Testing Recall About Strange Happenings
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Testing Recall About Strange Happenings (TRASH) is a quizbowl format, similar to College Bowl or NAQT, played in the United States and Canada. Teams of up to four players meet at tournaments to compete against each other, answering questions about pop culture and sports. The name is a backronym from the word "trash", which in trivia parlance refers to arcane knowledge "of a subject matter in which such depth of knowledge ought to be embarrassing" [1] "as opposed to more academic or high-brow trivia (literature, history, science and math, social science, fine arts, geography, and religion)" [2].
Regional tournaments, open to registering teams with players of all ages and affiliations, are hosted in various locations across the U.S. and Canada each November; invitation-only nationals, called TRASHionals, are hosted in a designated city each April.
All TRASHionals champions receive an automatic bid to the following year's TRASHionals. Recent champions have also been presented with a set of engraved martini glasses. Since 2001, the championship team has been awarded the TRASH Belt (see below). Other novelty prizes are also awarded for various distinguishing feats, such as supplying the highest number of "negs" (incorrect answers).
TRASHionals X was held the weekend of April 20, 2007 at the University of Maryland, College Park. "Mike Keenan Employment Agency, LLC" was the champion, defeating "Anthony Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" in the final. [3]
TRASHionals 11: One Louder was held the weekend of April 5, 2008 at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "Republic of Dirkadirkastan" won the tournament, defeating defending champion "Mike Keenan Employment Agency, LLC" in the final.[4]
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[edit] The TRASH Belt
The TRASH Belt is the original ECW World Heavyweight Championship Belt. It was given to TRASH business manager James Dinan by Extreme Championship Wrestling owner Paul Heyman in early 2001, shortly after ECW went bankrupt. [5]
Since that time the Belt has been presented to each year's TRASHionals champion and is theirs to keep until the next TRASHionals.
[edit] Past TRASHionals
| Year | Title | Host | City | Champion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | (?) | University of Maryland, College Park | College Park, Maryland | Mike Keenan Employment Agency, LLC |
| 1999 | (?) | Pennsylvania State University | University Park, Pennsylvania | Roody Poo Candy Asses |
| 2000 | (?) | Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland, Ohio | Mike Keenan Employment Agency, LLC |
| 2001 | TRASHionals 2001: A TRASH Oddity | Northwestern University | Evanston, Illinois | Christopher Walken's Dance Party1 |
| 2002 | (?) | University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, Michigan | BATTLEPLANET!!!! |
| 2003 | TRASHionals Syxx: Revenge of the Lightning Kid | Boston University | Boston, Massachusetts | Mike Keenan Employment Agency, LLC |
| 2004 | TRASHionals 007: LAZENBY!! | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga | Chattanooga, Tennessee | Shonen Spork |
| 2005 | TRASHionals 2005: The Fish That 8 Pittsburgh | University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | The Bill O'Reilly Shower Massage |
| 2006 | TRASHionals 9 from Outer Space | University of Texas-Austin | Austin, Texas | Tom DeLay Industries |
| 2007 | TRASHionals X | University of Maryland, College Park | College Park, Maryland | Mike Keenan Employment Agency, LLC |
| 2008 | TRASHionals 11: One Louder. | University of Tennessee at Chattanooga | Chattanooga, Tennessee | The Republic of Dirkadirkastan |
Note 1: Christopher Walken's Dance Party was the first team to be awarded the TRASH Belt, in 2001.
[edit] Tournament regions
For TRASH regionals in November, TRASH strives to select a host in each of the following regions:
- Northeast
- Mid Atlantic
- Southeast
- Great Lakes
- Upper Midwest
- Lower Midwest
- Rocky Mountains
- Southwest
- West
Hosts are chosen by TRASH through some combination of ability to host the tournament, experience hosting past quizbowl events, familiarity with the format, and other factors. Typically, the events rotate among the available schools in each region from year to year.
