A Quizzical Mind Wants To Know
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I just won some money in a quiz. Not a great deal of money it has to be said but, it’s not the taking part, it’s the winning eh? My friend who was also competing asked me “How the hell do you know that stuff,” referring to the answers I’d given. Well, the truth is, the questions just fell for me. Another time, another quiz and I could just as easily have scored zero.
I won because the questions just happened to be in my sphere of knowledge. The particularly obscure bit of my knowledge come to that.
Everybody thought I was mega-intelligent so don’t tell them the truth will you?
TV is awash with quiz programs. Both my wife and my daughter keep telling me to apply to go on one but I won’t. The questions won’t fall for me and I’ll just look a complete numpty. (A ‘numpty’ is British slang for idiot)
Mind you, if the questions did fall for me I could win a load of money. Is it worth the risk of looking a complete moron to the millions watching on TV? Probably not. Besides, I’ve never had the unfathomable urge for that 15 minutes of fame so many seem to long for.
There is a theory that the plethora of quiz shows on TV is primarily due to the TV companies not having enough money to make decent programs – drama’s and so forth. This might well be true. After all, while the winnings on quiz shows can be quite substantial, they are probably only a tiny bit of a budget for a major drama or even a major comedy show.
What I have noticed though, is the glow I feel when I get a question right that my wife didn’t know. My wife is highly intelligent. She is a retired senior microbiologist. I often tell people that her working with bugs and germs must have been what attracted her to me.
The thing is, quiz shows have rarely got anything to do with intelligence. They are designed to test your general knowledge and, sometimes, particularly obscure general knowledge.
I suspect that TV quiz shows are merely a part of the general ‘dumming down’ we find in society today.
School sports days, for example, no longer have ‘losers’. “It is bad for the children to feel like losers” is the mantra. Oh, poor little darling. You didn’t come last in the race, you were the tenth winner!
Absolute utter tosh. You’re a loser kid. Live with it.
Learning to lose is no more than one of life’s lessons. The kid who falls over when he tries to run might be an ace at math or something. The kid who is built like a Greek God and wins every race might be lousy at science.
Don’t protect kids from losing. Let them learn that winning isn’t everything – unless it’s me on a quiz show, then, of course, winning is essential.
Some kid looking like a complete dork falling over his feet in a sports day race is fine. Me looking a complete dork on TV in a quiz show isn’t fine.
Kids shouldn’t be wrapped up in cotton wool. If they are then life will undoubtedly ignore that fact and bite them on the ass. If they’ve been prepared for life doing that by learning to lose and pick themselves up again, they have a fighting chance. If they’ve been wrapped in cotton wool, life will bite a damn sight more than their asses.
TV quiz shows need to be reduced in the schedules or, the questions need to be harder. People need to be laughed at when they loose. It’ll toughen them up.
As long as it isn’t me losing of course. Laugh at me and I’ll bite you on the ass.
My winning questions in the final? Easy:
1) 7th Century Athenian leader who brought the death penalty in for almost all crimes? : Dracon – (it’s were the term Draconian comes from. No idea how I knew that. I assume I’ve read it somewhere at some time)
2) Award winning American actor who played two different characters in the 1980’s police drama Hill Street Blues? (see, I said they fell my way) : Dennis Franz (a corrupt detective for a couple of episodes who met a sticky end. Bochco must have liked him as he brought him back the following series as Detective Norman Buntz, who he played until the final episode before winning his awards for NYPD Blue)
3) Dodie Smiths follow up book to ‘The Hundred and One Dalmations’? (You would be amazed how many said ‘A Hundred and Two Dalmations) : The Starlight Barking (Sirius, the Dog Star comes to Earth and tries to convince all the dogs to go back with him as he’s lonely. Read it when I was about 10)
4) Periodic table letter for Tungsten? ‘W’ (The Germans called it ‘Wolfram’)
5) Roman Emperor who first invaded Britain in AD 43? Claudius (Everybody else said Caesar)
6) The worlds tallest building? Burj Khalifa in Dubai (I spelled it ‘Kalifer’ but they gave it me. Actually the Jeddah Tower in Saudi will be when it’s completed I think)
7) Which Spanish football club did Argentinian, Alfredo de Stefano play for? Real Madrid
8) Which British actor won his one and only ‘Oscar’ for the film of the Terence Rattigan play, ‘Separate Tables’? David Niven (I said the questions fell for me!)
9) ‘Dispute not with her: she is lunatic’ is a quote from which Shakespeare play? Richard III (I studied it at school in English literature)
10) ‘Children of the Damned’ is a film of which John Wyndham novel? The Midwich Cuckoos.
Clever bugger here won £50.
I possibly didn’t endear myself to the other six finalists when, after a few beers, I started pointing at them and calling ‘Losers! Losers!’ – well? I did smile as I said it!
Their parents should have taught them that valuable life lesson about losing then!
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It’s a worry when I included the answers 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I managed to get #2, 4, 5, and 10 correct, although I struggled with memory when it came The Children of the Damned, one of my favorite movies, the B&W version of course. Not sure how I remembered the name of the book except the TV was on and that idiot Trump was talking about a “witch hunt” and it came to me.
Well I would have failed miserably with only three correct which makes me a loser, but at least I would have been able to prove to my wife that I’m not a know-it-all as so many people say. That would be worth well more than 50 quid.