There can be ONLY ONE

Feb. 4th, We are playing at Las Trojas again.  Looks like it's going to be just the 4 of us.  Steve, Mike, Mark and Myself.   I had forgotten how little room you have at a table for only 4 people.  It's ok for eating or playing, but not both.  So I finished up my food quickly and made room for the paper and score sheets.

Our hosts, Steve and Summer announced that tonight would be their last night as hosts.  They are going to be missed by everyone here!  We all know that life is constant change and rolling with those changes are always part of the game.  We wish the both of you lots of fun and excitement in all aspects of your lives.

 We saw the clues earlier for tonight.  However, I don't recall them being very helpful in the past.  We find them a bit generic to be much help.  At best it gives us an opening discussion before the game.

Round one was Kid stuff, TV and Movies.

SpongeBob was the easy one and we opted for a bid of only 2 points and turned in the answer.  Feeling sure of TV and movies.

Before the answer was read, Steve (our host) ask a member from each Romero's Rejects to approach the bench.  Now I thought he was kidding, as we have played here for a couple years now.  I went up and met with them.  It seems that another team had decided to use our name. After a short talk, The judge (host) made his ruling.  The result was......

The other team chose to be Knuckleheads Rejects.  As they were planning to play there and found out it was closed.  Now it's back to the game.

  Next was Brooklyn Nine-Nine,  that link is for those of you who missed the last episode on Fox.

Last was the movie

It will hit the big screen on the 21st of this month.  So make your plans to get out and see it.

In Round 2 we had...Sports, Music and Movies.

The 2015 Super Bowl is going to be held in Glendale.  ADOT is already working on this project...Super Bowl 2015

Katie Perry's Top new song is Dark Horse.  One I have heard a million times since we missed it tonight!

The 1980 comedy starring Dolly Parton was non other than

Click here to watch 9 to 5

The Cosby show won the Outstanding Comedy series Emmy in 1984-1985  You can find the results Located Here for all the Emmy Awards that year.

In 2003, What country was renamed to Serbia and Montenegro?  This was interesting reading for me. However the guys did know this and bid the full 6 points on it.  Yugoslavia

In Sports we knew that the Country who raised the funds to send it's Bob sleding team to the Olympics was....Jamaica.

Now I'm sure a lot of you knew about it and many of you probably watched the movie Cool Runnings back in 1993.  Now something I had no idea of was Dogecoins,  so if you would like to know more about the current stuff going on with this team.  Check out this website:  Jamaican-bobsled-team-raises-dogecoin-winter-olympics

The half time question was about the 2010 Olympic Medals.  We needed to name the top 5 countries.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
3	United States (USA)	9	15	13	37
2	Germany (GER)	10	13	7	30
1	Canada (CAN)	14	7	5	26
4	Norway (NOR)	9	8	6	23
9	Austria (AUT)	4	6	6	16
5	South Korea (KOR)	6	6	2	14
7	China (CHN)	5	2	4	11
7	Sweden (SWE)	5	2	4	11
6	Switzerland (SUI)	6	0	3	9
10	Netherlands (NED)	4	1	3	8

By the end of half time, we are not in the top 3 places and know that we must get focused and score some points in the next 2 rounds.

Rapid Round 4

Steve knew right off that the first answer was Alice Cooper.  Born as Vincent Damon Furnier.  He is a singer, song writer and actor.  I enjoyed reading a quote by Alice when ask about his political views.  His philosophy was simple.  Politics should not be mixed with Rock Music.  That part made me laugh, as I don't care to discuss people's political views or their religious views.  Everyone has their own thoughts on the matter and I'm happy to let you believe anything you want in those 2 fields. There was a lot of reading on Alice Cooper and you might do well to Google him sometime.

The Port side of a ship is always the left side when facing the bow. If you are not facing the bow, turn around!  Or you can watch Captain Phillips sometime and enjoy the move while hearing them yell out the turns.  Awesome movie if I do say so myself!

Now on to Rapid Round 5.  This one is slogans.  I did enjoy this part of the game the most of any part tonight.  It's funny how you hear slogans all the time and connect a product with them or a company name.

How do you spell Relief?

Sadly I can't find the "Who made the Salad?" to add you a link.  It was Seven Seas

"Where do you want to go today was the slogan for Microsoft from 1994 to 2002.  The 2006 Microsoft slogan was "Your Potential.  Our passion".  It remains that even now. The first one was WAY better!

This last one I tossed in for the fun of it.

Added bonus from 1973


At the end of the night, we are down to the final question.  The category is Words

What is a Nebuchadnezzar?

The key to this question was What is "a" and not "who" is.





So we lost out to The Green Team with 62 points.  (Not pictured)

Team Bacon with 58 points (Jeremy the Team Captain)

 and close behind them, by a bid of 0 in the final round,   it was Knucklehead Rejects with a score of 55.  They played hard tonight.  They lost our team name effort, however they were able to hold their own in the game and know when to fold em.  Here is the team who wanted to be Romero's Rejects and couldn't, but still walked away with a winning hand.

Congratulations to all the teams who played and those who won.

Count the Letters (1/28/14)

We have 13 teams tonight at

I had some errands to run in town so Herman rode down with me, then we picked up Steve and dropped by to pick up Mark.  Once we arrived at our usual table, we were joined by Mike, Angie and Owen.  We placed our drink and food orders and were ready to get underway.

We started off with a Disney Parks question about the future, to which this would help you answer it:

The Classic film question was "If I only had a brain"  Found Here
Our Sports question was about the Denver Bronco's and the answer was Sports Authority Field @ Mile High.

Round 2 was all about TV, Music and Maladies.  I think this is the first time we have had a round with Maladies as a category.

Netflix has a new series called

Now this is a show I have not yet watched much of.  However with the talk growing about it, I may have to make some time during all this cold weather and do a marathon watch to catch up with everyone else.

Well while researching this next one, I'm getting some conflicting results.  So that means it's very possible I have the question noted wrong.  My notes say the 1994 Best New Artist GRAMMY winner who sang "Another Sad Love Song".
 Now here is my debate.  That song was done by Toni Braxton.  Yet the following link will show that the Grammy went to Cheryl Crow in 1994.
Taking the entire question into account.  Toni would be the correct answer, because that is her song, yet the year would have to be 1993.  So either way, you have the right information here for the song and Grammy.  So I've learned a little by writing this blog.  
The last one in this round was Rubella, also known as the German Measles or 3 day measles.  You can find some good reading on this website:  Elimination of Rubella

Round 3 starts us off with a 6 letter word for a North American Cowboy.  Now the question was in more detail, but most people should know that for 6 letters, it would be Goucho.
In Sports, we had the answer right away.  The guys all knew the 1980 Olympics answer was:

Miracle on Ice

Owen knew the last one.  As soon as they started to read the question, he gave us a smile and  said..."oh, I know that one"!  It was the cast of Modern Family on ABC.
Another show I have not watched.  I need to make time to at least see a few episodes of it. Something tells me that is how they get you hooked......just watch it...... you will like it....you can stop watching it any time you want...........Is it a gateway trick like Breaking Bad?  Once you start watching it, you just have to see it!

Tonight our half time question was a bit different and took me by surprise.  It's always a 5 part question and requires getting points for each answer you get correct.  Each one is worth 2 points and the round can net you a 10 point lead sometimes.  This time there are 9 correct answers and you get 1 point for each one you have correct.  A bonus point if you name all 9, so a total of 10 is still possible.

                                   The Category was:

Name the 9 movies for Best Picture.  Time starts now......


We were able to get over half of these correct.  Yet some of them I had never heard of.   Here is your correct 9,  in no particular order

1. American Hustle
2. Captain Phillips
3. 12 Years a Slave  
4. Dallas Buyers Club
5. Nebraska
6. Philomena
7. Gravity
8. Her
9. The Wolf of Wall Street

** I will add a few comments after the end of this blog if you want to read them about 2 of these movies.

We moved into Rapid Round 4 with People, Places and Things. 

Brooke Shields was the 11 month old baby on the Ivory Snow boxes. It was also what launched her career.

London's busiest station is Waterloo and the 1st sign in the Zodiac is Aries

Rapid Round 5 gives us:  Products, Medications and 4 Letter words, (to which Steve gives his famous Oh F*** Yeah).  I can't help but laugh when he does that.  After all, I think it's the 2nd round of frozen drinks by this point and we are having a good time.  

Products is a 7 letter noun and verb that describes a paste used to fill holes.  Now I think there would be 2 acceptable answer to this one:  Spackle or Stopple, however that might not be the case.

Next, Diazepam is better known as Valium

And the correct 4 letter word we needed and did get correct was GUNK

  We have done well on the rapid rounds and it's time to move into the Final Question and Category of the night.  As the Title Geography is read off for the Category.  You hear a thrilled,  YES!  come from across the room.  It's Eric Jackson from Team Bacon, he is smiling from ear to ear.  This tells us that it's his strong category or that he is messing with everyone's head.  I wonder which one it is?  

What I do know,  He is an Alabama Fan...Roll Tide!  So everyone say Hi to Eric on the next set of trivia games.

Now back to the game.           

It's been a fun night and the Final question is What country has the most coast line?  Since we missed this one, I'm going to let you go check it out for yourselves.  I will post you the link so you don't have to do anything except CLICK HERE

Well it's game over!  In 3rd place with 79 points is "Bazinga".

2nd place with 86 points, "Blood, Sweat and Beers"


Your 1st place winners tonight with 87 points is the "Barreto Supreme's"!  Congratulations guys, you certainly earned it tonight.

**  As mentioned above.  12 years a slave is one of the best films.  It gives you such a strong realization of how things were in our past and how quick they changed for many families.  It's a movie I think everyone should see with a box of tissue.

Captain Phillips is just as good the 2nd and 3rd times watching it.  The ending scene is one of the best performances I've seen from any actor!


With all the snow outside (2/11/14)  I will leave you all wishing you had a pair of these:

     

A Trio of Trouble for the other teams

Things have been busy all day long and most of the team can't make it out for trivia tonight (1/21/14).  I was the last of us to arrive due to working late.  So here is our team: Bill, Myself and Steve.

Once upon a time, there were 9 teams trying to take 1st place at Las Trojas.  Each of them wanted the grand prize and the title to Victory.  Yet only one team will survive as the other teams fall in defeat.

Now that covered your fairy tale question.  And math was simple with a 6/10 or 3/5 answer. Sports as always gave us a hard time.  This one was on Richard Sherman for the whole Crabtree remarks.  

Round 2 was great with a perfect score in Food, TV and Internet....oh yeah!  

The top rated game show in 1974 and 1975 was We couldn't have gotten this one without Steve! or the fact that .ca means Canada on the internet.

Next we moved into Round 3 for Movies, Science and Automobiles.  We knew that the new movie with Ice Cube and Kevin Hart was "Ride Along" to which I have still not had the time to go see yet, so don't spoil it for me. 

Bill knew that the letters MN is the chemical symbol for Manganese.  

Now our half time round was 1974 Music.  Seeing as I was not even in school during this time, I wasn't much help in the songs.  I only knew 2 of them and was confident about one of those.  Thankfully Bill and Steve knew 4 of them and we were doing good.  Take a listen to some of these if you like.

You're Sixteen by Ringo Starr

Benny & the Jets by Elton John

Hooked on a feeling by Blue Swede

Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot

Cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin  

Now at the end of this round, we are thrilled to be alone at the top.  However we don't have enough of a gap to be goofing off.  So we remain semi focused, as the guys have had several drinks by now and are talking it up.  It's been a good night with them here and I certainly am happy they both showed up!

Rapid round 4 was movie, sports and Tv.  

The 1974 film staring  Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden was The Towering Inferno     

We of course missed the sports question and knew the Showtime answer was Homeland

We have made it to the last Rapid round of the night and it's People, Places and Things. I did not know that a DD title at the end of someones name meant they were a Dr. of Divinity.  

Yet every person in the entire restaurant had to know that MS is Mississippi.  Even the infant a few tables over already had this one figured out. 

 The last answer was "what does the letter C stand for in "ASCAP"?  Now keep in mind, this being very late in the game and the frozen drinks being well made here.  We don't hear the question as it really is and hear our own version of those letters.  Being animal people, we didn't give it a second thought, wrote down the answers and turned them in.  Only to hear the question as it was read off for the answer the correct way. We knew instantly that we should have focused a bit more.  It was to late and we now waited for the final question of the night and how we place before going into sudden death.  

So far we are still in the lead with 67 points and Clemson Tigers and Team Bacon are right on our heels.

  The Final Question is in Literature.....Who wrote        

      

As the song ended and the scores were about to be read out.  We learned that first there would be a tie breaker.  Now since this included us, we were very concerned that we might not be in the lead.  We didn't bid any points on the final question.  So now to answer the tie breaker question.  I can't recall the wording, so this is close enough.  What year was the Concorde introduced to fly regular routes from London?  Now after a bit of discussion, we went with 1977 and I think the other team went with 1974.  Given that we have had quite a few answers dealing with 1974, it was a good guess on their part.
However the correct answer was 1976.  Placing our team in 1st place for the win tonight.  With Bad Idea in 2nd and Clemson Tigers in 3rd place.  That's it for the winning of tonight.

I wanted to leave you this time by introducing a new team that really held in there tonight and had a lot of fun.  This is Team "Shell Vid Gone".  So when you see them playing, make sure to ask them about the name.

Thanks for taking the time to come out and join us here on the blog.  I hope that you have clicked on some of the links and enjoyed sharing this victory win with us.  See you all again soon my friends.

          

A 1.5 bid, what?

Tonight we are all playing at Las Trojas on hwy 53.  By now you should all know where this great place to eat and play is located.  Our team is:  Myself, Steve, Mark, Mike and Angie.  It's Owens Birthday and I think he was a bit fearful of the whipped cream ending that was sure to follow as the night went on.  Yet alas, he didn't make it tonight and we shall have to wait until a better time to all sing and dance.
We missed Summer being here and were graced by the fine new young man who will be helping.  Please welcome:  Chris

 Our first question of the night was "who is the only smurf with a Red Hat"?

Now for some reason this question was difficult for me.  Steve said it was Papa Smurf.  Yet it just wasn't sinking in and we went with a different answer, only to be told it was indeed Papa Smurf and all his blueness that wore that red hat!  Now this wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for this very picture above.  To which I took in 2012 during Hallowcon.  To quote my very dear friend Steve and say...Thanks OBAMA!

We moved on to the longest name of the primary colors.  Here is a hint:

I think everyone knew the answer for the 80's group with lead singer Boy George was Click Here

During the 3rd round, we knew who James Spader played on the Blacklist, yet as well as I could see and replay episodes, I couldn't for the life of me get his name down on paper.  How hard could it be to remember Raymond Reddington!

It's a Government Question tonight, so let's name the last 5 Secretaries of State who were before John Kerry

1. Hilary Clinton 
2. Condoleezza Rice
3. Colin Powell
4. Madeline Albright
5. Warren Christopher

Now we only missed one of these and almost all the teams waited a full 3:32 seconds before running the answers up all at once.  Guess this one was a bit tougher than you think.  So for our half time standings, Bad Idea is in the lead with 42 points.  Making them the team to beat out.  

We entered Rapid Round 4 with several teams ahead of us and knowing we must pick up the pace if we are to catch up and win this game.  

We knew that only 2 states boarder SC and that Chewbacca Rules as the co pilot of the Millennium Falcon. It wasn't until we turned in the answer to the 3rd question that we remembered that Claire Huxtable was a  Lawyer.  However we gained some points on the round and hoped that the 50/50 round would give us more of a lead.  

The potters wheel was invented during the Bronze age.  Yet we did not have the first working Laser until Theodore Maiman invented it in 1960.  A stifle on a dog is the knee joint and not a chock chain.  

The final question is Presidents.  At this point in every game, the teams know where they stand.  They also know how much is riding on this answer.  Some teams go all in, while others don't bid at all.  Leaving little room to err without costing you the winning prize.  

Here is the answer to your Final Question of the night:  Who was the 1st US President to visit Japan while in office?

Well there you have it!  The teams have shuffled about and some of that is good and some of it ...NOT so much.  However for the first time ever, we had a team bid 1.5 points and that was enough to put them in 3rd place ahead of Team Bacon.  It's a team of only 2 people, yet very smart people indeed.  Give it up for team DAL with 73.5 points.  Coming in 2nd  was Bad Idea at 75 points and with only a 1 point lead, it's The Happy Normals taking the 1st place win of the night!  

Another good game and a lot of fun with friends.  As always, thanks for taking the time to read the blog and feel free to pass it on for other trivia players to see.  

Switch up in progress

Hello Everyone,

I was talking with Marc Michael's earlier this month about winning a chance at $25,000 playing a fun game of trivia with friends.  I looked up the website and went over to a location in Huntsville to play.  They weren't having it there any more, but I would like to Thank Steve W. and Mark Ray for joining me in a last minute decision on playing.  It was a lot of fun to sit and have dinner with these guys even if I didn't get to play trivia.

 It meant a lot to me that they showed up on such a short notice (couple hours notice at best).
After I went home for the night, I talked with Marc some more about other locations. Then came up with a plan to play at the Honest Pint in Chattanooga, TN.  It's only a few hours from here and granted it is a bit of a drive for a Sunday night.  The good news is, the 3 of us who were able to go, didn't have to work the next day.  So Herman, Myself and Steve all met up and rode off into the sunset....oh wait, that is a different blog....
We arrived at the Honest Pint about 45 minutes early to give us time to order some dinner before the game.  We settled in at a table near the stage area and ordered up some Bonny Scot & Sully’s Nachos to get us started.  If you are ever in the area, stop by and order you some.  They serve some mouth watering good food. Here's the link: Honest Pint

Now let me introduce you to Marc and Bryanna who were Amazing hosts for the entire evening.

Upon their arrival, they quickly set up and the game was underway!  Marc did an outstanding job of keeping everyone entertained while keeping score as well.  I loved that they have the double point questions.  That's a bit different from the trivia we play in Huntsville and I loved the change!  Now if I were to ask you what color group you would find Cobalt in, of course you would know that it's           .  The next question I enjoyed for many reasons, not just because we knew it.  It was a very well done song by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1981 on the album Hard Promises.  It never made it to the number 1 spot on the Hot 100, but it did get all the way to #19.  So if you would like to take a trip down memory lane, here's your chance:  The Waiting
To end round 1 with a perfect score, We knew that the first Nuclear-Powered aircraft carrier was:

Hold on a second, this can't be right.  I'm certain of the name and I know the ship was commissioned in 1961 and decommissioned last year in 2013.  Yes, it was non other than this beauty here:

USS Enterprise

We moved on to round 2 and only missed the 3rd question.  I thought Japan was the country who caught the most fish.  Turns out that as far as "catching" fish, we beat out Japan.  However, China is the number 1 country for catching the most fish and also consuming the most fish.  Japan does more importing than I realized when I looked it up tonight.  who know?  Here is the link for China tops world in catching fish.

Our 3rd round brought us questions from Advertising, Science and States.  Who has the slogan "Unleash the Beast"?   That would be non other than the toxic MONSTER energy drinks.  That by the way is my opinion and not that of the FDA.  Next time try some Arbonne Energy drink instead.  While I'm putting out opinion's,  here is an interesting one that I came across and had not heard before:  Could it be the mark of the beast? HA  (I don't support the idea, just sharing what I find)

We missed the states question because we didn't know that the Pocono Mountains were in Pennsylvania.  That is a state I have not yet visited, so it's on my list of must see places.  So looks like I will be making a trip to the Pocono Mountains for a bit a vacation time. Or as they say in London,  While I'm on Holiday :)  Here is a wonderful website to check out when you have some time off.  Beautiful Pocono-Mountains You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter and several other social media locations.

Half time at last!

Name 4 of the 6 movies that Brad Pitt starred in that have a number in the title?  (I'm writing this blog from memory and a few notes, however that question isn't entirely worded correctly, yet my brain can't replay the words to get it right.  So I'll give you the correct answers:  

Se7en  (1995)

Twelve Monkeys (1995)

(Banned from entering China because of his role in) Seven Years in Tibet  (1997) 

Oceans Eleven (2001)

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas  (2003)

12 years a Slave  (2013)   

If you have not watched 12 years a Slave, it's a movie everyone should see.  You need a box of tissues!

Now at the end of half time, we are in 3rd place.  For a team of only 3 players, we are doing very well against all the regulars who play each week at this location.  There are 8 teams who are all playing to get qualified for the semi finals coming up on February 9th and 16th.

During the 2nd half of the game, Steve scored another round of beer that can't be sold in Alabama due solo upon the name on the label.  Next on the list of things I will recommend he try. (only if I'm driving home)  is the Double Arrogant Bastard.  It has an ABV of 11.2%, yet he must wait until it goes on sale again in November for it's seasonal sales.  

Commercial is over, Now back to the game....

 We answered all 3 of the next questions correctly.  That would also include what a Pirate Spiders main food source is.  Just 2 more rounds and then the Final Question is coming up.
We aced the next 2 questions and missed the Business question.  We knew the story about George Zimmer being fired as CEO of a company that him and his roommate started in 1973.  I use to watch the commercial and it always ended in "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.".  
However knowing all that did us no good because we couldn't recall the name of the company.  I'm sure by now you all know that I'm referring to Men's Warehouse.

Due to the fact that we live in the South and have a few ginneries in the area, we knew that the product they produce is Cotton.
Now we missed the next 2 questions.  One of them simply because we were over thinking it.  If only we had gone with the first answer and not changed it....oh well, we still entered the Final question in a qualifying position.  I will tell you that one of the questions we missed was "what is the only land locked country in south east Asia"?  We named it off and then dismissed it for another answer. We should have gone with Make sure you think about it before clicking here.

Our Final Question was to Put these 4 things in order from greatest to smallest:  (this is written in the order it was read)

1. Number of Crime Families in NYC
2. Lowest Jersey number retired
3. Number of land locked countries in South America
4. 2nd prime number

The correct order is as Follows:

There are 5 Crime Families 

3 is the 2nd prime number

Only 2 land locked countries in South America

The #1 is the lowest Jersey number to be retired

We were pretty sure on the order and decided to bid 20 points and hope that we had enough to bring home a winning place in the semi finals.  

We all wait for the song to end and Marc to finish up which teams get to walk away with a gift card tonight and a chance at $25,000 in the March game coming up.  The top 3 winning teams for tonight (January 12, 2014)  Challenge Entertainment Trivia in Chattanooga, TN goes to:     1st Place with a score of 129 goes to Neighborinos Reloaded (This is Brandon Ables team)   2nd Place with 115 points was yours truly, The Romero's Rejects.  3rd place with 104 points was We skipped church for this.  

Well everyone, that is it for this night of trivia and fun.  We stayed around and hung out with Marc and Bryanna for a bit.  It's always good to see them.  You have to love the laughter they bring with them everywhere they go.  So here's to another enjoyable night with good food, Great Friends and one super night of fun!

 Now this last picture I want you to look closely to see the beauty in it.  For those of you who know me, it's going to stand out even at a glance.  For those of you who don't, it might take a bit.  Enjoy the smile I had on my drive home.

It's time to Fly away now and get some work done in my office.  Until next time, stay warm out there!