Tuesday night, Seattlest decided to ratchet up the difficulty level on the quiz at the Old Pequilar. And we think that worked well. We heard bitching, but it was good, brain-smacking bitching, not lynch-the-quiz-host bitching.

A record 14 teams signed up to play, which meant nice, large prizes: first place took home $100, second $25, and third $15.

Round 8, our "identify the picture book by its cover" round, brought out some of the most creative answers. Sea Monkeys: The Movie suggested "Mother, May I Sleep with Guppies?" as the title for Swimmy. The Destroyer rechristened Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day as "The Red Light District" (google the cover -- it's oh so apropos) and This Is New York as "Your Parents Are on Fire." We love creativity, people. We can't give you points, but we'll reward you with public acknowledgement.

After the quiz, we had a chance to chat with winning team The Hoopleheads, who trounced us at The Jones a few weeks ago when we were in our civilian identity. They're putting together a website devoted to pub trivia in Seattle; we'll let you know the URL when we hear it's ready.

Who played and how they did (out of 81 possible points):

1) The Hoopleheads, 55 points
2) Sea Monkeys: The Movie, 52 points
3) Good Question, 47 points
4) Grilled Cheese, 45 points
5) Paint the Town Brown, 44 points
6) The Destroyer, 43 points
7) Pasargada, 42 points
8) (tie) Mandypants and Tater, 38 points
10) The Old and the Peculiar, 34 points
11) (tie) Hello Kitty and Spit Buben, 33 points
13) Socks and Sandals, 32 points
14) Spine-Tingling Toast, 23 points, winners of two t-shirts

Questions in bold stumped all 14 teams; questions in italics were answered correctly by all 14.

Round 1: Geography

1) What’s the largest city in Snohomish County? (population)
2) What’s the largest city in Israel? (population)
3) What country is the Suez Canal in?
4) Which Native American tribe has the largest reservation in the United States?
5) What is the deepest lake in the United States?
6) The Oresund Bridge connects which two countries?
7) Bangladesh shares a border with two countries. Name them.
8) What island is Pearl Harbor on?
9) What’s the longest river in Alaska?
10) Mexico City is the largest city in Mexico. What’s the second-largest? (population)

Round 2: August

1) Today is August 1. What day of the year is it (like first, second, 365th)?
2) Today is also the 25th anniversary of what landmark cable channel?
3) If your birthday falls between August 23 and September 22, what’s your sign?
4) According to the first two Terminator movies, Judgment Day arrives on August 29, 1997, when what computer system becomes self-aware—and hostile to humanity?
5) Who wrote the 1932 American novel Light in August?
6) What empire ended on August 6, 1806, when its last emperor abdicated and renounced all claims to the throne?
7) What former British colony celebrates its Independence Day on August 14?
8) What horror film debuted on August 6, 1999, and went on to become the highest-grossing film ever to open in August?
9) August 13-15, 1971, Festival ‘71 took place at Seattle Center. When Festival was renamed three years later, what was it called?
10) Who recorded the 1993 album August and Everything After?

Round 3: Music

I’ll give you three albums, you name the band or artist.

1) The River, Tunnel of Love, and Born to Run
2) Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion, and The Spaghetti Incident?
3) We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, Transatlanticism, and Plans
4) Where Did Our Love Go?, I Hear a Symphony, and Reflections
5) Showcase, Sentimentally Yours, and That’s How a Heartache Begins
6) Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and Margerine Eclipse
7) Saxophone Colossus, Way Out West, and What’s New?
8) Songs the Lord Taught Us, Date with Elvis, and Stay Sick!
9) My Kind of Christmas, Stripped, and Back to Basics
10) The Bends, Kid A, and Hail to the Thief

Round 4: Magicians (visual round)

1) Harry Houdini
2) David Blaine
3) Ricky Jay
4) Siegfried & Roy
5) Mumford (the Muppet magician -- a la peanut butter sandwiches)
6) David Copperfield
7) Penn & Teller
8) Zatanna
9) Doug Henning
10) Harry Anderson

Round 5: Three-digit numbers

1) On the world wide web, what’s the HTTP code number for a page or file that’s not found?
2) What Boeing jet model had its commercial aviation debut on October 26, 1958, on a Pan Am flight from New York to Paris?
3) What is a perfect score on one section of the SAT?
4) In 1990, what Mazda model was renamed the Protege?
5) According to Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” how many men rode into the valley of Death?
6) Based on analysis of the oldest known copies of the Book of Revelation, some scholars believe the Number of the Beast is not 666, but what?
7) In Stanley Kubrik’s version of The Shining, what room does Mr. Halloran warn Danny to stay out of?
8) You’re in New Zealand. You’d like to report an emergency. What number shoud you dial?
9) How many hits did Ichiro earn during his record-setting 2004 season?
10) In the Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” assuming that all the gifts are given each day they’re mentioned, how many gifts total are given by the singer’s true love? Bonus (or tiebreaker): how many of those are birds?

Round 6: Lists

1) What talk show host kept doing his nightly top 10 list when he moved from NBC’s Late Night to CBS’ Late Show in 1993?
2) What current NBC sitcom centers around a guy who made a list of all the bad things he’s ever done?
3) According to the Catechism of the Catholic church, what does the sixth commandment forbid?
4) Who wrote the book High Fidelity, about a record-store owner obsessed with compiling top-five lists?
5) What company was #1 on the 2006 Fortune 500?
6) One of the foundations of Buddhist faith is the list of noble truths. How many noble truths are there?
7) What new-wave band had a minor hit in 1984 with the song “88 Lines about 44 Women”?
8) On February 9, 1950, Joseph McCarthy declared he had a list of communist party members who worked where?
9) Craig Newmark founded Craigslist in 1995 in San Francisco. In June of 2000, it expanded to its second city. Which one?
10) What 1977 book by Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace, and David Wallechinsky sparked a listmaking craze, as well as 3 sequels?

Round 7: Movies

1) Until this summer, what movie was the second most successful film based on a Disney theme park ride?
2) The tagline for this 1993 comedy was “At the sperm-bank she asked for a tall, intelligent, black man. One out of three ain’t bad.”
3) In this 1996 comedy, a bunch of kids lock their squabbling parents in the basement so they won’t get divorces.
4) Two brothers who play piano. A singer with a past. And lots of Seattle nightclubs.
5) A young boy’s wish has an interesting effect on his father’s legal career in this 1997 comedy.
6) He wanted to shoot Charlie Chaplin, but killed Thomas Ince by mistake. At least, that’s the scenario presented by this 2002 period drama.
7) What full-length Pixar film comes between Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo?
8) Britney Spears gets run off the road and becomes one of the killer’s victims in this 2004 horror/comedy.
9) What 1996 film is still the most famous example of lesbian neo-noir?
10) What actor or actress do these movies have in common?

Round 8: Picture books (visual round)

1) The Very Hungry Caterpillar
2) Goodnight Moon
3) Swimmy
4) Make Way for Ducklings
5) The Monster at the End of This Book
6) Anansi the Spider
7) Where the Wild Things Are
8) The Snowy Day
9) This Is New York
10) Madeline

Answers: Geography

1) Everett
2) Jerusalem
3) Egypt
4) the Navajo
5) Crater Lake (1958 feet)
6) Denmark and Sweden
7) India and Myanmar (Burma)
8) Oahu
9) The Yukon
10) Guadalajara

Answers: August

1) 213th
2) MTV
3) Virgo
4) Skynet
5) William Faulkner
6) the Holy Roman Empire
7) Pakistan
8) The Sixth Sense
9) Bumbershoot
10) Counting Crows

Answers: Music

1) Bruce Springsteen
2) Guns N’ Roses
3) Death Cab for Cutie
4) The Supremes
5) Patsy Cline
6) Stereolab
7) Sonny Rollins
8) The Cramps
9) Christina Aguilera
10) Radiohead

Answers: Three-digit numbers

1) 404
2) 707
3) 800
4) 323
5) 600
6) 616
7) 237
8) 111
9) 262
10) 364, 184

Answers: Lists

1) David Letterman
2) My Name Is Earl
3) adultery
4) Nick Hornby
5) ExxonMobil
6) 4
7) The Nails
8) the State Department
9) Boston
10) The Book of Lists

Answers: Movies

1) The Haunted Mansion
2) Made in America
3) House Arrest
4) The Fabulous Baker Boys
5) Liar Liar
6) The Cat’s Meow
7) Monsters Inc.
8) Seed of Chucky
9) Bound
10) Jennifer Tilly