>From an exchange between Anthony and Shawn: <...does a power tossup for Lula Mae Barnes as a clue for Holly Golightly seem a tad easy? >Given the structure of the question, I certainly think it is power. For crying out loud, what's easy for you isn't easy for me, or for someone else playing that question. (Note: The usual disclaimer -- this is my opinion and NAQT has not authorized me to speak _ex cathedra_ -- applies here.) Power marking is always a judgment call that will never satisfy everyone. Any particular example probably depends on whether your approach to tossups is more along the lines of "memorize that fact" or "understand that context". For players like me who absolutely suck at the former and excel at the latter, the power would be reasonable. For one of the former, or for someone who read "Breakfast at Tiffany's" just last week, it would seem easy. And -- like any other question, if you just happen to know it cold, it's always easy! I've forgotten at how many tournaments in the mid-90s I heard tossups that started with some variation on "Its first step involves heating to 94 degrees Celsius". I wouldn't call that exactly an easy question (most of my undergrad lab students have had no need to memorize that fact), but since seven or eight of us bio geeks per tournament slammed our buzzers halfway through the desktops before the word "degrees" was out of the moderators' mouths, there are probably a lot of non-science-oriented QB players who will still never forget how the polymerase chain reaction starts, and will complain about how easy a question is if it begins with that clue. QB, by its public and social nature, has a caddish way of deflowering facts and then spreading tales of their easy virtue all over the place. ;-) I predict it will get harder and harder every year to write any question that *someone* doesn't think is ass-easy. Julie Running PCRs even as I type.
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