TRASH Upper Midwest Regionals at Iowa State, 11/9/03
Results: Can I Get Another One of These with Some Booze In It,
Please? (Northwestern A)
(Mike Bisberg, Colby Burnett, Robert Flaxman)
This is the second year in a row where our finish at
TRASH Regionals has dropped one spot - from winning in 2001, to tied for second in 2002, to third in
2003. I figure it'll still get us a bid, but it was frustrating - we only lost to
arch-nemeses Shelby Foote Soldiers by 30, and had I just reaction-buzzed on the Villanova
question rather than sitting there thinking "eight seed that won a championship"
was too easy a clue somehow, we would have gone 10-1 and at least made the final match.
At least we can say we convincingly defeated eventual winners Tia and the TRASHmen.
Favorite Tossup: It's TRASH, and I did even better than usual.
Some good ones: Dr. Julius Hibbert ("He has two long-lost brothers - one is a
jazz musician of some sort, the other is the director-"); Four home runs in one game
(got it on the second person to do it, which was the not-exactly-well-known-these-days Ed
Delahanty); Fountains of Wayne (started off by mentioning Route 46 West - I got it well
before any mention of the band); Ghostbusters (got it off the actors originally supposed
to play the lead roles, which was the first clue); Weird Al's Poodle Hat
("Genius in France is a tribute to Frank-"); Jerry Orbach (they started by
naming some Broadway roles, and my synapses fired to "Wouldn't it be funny if this
was Jerry Orbach?" Then they said "...and the original Billy Flynn in Chicago."
Oh baby.); David Duval ("In Suzy Whaley's first round at the Greater Hartford
Open, this golfer had the worst round, with an 83."); and pubic hair, which I got
thanks to Drew (see below).
Favorite Bonus: It's TRASH, so few jump out. The
funniest was the fan fiction bonus - the third part had an excerpt from some story which
was talking about people customizing boards with large numbers of squares. I said
"This must be some game," Bisberg suggested Minesweeper, and that's what it was.
Minesweeper fan fiction. Yikes.
Worst Neg: I only had three, and two were in the same
round. The worst was probably curling for the hammer; the most annoying was buzzing
in on John Daly and realizing I was wrong in what I had been thinking (which was Ben
Curtis) and having to sputter out the knew-it-was-wrong Davis Love III.
Simultaneously Coolest and Most Disappointing Moment:
I finished third overall in scoring with better than 50 ppg, by far my best-ever corporate
TRASH score (by about a tossup and a half per game). I was leading for much of the
day, though, before being overtaken at the end.
Redemption: Last year I negged on Peter Jackson with
Sam Raimi because of the mention of a car that appeared in most of his films. This
year I got Raimi off the car clue.
Questions for Drew: Last week it was the Wind Waker
question. This week it was even funnier. The first clue was "Women in
South Korea have been getting transplants to give themselves more of this."
Okay, no idea. "John Ruskin was reportedly so startled to see it on his
wife-" *BUZZ* Heh. I've heard Drew tell that Ruskin story so many times,
you have no idea.
"What the Hell?" Moment of the Day: This
doesn't really have anything to do with the tournament, but it's just too weird a story
not to mention it. So after a long drive out to Iowa, I got about three hours' sleep
before ISFT, and by the evening I
was totally bushed and ready to pass out. Wanting to get more sleep before TRASH,
Justin, Colby and I turned in around 11. I set the alarm for 6:15, and fell asleep
probably around a quarter past 11.
The alarm goes off. I get up, turn it off. The clock says
6:15. I take a shower. I come out of the bathroom. I look at the clock.
It says: 1:05.
1:05. I don't know what woke me up, but it wasn't the
alarm. Somehow I had only been asleep for 45 minutes - apparently I had been tired
enough when I woke up to think it was actually 6:15, though apparently not tired enough to
realize that I had not been asleep nearly long enough. Baffled, I went back to sleep
and got up at 6:45 (and took another shower, though mostly just to get my hair wet enough
so that it would become manageable with a hairbrush).
Round Robin
Round One: Northwestern A
320, Tia and the TRASHmen 160
Round Two: Northwestern A 385,
Monmouth 175
Round Three: Northwestern A 355,
Loyola 85
Round Four: Northwestern A 400,
Shelby Foote Fetish (Iowa C) 65
Round Five: Shelby Foote Soldiers (Iowa A) 265, Northwestern A 235
Round Six: Northwestern A 215,
Carleton C 75
Round Seven: Northwestern A 220,
Shelby Footie Pajamas (Iowa B) 150
Round Eight: Northwestern A 300,
Carleton A 135
Round Nine: Northwestern A 340,
Carleton B 60
Round Ten: Blast-Ended Skrewts (Hilleman, Kubicek, Pike, Mayfield) 340, Northwestern A 140
Round Eleven: Northwestern A 220,
Northwestern B 35
Overall: 9-2 (Third out of 12 teams)
Personal Stats: Questions Answered
No one's asking you to care about it. Powers would be in bold if they were used, neg-5s are in italics with the real answer following. Anything in plain text was just ten.
Round One
Ball lightning
Dr. Julius Hibbert
The Thrilla in Manila
Stargate
Double Dare
Four home runs in a game
Jay Leno
Armageddon
New Jersey Nets
Eloise
Round Two
Baylor
Ikea
Fountains of Wayne
Max Kellerman
Sam Raimi
Faceoff circles
Ghostbusters
With A Little Help From My Friends
Round Three
Takeru Kobayashi
Weird Al Yankovic - Poodle Hat
Sinister Six (really Masters of Evil)
Al Hirschfeld
Emmanuelle
Soy sauce
Round Four
Kingdom Hearts
Peter Mayhew
Jerry Orbach
Capturing the Friedmans
1918 Boston Red Sox
Mad Max
The marathon
Round Five
Ted McGinley
Cold Case
Toledo
Bigfoot
Round Six
2 Fast 2 Furious
Curt Schilling
He's So Fine
Candy corn
Round Seven
Anthony Head
Battle of the Sexes
Anna Faris
Good Boy!
Round Eight
Charlie Chan
Reuben sandwich
Realized I was wrong, threw out Davis Love III knowing it was wrong (really John Daly)
From Justin to Kelly
Harry Shearer
The Last American Virgin
Curling (really the hammer)
Round Nine
Pubic hair
The Heidi Game
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
How to Be Good
Jonathan Demme
Reggie Jackson
David Duval
Liberty Valance
Round Ten
Michael Vartan
Al Pacino
Round Eleven
Bubba Ho-Tep
Dave DeBusschere
Spam
PPG: 53.18