Master Minds Recap: January 21, 2021

Here’s a recap of the clues on Master Minds for Thursday, January 21, 2021 with host Brooke Burns.

Today’s episode title: “Trivia, Smarts & Cartoon Cats”
Today’s Master Minds: Ken Jennings, Muffy Marracco, Jonathan Corbblah
Today’s challengers: Jason, Mena, Brad

The show’s format pits 3 contestants against each other and 3 Master Minds against each other. There are 3 rounds and the contestant with the highest score wins $1,000 and faces off in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge against the winning Master Mind. If the contestant beats the Master Mind, the prize money goes up to $10,000.

Round 1: Here are the 7 categories and questions. 100 points for each correct answer.

(1) NATIONS: According to the aborigines, what country’s landscape was shaped with boomerangs thrown by mythical ancestors?
(a) Australia (b) Indonesia (c) New Zealand
(2) SPORTS AND HISTORY: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia had so many of their NFL players go off to serve in WWII, that the two cities merged to form what team for the 1943 season?
(a) Pennsylvanians (b) Steagles (c) 4-Fs
(3) CRUSADERS: Known affectionately as “Mother Jones”, Mary Harris Jones was an activist for the rights of whom?
(a) immigrants (b) slaves (c) workers?
(4) TRANSPORTATION: Which of these cars did Ferdinand Porsche design?
(a) Alfa Romeo Spider (b) Volkswagen Beetle (c) Stutz Bearcat
(5) PARENTING: According to Healthline, a baby should wait until it is about how old before drinking water?
(a) 6 days (b) 6 weeks (c) 6 months
(6) FOOD: What New England state capital is the only one in the U.S. without a McDonald’s?
(a) Augusta, ME (b) Concord, NH (c) Montpelier, VT
(7) COMIC STRIPS: George Gately was the creator of what famed cartoon cat?
(a) Felix (b) Heathcliff (c) Stimpy

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 1:
Jason 400 Mena 500 Brad 500 / Ken 600 Muffy 500 Jonathan 600

Round 2: There are 5 subjects and questions. No multiple choice. Only the first player on each team to buzz in gets to answer. Correct answers are worth 200 points for the first 4. The last question is worth 400 points. Wrong answers are penalized by the value of the question. At the end of the round, the person with the lowest score on each team is eliminated.

(1) HISTORY: In 1912, the U.S. debuted an American flag with how many total stars?
(2) INSPIRATION: Gloria Vanderbilt was said to have been a partial basis for Holly Golightly, the main character in what novella?
(3) ANIMALS: In the U.S., what nine-banded creature always gives birth to identical quadruplets?
(4) MEDICINE: A hepatologist is a doctor who specializes in treating what human organ?
(5) GEOGRAPHY: What small Himalayan nation is known as the “Land of the Thunder Dragon”?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 2:
Jason 0 Mena 500 Brad 500 / Ken 1000 Muffy 1300 Jonathan 600

Jason and Brad are eliminated.

Round 3: Each team faces off in a rapid-fire 1-minute trivia battle. The first question is worth 500 points and each additional question goes up an additional 100 points. The winners go on to the last round.

Mena and Brad go first:

(500) In 30 years, Earth’s reserves of what element will run out and cause party balloon prices to float sky high?
(600) The abbreviation “LGA” refers to an airport servicing what U.S. city?
(700) James Arness portrayed Marshal Matt Dillon for 20 years on what TV Western?
(800) A bottle of whiskey labeled as “100 proof” has what percent of alcohol by volume?
(900) Unveiled in 2001, what stand up “human transporter” was invented by Dean Kamen?
(1000) In the late 1980s, Operation “Just Cause” was launched to arrest what Panamanian dictator for drug trafficking?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 3:
Mena 2400 Brad 500

Mena wins $1,000 and advances to the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. But first, Ken and Muffy will battle it out for a minute to see who joins Mena.

(500) In 2002, Lisa Leslie became the first player to make what type of basket in a WNBA game?
(600) Meaning “woolen fabric”, what blanket-like garment with unsewn sides and a head opening comes from South America?
(700) Of the gifts bestowed upon baby Jesus in Matthew 2 in the Bible, which one comes last alphabetically?
(800) The opening line of which Albert Camus novel is “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure”?
(900) No matter what the variety, Polish sausage goes by what Polish name?
(1000) Equal to 100 pascals, a millibar is used to measure what?
(1100) Located in New England, what is the only state that borders only one other state?
(1200) What U.S. coin currently in circulation is the smallest in weight, diameter and thickness?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Muffy finished with 6600 to Ken’s 2500 so Muffy will join Mena in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. If Mena beats Muffy, she will return on the next show. Any player who makes it through 3 shows and wins $30,000, gets to join the Master Minds expert team.

Ultimate Trivia Challenge: The questions are presented to the players at the same time and they write their answers down.

(1) Ironically the sixth of 11 children, who is credited with originating the term “birth control”?
(2) Completed more than 20 years before the Erie Canal, the Bellows Falls Canal is located in which New England state?
(3) What was the only totally alliteratively-titled Shakespeare play?
(4) What sculpture is the only work Michelangelo ever signed?

ANSWERS: (unless otherwise indicated, both were correct)
show

By the 4th question, Mena had one right to Muffy’s three. Mena is going home with $1,000 and there will be 3 new players tomorrow.

Master Minds airs daily on Game Show Network. Check your local listings for times. (Here in the Central Time Zone it comes on at 3:00 p.m.)

See the pool of trivia experts participating in Master Minds

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