The weekend in Atlanta/Chattanooga was really nice, I must say. Craig's account pretty much covers my weekend too; I managed to get out of Distant Replays with only the 1979 Pirates World Champions T-shirt, the Maulers cap, and and a Pittsburgh Condors T-shirt. Also, there was apparently some rapper in the store while we were there, but we couldn't identify him specifically, and because he got into a much crappier car than any of us were in.

The tournament itself went swimmingly, I thought. I must say that I can't imagine any other organization that has put together 7 annual nationals level events on the level we have with as much fun and as little rancor as we have in TRASH. And congrats to Charlie, Keith, et al for winning the whole she-bang.

Charlie mentioned to me that his loss/my team's win at Trashmasters 1994 looms larger and larger, because it's the only time a Charlie team ever lost a trash match before TRASH Regionals last year, and still just about the only time his team has failed to win a trash tournament. The Flighty Porcine Flower Arrangers--myself, Paul Harm, Gene McLaughlin, and Bob Guydosh--were undoubtedly one of the most unlikely quiz-bowl teams to win a tournament ever. Over 17 games we scored about 1000 fewer total points than the other 2 top teams, but we managed to go 15-2, winning a lot of close games, beating two top teams on the last question, and getting a timely last-round tie between two excellent teams to give us the title. I tend to think this had everything to do with our Friday pilgrimage to Graceland before the tournament.

This got me to wondering if I could find those guys again. I've never lost contact with Paul, whose new blog is listed on the left. Gene was relatively simple to find on Google, and his highly literary blog is now listed over there as well. Bob is a bit more of a mystery, which will surprise no one who knew him. Googling him came up with a few interesting matches--he apparently assisted with the statistics at the 2003 Cotton Bowl, and was the official timekeeper at the crucial 2001 WAC women's soccer tournament semifinal match between Fresno State and SMU. He also apparently prepared this unreadable for a non-specialist report for the Texas DOT. Beyond that, I'm stumped.