OK, so it's CBI regionals in like 1988, which was
my first intercollegiate tournament. The question
starts out "On [some recent date], Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop accepted a pipe...." and I immediately buzz
in with "Mr. Potato Head", which was the correct
answer. So I remember when Mr. Potato Head gave up
smoking under pressure from health groups! The memorable
part is that I got the question only because, a couple
months before the tournament, one of my teammates
mentioned that he had seen this very thing written up in
the paper, and was looking forward to getting the
question right if it came up at regionals. So I beat him
to the punch, heh heh.
As far as moderator
faux pas, the only time I haven't been able to get
through a question was in practice. There was a bonus
question on Australopithecus, then immediately following
that, a tossup on "Mike Tyson's Punch Out", so before
the toss up I remarked something like "On a similar
note ...." and I lost it on the character "Soda
Popinski". Fortunately Mike Roke answered the question
before it got too much farther.
Doug