Re: Trash: Age and Accessibility

abillsmood <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Wed, 19 Feb 2003 22:36:06 -0000

While I agree with your position that using 1980-2003 as 
restrictions on trash questions does not guarantee that it is 
focused perfectly toward college-age players, I think you need only 
look to Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary edition's entertainment 
category and compare it to the original's entertainent category to 
see that the idea has merit ;)  If this leads some people to 
challenge themselves to find the most minute, annoying, unreleased 
movie or 4 episode tv show of the 80's or 90's, then we will deal 
with that as editors.  However, I believe it will lead to more 
familiar subject matter (as kids we watched 1980's kiddie movies; as 
teenagers, we watched 1980's comedy reruns on cable and snuck into 
early 1990's R-rated movies; some of us may have gone to the local 
metropolitan movie theater to see a remastering of His Girl Friday, 
and good for them for getting in touch with the past, but it's 
simply not our generation).  I, personally, believe that enough 
happened in these last 23 years to make a perfectly reasonable set 
of packets for the tournament.  Furthermore, there remains ample 
room for a few questions each round on cultural items that continue 
to affect our generation (the Beatles, A+W Root Beer, Miles Davis, 
etc.  NOT Dr. Kildare, unless, I suppose, it's the John Flansburgh 
song).  If it turns out that this doesn't come to pass, then I 
suppose Chris and I will work a bit harder on editing, and your 
position will be justified.  I still think it'll be fun though.

- Brad, VP of Trash, Princeton

P.S. Too far?  That's sad.  We get Penn Bowl and Qotc.  Everything 
else is either Maryland/DC (3 hours) or Boston (4.5 hours).  I think 
you Boston schools owe us for making it to your TRASH regionals and 
junior-bird tournaments ;)

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, walter_shandy <no_reply_at_y...> wrote:
> While I welcome news of another trash tournament (even one which 
is 
> likely too far away to attend), I would like to take issue with 
the 
> notion of skewing questions toward more recent events in an 
attempt 
> to bias the playing field toward younger players.  The question of 
> how well-advised it is to run a tournament that advertises up 
front 
> that it wants its questions to benefit one group or another of 
> players is one for a later time; what I'm going to focus on now is 
> the question of how exactly a bunch of questions on things that 
> happened in the '80s benefit the undergraduate player.
> 
> Take, for example, two players: 
> 
> -- Mark Coen, the World's Largest Gerbil -- graduated from college 
in 
> 1991, so without access to carbon-dating, I'll assume he was born 
> circa 1969.  In other words, your typical Masters Team player.
> 
> -- Erik Nielsen, college senior, born in 1981.  Your typical 
> undergrad.
> 
> And let's give them a series of questions.  The first question is 
on 
> something that happened in 1965.  According to your manifesto 
here, 
> Mark would have the advantage on this question, but in actuality, 
> Mark was no more born than I was at that time.  Advantage: 
nobody.  
> 
> Next up, a question on something that happened in 1982.  Mark was 
13 
> at the time, so it's plausible that he could have remembered it.  
For 
> my part, unless the question addresses the strained vegetables of 
the 
> era, I honestly have no chance of remembering it from when it 
> happened.  Advantage: Mark.
> 
> And finally, a question from 1996.  I was 15, and Mark was 30 -- 
but, 
> may I point out, Mark is a trash player.  He's probably got at 
least 
> one eye on the progress of pop culture.  Sure, I might remember 
what 
> was going on, but the same is true of Mark.  Advantage: meh.  
Could 
> be me, could be Mark -- depends on what the question's about.  
> 
> So basically, what I'm saying is that the theory that questions on 
> the 80's are going to help undergrads is faulty.  For may part, I 
> don't know a thing about crap that happened before, say, 1989, 
unless 
> I happened to take an interest in it later -- and much of the 
early 
> 90's is not my strong point either.  For a freshman, I'd adjust 
that 
> time frame three years forward, and find Mark with a distinct 
> advantage on everything from 1980 to 1995, and a minor 
disadvantage 
> (if any) on things after that.  
> 
> I think the advantage in eras is a function of personal preference 
> more than one of age.  Heck, for my part, I'd _rather_ have 
questions 
> on things that happened before 1980.  And if I were playing in 
this 
> tournament, I'd be worried that this skewing would create a shift 
> towards the minutiae of the '80s and '90s, and I'd be left 
wondering 
> what the hell these questions were about.  
> 
> I'm not sure whether the lack of questions about the cheesy pop 
> music, boneheaded TV, and deservedly unwatched movies of today is 
in 
> fact a "common complaint" among undergraduates, but if I were to 
> complain, it would be that there's too much of that stuff in 
> tournaments already.  I'd rather hear a tossup on Elvis Costello, 
the 
> Yardbirds, or even the Monkees than one on Britney Spears, Def 
> Leppard, or Gerardo (rico and/or suave though he might have been).
> 
> Not sure whether my opinion is a minority one, or even an 
> insignificant minority one, but I'm suffering from insomnia and 
> thought I would get it out there anyway.