Search found 197 matches

by Chris Frankel
Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2009 Discussion
Replies: 153
Views: 51855

Re: Chicago Open 2009 Discussion

Just popping to offer a brief comment on the music distribution, which I agree came out flawed. I'll also note that while Eric was kind enough to give me a shoutout, all I really did was playtest arts question and offer minimal commentary about difficulty or clue ordering. I didn't promise or delive...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Apr 29, 2008 11:12 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF nationals discussion
Replies: 89
Views: 18510

Re: ACF nationals discussion

O I don't mind somewhat formulaic tossups on composers, of course within reason. Some works just don't lend themselves well to tossups. Personally, I'm a little tired of clues like saying the second movement is an andante con molto in E minor, followed by a scherzo in G major. If these sections are...
by Chris Frankel
Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Problems with Packets
Replies: 32
Views: 5995

Re: Problems with Packets

Teams not adhering to a distribution is less excusable, but, again, there weren't really clear guides on what you wanted. Obviously having people write 4 literature tossups on 20th century American novels is not acceptable, but I find it hard to criticize people for submitting things like two opera...
by Chris Frankel
Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Problems with Packets
Replies: 32
Views: 5995

Re: Problems with Packets

I've got a longer, more substantive post in the making, but I'm quite sleep deprived at the moment and will save it for a few days later. First off, I apologize profusely to Eric, the rest of the editors, and everyone who attended Nationals, for my failure to live up to my commitments. Some of the t...
by Chris Frankel
Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Private Sectionals Discussion Forum Signup and Access
Replies: 94
Views: 17766

username: esyfs
by Chris Frankel
Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Guns of August and the state of quizbowl history
Replies: 31
Views: 15489

Not being an active circuit participant and not having seen Bruce's set, but to throw my hat in the mix very quickly, I invite everyone to recall the discussion over the history set I wrote for last year's CO. One of the main characteristics of that tournament was an increased presence of questions ...
by Chris Frankel
Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:40 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging Interest in Chicago Open History Singles
Replies: 30
Views: 13786

Let me know if you need any help editing/proof-reading/organizing the packets; I can't make any sort of writing commitment, but would be happy to offer advice or guidance based on my experience last year if you need any.
by Chris Frankel
Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:45 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: posting stats
Replies: 19
Views: 8044

Sssshhhh guys, you might put a dent into Bruce's tired and played-out, "HEY GUYS I LIKE TO DO THINGS IN AN ABSURDELY ARCHAIC AND NONSENSICAL FASHION... PLEASE LOOK AT ME AND GIVE ME ATTENTION" gimmick; maybe he'll reply to this by reminding everyone that he is, gosh darnit, a William Henry...
by Chris Frankel
Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SEC tournament?
Replies: 33
Views: 13923

Also, doesn't Princeton hold a gigantic high school tournament every year that brings in a ton of money? Maybe that's not the case anymore, but you certainly had one in 2005, which drew over 30 teams, if I'm not mistaken. That hardly sounds like a poor club that needs to plead for money from the ad...
by Chris Frankel
Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:44 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SEC tournament?
Replies: 33
Views: 13923

This, pretty much. Also, depending on where you place the tournament, it's questionable whether Columbia/Princeton or Dartmouth/Harvard would make the trip, as many teams don't have the transportation to make even a 200 mile trip. Just look at the field for Yale's BoB, which is about halfway betwee...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:10 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: wit results
Replies: 23
Views: 11311

I skimmed the packet just now, though I'm too lazy to go to the trouble of an e-mail. General observations are that most of the questions, per se, are decently written, and that this packet as-is would not be totally out of place at a TTGT11-type theme deal. That said, I'd be pretty annoyed to be pl...
by Chris Frankel
Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Southern Virginia Tournament?
Replies: 43
Views: 18460

I think Jason Loy is from Maryland or Virginia. Seth Samelson and Kannan seem to have talked about playing against him in high school, at least. You know, it took five minutes to look up some old HSNCT results (http://www.naqt.com/hsnct/2004/2004-hsnct-results.html) and confirm that Jason played fo...
by Chris Frankel
Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:14 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall Commentary
Replies: 44
Views: 18021

But packet randomizing should really be rather nonrandom; you want the history, science, and lit tossups spaced out within the packet with everything else randomly scattered around. This is definitely true. Another important thing to take into account is that it is preferable to make sure the layou...
by Chris Frankel
Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall Commentary
Replies: 44
Views: 18021

I had no involvement in the set as a player or contributor, but I did have a few tossups playtested on me by Eric K., and I have to exhibit a mild "I told you so" sentiment, since I also thought the tossups were tending to be overly long and unnecessarily heavy on esoteric leadins. And hon...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Vancouver Estival Trivia Open question packets
Replies: 52
Views: 41914

actually, Niemoller is relatively well known (and certainly a household name in the history of theology). I'd even forgotten that quote was attributed to him... however, certainly we need tossups on Bonhoeffer (have there ever been any) and on the Confessing Church before ones on Niemoller. ACF Nat...
by Chris Frankel
Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:38 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
Replies: 43
Views: 19076

If this were a normal forum, this would just have been a brief edit message, but my possibly unclear point in the above post was to say that I was never trying to say that biography clues were inherently illegitimate or that people were less worth asking about than events so much as that tossup answ...
by Chris Frankel
Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:19 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
Replies: 43
Views: 19076

I see I ruffled some feathers with my glib remark about the merits of certain historical specialties. To rephrase my opinion less offensively, I would say that it's undeniable that some areas of scholarship, like the hypotheticals I mentioned, are going to seem "out there" to all but your ...
by Chris Frankel
Wed Aug 02, 2006 2:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
Replies: 43
Views: 19076

A few quick thoughts. In writing something like the New Model Army tossup, I didn't claim to be innovative, nor was I making the claim that I was the first person to put the topic in the canon. What I did claim to be doing is attempting to take a very gettable answer that hadn't been explored much i...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
Replies: 43
Views: 19076

Well, after some waffling, here's my general response to Ryan's initial concerns. First, I will freely concede that the history set was lacking the polish necessary to turn an acceptable/slightly above-average set into a high quality one. As many of you may know, I was in a pretty hectic rush to fin...
by Chris Frankel
Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
Replies: 43
Views: 19076

I'm still stalling for my eventual response, having just got home from work and being exhausted, but, in the mean time, I'll post the distribution I used to shed some more light onto how the set was constructed: 1/1 British (English/Scottish/Irish up to the English Civil War/Protectorate era) 1/1 Br...
by Chris Frankel
Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
Replies: 43
Views: 19076

I'm going to wait and see how this thread develops before addressing any specific points. I'll just note that my set also contained TU's on Mehmed II and the Treaty of Lausanne, and that, much to my great disappointment, the final round was not read (my intent was that it would be read regardless of...
by Chris Frankel
Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:27 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
Replies: 27
Views: 14290

Jeff, e-mail me ([email protected]) if you'd be interested in getting the packets and working on some mirror arrangement.
by Chris Frankel
Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:13 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
Replies: 27
Views: 14290

good luck with the tournament, just made myself very late to work finishing packets.

Eric Kwartler is in charge of logistics, so please email him with any last minute questions or concerns. Good luck and enjoy the set all.
by Chris Frankel
Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:39 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: July 15 to 24: Recruiting team members
Replies: 45
Views: 44129

Re: Pre-discussion questions

3) Diversity: do you have any specific strategy, a best practice, or a general team philosophy that welcomes girls/women and others from non-Caucasian or non-Asian demographic backgrounds? What works best in this case? Why should this be an issue at all? Why not just concentrate our efforts into ma...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
Replies: 27
Views: 14290

Sounds good, Ahmad. The 10th and last spot is your team's.
by Chris Frankel
Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
Replies: 27
Views: 14290

Few logistical questions to throw out: 1. We're covered on moderators. I have Eric, Zeke, Dave, and now Seth Teitler and Matt Nance. Andy and Ahmad, if you decide you want to help out, you can do so as well. 2. It seems like the field is somewhere between nine and ten teams, with ten being highly pr...
by Chris Frankel
Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bonus Policy in ACF
Replies: 13
Views: 6691

I think it's silly and have never used it in any tournaments I've directed.

For people playing in the CO history tournament, the bonus rule won't be in effect there either (i.e. all bonus answers and a confirmation of correctness/incorrectness will be given immediately after each part).
by Chris Frankel
Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:04 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
Replies: 27
Views: 14290

I'm going to provide a quick update re: the history tournament, which is happening in Chicago on the evening of Friday the 28th. Teams are: Beyer/Platzer Borglum/Kendall Burte/(Rosenberg?) Lafer/Westbrook Passner/Stratton Turner/Arthur Vinokurov/Meigs Weiner/ROME.RO SMASH Yaphe/Kemezis I also had tw...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:50 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: Recent Literature: General Thoughts/Who Makes the Cut?
Replies: 31
Views: 37972

As I was telling Matt the other night, I was the one who wrote the Dekker/Middleton bonus for ACF. The "easy" part involved identifying Dekker from his two best-known works (Honest Whore/Shoemaker's Holiday) and his collaboration with Thomas Middleton. I set up the bonus as having the othe...
by Chris Frankel
Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:27 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
Replies: 47
Views: 23500

I got a reply from him just now. It's not noteworthy enough to post (damn!), but he basically says two things. First, he defends his article on the claim that he intended his hyperbole to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I can see that to an extent, but I think the parts he cites as such could be interp...
by Chris Frankel
Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
Replies: 47
Views: 23500

I just e-mailed him my letter, a 7 page long tome with footnotes and an appendix (providing examples of quality questions to contrast with those of NAC). I will keep you all updated on responses, and I certainly agree now that it would be better to forward any rude replies to his superiors rather th...
by Chris Frankel
Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:59 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
Replies: 47
Views: 23500

I'm finishing my e-mail with the intent of sending it tomorrow. If he really does that shit, I'll respond with a usual super-offensive Frankel diatribe and let you know how it goes.
by Chris Frankel
Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: archive of TRASHionals cryfest flap?
Replies: 25
Views: 13294

I'll preface this post by saying that I have no personal stake in this controversy since I've never met Robert or Alma and I don't play trash, but I can't help but be bothered any time I hear someone calling for speech or behavior to be proscribed because it offends someone's personal sensibilities....
by Chris Frankel
Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:06 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: archive of TRASHionals cryfest flap?
Replies: 25
Views: 13294

In Passner's defense, the sort of kneejerk rants he laments is already having a chilling effect in the academic quiz bowl world as well. Witness how one Eric Kwalter [sic] explicitly rejected the proposal of Ryan Westbrook and myself to write a rape theme packet for his MATTE subject tournament, for...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Triple H questions: Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 3
Views: 3059

Re: Triple H questions: Quizbowl worthy?

Am I alone in thinking that Triple H Questions are worthy of Quizbowl? I think you're right too, but I hope in calling for more questions, you won't neglect his days as Terra Ryzin and Jean-Paul Levesque. Who can forget his early feud with "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright (the one with both a...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 32
Views: 20052

Maybe so, because I didn't see the above ratio and I don't know which questions were written by the original packet authors or added by an editor (I know this happened too many times last Saturday). Consider my objections dropped if this ratio is supposed to be in place for NAQT/ACF/etc: 1:1 ratio ...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 32
Views: 20052

If you know diddly-squat about the Mahabharata or the Qu'Ran or Buddist teachings, you have missed out on a huge chunk of literature, considering that much of literature (particularly the really important/influential stuff) alludes or refers to these and other works in some form. Hence, your litera...
by Chris Frankel
Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Some constructive ECSO criticism
Replies: 17
Views: 9124

I didn't play the tournament, but I did look at the packets. One annoying trend I'd like a moratorium on is "common link" tossups. By that I refer either to "the name's the same" list tossups or "everything mentioned fits in category X." I don't think they're inherently...
by Chris Frankel
Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:36 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
Replies: 47
Views: 23500

Does anyone have an e-mail contact for the columnist (Peter Applebome)? I've been trying to get one through the NYTimes website, but they seem to expect to pay for some silly subscription just to be able to get in touch with the author. If someone here has said subscription, posting an e-mail link w...
by Chris Frankel
Sun Jun 25, 2006 6:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
Replies: 47
Views: 23500

Just as the numerous other major media articles we've had regarding quiz bowl, this column's a cute little human interest piece, but woefully short on facts and context. Journalists tend to do that, since these "facts" tend to get in the way of a "story." Personally, I think it's...
by Chris Frankel
Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ECSO Discussion
Replies: 18
Views: 10989

Why does Tsar Alexander identify himself with a portrait of Nicholas II? And which Alexander are you, the guy who got his shit messed up by Napoleon, the guy who got his ass blown up, the guy who tried to impose all that nationalistic shit, or some new guy altogether?
by Chris Frankel
Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Editing of posts is disabled
Replies: 21
Views: 10936

I've always expressed my opinions to Matt privately, but I'll just repost them here. I don't get the purpose of punishing the whole forum, which has been well-behaved for over a year, because one user who has been here less than a week screws up and does some editing for what was more likely the pro...
by Chris Frankel
Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Southeast Tournaments: Fall 2006
Replies: 31
Views: 14922

FYI..... "The tournament of some kind" happens to be the Berry College Early Bird/Southeastern. It is the longest running annual "undergrad only" tournament in the country, having been started in the mid 1970's. It was one of the very few Quizbowl competitions (if not the only o...
by Chris Frankel
Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:21 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: QU-The field in Chicago
Replies: 144
Views: 65702

Isn't the "correct" answer to president riddle still incomplete? I remembered the old "Grant's tomb" riddle when I was re-examining the question just now (the riddle is that nobody is buried in Grant's tomb because Grant and his wife were entombed above ground in the building) an...
by Chris Frankel
Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: QU-The field in Chicago
Replies: 144
Views: 65702

Sorry, but I'm just not seeing the connection. Some spectators shushing each other does not really say much to me about the tournament's focus. I think what he's saying is that Chip's refusal to discourage (or, more accurately, his encouragement of) what your average circuit tournament (let alone a...
by Chris Frankel
Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Survey: Computer Science in Quiz Bowl
Replies: 16
Views: 8123

In a sort of response to this thread and the corresponding college thread, I'm all for CS questions in quizbowl. (Disclaimer: I'm a CS major.) Unfortunately, over my time, most of the questions have been "name the programming language", which isn't really CS. Nick, for what it's worth, I ...
by Chris Frankel
Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:36 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: the most annoying thing about quizbowl
Replies: 22
Views: 12538

Howard's right, but even as someone who studied Latin for ~4 years in middle school/high school, I absolutely agree that the whole "bonuses" thing is retarded and needs to stop. For my part, I make sure to say "bonuses" in every post and tournament announcement I make that refere...
by Chris Frankel
Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: high school - college retention
Replies: 72
Views: 31105

Well, this post is just to reply to Chris' interest in seeing some sort of D2 stats, as I got bored and did something to that effect. I looked at all the ICT's that had been hosted since my freshman year, took the top 5 teams from D2, and compared them to my general memory of seeing their names arou...
by Chris Frankel
Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: QU NAC in DC
Replies: 62
Views: 36232

While Matt's argumentative style has always been more aggressive than most people would care to endure, it seems to be artificially enhanced in threads like these by the propensity of Chip supporters to flippantly dismiss every attempt to back up NAC criticisms with first hand experience, statistica...
by Chris Frankel
Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:06 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: QU NAC in DC
Replies: 62
Views: 36232

That is certainly a fine selection of questions that serve to prove what exactly? It seems a bit like using selected facts to prove a conclusion. Would it be impossible to also find perfectly reasonable questions among the archives? I just read two days ago and don't seem to recall feeling that the...