The Quizbowl Resource Center

One wonderful aspect of high school quiz bowl are the buzz words...those stock phrases that are always used to describe one particular thing.

Examples

Fiasco: Bay of Pigs
Strongman: Manuel Noriega/Panama

List your favorites here.

Disappointed office-seeker. Charles Guiteau shoots Garfield. I've never seen him described any other way.

It shall/will be...(insert vague reference to Fimbulwinter here):Ragnarok

fool_by_compulsion wrote:Disappointed office-seeker. Charles Guiteau shoots Garfield. I've never seen him described any other way.

In Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, there's a scene where all of the assassins - Booth, Hinckley, Fromme, Czolgosz, Guiteau - try to convince Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot Kennedy. The best part of the scene: each assassin says what history will remember him as if Oswald screws up (i.e. Booth says "vainglorious actor.")

What does Charlie Guiteau say? "Disappointed office-seeker." No joke.

Austrian diplomat/foreign minister for Metternich. They never ask for any other Austrian diplomats ever. Painter of voluptuous women for Rubens.

DVader wrote:Austrian diplomat/foreign minister for Metternich.

I could have sworn not too many years in the past hearing a "This Austrian diplomat ...." and having it come up "Waldheim" .....

The word "synonym" in a biographical question is an immediate tip-off for "Quisling." Don't even wait for "...for traitor." Has anyone ever actually heard "Quisling" used to mean "traitor" outside of quiz bowl?

BuzzerZen wrote:The word "synonym" in a biographical question is an immediate tip-off for "Quisling." Don't even wait for "...for traitor." Has anyone ever actually heard "Quisling" used to mean "traitor" outside of quiz bowl?

It's used mainly by Europeans and by Americans who are trying to sound European, at least in my experience.

Bruce wrote:

BuzzerZen wrote:The word "synonym" in a biographical question is an immediate tip-off for "Quisling." Don't even wait for "...for traitor." Has anyone ever actually heard "Quisling" used to mean "traitor" outside of quiz bowl?

It's used mainly by Europeans and by Americans who are trying to sound European, at least in my experience.

I saw it used once in Peanuts when I was 10 or 11. I had to look up what it was.

Tegan wrote:

DVader wrote:Austrian diplomat/foreign minister for Metternich.

I could have sworn not too many years in the past hearing a "This Austrian diplomat ...." and having it come up "Waldheim" .....

See, I, on hearing "Austrian diplomat," would be thinking Waldheim long before I thought Metternich, but maybe that's just me.

Any quotation question that begins with a heavily emphasized "There!" by the reader will ALWAYS be Hancock. I learned this very early in my quizbowl career and it has always served me well.

Strauss and Oscar Wilde in same question --> Salome.

Then there are the people who preach buzzing in with Brahe as soon as you hear "Danish astronomer" and the codependent question writers who keep reinforcing this.

Tycho...Brahe (my shout out to Gerardo)

Expect a lot of this in the near future:

"Born Leslie..."

How about "Norwegian playwright" for Ibsen. And "famous for only writing one book" for Harper Lee, I swear no one need ever know what the book was about, just that it was THE Harper Lee book. Kinda sad. And one of my personal favorites, "this physicist played the bongos" for Richard Feynman.

Trevkeeper's tossup total would go down significantly if it wasn't for an "Italian physicist" named Fermi.

BuzzerZen wrote:The word "synonym" in a biographical question is an immediate tip-off for "Quisling." Don't even wait for "...for traitor." Has anyone ever actually heard "Quisling" used to mean "traitor" outside of quiz bowl?

Um, what about Benedict Arnold? You could get a biographical question about him, and his name is a synonym for traitor.



I have heard Quisling used, in an Irish song.

MJG wrote:And "famous for only writing one book" for Harper Lee, I swear no one need ever know what the book was about, just that it was THE Harper Lee book.

Isn't The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath's only novel? The Picture of Dorian Gray same-same for Oscar Wilde .....I could be wrong here as Lit isn't anywhere close to my speciality ..... but I could have sworn that these might fit here ..... I suppose, depending if I am right on this, it might also depend on the meaning of "book" vs. "novel".

Choose two of these three words:

Dutch/Jewish/lensgrinder

Eric

Isn't The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath's only novel? The Picture of Dorian Gray same-same for Oscar Wilde .....I could be wrong here as Lit isn't anywhere close to my speciality ..... but I could have sworn that these might fit here ..... I suppose, depending if I am right on this, it might also depend on the meaning of "book" vs. "novel".

I think he meant that when they ask about a Harper Lee novel, they're looking for To Kill A Mockingbird. That is what I thought too when I first read his post, but upon closer examination, i think that he meant to say what i just said above. He just phrased it poorly I think.

swwFCqb wrote:

Isn't The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath's only novel? The Picture of Dorian Gray same-same for Oscar Wilde .....I could be wrong here as Lit isn't anywhere close to my speciality ..... but I could have sworn that these might fit here ..... I suppose, depending if I am right on this, it might also depend on the meaning of "book" vs. "novel".

I think he meant that when they ask about a Harper Lee novel, they're looking for To Kill A Mockingbird. That is what I thought too when I first read his post, but upon closer examination, i think that he meant to say what i just said above. He just phrased it poorly I think.

Sorry to say that I've seen multiple tossups with asking for Lee that state she's famous for just one work. Tegan's correct on the two examples with "only one novel," which does make it ambiguous when saying "one book." I've heard it as "one work," too, which does make it pretty clear that it's Lee.

Margaret Mitchell is famous for just one book.

Personally, I've heard about Harper Lee and Truman Capote being childhood friends more than enough times.

I swear, I hear the phrase "5 cent philly cigars" every other tournament.

Finnish composer..... Jean Sibelius every time

Finnish composer..... Jean Sibelius every time

That applies to many narrow country-occupation relationships: Danish physicist, Danish explorer, Danish astronomer, Polish astronomer, Norwegian playwright, Egyptian author, Chilean poet, Cuban (and Iraqi, Korean, Chilean, etc.) dictator, etc. These are phrases any high school team should recognize immediately IMHO.

Trickster god- Loki

Djibouti wrote:

Finnish composer..... Jean Sibelius every time

That applies to many narrow country-occupation relationships: Danish physicist, Danish explorer, Danish astronomer, Polish astronomer, Norwegian playwright, Egyptian author, Chilean poet, Cuban (and Iraqi, Korean, Chilean, etc.) dictator, etc. These are phrases any high school team should recognize immediately IMHO.

Be careful with Cuban and Korean dicatator. Yes, Castro is more famous, but Fulgencio Batista also comes up. Also Kim Il-Sung occurs time to time, as well as the obvious, Kim Jong Il.

To add to this list:
Norwegian economist - Veblen
Finnish architect - Saarinen
"exploding shingle factory" - Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 or (it's creator) Marcel Duchamp

Youse Da Force wrote:Trickster god- Loki

There are more than one trickster god that gets asked about.

This whole thread is a giant monument to bad question writing and the ignorance it propagates. I suggest closing it to avoid further tarnishing the name of such visionaries as Kim Il-Sung and Alvar Aalto.

Seriously, close this thread, it sucks.

DumbJaques wrote:This whole thread is a giant monument to bad question writing and the ignorance it propagates. I suggest closing it to avoid further tarnishing the name of such visionaries as Kim Il-Sung and Alvar Aalto.

Seriously, close this thread, it sucks.

New stock phrase: 'backseat moderator": Chris Ray

yeaaaaaaaaaah boyeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Really, this thread is fine to me, because it can serve as a 'what clues to avoid using' resource.

New stock phrase: 'backseat moderator": Chris Ray

yeaaaaaaaaaah boyeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Really, this thread is fine to me, because it can serve as a 'what clues to avoid using' resource.

Touche.

. . . I was going to make a pun about calling shotgun and shotguns and you living in West Virginia, but I'm tired and it appears you've won this round of our great battle of wits.

This thread is hardly of great significance one way or the other. But up until now, it seemed like nobody who didn't already know better was getting the "what clues to avoid using" part, hence the reason for my post.

Maybe I could be an actual mod, then the spirit of flav wouldn't have to haunt me. I hear there's an opening in the forbidden zone, and I have been told I resemble an orangutan.

DumbJaques wrote:This whole thread is a giant monument to bad question writing and the ignorance it propagates. I suggest closing it to avoid further tarnishing the name of such visionaries as Kim Il-Sung and Alvar Aalto.

Seriously, close this thread, it sucks.

I dunno, I think it's wonderful that no one caught onto the sarcasm.

DumbJaques wrote: This thread is hardly of great significance one way or the other. But up until now, it seemed like nobody who didn't already know better was getting the "what clues to avoid using" part, hence the reason for my post.

Well, now we can change that, okay?

DumbJacques wrote: Maybe I could be an actual mod, then the spirit of flav wouldn't have to haunt me. I hear there's an opening in the forbidden zone, and I have been told I resemble an orangutan.

I will let you know when we need simian aid in the future.

aestheteboy wrote:

Youse Da Force wrote:Trickster god- Loki

There are more than one trickster god that gets asked about.

True, but when phrased "trickster god", it almost exclusively refers to Loki. If it simply says "trickster", it leaves the realm of possibly open to Anansi or the coyote and perhaps a few others.

Buzzing off of a "this is a trickster god" clue strikes me as more than mildly ironical.

One that I liked in practice recently (off of an old NAQT set) was, like, "this oceanic trench" or "this deep trench in the ocean" or some sequence of clues like that.

MaS

For future reference, while Veblen may have been of Norwegian extraction, he was definitely an American economist. Upon hearing "Norwegian economist" you should immediately buzz and say "Ragnar Frisch."

theMoMA wrote:I dunno, I think it's wonderful that no one caught onto the sarcasm.

Sarcasm is another giveaway clue for Veblen. In addition to "Danish-eating economist."

Eric

ImmaculateDeception wrote: One that I liked in practice recently (off of an old NAQT set) was, like, "this oceanic trench" or "this deep trench in the ocean" or some sequence of clues like that.MaS

Hmmm.....this seems like a non-unique opening that could be a few answers aside from the obvious. I have seen the Puerto Rico, Philippine, and Cayman Trenches come up before. I'm not doubting you, but I am shocked that an NAQT question would open with that and then make the answer "Marianis".