Mordechai Richler Trash Reflections

ValenciaQBowl · Post by **ValenciaQBowl** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 11:22 am

As Andrew indicated that he's curious about reactions to the MR Trash tournament held this year, I thought I'd see if we can get that ball rolling. I hope there is one again next year, as I enjoyed the experience more than I thought I might. I'd never played Trash before, and though the skew was (appropriately) to post-1990 stuff, I answered more than I thought I would. That's likely because the questions were well written and the topics diverse and interesting, even to those of us in the dinosaur age bracket.

My personal favorites included the tosses on Hellboy, Robert Plant, Iceberg Slim, and Beetle Bailey (and now that I see them together, an interesting quartet). I also really liked the toss-up on "Suffragette City," though Sorice smacked it before I could have, and worse yet won the match b/c of it. It was a "song-from-lyrics" question, starting off by saying that "Henry" is addressed twice, and then moving to the line "that mellow thighed (?) chick put my spine out of place." Though I love that song and have sung along with in the car dozens of times, the question was written such that one really had to know the lyrics to get it. I'm pretty sure I've just mumbled something for the first part of that line since I could never make out Bowie's high-pitched nasal whine on that part. But anyway, it demonstrates the quality of the tosses.

Finally, I was amazed to hear a bonus part on the North Carolina indie band Polvo; that may be the most obscure thing I heard in the tournament. Sadly, though I once owned their album "Today's Active Lifestyles," I still couldn't remember their name till I heard it.

Anyway, I liked it and hope that Andrew and/or someone else keeps it going.

sobek22 · Post by **sobek22** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:57 pm

I enjoyed playing the Richler trash tourney very much. Questions were written solidly, consistently and were fun to play on. Plus the world needs more TUs on Ralph Furley and the Golden Girls :)

Favorite two negs of the tournament (from others - mine were boring):

Correct Answer: Gordon Carper Award
Given Answer: Ig Nobel Prize

Correct Answer: Tony Award for Best Musical
Given Answer: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

Funny that they were both about awards :)

Thanks to Subash and Andrew for devoting all the time they did to put the Richler together.

-Adam

ValenciaQBowl · Post by **ValenciaQBowl** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:36 am

Oh, yeah: the first of those Adam mentioned was mine against his team. Can't remember what the lead-in was that made me think it could be the Ig-Nobel. But I ascribe it mostly to my being a tard who got 13 negs, many of the variety of: BUZZ: "Oh, that's that Belgian who's not Clijsters, the little one with the big jaw, oh crap." That's oldtimer's disease for you.