For example, when I wrote a post recently about Jeopardy!, I never finished replying to comments and promised to answer two readers "in my next post", but I never did. I do apologize for my procrastination and want to rectify the matter today.
Graham Edwards wrote:
"The programme 'Jeopardy' means nothing to me. I am totally useless at trivia and quizzes in general. My brain doesn't work that way. In New Zealand The Family was very much into quiz games. They had programmes for them and we all had a buzzer attached to the game box and whoever pressed the buzzer first got to answer. Things to which I knew the answer would come and go and even the simplest of things would allude me in the moment. The kids used to have a field day. Even "classical" music and sixties pop would desert me even though I would normally have no problem in a non-quiz situation. I always came last.
"I think Secretariat won a famous triple so I assume that was in 1973 although I may be miles off and I wouldn't have a clue which races or in which country or how I know that (assuming it's correct). I know ESB won a Grand National because all my family had a wee wager on it because my Uncle's initials were ESB. I was brought up in Liverpool where ESB was a legend anyway. Now that is trivia."
Here's my response: First, Graham, I'm pretty sure you meant 'elude' and not 'allude'. Do not despair. There are far more important things in the world than winning at games of trivia. If, as you say, you would normally have no problem in a non-quiz situation, my advice to you is simply this: Stay away from quiz situations. My fee for dispensing advice is nominal. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you.
I never heard of ESB, but then I have never heard of a lot of things. Secretariat's Triple Crown win indeed occurred in 1973 and it occurred in the U.S. He won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky; the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore,Maryland; and the Belmont Stakes in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, that last one by a remarkable 31 lengths. Your recollection of putting 'a wee wager' on ESB in the Grand National reminded me of the time I invested in a stock called RHB because those are my initials and RHB turned out to be the top-performing stock that year on the New York Stock Exchange.
Snowbrush wrote:
"Jeopardy questions aren't trivial so much as they only require a Cliff Notes level of knowledge regarding serious subjects.
" 'Things to which I knew the answer would come and go and even the simplest of things would allude me in the moment.'
"This is why Jeopardy contestants tend to be on the young side (I would guess that most of them are in their upper thirties). However, when it comes to questions regarding the era when I was young, they often miss answers that are obvious to me."
Snowbrush, I'm pretty sure Graham meant 'elude' and not 'allude'. Saying that 'Jeopardy questions only require a Cliff Notes level of knowledge regarding serious subjects' is probably accurate, though acknowledging that fact is quite a blow to my ego. It forces me to realize that I have no depth. If I were a river, I would be a mile wide and only six inches deep.
As they (whoever they are) say, if the shoe fits, wear it.
It's quite a comeuppance. I may never be the same again.
You are spot on when you say that 'when it comes to questions regarding the era when [we were] young, they often miss answers that are obvious to [us]'. This was borne out just last evening when none of the contestants buzzed in and I was yelling, 'Who is James Garner?' at the television set. (The clue (British, clew) mentioned both 'Maverick' and The Rockford Files' and included a photograph of Mr. Garner.)
I have just enough grey matter left to know that the world many of us knew is passing/has passed away and the world of the young (and the restless?) is in its ascendancy.
I feel old today, especially after yelling, 'Who are the Katzenjammer Kids?' at the television set a few minutes ago.
It's really too depressing to think about.
In other news, Mrs. RWP and I are in the market for the coronavirus vaccine, but none is to be had in these parts. Supposedly CVS and Walgreens (what readers in the U.K. would call 'chemists') may be getting shipments in early February.
How many of you know what this is a picture of?
P.S. - That is not a windshield and those are not bugs.
Is the image a picture of the inner workings of The Brague Brain? How on earth did you get inside to take that photo? By the way, pink suits you.
ReplyDeleteNeil, iit is a picture of the inner workings of someone’s brain, yes, but definitely not mine.
DeleteWe do use the word clew but the clue would be.
ReplyDelete"What is a clew?"
"It's the corner of a sail to which a sheet is attached."
Adrian, thanks for the correction regarding clue/clew. Please don’t tell me that curb/kerb is wrong too.
DeleteKerb, as all proper folk know is the edge of a road or highway. Curb means to supress.
DeleteI was once working in the Florida Keys with a gang of men cutting up old Tuna boats for scrap. They thought me a pedant until I showed them that the phosphor bronze props would fetch as much as all the iron they spent days wrestling with and if they learnt to recognise and spell aluminium they could become wealthy.
One of my life's highlights but you lot are harder to communicate with than the Spanish or French.
They were great people and used to get endless amusement from my speaking. I was forced to become a stand up comic after work in the bar. After a couple of weeks or a fortnight as proper folk call it I got an American Novel translated into French and photocopied a page, passed copies around. I read it in French then translated it into Proper English. I was hoist by my own petard. The text said a croque mort riding a bike with an apple green tank. (Croque Monsieur is a toasted cheese sandwich and a croque Madame is the same but with an egg on a dead cheese sandwich I struggled to translate.) Even to lads that could barely understand English a toasted sandwich riding a bike was ridiculous. I later found out that a croque mort is French for a Hells Angel.
Adrian, your responses are always a pleasure to read and a delight to the mind. I had no idea I could become wealthy simply by adding an 'i' in the middle of the word 'aluminum' or, from your perspective I suppose, ceasing to drop an 'i' from the middle of the word 'aluminium'.
DeleteLive and learn.
Which brings me to 'croque mort'. Our President Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify" so I of course went to Google Translate to confirm for myself what you were saying. Google Translate told me that 'croque' means bite and 'mort' meant dead, but put them together and 'croque mort' means not Hell's Angels but Undertaker. However, even Google Translate is not without its faults, because when I reversed the French-to-English translation into an English-to-French translation, Undertaker did not become 'croque mort', it became 'pompes funèbres'. And English-to-French translation of Hell's Angel becomes 'l'ange de l'enfer' which sounds spot on to me.
As I said, live and learn, and oh, by the way, God bless President Ronald Reagan.
Was the bar in Marathon or Islamorada or Key West? I would have paid money to see you do standup comedy there back in the day. Or did you mean you were in France. I was unable to decide where you were but I bet you were a hoot.
Language is fun.
DeleteI was in the Keys but on solid earth. Your lot took the piss non stop but were delighted at how I interpreted their mangling of English.
It wasn't really Stand Up. They used to write things down and get me to say them properly in English. I was a sort of freak show until the wives and girl friends began to appreciate my command of language.
It was about fifty miles south of Ft.Lauderdale and a right shit hole.
Great folk, a bit violent to rock ape thick but I never got hurt as the lads I was working with sorted that nasty for me. If one is doing the same job and you don't get caught messing with a blokes lady then one is generally bomb proof. Big blokes know it's going to hurt if they take it further than being a bit gobby. It was all just fun. A great time and much better than Boston. Load of racist pretend Paddies they were.
Pompes in French is our Fire Brigade, I think. l'ange de l'enfer is angels from hell but one can never translate word for word. You have to know slang. Ask Neil, he's the linguist. I speak languages but I can't write them. Dutch is squeaky German without all the long words. French is a language for the French. It's all just fun.
DeleteIf you were 50 miles south of Fort Lauderdale and on solid earth I would guess you were somewhere around Homestead and Kendall. Much of that area was completely wiped out by Hurricane Andrew but has been built back up in the years since. (We lived a few miles north of Fort Lauderdale in Boca Raton for about seven years before we moved to the Atlanta area, which is why I am familiar with south Florida.)
DeleteEven though pink, I believe that is gray matter of the brain and also of the central nervous system. It's a lovely color.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, you are correct! It is gray matter! The lovely color is a stain that helped in the photographing process.
DeleteIt's a micrograph of something.....
ReplyDeletekylie, Yes it is! Bonnie knew what the something is.
DeleteI agree with Bonnie...and I think your grey matter does a great job with those jeopardy questions.
ReplyDeleteHope you all are able to get the vaccine. There are shortages in VA too. Our district had been getting 5000 doses a week, and now only 2000 so it is going to be a long while before we get a shot.
Stay well.
Kathy, the supposed million or million and a half doses per day in this country seem to be spread pretty thin.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Of course, I meant elude. Thank you. In the normal course of events I avoid quizzes like I avoid the plague. However, in the family situation one does not always have the choice. Adrian has, I see, addressed the 'clew' matter.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I am glad that you don’t avoid this plague (i.e. rhymeswith) like you avoid quizzes.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like purple fruit leather. A bit of trivia here: The packaged fruit leather called Stretch Island is actually produced/packaged on/near a little island called.....(you guessed it) Stretch Island and it is just outside of Allyn WA near me! Now THAT'S trivia. I hope you and the Mrs suffer no ill effects from the vaccine. I find all the long term possibilities of a quick new vaccine to be a far scarier thought than the actual virus myself...
ReplyDeletePam, that’s a new one on me; I have never heard of fruit leather in all my born days even though a quick check of Wikipedia tells me dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia. Sure, I know about dried fruit, I just never encountered the term ‘fruit leather’ before. Would purple fruit leather be from plums? I thought dried plums were called prunes. Must be the same concept as making beef jerky, no?
DeleteI don’t know when or if we’ll be getting the vaccine. You bring up a good point.