Gaddis Discussion

[Mike Bentley]

3rd CS tossup

Was the "waterfall development" TU CS or GK? I was thinking XP early on in that question but then the question mentioned design documents or something.

I think I negged it before hearing anything about design documents, though that was notably one of the games that I played half-asleep, so I can't really tell what I negged with, but I'm pretty sure it was extreme programming.

The tossup was on the Waterfall Model and it was counted as CS. In retrospect it was probably a dumb thing to ask about, though.

[Mechanical Beasts]

The tossup was on the Waterfall Model and it was counted as CS. In retrospect it was probably a dumb thing to ask about, though.

Don't say that--it was sweet, and after all, the damn tournament is about learning, and I learned. I approve.

[SnookerUSF]

Dennis sent me the updated SQBS file with hopefully most of the errors fixed, they are available at the same location, which is posted in the Collegiate Announcements section, under tournament results. Sorry for the delay.

[Auks Ran Ova]

My estimable teammate Guy Tabachnick was credited with my superpower in our game against Jeff Hoppes's team.

EDIT: Also, my other estimable teammate Steven Canning was credited with all of my tossups in round 10 (against Ted Gioia's team). I went 0/1/3, he went 0/0/1.

argh not fixed

[SnookerUSF]

yeah fixed

Fixed and Fixed.

[Auks Ran Ova]

yeah fixed

Fixed and Fixed.

hooray

[magin]

So, since I wrote for this tournament in order to improve as a writer, I'd like to receive feedback (either in this thread or as an email) about the tossups I wrote, which were:

Literature: Clarice Lispector, Julius, Thomas Shadwell, "Politics and the English Language," Wieland, Franz Kafka, translating In Search of Lost Time, Imperium in Imperio, Brother Jero, Platero y Yo, "The Waste Land," Zuleika Dobson, Carlo Gadda, Royall Tyler, the epic of Sundiata, Zembla, John Donne, Miles Gloriosus, Nikolai Leskov, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses,' George Farquhar, Azul, John Milton, Poland, Blood on the Forge, Vineland, New Grub Street, The Battles of Coxinga, Gottfried Keller, Gerhart Hauptmann, "Ars Poetica," A Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed, and Dom Casmurro.

History: Wansee Conference, Ashanti Empire, the Bloody Assizes, Tammany Hall, Rexford Tugwell, Pachacuti, Idaho, Battle of Pichincha, Herero, Mukden Incident, Plan of San Luis Potosi, Black Panthers, Imre Nagy, Shimabara Rebellion, Cato Street Consipracy, Fire-Eaters, Hinton Helper, Sykes-Picot, Jack Cade's Rebellion, and Bar Kochba's Revolt.

RMP: Ainu, How to Do Things With Words, Reconstructionism, Uther Pendragon, The New Atlantis, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Xolotl, Mormon, Dagda, Philomela, Uzume, Surt, Zurvanism, and "The Fixation of Belief."

Fine Arts: Turangalila, Homage to the Square, The Thieving Magpie, Richard Serra, El Amor Brujo, the rags of Scott Joplin, Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Casa Mila, Lyric Pieces, The Four Stages of Cruelty, Bacchus and Ariadne, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Steve Reich, The Bicycle Thief, Lieutenant Kije, Children's Corner, Netherlandish Proverbs, and Victory Over the Sun.

Social Science: Mills, cargo cults, reinforcement, Pierre Bourdieu, and the Zone of Proximal Development.

Trash: Calvinball and Avery Enterprises.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

I loved the Steve Reich tossup, and appreciated the leadin about "How Small a Thought" as it is a pretty interesting piece of music that I've always liked.

[Mike Bentley]

On a similar note, if anyone has comments about these questions, let me know:

History: False Neros, Swing Around the Circle Speeches, Bayard Rustin, Ten Thousand, Shanghai Commune

Science: Memristor, Grover's Algorithm, Waterfall Model, Brachiopods, Corey Fuchs, Reflection, Vulcanoids, Floating Point Numbers, Rhizobia

RMP: Moche

Social Science: Walras

Trash: War, Laser, Greg Graffin, Kimya Dawson, Aaah! Real Monsters, Ecks vs. Sever,

Arts: Raft of the Medusa, Boucher

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Well, same here, I suppose. Here it is:

2. The love theme of this opera, introduced by two solo celli in act II, scene 2, is sung to text originally introduced as a trio for countertenor, contralto, and trumpet. The title character first sings at the "Window of Appearances," after which tubular bells reprise the coronation theme. In act III, scene 3 of this opera, the Scribe reprises the Prelude on lyrics from Frommer's travel guide, marking the shift from Year 17 to the present day. Just before that scene, ► Horemhab and Aye sing "Let the king care for his land" to convince the crowd to rise up and kill the title character and his family. The title character's "Hymn," which is always sung in the native language of the audience, is paired with Psalm 104 to emphasize his monotheism. Written in ►► Biblical Hebrew, Akkadian and Ancient Egyptian, FTP, name this "portrait" opera by Philip Glass named for a pharaoh.
ANSWER: Akhnaten (3)

[vandyhawk]

Well, same here, I suppose. Here it is:

2. The love theme of this opera, introduced by two solo celli in act II, scene 2, is sung to text originally introduced as a trio for countertenor, contralto, and trumpet. The title character first sings at the "Window of Appearances," after which tubular bells reprise the coronation theme. In act III, scene 3 of this opera, the Scribe reprises the Prelude on lyrics from Frommer's travel guide, marking the shift from Year 17 to the present day. Just before that scene, ► Horemhab and Aye sing "Let the king care for his land" to convince the crowd to rise up and kill the title character and his family. The title character's "Hymn," which is always sung in the native language of the audience, is paired with Psalm 104 to emphasize his monotheism. Written in ►► Biblical Hebrew, Akkadian and Ancient Egyptian, FTP, name this "portrait" opera by Philip Glass named for a pharaoh.
ANSWER: Akhnaten (3)

I obviously didn't play the tournament, but here are some comments on this anyway. The opening sentence has me conflicted. On the one hand, it's the kind of clue that is often used nowadays, and is ok if it's uniquely identifying and important in the context of the work. I don't know enough about this opera to say whether that's true in this case, or if it's just a bunch of fluff needed to reach a typical length. Second and third clues seem ok, again prefaced by my only minimal knowledge of this opera. However, once you say Horemhab, that's where I would buzz, and I imagine the point at which it was answered in many rooms. That says it's an opera set in Egypt that isn't Aida; based on that, and the other clues about it being kind of wacky, should pretty much end it for the kind of players who were at Gaddis. I think it could be better by mentioning other, less Egyptian-sounding names at that point if at all possible. If that were fixed, the end seems ok again, but I wonder if "monetheism" should wait to appear until the very end as kind of an extra giveaway for people who might not have heard of the opera before.