Have Some
9/12 '25
What animal is referred to by the word cervine?
What U.S. Civil War general has a style of facial hair named after him?
What does the unit pascal measure?
What Portuguese archipelago has a type of fortified wine named after it?
Smells Like Victory
9/5 '25
Between "seasons", we compete for fun! (And more brownie sundaes!)
What does the N stand for in FAANG, a group of five large American companies?
What molecule named after the Greek word for "smell" is noticeable during lightning storms?
What Disney character was scheduled for a "Mammal of the Year" cover before the attack on Pearl Harbor bumped that story in Time?
What singer died four years before Keith Moon, in the exact same bedroom?
Pride Be Not Proud
8/29 '25
We finished third again thanks to another final-question botch, but did qualify for the semifinals. I was most proud of an answer from my Geography wheelhouse, but also proud of an answer in the Taylor Swift category that strangely enough no one else on my team knew.
What upcoming Taylor Swift album was promoted on the New Heights podcast hosted by the Kelce brothers?
Who was the first TV screenwriter with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, most well-known for his series that aired for three seasons starting in 1966?
Mexico and what two other countries have agreed to form a multinational nature preserve to protect their rainforests?
Forest Hill Cemetery was "a sea of flowers" after the death of what celebrity, setting a record for the most memorial flower donations?
Rage Quit
8/22 '25
Our final answer got submitted before a team member mentioned the obviously correct answer, so I had to performatively stomp up and down in lieu of changing our answer.
The sound effect for what movie prop was created by combining a projector's hum with staticky interference from a television?
What Hawaiian word meaning "mountain" appears before "Loa" and "Kea" in the names of Hawaiian volcanoes?
Michael Crichton's book Jurassic Park shares theme-park-gone-wrong DNA with what 1973 film written and directed by Crichton?
What FPS video game sequel was the first to be rated "M for mature" and also spawned comic books, novels, board games, and two films?
Return of the Jedi
8/15 '25
It goes like this...
The Force...
The Sith...
The major fall...
From a minor lift...
The Death Star thing...
...exploding, Hallelujah!
In which I mentally list all of the countries on Earth to make sure they don't start with a certain letter
8/15 '25
We're back!
What MLB team that plays in Oracle Park has a mascot named Lou Seal ?
A person who does what is called a librocubicularist ?
What kind of time measures the Earth's rotation relative to the stars ?
What country, whose common English name begins with a letter shared by no other, is bordered on the north by a gulf named after it and, in addition to its main export of oil, also produces high-quality frankincense?
Smacking My Head
8/8 '25
We came back from a halftime deficit, but then botched the final question and finished third.
Gwyneth Paltrow's highest-grossing non-Marvel movie was what 1995 crime drama with the character Tracy Mills?
Multiple choice! Used Wimbledon tennis balls are repurposed as A) tennis racket handles B) reusable water bottles, or C) homes for wild mice ?
Chuck Mangione played what trumpetlike instrument that has a wider, more conical bore?
What comic strip, nationally syndicated in 1978, surpassed Peanuts to become the world's most widely syndicated comic strip?
The 3 is silent
8/1 '25
Don't feel bad if you miss most of these -- so did we and we still won the game. We felt bad because the correct answers were sometimes in our conversation, perhaps after submitting a response.
What punk rock band started out with the members Jello Biafra, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride, Ted, and 6025?
What 14-letter word for a sequence of dream-like images was the title of a 1995 video game?
What is the last name of filmmaker brothers Josh and Benny, known for Good Time and Uncut Gems ?
What vegetable in the onion family is worn on St. David's Day in Wales?
What triply alliterative title is the only Shakespeare play taking place within the current territory of Spain?
Understanding the Assignment
7/25 '25
J showed up as an alternate player today, charged with bringing knowledge of recent music. So she studied the recent charts, and remembered just enough of them to help us answer the first challenging question. I experienced an epiphany that revealed the final answer, even though I haven't seen the movie. In the category of "Not Understanding the Assignment", my home seems to be suffering constant vibrations in the water pipes. Hydraulic shock? What do I do about it? HWRNMNBSOL?
The music video for what gem of a song by Ed Sheeran shows the singer participating in Indian street culture?
What advertising mascot was retired in 1997 due to accusations of marketing to children?
What luxury brand, founded in Paris in 1847, has used a panther motif on its jewelry and watches?
What 1976 film, based on a 1974 non-fiction book, has a title that alludes to the penultimate line of a famous nursery rhyme?
O My Goodness
7/18 '25
My Favorite Team returned to their winning ways...
What country lost its Red Sea coastline when Eritrea gained independence in 1993?
What rhyming nickname refers to a 2004 brawl between NBA players and fans?
What steak dish with a woman's name was prepared tableside and flambéed?
What country hosted a Summer Olympics without winning any gold medals, and repeated the "feat" 12 years later at the Winter Olympics they also hosted?
Burnside
Pressure?
Madeira
“You crashed my party and your rental car.”
And “was it hazing for an obscure fraternity I pledged and I still mean it that old habits die screaming”.
I especially appreciate the second one, not least because it took about 30 listens for me to catch it. But neither of course can hold a candle to the most famous musical example - that being the Humpty Dance’s “both how I’m living and my nose is large”.
Anyway…I hope on the new album, she starts using chiasmus.
A similar device, antimetabole, also involves a reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses in an A-B-B-A configuration, but unlike chiasmus, presents a repetition of words.”
But, Google’s first search result was from the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, saying, “a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form; e.g. ‘Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.’.”
Well, which is it, Internet? Chiasmus or timetable? Or is that for a doctor to decide?
Example from modern lyrics would be some rap song I heard years ago with the lines:
“So I wait for [cant remember] to attack
Every time a car backfires I fire back.”
I think Polonius uses it in more than one place in Hamlet, but the example I’m trying to remember isn’t quite coming to me at the moment.