Week 35: I learned to read from the answers
A thought about quiz bowl moderation and Alex Trebek
(This is shorter than I expected for this week. In addition to what was written here, we had a death in the family on Tuesday, my uncle, and we're trying to get ourselves through these next few days. But I had written this up before, and it deserves to be said.)
Despite never doing it for quiz bowl (the closest he got was the National Geographic Bee), Alex Trebek was our gold standard for moderating questions. We should not give short shrift to the "standard" part of that. By getting those words out episode after episode, he influenced how people thought those words should be pronounced, and how fast you could take those turns of phrase, and how people expected questions to be read.
Much of standardization is simply people witnessing a common practice and agreeing that that practice works. By setting a professional example witnessed by thousands of quiz bowlers prior to them discovering the game, over thousands of hours, Alex Trebek standardized the moderation of quiz bowl as much as anything we have done for ourselves. It's not merely in creating a standard expected pronunciation, it's in giving the game momentum and direction and a gentle urgency always pushing it forward, with a minimum of diversion.
It's difficult to watch Jeopardy! without locking into the game, but if you can pull yourself out of that rhythm, and just watch Alex keep everything moving forward, while keeping the players from running the game too quick for viewers, or too slow that even a hint of boredom could enter the studio. That, combined with his genuine warmth and good humor toward all contestants is his legacy for quiz bowl.
Our local show has a new host this season, and you can see the rough spots where he's new at this. And then when I'm all set to criticize his delivery, I remember he's only maybe 10 episodes into this, in a situation where there's not as much editing allowed, and not nearly the prior experience. But he has some tape to show how to do it.
When you're commended for your moderation rather than politely thanked, it's often because you give the same professionalism, knowledge of the rules, and pacing to your reading of questions that Alex gave to each episode. If you do that, and apply what he showed you to moderating, quizzing, or pub quiz hosting, you're honoring his life's work.
Didn’t You Learn Anything from Last Time?
1
One variety of this polymer is formed when the ring of caprolactam breaks at its amide, and an amide link is formed.
A. Name this class of polymers, another example of which can be formed from alternating units of hexanedioic acid and 1,6-diaminohexane.
answer: nylon
B. Nylon-6,6 differs from Nylon-6 described in the leadin by polymerizing by this process where a water molecule is ejected as the amide link forms.
answer: condensation polymerization
C. In nylon the amide links connect chains of alkenes together, in the similar polymer Kevlar this aromatic compound forms the units that are connected.
answer: benzene or C6H6
2
The controversy over this territory inspired Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the US Constitution.
A. Name this region of what is now Tennessee which petitioned to join the United States as a separate state in 1785.
answer: State of Frankland or Franklin
B. Franklin's petition was denied as they failed to gather the approval of a majority of states, as prescribed in this document's Article XI.
answer: Articles of Confederation
C. The wording of Article IV prohibits states from forming unilaterally within the jurisdiction of any other state. Franklin attempted to effectively secede from this coastal state.
answer: North Carolina
3
After writing to his commanding officer protesting the continuation of World War I, this poet was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital.
A. Name this poet who collected his wartime poems in Counter-Attack and Other Poems.
answer: Siegfried Sassoon
B. Sassoon was friends with this other writer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, whose wartime experiences were published in Goodbye to All That. His historical fiction chronicled the lives of Roman emperors up to Claudius, as described by Suetonius.
answer: Robert Graves
C. While recovering from shellshock, this poet met Sassoon at Craiglockhart, and wrote the poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth”.
answer: Wilfred Owen
4
Beginning in 2020 this painting, along with its painter, appear on the back of Britain's 20-pound note.
A. Name this painting depicting a Royal Navy ship being towed to Rotherhithe to be scrapped.
answer: The Fighting Temeraire
B. The Fighting Temeraire was painted by this English artist of Rain, Steam, and Speed.
answer: J(oseph) M(aillord) W(illiam) Turner
C. The HMS Temeraire's most notable naval action came in this 1805 battle where it defended Nelson's flagship the HMS Victory.
answer: Battle of Trafalgar
5
After 25 seconds the first commercial radio broadcast performed the 1920's equivalent of asking the audience for likes.
A. The commercial broadcast began by announcing these call letters, which today name a radio and television station in Pittsburgh.
answer: KDKA
B. KDKA was owned by this electrical and manufacturing company, which eventually merged with CBS.
answer: Westinghouse Electric Company
C. The broadcast announced the returns of the 1920 election, which saw this Republican defeat James M. Cox.
answer: Warren G(amaliel) Harding