Trivia With Team Bama

Late last August Will and his trivia friends Joel, Kevin, and Haley had gone off to school. The Bobbsey Twins Margaret and Emily were back at Thursday night Servant Leader meetings. Mothers Mary and Denise had taken jobs. No one to play trivia with. I decided to go anyway, and as usual was greeted by the always early Team Bama. When no one showed, they generously accepted me onto their team. Would I prove myself worthy?

The first three categories were Music, Merica, and Sports…the three M’s, I said.

1. What pop star titled a book “Black Bird Singing”? Sporty Stu knew: Paul McCartney. Five points.

2. What name was given to those who made illegal alcohol during Prohibition? Kristov, the cool young bartender at trendy Pure, knew that Bootleggers hid bottles in their boots. Three points.

3. How many years between each World Cup? We all knew: Four years / one point.

4. Who is the author of Winnie the Pooh? I knew the last name: Milne. One point.

5. What was Julie Andrews’ first film? It was either the Sound of Music (1965) or Mary Poppins (1964). We guessed wrong. Only the baristas got it right.

6. What is the Atomic Symbol for Iron? Old Cy answered first: Iron.

7. What is another name for the card game “21”? Cy and Stu knew immediately: Blackjack. So did every other team.

8. How old do you have to be to be a “Super-Centenarian”? Cy thought it was 101, but I felt sure it was 110. One point. We were one of three teams to get it right.

9. What is the name of the moon where the Navi live in the movie Avatar? Only Stu had seen the movie, but couldn’t remember. Only a few teams correctly answered Pandora.

At halftime, our 31 points were one more than the Floppy Fishes, and four more than team I Don’t Know. The halftime question was to name the state the following cities are the capital of…Dover Delaware, Jefferson City Missouri, Helena Montana, Raleigh North Carolina, and Harrisburg Pennsylvania. We got them all right.

10. What was the name of the ABC Family Network before Disney bought it? I heard someone shout the answer: Fox Family. We should’ve wagered more than two points, but in the end it didn’t matter.

11. What thousand year old legend did Irish poet Chamis Heney turn into a bestseller in 2000? Even the venerable Cy didn’t know. A few teams did: Beowulf.

12. What does PDF stand for? Portable Document Format. No one got it right.

13. What do noodlers catch with their bare hands? Kristov knew: Catfish.

14. How many lines are in a sonnet? Doug said sixteen. It was fourteen.

15. What color light is given off when a neon gas glows? Cy said blue. Kristov said orange. Xanna said red. No one got it right. Our fourth miss in the last five questions. We needed to finish strong, and we did.

16. What nation is home to more than one-quarter of all the world’s primate species? We went with Cy’s answer: Brazil. Stu had us wager only two, and cursed when we got it right.

17. What sixty year old folk icon said the following about the American music scene in 2001:”The radio makes hideous sounds”? Cy knew: Bob Dylan. But we only wagered four points.

18. What 1992 movie put Queen’s 1976 hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” back on the charts? Kristov knew immediately: Wayne’s World.

Our late surge kept us on the lead, still just one point over the Fishes’ 50 points. IDK was third with 43.

FINAL: Name the five most valuable companies worldwide. We answered Coke, Wal-Mart, Exxon, and…

Apple: $183 billion (#3 on our list)

IBM: $116 billion

Google: $108 billion

McDonalds: $95 billion

Microsoft: $77 billion (#5 on our list)

Unfortunately, the Fishes answered four correctly, and beat us 62 – 57.

The musical theme for the evening was the 90’s, and included Dave Matthews, Hootie & the Blowfish, the Fresh Prince, Brittany Spears, Can’t Touch This, and Celine Dion’s love theme from the movie Titanic. My notes say we got up and sang the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It My Way”, but I must’ve erased that from my memory. I contributed, but did not return to trivia until December.