It’s an esseintial part of hosting, but I hate having to make judgment calls. I can sympathize with both sides — it’s frustrating to be denied credit for knowing the right answer but not articulating it correctly, but it’s also frustrating to see people get credit for something you remembered accurately and they didn’t.
Last night, for some reason, was rich in arbitration opportunities. The three I remember:
1: Geography
I screwed up when I wrote a question. At some point while futzing with word order, I dropped “the longest” from “What river forms part of the border between Ontario and New York?”
The answer I wanted, and read as correct: the St. Lawrence. Another correct answer: Niagara.
A couple of teams came up to ask about that, and I thought I remembered the Niagara being part of the St. Lawrence. But I opted to give them their points. Unfortunately several other teams who wrote Niagara didn’t ask me about it, and I was delegating data entry to someone else, so several teams didn’t get credit for a correct answer.
Happily, this morning I discovered that adjusting all the scores to give credit for Niagara didn’t affect the final standings. Whew.
Lesson learned: announce any inclusion decisions — “Did you write Niagara? Come up and let me know.” — and take advantage of a data entry person to double-check that. Double-checking all the answers is a lot harder when I’m hosting solo, though.
2a: Name the bride (picture round)
The picture: Uma Thurman in Kill Bill v. 1.
The controversy: I wanted “Beatrix Kiddo” as the answer. A number of teams said “The Bride.”
Result: I gave credit for “the bride,” then heard a (justifiable) mass outcry from teams that had the correct correct answer. So teams that answered “Beatrix Kiddo” got 2 points, while “The Bride” got 1.
If I were doing it over again, I’d be a hardass and only give the point for Kiddo. And I’d write “not ‘the Bride'” on the answer sheets. Including the Bride of Frankenstein as a possible answer opened up a can of worms on what I meant by “name,” so I understand the confusion, but I also remember, as a player, being annoyed when teams got credit for answers that weren’t as good as mine.
In short, the team that wrote “James=pussy” by Uma was right.
2b: Name the bride (picture round)
Controversy: A photo of JFK and Jackie post-ceremony, cutting their wedding cake. I accepted “Jackie Bouvier” or “Jackie Kennedy” as correct answers, but nixed “Jackie Onassis.”
I stand by this one. It’s obvious from the photo who Jackie just married; she wasn’t Jackie Onassis when the photo was taken. Yeah, teams who wrote “Jackie O” knew who I was talking about, but accuracy counts on quiz night.
I’m also not sorry in retrospect for not accepting Twin Peaks as an acceptable substitute for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.