Hats Off: A Hat-Related Vanity Tournament, Sometime 2011

[Nine-Tenths Ideas]

Hats used to be incredibly important. A man who was not wearing a hat was a man to mock and ridicule. However, at some point in the second half of the 20th century, that stopped being true. Whatever the reason was for that, it is somewhat amusing to go through various older things and see the incredibly serious references to hats.
This is the announcement for Hats Off, a bizarre tournament related to hats in history, literature, and a few other fields. A rough distribution is as follows:
25% Literature
25% History
25% RMP, Social Science
25% Other [Trash, Maybe Something Science Related, General Knowledge, Misc.]

I anticipate it being a tossup-only packet of around 40 tossups, although that is subject to change based on whether I find more or less to write on than I expected. Difficulty will be very variant-- tossups will range on anything from widely-known parts of the HS canon to things that may be vaguely important in some sense of the word. Answerlines will rarely actually be based entirely on hats, but tossups will contain at least 1 hat-related anecdotal or textual clue. I am writing this to [other than please myself] impress upon whoever is playing how absolutely prominent and important hats were in the past.
Hats Off will be completed at some point later in 2011. It is not slated to played at any tournament, but if a TD is interested in using the set, they can email me at [email protected].

Below is one example tossup:
This man made an 1851 visit to the United States where he wore a broad-brimmed felt hat instead of the expected top hat, and Henry Thoreau later claimed the ensuing shift in fashion was the only lasting effect of that visit. That visit came on the heels of a more successful visit to Britain via the USS Mississippi, during which Queen Victoria demanded the resignation of Lord Palmerston for Palmerston's insistence this man visit him. This man was rivals with Istvan Szechenyi, and he denounced another rival in the "Cassandra Letter." A rival of Ferenc Deak and supporter of Franz Joseph, for ten points, name this former journalist and exiled, brief leader of Hungary through the Revolution of 1848.
ANSWER: Lajos Kossuth

[AKKOLADE]

i will fight anyone who trashes this tournament

[AKKOLADE]

said fighting involves those inflatable sumo wrestler outfits

[Mechanical Beasts]

i will fight anyone who trashes this tournament

yeah good thing it's not on Harry Potter that would be truly absurd

[Frater Taciturnus]

said fighting involves those inflatable sumo wrestler outfits

THIS TOURNAMENT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA AND SHOULD NE'ER HAPPEN

SEE YOU AT NATIONALS, FRED MORLAN

[Angry Babies in Love]

This is sooo cool. As someone who has started wearing hats to every tournament (excluding ones where I leave the hat at IHOP) I would very much like to play this somewhere at some point.

[Skepticism and Animal Feed]

Not only will I play this, I will play this in a fedora. Though I am furious that the Kossuth tossup won't be in the set.

[Nine-Tenths Ideas]

This tournament is still being written. It is about half-completed and hopefully I should have it done in time for some sort of summer event.
In the meantime, enjoy this article I wrote for Wikipedia about the Straw Hat Riot of 1922.

[JamesIV]

Isaac, you are an awesome person. I would love to play this.

Side note:

As someone who has started wearing hats to every tournament

I may start doing this.

[Angry Babies in Love]

Isaac, you are an awesome person. I would love to play this.

Side note:

As someone who has started wearing hats to every tournament

I may start doing this.

I unfortunately stopped, but if I invest in some really good hats I may make that a college thing.

[marnold]

I will postulate that the number of people who tried to be "that guy who does X at quizbowl tournaments" who weren't mocked or loathed for doing it can be counted on zero hands.

[Cheynem]

Except for Andrew Yaphe, "that guy who wins at quizbowl tournaments."

[Great Bustard]

Any ETA on when this will be finished?

[Nine-Tenths Ideas]

I'm going to say "by August," but it depends on how much work I find myself having.