David Ellis: Trivia Wizard

With the entire trivia crowd at Rosemary Beach (EXCEPT Will and me), Matthew and I headed to trivia wondering what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised to find Craig, Denise, Alyssa, Alex, Pam, and David. With eight team members, Daniel graciously did not participate.

ART: What nationality is Pablo Picasso? The Ellis’ were sure: Spanish.


AMERICA: What building is on the back of the twenty dollar bill? Alyssa knew: the White House.

MUSICALS: Who runs the orphanage in “Annie”? Again Alyssa knew: Mrs. Hannigan. David Ellis knew as well.

ENTERTAINMENT: What company bought the Muppets in 2004? Disney. That David Ellis is a beast.

POT POURI: According to AT&T, on what holiday are the most long distance calls placed? The obvious answer, Mother’s Day, was wrong? According to Xanna, it’s Christmas. A five point miss.

HISTORY: In what decade was the television invented? Hadn’t we had this question before? I felt strongly about the roaring 20’s, and was right.

MOVIES: What animated movie takes its name from the Yiddish word for “monster”? Young Alex piped up with the right answer: Shrek. Three points, though we should’ve wagered five.

SCIENCE: What element, combined with iron, makes steel? During our discussion I mentioned Carbon, but the others liked my second guess: Magnesium. It was Carbon.

SPORTS: What is the target area in Olympic foil fencing? I said heart, but the chest was the answer. Another five point miss.

HALFTIME: Name the element: AR, ZN, GE, TI, BA. Alyssa knocked them out, with Pam’s input: Argon, Zinc, Germanium (nice!), Titanium, Barium. Our 26 halftime points placed us six behind the perennial leaders, Michael Taylor’s Rock Bottom team.  

ASTRONOMY: What element makes up 74% of the sun’s mass? The college kids knew: Hydrogen. Thanks to the recommendation of the cagey veterans (Craig and me) we wagered six.

LITERATURE: What nursery rhyme character was warned that the cow was in the corn? We racked our brains, and eventually David Ellis came up with the right answer: Little Boy Blue (his new nickname). Two points. I thought we should’ve wagered four, and it bit us in the end.

GEOGRAPHY: What two countries border the Dead Sea? Israel and Jordan. We missed Jordan.

ENTERTAINMENT: In radio, what does AM mean? Another question we’d had before. Amplitude Modulation. Two points.


AMERICA: How many spikes are on the Statue of Liberty’s crown? We got Daniel to draw it in his notebook (he drew five). I sketched the crown as well on my trivia score sheet. Seven looked right. It was. Four points.

ACRONYMS: What does FBI stand for? An easy six points. It’s motto? Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity.

DISNEY: What was Walt Disney’s original name for Mickey Mouse? The Ellis’ knew: Mortimer.

HISTORY: What state was the first to ratify the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery? We should’ve known…Illinois. A two point miss.

SPORTS: Which Olympic competition is made up of ten events? The Decathlon…another easy six points. Going into the final question our 56 points placed us third, eight behind Rock Bottom. Xanna had us at 52, so I had to shown her my always detailed notes. I even showed her my Statue of Liberty crown. She was impressed.

FINAL: Rank the five most populous branches of the United States military, in order. We answered Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard. David and I thought Air Force was second, and we were probably right. Xanna said the Marines was second, and two teams answered correctly. Alex found a Wikipedia listing with Marines second, though it wasn’t in order. Did this prove teams were cheating? Our 71 points placed us just four behind Rock Bottom. Had we wagered more two times, we would’ve tied for the win.  

The musical theme was the Beatles. Josh Watkins and Alyx Fallis were there, from our small group. Sometime during the evening I joked that at trivia, Alyssa was the third best Hanson sister, though she actually did quite well.