Search found 137 matches

by Banana Stand
Tue Apr 25, 2023 12:06 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Why doesn't film come up more?
Replies: 24
Views: 8641

Re: Why doesn't film come up more?

Many films are almost certain to be encountered purely as entertainments by the vast majority of people who will play the questions on them. These are films that, in my opinion, people should not presume to write "academic" tossups on unless there's a really interesting and worthwhile rea...
by Banana Stand
Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Nationals: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 8705

Re: 2021 ACF Nationals: Specific Question Discussion

- in general, it seemed like there was a lack of contemporary poetry/drama compared to contemporary long fiction, but Grant was buzzing so early on a lot of it that I didn't have time to figure out if it was contemporary or not Haven't read through the set yet so can't say whether this criticism is...
by Banana Stand
Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:10 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Earlybird Online (10/3/2020)
Replies: 29
Views: 11700

Re: Earlybird Online (10/3/2020)

Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. As someone who cares deeply about the integrity of the fields of high school quizbowl tournaments in states I don’t live in, I have to say this is one of the most disappointing displays from a TD I’ve seen in all my time here. Even if Dunbar and [another team] are ...
by Banana Stand
Fri May 08, 2020 3:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)
Replies: 49
Views: 17292

Re: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)

Cheynem wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 3:43 pm Why are Columbia and Chicago the only two teams booked for this hypothetical finals?
Because they’re the only S-tier teams this season
by Banana Stand
Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:36 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Understanding Literature as a Category
Replies: 11
Views: 7019

Re: Understanding Literature as a Category

I’m not going to say much about the distribution because I’ve seen these discussions play out a thousand and they usually don’t lead anywhere. Literature is the most “pure” category in terms of fitting the medium of a quizbowl question, and I don’t think there’s much disputing that. I’m sure this is...
by Banana Stand
Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Terrapin Open (Spring 2020)
Replies: 43
Views: 19221

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Terrapin Open (Spring 2020)

I will most likely not be playing this set if this Columbia mirror is cancelled, which is a shame since I’m sure it will be a great set. While I wouldn’t advocate for a mirror to remain simply because of my own self-interest, I’ve yet to see a good rationale for its cancellation and doubt there is o...
by Banana Stand
Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Fall Open Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 66
Views: 14356

Re: 2019 Fall Open Specific Question Discussion

I wasn't the biggest fan of using Book of Laughter and Forgetting as a clue for the books tossup: "In a novel titled for one of these objects, Michelle and Gabrielle agree that the title creature of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros was picked for “comic effect.”" I recognized that the clue about The ...
by Banana Stand
Sun Nov 17, 2019 4:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Fall Open General Discussion
Replies: 20
Views: 2632

Re: 2019 Fall Open General Discussion

There were some inconsistencies. Some of the hard parts (literature in particular? e.g. Invention of Morel ) were "quite gettable," while a number verged on "whyyyy" (John Knowles Paine) or "oooof" (science had a bunch of these). Some, e.g. Apollonius+Flaccus or Tepozt...
by Banana Stand
Sun Nov 17, 2019 4:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Fall Open Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 66
Views: 14356

Re: 2019 Fall Open Specific Question Discussion

Iain.Carpenter wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 3:33 pm In the bonus that mentions Ocean Vuong, it calls "On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous" a poem, when its actually his debut novel.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetry ... y-gorgeous

And here’s what that title’s from!
by Banana Stand
Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:56 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Literature "Progression"
Replies: 3
Views: 6056

Re: Literature "Progression"

Also, if you are willing to cash in some money, NAQT's frequency list for literature is a decently complete list of books and their authors. I do not believe there to be plot summaries in the lists though. Please, for the love of god, do not pay money for this. Keep reading the very famous books of...
by Banana Stand
Mon May 06, 2019 6:33 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: UPDATE - All the Lit We Cannot See (2020)
Replies: 10
Views: 4200

Re: Announcement - All the Lit We Cannot See (Winter 2019)

This seems like a fun tournament! Very interested in either writing or playing.

(Autobiography of Red was tossed up at CO 2016, btw)
by Banana Stand
Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2019
Replies: 92
Views: 63827

Re: Player Poll 2019

Thank you to those who have given me reps! I wouldn’t advise that you vote for me in the overall poll; my performances at both nationals have not warranted inclusion and I don’t think my uncharacteristically good PIANO statline is enough to do it. Instead, vote for my teammate Eric Xu who led us to ...
by Banana Stand
Mon Apr 15, 2019 7:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Logistics/format
Replies: 37
Views: 22191

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion

I know that Matt Weiner, among others, has in the past advocated breaking out Nats into "divisions." As a stopgap, would it be unreasonable to do that even without using two different question sets? (After all, the lowest-placing teams often come to test their mettle against the toughest ...
by Banana Stand
Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Logistics/format
Replies: 37
Views: 22191

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion

Personally, I care more about the integrity of ACF Nationals as a “players championship” than I do about its expansion. Obviously, I’m not a member of ACF and don’t knows its priorities, but if the field needs to be 40 teams instead of 48 to ensure a full RR in playoffs which is almost unanimously c...
by Banana Stand
Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

Your post had enough other decrees about what is right and wrong about question construction in questions that were absolutely in the range of acceptable that I feel OK saying what I said. Rather than declaring that the Ferrara question "didn't need to exist," or "There's zero reason...
by Banana Stand
Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

Since you've honed in on my word choice in criticizing the set, Charlie, I'll just say: a) I said the tossup was "a bit of an abortion," which it was. I clearly wasn't trying to impugn the writers of the set by criticizing this single out-of-place tossup. b) That tossup was changed for new...
by Banana Stand
Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:49 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2019 PIANO/Minnesota Open
Replies: 89
Views: 49335

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2019 PIANO/Minnesota Open

This is slightly late, but I've finally played all the packets and I have to say that this set is not as hard as some people are making it out to be. The answerlines are mostly very reasonable (I'd say moreso than recent spring opens) and there was a lot of great early cluing. If you're playing on t...
by Banana Stand
Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:06 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

I wrote this because Ferrara is in fact integral to both works in terms of the history being evoked (Browning) and the school of painting (Smith). Regardless, I didn't think having genre-crossing "misc. lit" is particularly controversial and why should it be? Would a geographically divers...
by Banana Stand
Mon Mar 11, 2019 12:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

Common links I didn't like: -Polish literature: There's zero reason for this not to be a tossup on Stanislaw Lem. It was literally all Lem works and he's a reasonable answerline at this difficulty. This adds nothing to the accessibility of the set. -Ferrara: Maybe my least favorite tossup in the set...
by Banana Stand
Tue Mar 05, 2019 9:36 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Terrapin @ UMD (3/2/2019)
Replies: 9
Views: 5168

Re: Terrapin @ UMD (3/2/2019)

Combined stats have games double-posted, btw.
by Banana Stand
Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:10 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements
Replies: 577
Views: 455152

Re: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements

Jack Mehr and I are each writing a packet of hard (ranging from Nats to CO+), literature common links to be read sometime in mid-January on Discord. If this sounds interesting to you, indicate your availability on the following poll (times are EST). We'll be reading this in the discord tomorrow nig...
by Banana Stand
Fri Jan 11, 2019 9:57 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Preparing From Benet's and Masterpieces of World Literature
Replies: 7
Views: 7144

Re: Preparing From Benet's and Masterpieces of World Literature

I bought a set of Masterplots for my house so I know a bit about the encyclopedia grind. My best piece of advice is to be the most thorough on the outer portions of the canon, and to largely ignore the most important works in the canon. Studying Great Expectations or Moby Dick from these books won’t...
by Banana Stand
Thu Dec 27, 2018 6:21 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: How to Approach Literature
Replies: 7
Views: 7633

Re: How to Approach Literature

I'll echo Jakob and say that reading literary criticism at this point isn't going to help you very much. I don't know your current level of play, but you're going to want to start by just amassing a lot of "author-work", "work-character", and "work-plot point" knowledge...
by Banana Stand
Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Sun God Invitational General Discussion
Replies: 64
Views: 8052

Re: 2018 Sun God Invitational General Discussion

Thanks for pointing that out, Ryan. As one of the only psych majors in QB, I’ve basically just stopped expecting the category to really be asked about in a way that reflects classroom knowledge. Since it’s such a relatively small part of the distro, there’s usually not a whole lot to point out acros...
by Banana Stand
Mon Nov 12, 2018 2:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Sun God Invitational General Discussion
Replies: 64
Views: 8052

Re: 2018 Sun God Invitational General Discussion

http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=11885&p=223874&hilit=Artificial+common+links#p223874 ^This is one of the better tournament discussions on common links ever so I suggest reading it. I’m not as much as a hardliner as Ted is here, but I think his critiques of “artificial c...
by Banana Stand
Mon Oct 22, 2018 9:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Penn Bowl - General Discussion Thread
Replies: 17
Views: 2295

Re: General Discussion Thread

The names in bonuses were a bit much at times, but less so than the last Penn Bowl I played. Bonus parts on Laurel McKelva and Undine Spragg just really don't need to exist and are fairly uninteresting. For that Wharton bonus, you can easily just make the hard part Custom of the Country and not drop...
by Banana Stand
Thu Aug 09, 2018 7:58 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2018 HSNCT discussion
Replies: 91
Views: 48193

Re: 2018 HSNCT discussion

Can I see the tossup on “In the Penal Colony“?
by Banana Stand
Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:16 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Fuck it, let's rank the sets
Replies: 28
Views: 25991

Re: Fuck it, let's rank the sets

TTIAC and Stanford Housewrite were both better than CMST.
by Banana Stand
Sat Jun 30, 2018 10:11 am
Forum: Trash
Topic: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements
Replies: 577
Views: 455152

Re: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements

On Wednesday at 9 PM EST, I will be reading a 20 TU very hard short fiction packet in the discord. Every tossup answerline will be a character from a short story. I'll be doing a second reading of this at the same time on Thursday for people who can't make it Wednesday. These happened! Wednesday Sc...
by Banana Stand
Wed Jun 27, 2018 3:56 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: META - Summer 2019
Replies: 8
Views: 7490

Re: META - Summer 2019

My favorite types of short fiction are poetry and non-fiction essays! (this sounds cool, though, I like these types of tournaments)
by Banana Stand
Sun Jun 24, 2018 11:22 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements
Replies: 577
Views: 455152

Re: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements

Banana Stand wrote:On Wednesday at 9 PM EST, I will be reading a 20 TU very hard short fiction packet in the discord. Every tossup answerline will be a character from a short story.
I'll be doing a second reading of this at the same time on Thursday for people who can't make it Wednesday.
by Banana Stand
Sun Jun 24, 2018 8:55 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements
Replies: 577
Views: 455152

Re: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements

On Wednesday at 9 PM EST, I will be reading a 20 TU very hard short fiction packet in the discord. Every tossup answerline will be a character from a short story.
by Banana Stand
Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:34 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Women in Sets
Replies: 14
Views: 14413

Re: Women in Sets

On the flipside, a tossup on Martin Guerre on the surface is just “some tossup on a French dude from 500 years ago” but I’d guess that a decent percentage(probably not quite a majority?) would have encountered him while reading/reading about Natalie Zemon Davis and her view of the case through a fem...
by Banana Stand
Sun Jun 25, 2017 2:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Top five college teams for 2017–18
Replies: 17
Views: 13250

Re: Top five college teams for 2017–18

Ditto on Cambridge, and I don't even think it's much of a hot take. Anyone who has played with/against Golfinos knows he's legit, and give him some teammates that can cover his weaknesses? Spooky. #7 seems a bit low, tbh.
by Banana Stand
Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Approximately 20 high school house writes have been announce
Replies: 22
Views: 14423

Re: Approximately 20 high school house writes have been anno

There are literally not enough weekends in the year to accommodate half of these. Imo, there are two major reasons for the use of housewrites. The first is for a team acquire revenue, and the second is that producing the housewrite will help with the development of their players since it forces you...
by Banana Stand
Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:55 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Parts of the Lit Canon worth the time to read
Replies: 37
Views: 26057

Re: Parts of the Lit Canon worth the time to read

Fun books that seldom come up in QB: "The Monk" by Matthew Lewis (a Gothic classic; the nuttiest book you will ever read) "McTeague" by Frank Norris (also wild) Fun books that never come up in QB: "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Choderlos de Laclos (probably my favorite ...
by Banana Stand
Sat Jun 03, 2017 9:56 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Parts of the Lit Canon worth the time to read
Replies: 37
Views: 26057

Re: Parts of the Lit Canon worth the time to read

Heart of Darkness is so good, what is going on in here? Moby-Dick is worth a read, too. Fundamental part of U.S Lit that comes up all the time and is a really awesome experience(I think the cetology parts catch too much flak from people who claim to dislike it). Beloved is also really good. Kafka an...
by Banana Stand
Sat May 20, 2017 5:01 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The 70 Greatest Players of the Last Eight Years: A Ranking
Replies: 56
Views: 73540

Re: The 70 Greatest Players of the Last Eight Years: A Ranki

I think the basketball analogy works well here, if we view MattBo as Kobe and Jordan as Lebron(lol). Both are obviously insanely competitive people, but Kobe almost always seemed to "need" the win more than Lebron, and went to psychotic lengths to get it. Lebron is more reserved and only k...
by Banana Stand
Sun May 14, 2017 6:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Prison Bowl 3/25 NYC
Replies: 18
Views: 14081

Re: Prison Bowl 3/25 NYC

armitage wrote:This is in abysmally bad taste
by Banana Stand
Wed May 10, 2017 6:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Modern Age - A Lit/VisArts Side Event
Replies: 13
Views: 8577

Re: The Modern Age - A Lit/VisArts Side Event

This is also going to be 7 packets, not the 8 from the original announcement. There's a lot of side events going around and we figure 8 packets probably won't be played at any site. I'll echo Eric's sentiment that we're happy people are interested!
by Banana Stand
Mon May 08, 2017 10:10 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17
Replies: 53
Views: 33439

Re: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17

I'm down(to staff)!
by Banana Stand
Mon May 08, 2017 9:27 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Scattergories (February 2017)
Replies: 20
Views: 12341

Re: Scattergories (February 2017)

This was very fun to read through. The annotations are a sweet idea. I would've gladly first line-negged Sonmi-451, forgetting the full name of the section. That priming tossup is also cool since the spreading activation effect should come up more. Wish I could've played!
by Banana Stand
Thu May 04, 2017 12:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Postseason Poll
Replies: 11
Views: 8298

Re: Postseason Poll

I can't imagine a team that doesn't do better or worse depending on their mood and how much sleep they got. Berkeley B's top bracket run looks very compelling - knocking off Northwestern after their cinderella run and Penn for good measure, wish I had a chance to do that at my first Nats. Seems lik...
by Banana Stand
Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Difficulty Consistency in Finals Packets
Replies: 19
Views: 10564

Re: Difficulty Consistency in Finals Packets

This is a good thread. Despite not coming anywhere near a spot in Nats finals, I've thought about this a lot since I noticed it watching/reading last year's finals(and 2015's). First, I'll say that as a spectator, it adds a bit of excitement to the matches. "Damn, this packet is really pushing ...
by Banana Stand
Wed Apr 26, 2017 3:29 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Activities Outside of Quiz Bowl
Replies: 28
Views: 3038

Re: Activities Outside of Quiz Bowl

Poker is my main hobby that I've put a ton of time into outside of quizbowl, and alternates back and forth with it as the activity where I actively focus on improving on a daily basis. I also write short fiction and have gotten published a couple times, and I'd be happy to exchange writings with peo...
by Banana Stand
Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Jordaens Visual Arts
Replies: 36
Views: 23737

Re: Jordaens Visual Arts

Eric Xu and I are going to be playing this.
by Banana Stand
Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 70
Views: 42353

Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion

The literature in this set was really really good. It was very accessible across the board while offering a great challenge on interesting hard parts and early-middle clues. Common links probing core works of famous authors including the ones on teachers and the beach(which I unfortunately negged wi...
by Banana Stand
Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:07 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel
Replies: 63
Views: 32781

Re: The ol' Nationals Cracker Barrel

This 'ol Cracker Barrel is tumblin' on, but don' mind me, I'm just passin' by before I get to my there destination in the ol' Big Apple. Yessir, New York City for some good ol' fashioned bowlin'.

I'm hammered and I hope Jordan wins.
by Banana Stand
Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Documenting plagiarism
Replies: 20
Views: 11183

Re: Documenting plagiarism

A bit of self-plagiarism never hurt: Delta Burke 2012 Question: This author wrote of an "Arhat who sought Heaven under a mountain of stone" before claiming "humility is beatness before the absolute world" in "Sakyamuni Coming Out from the Mountain". This author asked, &...
by Banana Stand
Thu Apr 13, 2017 2:32 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Documenting plagiarism
Replies: 20
Views: 11183

Documenting plagiarism

I sometimes come across plagiarism in old sets and just brush it off since most were written a decent amount of time ago, but I feel like having a thread to document egregious examples would be fun. This is not meant to be witch-hunty since most of the offenders probably aren't even active anymore; ...