They will put you in good stead for many quiz programmes.
The number of questions that come up along the lines of:
Which Mexican artist.....answer is always Frida Kahlo.
Which street artist..... Answer is always Banksy
Which space agency.....answer is always NASA
Which K Pop band ......answer is always BTS.
Which radio soap..... Answer is always The Archers.
These questions come up with monotonous regularity. Don't really know why I wrote that but it was something going through my head as I watched another stunningly inept answer to a question on Tipping Point.
The question was along the lines of. When two cities combined in 1873 to form the modern capital of Hungary, one was Buda what was the other?
The first contestant said something along the lines of : "Well I know the capital is Budapest but I don't know what the other city is, so I will have to pass it over."
To which the other contestant said "I can only say Pest but I'm not sure that's a city."
At times my mind boggles.
I should stop watching these quizzes but what would I then have to write about?
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Yesterday was a thoroughly miserable day weather-wise. So I shut myself in the study and spent a solid eight hours on the December Hethersett Herald - writing articles on the views of the public on the new bus services to the village along with complaints about the local surgery shutting yet again through staff illness ( something that seems to be a regular occurrence).
Thankfully there were some lighter stories and some really positive ones as well. Once again there's so much going on and we haven't got into the real run up to that word I promised I wouldn't mention again for another few weeks.
It's a busy time for Herald, not the least because I bring out two editions in December. And these will be edition 98 and 99. The mathematical geniuses amongst you will realise that the following edition will be number 100. I would like to do something special for that but don't know what. If anyone would like to suggest something I'm all ears (as someone once said about me).
When I started the publication I never thought about how long Herald would run for. Over eight years on we are still going strong.
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Back to the quizzes. There was a question on The Chase about Dick Whittington and it sent my mind scrambling back to around 1961.
Yes I played the leading role in Kinsale Avenue Junior School's (that word I'm not going to say) production of Dick Whittington. Violet Neave played the cat. How's that for a memory?
It was my greatest ever stage role. To be fair I only ever had two and the second which I have mentioned before was my instantly forgettable appearance as an anarchist in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime at Sheringham Little Theatre where I played the German anarchist Podgers with a distinctly Japanese accent, mainly because I couldn't do a German one.
I don't remember much about my appearance as a Dick ( sorry as Dick). Apart from eating a crust of bread on stage. Now why on earth would I remember that?.
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We live in a world where superlatives and exaggeration is the norm. I hate it.
When referring to the nonsense between Colleen Rooney and Rebecca Vardy we were told on television that it was "the scandal that shook the nation." I imagine approximately 99.99 per cent of the nation couldn't give a tuppeny toss (whatever that is).