From: hagerp@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Paul Hager)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Quiz Bowl: We lost but ...
Date: 17 Apr 92 15:47:51 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University


	We lost but apparently the buzzer system was defective.
In our leadoff match with the number 1 ranked School of Business
team we started off like a streak.  I rang in very early and even
got a couple of sports questions ahead of Sagarin.  I think our
early ring ins led the School of Business to realize that they
had to come in as early as possible.  They had obviously gotten
pretty desparate and we had almost psychologically beaten them
after one of our people gave the world wheat crop within 10 million
tons.  The School of Business people almost fell out of their
chairs on that one.

	But then they started really contesting for the answers and
at that point my buzzer started not to respond.  At first I thought
I was slow.  Then a couple of times, members of my own team beat me
on "pot luck".  Pot Luck, incidently, was the presentation of 3
descriptors followed by a word or phase that matched one of them.
The trick is to remember the 3 in short term memory, ring in immediately
on the giving of the phrase and then do the match.  I don't think a
lot of the people had snapped to this and no one was faster at it I
was.  Also, my verbal aptitude has always been very high so I rely on
knowing the answer before I do the mental match.  Anyway, the point of
all this is to indicate that when I buzzed on pot luck starting about
4 minutes into the match, despite being convinced that I was first
and hearing the tone from the buzzer, lights for teammates came on.
I never looked at lights and so called out the answer just as or just
before a team mate gave it.  Fortunately we got credit but I couldn't
figure out what was happening.

	The Business School began to come on strong.  They tied the
score and then we went back and forth for a while.  Then they hit
a string of 5 questions -- all of which I knew and rang in on --
and built up a lead as time ran out.  The final score was 120 to 80,
the highest aggregate score in the tournament.  Although I think I
was slower on one of the 5, I'm sure I was faster on the other 4.
Actually, all I needed was to be faster on 3 and we would have won.

	My misgivings about the buzzer we confirmed shortly thereafter.
A friend of mine on the Monroe Co. Bar Association team came up to
me after they lost their match.  She asked me if I had had trouble
with my buzzer.  Yes, I responded, I thought it was flakey and failing
intermittently.  She said I should talk to Pamela Davidson, their
team captain who said her buzzer (the same one I used) didn't work
properly.  I then talked to Dan Combs of the "Stoneys" team and
he reported the same problem.  I told the director of the Quiz Bowl
of the problem.  I kind of hoped that there would be a replay or
reschedule of the event after the buzzers had been fixed.

	The next round match between the School of Business and
Monroe Co. government went on as scheduled.  One difference was
that Monroe Co. government had only three players and THEY SHIFTED
DOWN ONE SEAT away from the defective buzzer.  THEY BEAT THE SCHOOL
OF BUSINESS.

	I'll not go into the rest of the tournament except to say
that all results stood.  Also, the previous year there had been
problems with the same buzzer(s) but, according to the director,
the buzzers had been checked by "an electrician."  Well ...

	It was not a total loss.  Actually, I developed some new
contacts.  It turns out that Dan Combs, who writes a short column
for the Herald-Times under the sobriquet "Carp" Combs, is also
the Perry Township Trustee and a minor politico in town.  He is
totally on our side!!  He said that he knows a lot of people in
county and city government and most agree that the drug war is
a crock but are afraid to speak out.  He also knew about our
HCRC booth at the Monroe Co. Fair and thought it was "great".
Anyway, he and I are going to get together at some point.  He
also invited me to come to a regular gathering of local types
he calls "the old farts" and discuss "political philosophy."

	That's it for now.  Tomorrow, Collins Fest.

-- 
paul hager		hagerp@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu

"The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason."
			-- Thomas Paine, _The Age of Reason_
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs