As a further addendum to Edmund and Zeke's comments, I don't think
Subash is literally stating that if something hasn't been an answer
it can't be asked...for example, I would not be surprised to
discover that "George Washington" or "Paris" (as in either the city
or the Trojan) have not been tossup or bonus answers since 99. It
seems fair to say that there is a reasonable baseline of stuff that
obviously is extremely gettable (I daresay one could write an entire
tournament at a low degree of difficulty where every answer was
something that has never come up directly in quizbowl). However, I
would surmise that probably the main point is that when it comes to
any level of obscurity--one should only write tossup (and most bonus
part) answers that have indeed come up. For example, the Peterloo
Massacre is not really that well-known but it comes up quite often
in QB and is therefore readily accessible to anything beyond a
novice team. However, that does not imply that events at about the
same obscurity level (in a general,non-qb sense) such as the Vendee,
should be tossup answers at the regional level. That is one of the
mistakes I used to make.
my 3 cents,
nathan freeburg