Week 34: There are times I hate being correct
When the predictable becomes predicted, it's much less fun.
In my latest observation of televised competition, I discovered that there was a question in the next round on a movement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets, which gave the giveaway as the second planet from the sun.
It took some cleverness and ingenuity to incorporate a question on The Planets into a televised round, but it fell on deaf ears here, because specific movements of The Planets aren’t intended to be clues you can answer televised quiz bowl, and so this was a blank clue filling space before the giveaway.
I find in this case, having pointed out the pattern, that there’s actually a great deal of difference between things being predictable, and things being predicted. My enjoyment of this seemed to go down immediately after I was proven right to warn to expect the same type of clue appearing again. I think a lot of that disappointment stemmed from the realization that because there will be a need for those questions, and they are appearing so closely together, the writers will likely exhaust all the answers in that list, with that exact same form of final clue.
And now another draft section of the book that is to be, which can only be used for televised quiz bowl once we return to having tossup questions.
B of the Buzz - Anticipation
As your team becomes better and faces better competition, you will find your team can’t wait for the whole clue to be read to fight for a question. It will seem like your team is being outbuzzed, by someone with ridiculous reflexes, but that’s not what happening. Your opponent is anticipating the clue and acting of the B of the Buzz
British Sprinter Linford Christie was often quoted that he started his races not merely at the ‘bang’ of the starting pistol, but at ‘The B of the Bang’. Christie was not just reacting to the sound of starter pistol, Christie is anticipating the pistol and launching himself on the initial sound of the shot. The analogue for this for your team is not to wait for the entire clue, but to react to the clue as it is being read. There are lots of cases where if you know the first word of the clue to appear (usually a title with multiple words) you don’t need if you are anticipating the clue to come.
This comes with practice of course, if you’ve never heard of the clue before you can’t be anticipating it appearing. So if you teach them to attack the question by expecting how the next clue should read, and when when it matches their expectation, buzz in as soon as it matches. Anticipation is simply having an idea of an answer in your head, finding that the next clue confirms your expectation, and immediately acting upon that answer. If you’re thinking Herman Melville for an answer because the earlier clues lead you to that, and the phrase runs “in whose novel Mo…,” you don’t need the rest of the title to react. You’re acting on the B of the Buzz.
Back to stuff to write questions from: next week expect some questions in this space.
Stuff to listen to and see
In Our Time covers The Fighting Temeraire and gives you a link to the bequest of JMW Turner to the National Gallery.
Stuff to see
Stuff to read
The Articles You Can Learn From This Week
The election of 1920 and the first commercial radio broadcast, which took place 100 years ago this week.
The Articles I Learned From This Week
This appears to be planned but not yet taken place: Barbados plans to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state and declare themselves a republic. There’s some notable cases of this type of transition from Britain which can come up in questions, probably the most notable is that of Ireland.
During practice yet another question about the Faust legend came up, and I resolved that I should make a catalog of all the versions relevant for quiz bowl. Then I found this site, and realized I was off the hook for that idea. (the “Books,” “Music,” and “Film” links are all long lists of works in each medium.)
The Faust legend in all its variations