I actually do think that, given the prevailing length and format standards of the time, the question below *is* "quite clever and a timeless classic." The problem is that such short questions have become passe at the college level, even though there are many high school leagues and tournaments where one-liners are standard operating procedure. Someday I'll mount a one-man crusade to restore the "lightning round" style (known to some as "arena bowl") to some kind of college presence. The problem is that many people falsely believe that one-liners can't be pyramid style, and so they don't bother to try. On the contrary, I find that if you're really dogmatic about ordering of clues, you can write some really good, knowledge-rewarding questions in 80 ASCII characters or less. (Okay, maybe 100.) Al "The Universal Doctor" Whitehead wrote: Curiously, the definition of a bad question has changed over the years. I'm sure all would consider the following from CBI competition c.1980 to be simply awful. At the time, though, it was roundly lauded as quite clever and a timeless classic. Tossup: Whose fault was the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906? Answer: San Andreas
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