REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2018
We had 95 in the House for the opening session of the new season. We have one new team, one renamed team and one returning team (after a 2-3 year sabbatical) respectively, Metaquizzical, Make Trivia Great Again and Dewey Decibel System. We Know Stuff started slowly but came on through the middle rounds and while they stuttered at the end, won with a decent 48 score followed by the new Metaquizzical team. The Blond Artifacts and the Ministry tied for third/fourth and the Blondies guessed the tiebreaker more closely than the Ministry. There was a three-way tie for the last two prizes and Make Trivia Great and Thistle Rocks survived with Crusader Rabbit just missing out.
Round 1 was “hard” apparently as the average score was 45% with Metaquizzicals and Make Trivia Great Again (formerly the In Vivo crew with a changed name) getting the top score in the round at 7. Only 8 teams knew about meat tenderizer as coming from papaya. Seven teams knew Julio Iglesias was a soccer goalie and a few more knew he was a player. Pretty good! ONLY The Cheap Dates knew the title of the Statue of Liberty “Liberty Enlightening the World”. Impressive. Quite a few gauged the weight of a gigabyte as over 500 pounds when first made. ONLY the Four Horsepersons knew that “Shrek” was the first Oscar winner for an animated feature Best Picture. All but one team knew “Dopey” as the only non-bearded/shaved Dwarf. This is about what you see these days on the Metro- mostly beards/unshaven. The music question was tough with 5 comparable groups to choose from and 6 got The Coasters and they were Make Trivia Great, We Know Stuff, the Deweys, Thistle Rocks, Space Cadets and Ex Machina.
The House bounced back in Round 2 with a 64% correct set of answers. All but 4 teams knew that the Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador. Also, all but 4 teams knew the stars of the Cockatoo video. This is the best video I have seen in some time and it even has a quiet role in the “Me-Too” movement. There were six teams that knew the time frame of the building of the Victoria Bridge and We Know Stuff and the Make Trivia Great Again got the exact year (1859). Finally, the House was pretty much on the money knowing Charles Aznavour as the duet partner of Frank Sinatra.
Round 3 delivered a near-average 54% score but only 5 teams knew the last group of countries the US declared war on (Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary). Seven teams knew the differently-dressed architect. There were 17 teams who seem to follow boxing as this was the number knowing Zaire (Congo) as the host for the “Rumble in the Jungle” event. Further, only half the House identified George Foreman as the man on the canvas. All but three teams knew Bonn was the capital of West Germany.
The scores declined a bit more in Round 4 with 51%, but 18 teams knew that Phineas was the first name of P.T. Barnum. Other answers were Patrick, Philip, Paul, Peter and Putney. Putney? Only the Space Cadets knew both Jackie Robinson’s middle name (Roosevelt) AND his now retired number (42) although a dozen teams also knew that famous number. Slightly more than half the House knew that a “puddle” was another term for “gutter ball” in bowling. I thought that if one asked were do you find a puddle?, one might think of the gutter. Maybe quite a few don’t bowl as it is not nearly as popular a sport as it once was. They just tore down a huge bowling establishment on the South Shore in favour of condos. Nine teams knew the musical group “Bread”. Where did that name come from? They were rising stars in their day.
The decline continued in Round 5 with a 49% score however all but 5 teams knew the colour of the Geography questions in Trivial Pursuit and those 5 teams all chose green (Science and Nature). A little more than half the teams knew “Camels” as the cigarette that “most” Doctors used to recommend. Many said “Lucky Strike”. Four teams (Cheap Dates, Green Eggs, Wasted Synapses and Boom Down) knew Elvis’ first film (“Love Me Tender”). Andrew Wyeth was well-identified as was Donna Summer for the music question.
More decline took place in Round 6 (48%). About half knew their hockey trivia with the “Chiefs” being the name of the team Paul Newman starred in “Slapshot”. Almost all knew Audrey Hepburn and Boris Pasternak in the early part of this round. Only three teams got that Disney is the second largest buyer of explosives. One team suggested Wal-Mart. Ten groups knew that the Arctic was where “Frankenstein” met his fate. It was impressive that they finished AND remembered the end of the book. It was also impressive that 4 teams knew Alicia Bridges as the singer in the music question. That was difficult; they were the Ministry, We Know Stuff, Crusader Rabbit and the Boom-Downers.
The decline in scoring was complete in the last round with only 43% (net for the night, a bit lower than usual with 51%). I knew that the first question of Round 7 was difficult but Charles William Drew was educated for his MD degree at McGill and was responsible for the creation of blood banks and deserved attention. That was impressively given by the correct answer of Wasted Synapes. Excellent! Only the Hotel de Ville and Otto Maass got that Shanghai has the longest subway system. This was not an expected answer and most said London. Not a team said that Finland and Sweden share an 18 hole golf course. This was not an easy question when the “logical” answer would have been the US and Canada. However, it is not really that logical as the US would not want to have such an easy access to the country and a wall is not a good thing to have on a golf course. Fifteen teams knew the Flugelhorn was Chuck Mangione’s instrument; that was impressive. Not many remembered Tonto’s (I thought) famous, “Get-em up Scout” command in the Lone Ranger series. Most knew the likely first disco song’s start (1974).
All in all, a nice night aided by the expert scoring of Angela, Meaghan and Julia. Thanks also to Kim Stephenson for enrolment services and book prizes.
Our next Trivia night is November 22.
