The Quizbowl Resource Center

Cincinatti for Cripus Attucks? I see no explanation for that one...

This one's pretty cynical/funny:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the author of Where's the Rest of Me? (Reagan's autobiography)

We have a ton of cynical or silly ones from practice, I don't really remember all of them, though. However, the following one is just one of a pattern of many odd "non-listening" negs made by a B team player at practice.

"The Frogs" for the author of Orestes and Medea (it was early in the question)

It's not very good when one buzzes without hearing the first two or three defining words of the tossup which actually indicate WHAT IT IS ASKING FOR.

Someone on my team buzzed when it began "Oscar Robertson attended a high school" and said Cincinatti (which is, I believe, where he played in college). Apparently, he also attended Crispus Attucks high school.

And a few more:

Smallpox and Solar Eclipse for El Nino
Microscope for Submarine
Zimmerman Telegram for Munich Pact (after the question had said "presented by Mussolini")

Yeah, Robertson did play high school at Crispus Attucks High. His team plus Muncie Central were the inspiration for "South Bend Central (where John Wooden began his coaching career, ironically)" in Hoosiers.

And South Bend Central's star player, "Malone" (I think) was inspired by Robertson himself.

Way to beat me to it, Slade.

In an effort to bring us back on topic....today in practice:
Reader: Two upper class, and somewhat twisted kids :buzz:
Me: uhhhhhhhh............Lerner and Loewe

Please do not swear outside of AHAN, or I and a friend will abduct you from a playground, murder you, dissolve your face with sulfuric acid, and dump your corpse in a swamp outside Chicago. We'll get away with it, too.
- Friendly Neighborhood Moderator

Edited twice by BigTrain

Reader: "Blah, blah, blah, work by Rousseau, blah, blah"

Player: buzz. To captain: "The Social Contract by Locke."

Captain: To moderator: "The Social Contract by Locke."

Please do not swear outside of AHAN, or I and a friend will abduct you from a playground, murder you, dissolve your face with sulfuric acid, and dump your corpse in a swamp outside Chicago. We'll get away with it, too.
- Friendly Neighborhood Moderator

please do.......haha

Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderator will come after you too if you continue to incite board drama. Watch yourself. - Admin

Hmm, I don't know if these could be considered "bad negs" or just bad questions, but they must be shared. We just went to a small, junior-college tournament that we go to every year as a relaxing "beat everyone easily" tournament, as the field is small and not very competitive. Anyhow, the questions have always been one-liners, but they maintained an academic nature. However, we've won the tournament every year for a very, very long time, so I guess this year they wanted to "broaden the scope" of the questions. They were almost all trash this year, and below are some humorous, albeit sickening, examples.

We had a 4-part bonus on the colors of tractors. (green, yellow, red, and orange)

I answered a toss-up on internet "flaming." (Yes, teufelhunden flaming, not something being on fire.)

"Exactly what percent of the Earth's landmass does South America comprise?" (13%, if anyone's curious).

"In what state is the Sundance Film Festival held annually?" (Utah, IIRC)

This is a sampling, almost all of the questions were like this, in the last 2 rounds (out of 3) we just started laughing at almost every question and somewhat mocking everything. Anyway, I guess maybe I got a taste of what a Chip tournament would be like.

Out of curiosity, what tournament was this?

The SUSCC tournament at Wadley.

Ok, my own personal contribution, and what I hope will not be replaced as my worst neg ever:
"Blah blah blah name this type of latin music, which shares its name witha type of hot mexican sauce"
BUZZ
Me: "Tabasco. . . no, wait. . ."

From a JV tournament at Irmo High School this past weekend here in South Carolina.

".... Give the name of this court, which was called so due to the stars painted on the courtroom's ceiling."

Correct answer: Star Chamber
Incorrcet answer: Night Court

As a moderator, I lost it for a couple minutes there on that one.

steven-lamp wrote:The SUSCC tournament at Wadley.

What's SUSCC stand for? And is Wadley a college or a town? Just curious.

During a freshmen practice, and the category is Virginia:
Reader: Identify the ocatagonal shaped building :buzz:
Freshmen: The Pentagon

During a J category:
Question: This American naval hero...:buzz:
Answer: Jones
Moderator:Could you be more specific?
Answer: Um...James Earl?

NotBhan wrote:

steven-lamp wrote:The SUSCC tournament at Wadley.

What's SUSCC stand for? And is Wadley a college or a town? Just curious.

SUSCC is Southern Union State Community College (I think). And Wadley is the po-dunk town where it's located.

At a practice one time when I was a senior...

"blah blah, identify this novel..."

Me: Billy Budd

Coach: Written by...?

Me: Moby Dick

-that was one of those 'open mouth, insert foot' moments...

This isn't really a neg, just a really lucky/great buzz from a tournament we went to today.

"Identify the part of speech of the word "spending" in the follow.."

BUZZ

Jay: Adjective

Kinda crazy, because it could have been an adjective, verb, or noun...anyway, it was kind of funny.

This isn't really a neg, just a really lucky/great buzz from a tournament we went to today.

"Identify the part of speech of the word "spending" in the follow.."

BUZZ

Jay: Adjective

Kinda crazy, because it could have been an adjective, verb, or noun...anyway, it was kind of funny.

I believe that goes under "improbable but correct answers".

bigtrain wrote:During a freshmen practice, and the category is Virginia:
Reader: Identify the ocatagonal shaped building :buzz:
Freshmen: The Pentagon

That is totally unescusable. The person deserves to be taunted about the question for a long time.

mentalchocolate wrote:

bigtrain wrote:During a freshmen practice, and the category is Virginia:
Reader: Identify the ocatagonal shaped building :buzz:
Freshmen: The Pentagon

That is totally unescusable. The person deserves to be taunted about the question for a long time.

Can I just taunt you about your spelling instead? :)

No, you can't. You can make fun of the extremely small keyboard on our family laptop. Its quite small and I'm not used to it yet. Plus note what time it was when I posted...no mountain dew in my system either.

Q: In the middle of the night, a destroyer smashed into his ship and cut it in two...
Response: Odysseus

Right...(the answer was JFK)

Today in practice:

Answer given: Amelia Earhart
Correct Answer: The Space Shuttle Columbia


The question kept talking about all of the missions that "she" flew...

This inspired the student to reply: I hate it when they refer to inanimate objects as "she" or "he!"

ImmaculateDeception wrote:From the UIUC Earlybird Tournament yesterday: "'The 'Cross of Gold' Speech' by William Cullen Bryant... er... no... Jennin..."
The circumstances of this neg make it worse, since it was taken after a good buzz on a "'Cross of Gold' speech" tossup which was, as it happened, the final question of a very close (i.e. very probably decided by this tossup) semifinal match. It was a shame to see a match decided like that... but I guess these things happen.

MaS

i am the one that committed the neg. during the whole question they were talking about the speech. i do not know why i felt it necessary to blitz. even if i didn't screw it up, the subsequent bonus was on japanese novels. i could not think of one to save my life so get off my back.

DaGeneral wrote:i am the one that committed the neg. during the whole question they were talking about the speech. i do not know why i felt it necessary to blitz. even if i didn't fuck it up, the subsequent bonus was on japanese novels. i could not think of one to save my life so get off my back.

'Sup; actually, I thought it was a good buzz you made and really hated having to neg you, is all I'm saying.

MaS

ImmaculateDeception wrote:

DaGeneral wrote:i am the one that committed the neg. during the whole question they were talking about the speech. i do not know why i felt it necessary to blitz. even if i didn't fuck it up, the subsequent bonus was on japanese novels. i could not think of one to save my life so get off my back.

'Sup; actually, I thought it was a good buzz you made and really hated having to neg you, is all I'm saying.

MaS

Speaking of negs on good buzzes at UIUC, I seem to recall being negged at the Illinois Open for saying "Austro-Prussian War" instead of the more obscure name "Seven Week's War", both of which regularly refer to the same conflict.

Bruce wrote:...I seem to recall being negged at the Illinois Open for saying "Austro-Prussian War" instead of the more obscure name "Seven Week's War", both of which regularly refer to the same conflict.

Yeah, that's entirely possible; I neglected to add that as an alternative answer to the question, for which oversight I apologize. If it mattered, you could have protested it and would almost certainly have been given your points.
Also, I (and three reference sources) disagree with you about the relative obscurity of the answers, but this is a moot point; you were right.

MaS

ImmaculateDeception wrote:

DaGeneral wrote:i am the one that committed the neg. during the whole question they were talking about the speech. i do not know why i felt it necessary to blitz. even if i didn't fuck it up, the subsequent bonus was on japanese novels. i could not think of one to save my life so get off my back.

'Sup; actually, I thought it was a good buzz you made and really hated having to neg you, is all I'm saying.

MaS

i know. a really funny thing happened after the match though. when culver academy found out that we were going to play them for 3rd place, they took off and forfeited. they claimed it was because of homecoming, but i don't believe it. i think it was because of the beatdown we had issued earlier in the day.

Is this Culver Academy the one from Indiana?

DaGeneral wrote:i know. a really funny thing happened after the match though. when culver academy found out that we were going to play them for 3rd place, they took off and forfeited. they claimed it was because of homecoming, but i don't believe it. i think it was because of the beatdown we had issued earlier in the day.

Meh; actually, their coach had made me aware of their having homecoming and needing to potentially leave early long before the tournament, so I took their having to leave for that reason in good faith. Of course, that they were playing you, I'm sure, didn't help. I hope the ad hoc opposition we arranged went alright.

solonqb wrote:Is this Culver Academy the one from Indiana?

Yes. They played at UIUC Earlybird and did swimmingly, I thought, for a team at its first tournament ever.

MaS

ImmaculateDeception wrote:

DaGeneral wrote:i know. a really funny thing happened after the match though. when culver academy found out that we were going to play them for 3rd place, they took off and forfeited. they claimed it was because of homecoming, but i don't believe it. i think it was because of the beatdown we had issued earlier in the day.

Meh; actually, their coach had made me aware of their having homecoming and needing to potentially leave early long before the tournament, so I took their having to leave for that reason in good faith. Of course, that they were playing you, I'm sure, didn't help. I hope the ad hoc opposition we arranged went alright.

it was pretty fun playing against our coaches. i hope to exact my revenge since i heard that culver is hosting an naqt tournament in early 2005 but it's the same day as masonic regionals, and money is worth more than revenge

Someone at leagues yesterday gave "Xena" for "Condoleezza Rice."

Today at Brookwood, during the prelims when I was playing horribly: *other team negs really early* FTP, name this first novel by Ralph Ellison" *BUZZ* Me: "The Color Purple....*slam buzzer* damnit wrong black person!"
Also, this one was great: *team also negs early* "blah blah blah something about stuff that makes the outside of galaxies spin faster than the insides discovered recently at Cal or something." *BUZZ* Me: Dark Mass, i mean, Dark Matter..." I just dropped my head to the desk after that....ugh.

Also from Brookwood, as a moderator:

Correct answer: cosmology
Incorrect answer: cosmetology

Sure, it's understandable, I guess, but....

Judy Dench for Judy Bloom

this writer created the imaginary location of til [buzz]

answer by teammate: walt whitman

[myself preventing myself from wringing his neck]

correct answer: edwin arlington robinson (tilbury town)

(some stuff about the oldest mail server on the internet), followed by the line, "but the constellation..."

<buzz> "Netscape?"

(correct: Pegasus)

I suppose Netscape could have been a constellation; it did have that little comet up in the right hand corner a while back...

frosh-soph "B" match (still no excuse)....


blah, blah.....captain of the Bounty



nine seconds of silence....<buzz>

Captain Morgan?


[mumble,mumble, grumble, grumble]

Moderator: In Act III, the title character considers drowning herself *buzz*
G: HAMLET!
Me: AUGH! (or something to that effect)...

There are so many things wrong with that... the answer turned out to be Aida.

During the GSAC:
"This singer 'wants to be your neighbor'..."
buzz: Mister Rogers
correct answer: Hey Ya!
I consider that a poorly written question--the song definitely goes "I AM your neighbor!"

"This winner of the 1992 some physical body contest..."
buzz: Arnold Schwarzenegger
correct answer: Mr. Potato Head
Now that one was just weird...luckily we got that one right :)

I like how that one mentioned the term "spokesspud" in the second sentence.

radiantradon wrote:During the GSAC:
"This singer 'wants to be your neighbor'..."
buzz: Mister Rogers
correct answer: Hey Ya!
I consider that a poorly written question--the song definitely goes "I AM your neighbor!"

"This winner of the 1992 some physical body contest..."
buzz: Arnold Schwarzenegger
correct answer: Mr. Potato Head
Now that one was just weird...luckily we got that one right :)

you are right.

From the first round of league play today in the Youngstown area...
Ohio format team question in American History:

Intro: Given two British rulers, identify the house to which they both belonged.
Team A question: [king's name] and [queen's name]
Answer given after eight seconds: BUCKINGHAM PALACE

I wanted to call the match dead right there...

The beloved freshmen practice:
Reader: Identify the 8 point treaty signed...
buzz: the 14 points

It ended up being the Atlantic Charter.

Today on Kevin "the undead" Keegan's Quizmaster Challenge TV show:

Buzz: Sacco and Vanzetti
Answer: King Tut

There was a visual (black and white) which showed to males standing around. The offending player later claimed that the men "looked italian."

"Spanky's Gang" for "Legumes"

This is from when I was a sophomore, and the answer given was by my teams captain.

Question: According to [insert reliable source here], the internet is used most for this purpose, by the average adult.

*buzz*

Answer given: Pornography! (very enthusiastically, I might add.)

*much laughter and blushing*

Real answer: E-mail

My blunder today - Remarque for The Comic Book Guy.