To clarify that last post: There's nothing wrong with somebody writing about things that are relatively new to the circuit. In fact, I'd like to see it happen more often. The trend that worries me is the development of memes. For example, if you attend several tournaments in a row in a particular year, you might sense that there's a sudden run on Faulkner (or Thor or whoever) and, because you're in synch with the rest of the people who went to those particular tournmanets, you'll all have studied up on that meme for the next tournament. Given that this happens, it should be fairly easy to understand why someone with zero experience in a given quiz circuit would have a tough time of it at first, and not necessarily find the learning curve worthwhile. Two points of comparison: If one of my colleagues had taken a few months off and then suddenly came back this month, all the Zero Wing references would have probably confused the hell out of her at first. She'd probably adjust after awhile but making the quality of her work depend on her knowledge of that meme would seem unfair. Meanwhile, there's this weekly quiz at one of SF's finest pubs, where the quiz master always has a "Current Events" round for whihc he gleans questions out of that day's newspaper, with a healthy dose of "what's the current #1 album?" and "which movie led the box office this weekend?" Attend that quiz enough times and you know precisely what to study up for. Whether you think a chance to win a pitcher of beer is worth doing that particular studying is your own decision. Matt
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