June, but we missed that.

Final Round:

I believe we were in second place going into the final category, which was Olympic Countries, and even though we utilized Ben's four-napkin map, we missed the answer and placed somewhere below the top three. It is what it is, right? What matters is that there was much laughter and a photo opportunity. Until next week...