Trivia Hunt XII: November 20th, 2021
Congratulations to our four fastest perfect-scoring teams. These teams earned the invitation to the end-of-the-year finale.
1st – ProgChamps – 48 minutes
2nd – Exotic Fruit Basket – 56 minutes
3rd – MC Gandalf The Fresh And His Hip-Hobbits – 63 minutes
Our Recap
Thank you Hunters! We’re so glad that so many of you enjoy our event and come back to play with us. Digging the depth of the internet can be fruitful, even if you’re not mining for cryptocurrencies. But, it can also be tricky. Take one wrong turn and you may get lost. Trivia Hunt XII was definitely tricky, with a few traps that had to be avoided. Even for a straightforward question like Q10 was, Hitching Post restaurant played a trick on us, changing the price of Crab Cakes only hours before the Hunt. The hardest question was the last one, where many teams missed Sklodowska crater, but Q8, Q12 and Q17 were also causing troubles. Eleven teams made through this trivia labyrinth and will share the $2000.
With the prize pool getting split evenly, all cash-earning teams will receive $181.8, and the fastest team, ProgChamps, earned a $200 bonus on top of it. They are truly the champs!
Read on for stats, full list of winners and answers to all the questions.
Average Submission Time: 116 minutes (all teams); 99 minutes (winning teams)
Average Score: 17/20
Teams Winning Cash – 11
Our next Trivia Hunt is invitational. Teams that had placed in one of the top 3 positions in either Trivia Hunt or Trivia Hunt Express will be emailed soon with details. If you enjoyed hunting with us and can’t wait for 2022 season, you can always book a private Trivia Hunt event for your family, friends or company. More details can be found here.
A quick note about the questions and how we go about them: when we write each question, we test it in a small group, re-write them, and try again. A different group does a test run 2-3 days before the hunt, and again, we revise. Even with all that, we sometimes don’t discover an additional answer or a possible wording issue. We certainly do our best, and our intent is never to trick you. We want you to get them right, but we also want them to be a challenge. With that said, there are sometimes questions where there were multiple accepted answers.
Question #1:
The person in this image shares one of their names with a comic book character whose creator died in the early 1980s. Find the first volume of this comic book series that was originally published in full color. The last two words in the English translation of that title perfectly match the title of a Bob Dylan song. That song appears on a studio album with cover art first drawn by a street artist. That artist is sometimes referred to by a mononym that was more famously used by a politician who died during World War II. What was that politician’s birth name?
A: Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Discovery Path: Greta Thunberg → Tintin → Shooting Star → Oh Mercy → Trotsky → Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Question #2:
The youngest company on Nielsen’s list of the 10 companies that spent the most on national TV advertising in June 2021 has its headquarters in what city’s metropolitan area?
A: Chicago (Lake Bluff was also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 97%
Discovery Path: Abbvie → Chicago
Question #3:
Members of the nation that speaks one of the languages with fewer than 10 Wikipedia articles in that language collected over $5,000 (in today’s money) to aid another nation that was ravaged by a disaster. That donation was sent to a town where a sculpture was raised 170 years later as thanks for this generosity. That statue consists of nine pieces representing what items?
A: Eagle feathers (similar answers were also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 97%
Discovery Path: Choctaw → 1847 Potato Famine → Midleton → Kindred Spirits → Eagle feathers
Question #4:
Less than two weeks ago, Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins set a 100m dash World Record at the Louisiana Senior Games, competing solo in the 105+ age group. On the very day Julia Hawkins celebrated her 81st birthday, a current triple swimming world record holder was born. Using the oldest individual world record that swimmer had set, what is the time difference between that and Hawkins’s record?
A: 1.18s
Most Common Wrong Answer: 2:53.5
Correct Percentage: 80%
Discovery Path: Hawkins 1:02.95 → Born on Feb. 10, 1916 → Lilly King (Feb 10, 1997) → 100m breaststroke 1:04.13 → 1.18s
Question #5:
The American business magnate portrayed in this painting founded and ran a company for 27 years. That company was dismantled by the Supreme Court for violation of antitrust laws, mostly thanks to the evidence provided by an early investigative journalist. That journalist’s middle name is also the name of a Roman deity. Which bird is one of the symbols of that deity?
A: Owl
Most Common Wrong Answer: X
Correct Percentage: 98%
Discovery Path: John D. Rockefeller → Standard Oil → Ida Minerva Tarbell → Minerva → Owl
Question #6:
A Greek philosopher who shares her name with a titular Shakespearean character lived and worked in Alexandria before 500 A.D. Three alchemical texts associated with her survived. The one she’s most noted for contains a material in its title. How many times is that material mentioned in the demotic section of the Rosetta Stone, as translated by R.S. Simpson?
A: Four (4)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 77%
Discovery Path: Cleopatra the Alchemist → Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra → Gold → Four (4)
Question #7:
The National Historic Landmark that had its photo scrambled in this image houses a restaurant with a single-word name. A biography of a person with that word for their surname includes these verses:
“He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake…”.
What is the title of that biography?
A: Skylark: Life, Lies, and Inventions of Harry Atwood
Most Common Wrong Answer: Margaret Atwood: Starting Out
Correct Percentage: 73%
Discovery Path: Reliance Building, Chicago → Atwood → Harry Atwood → Skylark: Life, Lies, and Inventions of Harry Atwood
Question #8:
On the same date (month, day, and year) that the first woman chief justice of the Supreme Court of California was born, a television service officially began regular broadcasts. This service has been known by its current channel name since 1964 (although the spelling has changed). If you were staying in the hotel pictured here on November 1, 2021, and turned on your TV to the appropriate regional variation of this network channel at 8 PM local time, what show would you be watching?
A: EastEnders
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 88%
Discovery Path: Rose Elizabeth Bird → November 2, 1936 → BBC One → EastEnders
Question #9:
There are over 500 titles on the base version of a list with a two-word title. The first word is the name shared between a fictional character from Phineas and Ferb and the singer from this clip. The second word is a common name for a human finger. What title from that list that includes a word sung in the previous clip is listed under a number that is one of the telephone area codes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
A:Perry 445. Pleasure and Pain or Perry 267. The Shepherd and the Wolf that he brought up with his Dogs
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 92%
Discovery Path: Perry (Como & Platypus) → Index → Pain or With → 445 or 267 → Perry 445. Pleasure and Pain or Perry 267. The Shepherd and the Wolf that he brought up with his Dogs
Question #10:
Over a hundred restaurants located in the city that will host SporcleCon2022 have been included in the Michelin Guide United States. Find the closest one (as the crow flies) to this popular wedding location. According to the menu on that restaurant’s website, what is the only meal that costs $30?
A: Crab cakes (changed on the day of the event); Grilled Lamb Chops and Crab Cake were accepted, after the correction email was sent to ask for $32 items. Other related answers were accepted.
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 78%
Discovery Path:Washington, D.C. → President Lincoln’s Cottage → Hitching Post → Crab Cakes (or Grilled lamb chops)
Question #11:
Of the songs that have a word repeated consecutively in their title and that have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in an Olympic year, which one stayed on top of that chart the longest?
Clarifier: An Olympic year refers to a year when Summer or Winter Olympic Games were held.
A: Maria Maria
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 93%
Discovery Path: Do Wah Diddy Diddy, (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Red, Red Wine, Wild, Wild West, Maria, Maria → Maria Maria (2000) 10 weeks
Question #12:
The broken bone from this X-ray is also the name of a Marvel character. That character’s younger brother is also a major character with superpowers. The younger brother goes by an alias that is also used by a multinational company. According to its website, which of that company’s locations (village, town, or city) would alphabetically follow the fictional location (village, town, or city) where these brothers grew up?
A: Ottawa
Most Common Wrong Answer: Oulu
Correct Percentage: 78%
Discovery Path: Radius → Flex → Orloo → Ottawa (Kanata is officially a part of Ottawa and Ottawa is listed as the name of the location on Flex.com)
Question #13:
Find all NASDAQ 100 companies with a stock symbol worth exactly 12 points in Scrabble, based on standard English version tile values. Which of those companies is headquartered the farthest east?
Clarifier: There are currently 102 companies on that list, despite the name. The stock symbol doesn’t have to be a Scrabble-accepted word.
A: CSX Corporation (Jacksonville) or Kraft Heinz (Pittsburgh)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Jim Knaub
Correct Percentage: 88%
Discovery Path: CSX, KHC, EXC → Jacksonville, Chicago & Pittsburgh, Chicago → CSX Corporation (Jacksonville) or Kraft Heinz (Pittsburgh)
Question #14:
The car models in the images Car1 and Car2 are primarily known by names that include their manufacturer’s name and a three-digit number (numeral, spelled out, or a combination of those). Calculate the difference of the larger number minus the smaller number. Taking that difference as n, who was the nth person to reach space?
A: Matthias Maurier
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 92%
Discovery Path: Porsche 911, Lotus 3-Eleven → 911-311=600 → Matthias Maurer
Question #15:
In the year 2861, according to the calendar that is a legacy of the Roman province colored red in this image, a famous work by the painter who painted this painting was stolen. Another painter was identified as a suspect and brought in for questioning. That second painter’s iconic piece of clothing, designed by Coco Chanel, included 21 similar parts. What did those 21 parts represent?
A: Napoleon’s victories
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Discovery Path: Mauretania Caesariensis → Berber calendar → Year 1911 → Leonardo da Vinci → Mona Lisa → Pablo Picasso → 21 horizontal stripes on Breton-striped shirt → Napoleon’s victories
Question #16:
What word would you spell out by collecting letters in order along the correct path through this labyrinth?
A: Eudaemonic
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Quick Note: Single letter misspellings were accepted, but words that included more than one error were not.
Question #17:
What standalone word appears in all of the following names? (The words that a a part of another word are not accepted)
1) The name (any name, by which they are commonly known) of a player who played in the lowest-scoring game of the NBA Finals in the season the San Antonio Spurs won their second title (the player has to have started or entered the game);
2) the name (any name, by which they are commonly known) of the winning author of the Hugo Award for Best Novella;
3) the name of a US county or county equivalent;
4) the name of a MLB World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award winner.
A: Johnson, or Martin
Most Common Wrong Answer: Robinson
Correct Percentage: 70%
Quick Note: Partials were not accepted
Question #18:
The bonus track on the standard version of the fifth studio album by the American singer singing this features a famous musician. That musician’s fifth album includes a song that was featured in the closing credits of a 1996 movie. That movie was based on a book with a bird in its title. Name that bird.
A: Albatross
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 93%
Discovery Path: Ninguém, Ninguém -> Melody Gardot -> Sting -> Mercury Falling -> Valparaiso -> White Squall -> The Last Voyage of the Albatross -> Albatross
Question #19:
The character whose quote is loosely shown in this pictogram partially shares their name with a station on a famous railway line. What is the northernmost settlement (village, town, or city) on that line?
A: Carlisle (Tompkinson was also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 77%
Discovery Path: Arthur Dent -> Dent -> Settle-Carlisle Line -> Carlisle
Question #20:
There are 15 chemical elements on the periodic table of elements that were named after 16 scientists. Of those 16 scientists, eliminate those who did not live in the 19th century. Next, eliminate those who were born in and who died in the territory of the same modern-day country. Which of the remaining scientists had a moon (lunar) crater named after them that was approved and adopted by the IAU the earliest?
A: Marie Curie
Most Common Wrong Answer: Albert Einstein
Correct Percentage: 37%
Discovery Path: Johan Gadolin, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Dmitri Mendeleev, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Lawrence, Ernest Rutherford, Glenn T. Seaborg, Niels Bohr, Lise Meitner, Wilhelm Röntgen, Nicolaus Copernicus, Georgy Flyorov, Yuri Oganessian -> Johan Gadolin, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Dmitri Mendeleev, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Lise Meitner, Wilhelm Röntgen -> Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Rutherford, Lise Meitner -> Marie Curie (1961, Sklodowska)
As always, we sincerely appreciate your support of our humble Trivia Hunt! We hope to see you again!
Trivia Hunt XII: November 20th, 2021
Congratulations to our four fastest perfect-scoring teams. These teams earned the invitation to the end-of-the-year finale.
1st – ProgChamps – 48 minutes
2nd – Exotic Fruit Basket – 56 minutes
3rd – MC Gandalf The Fresh And His Hip-Hobbits – 63 minutes
Our Recap
Thank you Hunters! We’re so glad that so many of you enjoy our event and come back to play with us. Digging the depth of the internet can be fruitful, even if you’re not mining for cryptocurrencies. But, it can also be tricky. Take one wrong turn and you may get lost. Trivia Hunt XII was definitely tricky, with a few traps that had to be avoided. Even for a straightforward question like Q10 was, Hitching Post restaurant played a trick on us, changing the price of Crab Cakes only hours before the Hunt. The hardest question was the last one, where many teams missed Sklodowska crater, but Q8, Q12 and Q17 were also causing troubles. Eleven teams made through this trivia labyrinth and will share the $2000.
With the prize pool getting split evenly, all cash-earning teams will receive $181.8, and the fastest team, ProgChamps, earned a $200 bonus on top of it. They are truly the champs!
Read on for stats, full list of winners and answers to all the questions.
Average Submission Time: 116 minutes (all teams); 99 minutes (winning teams)
Average Score: 17/20
Teams Winning Cash – 11
Our next Trivia Hunt is invitational. Teams that had placed in one of the top 3 positions in either Trivia Hunt or Trivia Hunt Express will be emailed soon with details. If you enjoyed hunting with us and can’t wait for 2022 season, you can always book a private Trivia Hunt event for your family, friends or company. More details can be found here.
A quick note about the questions and how we go about them: when we write each question, we test it in a small group, re-write them, and try again. A different group does a test run 2-3 days before the hunt, and again, we revise. Even with all that, we sometimes don’t discover an additional answer or a possible wording issue. We certainly do our best, and our intent is never to trick you. We want you to get them right, but we also want them to be a challenge. With that said, there are sometimes questions where there were multiple accepted answers.
Question #1:
The person in this image shares one of their names with a comic book character whose creator died in the early 1980s. Find the first volume of this comic book series that was originally published in full color. The last two words in the English translation of that title perfectly match the title of a Bob Dylan song. That song appears on a studio album with cover art first drawn by a street artist. That artist is sometimes referred to by a mononym that was more famously used by a politician who died during World War II. What was that politician’s birth name?
A: Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Discovery Path: Greta Thunberg → Tintin → Shooting Star → Oh Mercy → Trotsky → Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Question #2:
The youngest company on Nielsen’s list of the 10 companies that spent the most on national TV advertising in June 2021 has its headquarters in what city’s metropolitan area?
A: Chicago (Lake Bluff was also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 97%
Discovery Path: Abbvie → Chicago
Question #3:
Members of the nation that speaks one of the languages with fewer than 10 Wikipedia articles in that language collected over $5,000 (in today’s money) to aid another nation that was ravaged by a disaster. That donation was sent to a town where a sculpture was raised 170 years later as thanks for this generosity. That statue consists of nine pieces representing what items?
A: Eagle feathers (similar answers were also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 97%
Discovery Path: Choctaw → 1847 Potato Famine → Midleton → Kindred Spirits → Eagle feathers
Question #4:
Less than two weeks ago, Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins set a 100m dash World Record at the Louisiana Senior Games, competing solo in the 105+ age group. On the very day Julia Hawkins celebrated her 81st birthday, a current triple swimming world record holder was born. Using the oldest individual world record that swimmer had set, what is the time difference between that and Hawkins’s record?
A: 1.18s
Most Common Wrong Answer: 2:53.5
Correct Percentage: 80%
Discovery Path: Hawkins 1:02.95 → Born on Feb. 10, 1916 → Lilly King (Feb 10, 1997) → 100m breaststroke 1:04.13 → 1.18s
Question #5:
The American business magnate portrayed in this painting founded and ran a company for 27 years. That company was dismantled by the Supreme Court for violation of antitrust laws, mostly thanks to the evidence provided by an early investigative journalist. That journalist’s middle name is also the name of a Roman deity. Which bird is one of the symbols of that deity?
A: Owl
Most Common Wrong Answer: X
Correct Percentage: 98%
Discovery Path: John D. Rockefeller → Standard Oil → Ida Minerva Tarbell → Minerva → Owl
Question #6:
A Greek philosopher who shares her name with a titular Shakespearean character lived and worked in Alexandria before 500 A.D. Three alchemical texts associated with her survived. The one she’s most noted for contains a material in its title. How many times is that material mentioned in the demotic section of the Rosetta Stone, as translated by R.S. Simpson?
A: Four (4)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 77%
Discovery Path: Cleopatra the Alchemist → Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra → Gold → Four (4)
Question #7:
The National Historic Landmark that had its photo scrambled in this image houses a restaurant with a single-word name. A biography of a person with that word for their surname includes these verses:
“He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake…”.
What is the title of that biography?
A: Skylark: Life, Lies, and Inventions of Harry Atwood
Most Common Wrong Answer: Margaret Atwood: Starting Out
Correct Percentage: 73%
Discovery Path: Reliance Building, Chicago → Atwood → Harry Atwood → Skylark: Life, Lies, and Inventions of Harry Atwood
Question #8:
On the same date (month, day, and year) that the first woman chief justice of the Supreme Court of California was born, a television service officially began regular broadcasts. This service has been known by its current channel name since 1964 (although the spelling has changed). If you were staying in the hotel pictured here on November 1, 2021, and turned on your TV to the appropriate regional variation of this network channel at 8 PM local time, what show would you be watching?
A: EastEnders
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 88%
Discovery Path: Rose Elizabeth Bird → November 2, 1936 → BBC One → EastEnders
Question #9:
There are over 500 titles on the base version of a list with a two-word title. The first word is the name shared between a fictional character from Phineas and Ferb and the singer from this clip. The second word is a common name for a human finger. What title from that list that includes a word sung in the previous clip is listed under a number that is one of the telephone area codes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
A:Perry 445. Pleasure and Pain or Perry 267. The Shepherd and the Wolf that he brought up with his Dogs
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 92%
Discovery Path: Perry (Como & Platypus) → Index → Pain or With → 445 or 267 → Perry 445. Pleasure and Pain or Perry 267. The Shepherd and the Wolf that he brought up with his Dogs
Question #10:
Over a hundred restaurants located in the city that will host SporcleCon2022 have been included in the Michelin Guide United States. Find the closest one (as the crow flies) to this popular wedding location. According to the menu on that restaurant’s website, what is the only meal that costs $30?
A: Crab cakes (changed on the day of the event); Grilled Lamb Chops and Crab Cake were accepted, after the correction email was sent to ask for $32 items. Other related answers were accepted.
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 78%
Discovery Path:Washington, D.C. → President Lincoln’s Cottage → Hitching Post → Crab Cakes (or Grilled lamb chops)
Question #11:
Of the songs that have a word repeated consecutively in their title and that have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in an Olympic year, which one stayed on top of that chart the longest?
Clarifier: An Olympic year refers to a year when Summer or Winter Olympic Games were held.
A: Maria Maria
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 93%
Discovery Path: Do Wah Diddy Diddy, (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Red, Red Wine, Wild, Wild West, Maria, Maria → Maria Maria (2000) 10 weeks
Question #12:
The broken bone from this X-ray is also the name of a Marvel character. That character’s younger brother is also a major character with superpowers. The younger brother goes by an alias that is also used by a multinational company. According to its website, which of that company’s locations (village, town, or city) would alphabetically follow the fictional location (village, town, or city) where these brothers grew up?
A: Ottawa
Most Common Wrong Answer: Oulu
Correct Percentage: 78%
Discovery Path: Radius → Flex → Orloo → Ottawa (Kanata is officially a part of Ottawa and Ottawa is listed as the name of the location on Flex.com)
Question #13:
Find all NASDAQ 100 companies with a stock symbol worth exactly 12 points in Scrabble, based on standard English version tile values. Which of those companies is headquartered the farthest east?
Clarifier: There are currently 102 companies on that list, despite the name. The stock symbol doesn’t have to be a Scrabble-accepted word.
A: CSX Corporation (Jacksonville) or Kraft Heinz (Pittsburgh)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Jim Knaub
Correct Percentage: 88%
Discovery Path: CSX, KHC, EXC → Jacksonville, Chicago & Pittsburgh, Chicago → CSX Corporation (Jacksonville) or Kraft Heinz (Pittsburgh)
Question #14:
The car models in the images Car1 and Car2 are primarily known by names that include their manufacturer’s name and a three-digit number (numeral, spelled out, or a combination of those). Calculate the difference of the larger number minus the smaller number. Taking that difference as n, who was the nth person to reach space?
A: Matthias Maurier
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 92%
Discovery Path: Porsche 911, Lotus 3-Eleven → 911-311=600 → Matthias Maurer
Question #15:
In the year 2861, according to the calendar that is a legacy of the Roman province colored red in this image, a famous work by the painter who painted this painting was stolen. Another painter was identified as a suspect and brought in for questioning. That second painter’s iconic piece of clothing, designed by Coco Chanel, included 21 similar parts. What did those 21 parts represent?
A: Napoleon’s victories
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Discovery Path: Mauretania Caesariensis → Berber calendar → Year 1911 → Leonardo da Vinci → Mona Lisa → Pablo Picasso → 21 horizontal stripes on Breton-striped shirt → Napoleon’s victories
Question #16:
What word would you spell out by collecting letters in order along the correct path through this labyrinth?
A: Eudaemonic
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Quick Note: Single letter misspellings were accepted, but words that included more than one error were not.
Question #17:
What standalone word appears in all of the following names? (The words that a a part of another word are not accepted)
1) The name (any name, by which they are commonly known) of a player who played in the lowest-scoring game of the NBA Finals in the season the San Antonio Spurs won their second title (the player has to have started or entered the game);
2) the name (any name, by which they are commonly known) of the winning author of the Hugo Award for Best Novella;
3) the name of a US county or county equivalent;
4) the name of a MLB World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award winner.
A: Johnson, or Martin
Most Common Wrong Answer: Robinson
Correct Percentage: 70%
Quick Note: Partials were not accepted
Question #18:
The bonus track on the standard version of the fifth studio album by the American singer singing this features a famous musician. That musician’s fifth album includes a song that was featured in the closing credits of a 1996 movie. That movie was based on a book with a bird in its title. Name that bird.
A: Albatross
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 93%
Discovery Path: Ninguém, Ninguém -> Melody Gardot -> Sting -> Mercury Falling -> Valparaiso -> White Squall -> The Last Voyage of the Albatross -> Albatross
Question #19:
The character whose quote is loosely shown in this pictogram partially shares their name with a station on a famous railway line. What is the northernmost settlement (village, town, or city) on that line?
A: Carlisle (Tompkinson was also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 77%
Discovery Path: Arthur Dent -> Dent -> Settle-Carlisle Line -> Carlisle
Question #20:
There are 15 chemical elements on the periodic table of elements that were named after 16 scientists. Of those 16 scientists, eliminate those who did not live in the 19th century. Next, eliminate those who were born in and who died in the territory of the same modern-day country. Which of the remaining scientists had a moon (lunar) crater named after them that was approved and adopted by the IAU the earliest?
A: Marie Curie
Most Common Wrong Answer: Albert Einstein
Correct Percentage: 37%
Discovery Path: Johan Gadolin, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Dmitri Mendeleev, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Lawrence, Ernest Rutherford, Glenn T. Seaborg, Niels Bohr, Lise Meitner, Wilhelm Röntgen, Nicolaus Copernicus, Georgy Flyorov, Yuri Oganessian -> Johan Gadolin, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Dmitri Mendeleev, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Lise Meitner, Wilhelm Röntgen -> Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Rutherford, Lise Meitner -> Marie Curie (1961, Sklodowska)
As always, we sincerely appreciate your support of our humble Trivia Hunt! We hope to see you again!
Trivia Hunt XII: November 20th, 2021
Congratulations to our four fastest perfect-scoring teams. These teams earned the invitation to the end-of-the-year finale.
1st – ProgChamps – 48 minutes
2nd – Exotic Fruit Basket – 56 minutes
3rd – MC Gandalf The Fresh And His Hip-Hobbits – 63 minutes
Our Recap
Thank you Hunters! We’re so glad that so many of you enjoy our event and come back to play with us. Digging the depth of the internet can be fruitful, even if you’re not mining for cryptocurrencies. But, it can also be tricky. Take one wrong turn and you may get lost. Trivia Hunt XII was definitely tricky, with a few traps that had to be avoided. Even for a straightforward question like Q10 was, Hitching Post restaurant played a trick on us, changing the price of Crab Cakes only hours before the Hunt. The hardest question was the last one, where many teams missed Sklodowska crater, but Q8, Q12 and Q17 were also causing troubles. Eleven teams made through this trivia labyrinth and will share the $2000.
With the prize pool getting split evenly, all cash-earning teams will receive $181.8, and the fastest team, ProgChamps, earned a $200 bonus on top of it. They are truly the champs!
Read on for stats, full list of winners and answers to all the questions.
Average Submission Time: 116 minutes (all teams); 99 minutes (winning teams)
Average Score: 17/20
Teams Winning Cash – 11
Our next Trivia Hunt is invitational. Teams that had placed in one of the top 3 positions in either Trivia Hunt or Trivia Hunt Express will be emailed soon with details. If you enjoyed hunting with us and can’t wait for 2022 season, you can always book a private Trivia Hunt event for your family, friends or company. More details can be found here.
A quick note about the questions and how we go about them: when we write each question, we test it in a small group, re-write them, and try again. A different group does a test run 2-3 days before the hunt, and again, we revise. Even with all that, we sometimes don’t discover an additional answer or a possible wording issue. We certainly do our best, and our intent is never to trick you. We want you to get them right, but we also want them to be a challenge. With that said, there are sometimes questions where there were multiple accepted answers.
Question #1:
The person in this image shares one of their names with a comic book character whose creator died in the early 1980s. Find the first volume of this comic book series that was originally published in full color. The last two words in the English translation of that title perfectly match the title of a Bob Dylan song. That song appears on a studio album with cover art first drawn by a street artist. That artist is sometimes referred to by a mononym that was more famously used by a politician who died during World War II. What was that politician’s birth name?
A: Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Discovery Path: Greta Thunberg → Tintin → Shooting Star → Oh Mercy → Trotsky → Lev Davidovich Bronstein
Question #2:
The youngest company on Nielsen’s list of the 10 companies that spent the most on national TV advertising in June 2021 has its headquarters in what city’s metropolitan area?
A: Chicago (Lake Bluff was also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 97%
Discovery Path: Abbvie → Chicago
Question #3:
Members of the nation that speaks one of the languages with fewer than 10 Wikipedia articles in that language collected over $5,000 (in today’s money) to aid another nation that was ravaged by a disaster. That donation was sent to a town where a sculpture was raised 170 years later as thanks for this generosity. That statue consists of nine pieces representing what items?
A: Eagle feathers (similar answers were also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 97%
Discovery Path: Choctaw → 1847 Potato Famine → Midleton → Kindred Spirits → Eagle feathers
Question #4:
Less than two weeks ago, Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins set a 100m dash World Record at the Louisiana Senior Games, competing solo in the 105+ age group. On the very day Julia Hawkins celebrated her 81st birthday, a current triple swimming world record holder was born. Using the oldest individual world record that swimmer had set, what is the time difference between that and Hawkins’s record?
A: 1.18s
Most Common Wrong Answer: 2:53.5
Correct Percentage: 80%
Discovery Path: Hawkins 1:02.95 → Born on Feb. 10, 1916 → Lilly King (Feb 10, 1997) → 100m breaststroke 1:04.13 → 1.18s
Question #5:
The American business magnate portrayed in this painting founded and ran a company for 27 years. That company was dismantled by the Supreme Court for violation of antitrust laws, mostly thanks to the evidence provided by an early investigative journalist. That journalist’s middle name is also the name of a Roman deity. Which bird is one of the symbols of that deity?
A: Owl
Most Common Wrong Answer: X
Correct Percentage: 98%
Discovery Path: John D. Rockefeller → Standard Oil → Ida Minerva Tarbell → Minerva → Owl
Question #6:
A Greek philosopher who shares her name with a titular Shakespearean character lived and worked in Alexandria before 500 A.D. Three alchemical texts associated with her survived. The one she’s most noted for contains a material in its title. How many times is that material mentioned in the demotic section of the Rosetta Stone, as translated by R.S. Simpson?
A: Four (4)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 77%
Discovery Path: Cleopatra the Alchemist → Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra → Gold → Four (4)
Question #7:
The National Historic Landmark that had its photo scrambled in this image houses a restaurant with a single-word name. A biography of a person with that word for their surname includes these verses:
“He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake…”.
What is the title of that biography?
A: Skylark: Life, Lies, and Inventions of Harry Atwood
Most Common Wrong Answer: Margaret Atwood: Starting Out
Correct Percentage: 73%
Discovery Path: Reliance Building, Chicago → Atwood → Harry Atwood → Skylark: Life, Lies, and Inventions of Harry Atwood
Question #8:
On the same date (month, day, and year) that the first woman chief justice of the Supreme Court of California was born, a television service officially began regular broadcasts. This service has been known by its current channel name since 1964 (although the spelling has changed). If you were staying in the hotel pictured here on November 1, 2021, and turned on your TV to the appropriate regional variation of this network channel at 8 PM local time, what show would you be watching?
A: EastEnders
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 88%
Discovery Path: Rose Elizabeth Bird → November 2, 1936 → BBC One → EastEnders
Question #9:
There are over 500 titles on the base version of a list with a two-word title. The first word is the name shared between a fictional character from Phineas and Ferb and the singer from this clip. The second word is a common name for a human finger. What title from that list that includes a word sung in the previous clip is listed under a number that is one of the telephone area codes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
A:Perry 445. Pleasure and Pain or Perry 267. The Shepherd and the Wolf that he brought up with his Dogs
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 92%
Discovery Path: Perry (Como & Platypus) → Index → Pain or With → 445 or 267 → Perry 445. Pleasure and Pain or Perry 267. The Shepherd and the Wolf that he brought up with his Dogs
Question #10:
Over a hundred restaurants located in the city that will host SporcleCon2022 have been included in the Michelin Guide United States. Find the closest one (as the crow flies) to this popular wedding location. According to the menu on that restaurant’s website, what is the only meal that costs $30?
A: Crab cakes (changed on the day of the event); Grilled Lamb Chops and Crab Cake were accepted, after the correction email was sent to ask for $32 items. Other related answers were accepted.
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 78%
Discovery Path:Washington, D.C. → President Lincoln’s Cottage → Hitching Post → Crab Cakes (or Grilled lamb chops)
Question #11:
Of the songs that have a word repeated consecutively in their title and that have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in an Olympic year, which one stayed on top of that chart the longest?
Clarifier: An Olympic year refers to a year when Summer or Winter Olympic Games were held.
A: Maria Maria
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 93%
Discovery Path: Do Wah Diddy Diddy, (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Red, Red Wine, Wild, Wild West, Maria, Maria → Maria Maria (2000) 10 weeks
Question #12:
The broken bone from this X-ray is also the name of a Marvel character. That character’s younger brother is also a major character with superpowers. The younger brother goes by an alias that is also used by a multinational company. According to its website, which of that company’s locations (village, town, or city) would alphabetically follow the fictional location (village, town, or city) where these brothers grew up?
A: Ottawa
Most Common Wrong Answer: Oulu
Correct Percentage: 78%
Discovery Path: Radius → Flex → Orloo → Ottawa (Kanata is officially a part of Ottawa and Ottawa is listed as the name of the location on Flex.com)
Question #13:
Find all NASDAQ 100 companies with a stock symbol worth exactly 12 points in Scrabble, based on standard English version tile values. Which of those companies is headquartered the farthest east?
Clarifier: There are currently 102 companies on that list, despite the name. The stock symbol doesn’t have to be a Scrabble-accepted word.
A: CSX Corporation (Jacksonville) or Kraft Heinz (Pittsburgh)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Jim Knaub
Correct Percentage: 88%
Discovery Path: CSX, KHC, EXC → Jacksonville, Chicago & Pittsburgh, Chicago → CSX Corporation (Jacksonville) or Kraft Heinz (Pittsburgh)
Question #14:
The car models in the images Car1 and Car2 are primarily known by names that include their manufacturer’s name and a three-digit number (numeral, spelled out, or a combination of those). Calculate the difference of the larger number minus the smaller number. Taking that difference as n, who was the nth person to reach space?
A: Matthias Maurier
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 92%
Discovery Path: Porsche 911, Lotus 3-Eleven → 911-311=600 → Matthias Maurer
Question #15:
In the year 2861, according to the calendar that is a legacy of the Roman province colored red in this image, a famous work by the painter who painted this painting was stolen. Another painter was identified as a suspect and brought in for questioning. That second painter’s iconic piece of clothing, designed by Coco Chanel, included 21 similar parts. What did those 21 parts represent?
A: Napoleon’s victories
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Discovery Path: Mauretania Caesariensis → Berber calendar → Year 1911 → Leonardo da Vinci → Mona Lisa → Pablo Picasso → 21 horizontal stripes on Breton-striped shirt → Napoleon’s victories
Question #16:
What word would you spell out by collecting letters in order along the correct path through this labyrinth?
A: Eudaemonic
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 95%
Quick Note: Single letter misspellings were accepted, but words that included more than one error were not.
Question #17:
What standalone word appears in all of the following names? (The words that a a part of another word are not accepted)
1) The name (any name, by which they are commonly known) of a player who played in the lowest-scoring game of the NBA Finals in the season the San Antonio Spurs won their second title (the player has to have started or entered the game);
2) the name (any name, by which they are commonly known) of the winning author of the Hugo Award for Best Novella;
3) the name of a US county or county equivalent;
4) the name of a MLB World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award winner.
A: Johnson, or Martin
Most Common Wrong Answer: Robinson
Correct Percentage: 70%
Quick Note: Partials were not accepted
Question #18:
The bonus track on the standard version of the fifth studio album by the American singer singing this features a famous musician. That musician’s fifth album includes a song that was featured in the closing credits of a 1996 movie. That movie was based on a book with a bird in its title. Name that bird.
A: Albatross
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 93%
Discovery Path: Ninguém, Ninguém -> Melody Gardot -> Sting -> Mercury Falling -> Valparaiso -> White Squall -> The Last Voyage of the Albatross -> Albatross
Question #19:
The character whose quote is loosely shown in this pictogram partially shares their name with a station on a famous railway line. What is the northernmost settlement (village, town, or city) on that line?
A: Carlisle (Tompkinson was also accepted)
Most Common Wrong Answer: Various
Correct Percentage: 77%
Discovery Path: Arthur Dent -> Dent -> Settle-Carlisle Line -> Carlisle
Question #20:
There are 15 chemical elements on the periodic table of elements that were named after 16 scientists. Of those 16 scientists, eliminate those who did not live in the 19th century. Next, eliminate those who were born in and who died in the territory of the same modern-day country. Which of the remaining scientists had a moon (lunar) crater named after them that was approved and adopted by the IAU the earliest?
A: Marie Curie
Most Common Wrong Answer: Albert Einstein
Correct Percentage: 37%
Discovery Path: Johan Gadolin, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Dmitri Mendeleev, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Lawrence, Ernest Rutherford, Glenn T. Seaborg, Niels Bohr, Lise Meitner, Wilhelm Röntgen, Nicolaus Copernicus, Georgy Flyorov, Yuri Oganessian -> Johan Gadolin, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, Dmitri Mendeleev, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Lise Meitner, Wilhelm Röntgen -> Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Rutherford, Lise Meitner -> Marie Curie (1961, Sklodowska)
As always, we sincerely appreciate your support of our humble Trivia Hunt! We hope to see you again!