Firing a bullet at the ceiling

Durham_Devil · Fri, 15 Oct 1999 16:57:55 -0700

Okay. I think we can all agree that the poll is a
wee bit subjective. DUH! Most of us mock the poll's
results, either with a ballot or after the fact. (Case in
point, Craig, I don't think Duke is better than
Maryland, Berkeley, or Stanford, even with Gourab. But it's
funny that someone voted us first, so there you go.) As
for your claim of Canadians being hosed, well,
Western Ontario was the Canadian champion, and look at
their performance at the ICT! They finished ahead of
only Vanderbilt (Matt Schneller showing more guts than
I ever could) and Johns Hopkins (who never showed
up Friday and couldn't recover). Granted, they
could've done better -- David was off his game, which I
can believe having practiced against him -- but how
much so? We only know what we see of those teams, and
if that was all Canada's best could muster, then
there's a long way to go.

As for whether we should
"go over [to England]" rather than have them come
here, we have. In 1997 or something, Michigan (CBI USA
champions) faced Imperial (CBI UK champions) in Europe. I
can't remember the result, so I'll leave it to someone
there to finish the story. But considering it's an
expense for anyone to go anywhere, keeping it to the US
and Canada is sufficient.

Which returns us,
apparently, to the issue as to whether one is better than the
other. Here's your problem: the two don't really cross
over that often, and the US is so huge that most teams
never see their Canuck friends. I know I'd be surprised
if anyone from north of the original Mason-Dixon
Line visited a Southern invitational, let alone if a
Canadian team penetrated to North Carolina. So I'm going
by the results, and the results of stuff like the
ICT isn't good.

One last thought: I'd rather
not have a flamewar sprout up on a newsboard such as
this. We've been there, done that, torn the T-shirt to
shreds in frustration. Let's just put it to rest by
saying that quizbowl is a test of mainly American
culture, and as such Canadians are at a disadvantage, but
someday Queen's or UWO or Fraser might bust through and
crack the Top 25. How would I know? What do I look
like, the ACF Nostradamus? Let's just settle this in
the only place it matters... the classroom.
:-)

Andy