Continuing Trivial Pursuits: History

<< Starkey: "It's 116 years, you fucking idiots"

As mentioned last time, it's now the turn of surely the most derided TP category: History. Its brown brethren, the equally frustrating Art & Literature, has proven surprisingly popular with opponents in the past, but History wins out for always being picked as the last question to answer. I feel I'm maybe talking a bit too much about Trivial Pursuit, however, and we're not even halfway through, so let's get on with it.

Questions:

1. What did the word 'catholic' mean in ancient Greek?

2. Garum was a popular sauce in Roman times. What was it made of?

3. What is the chief ingredient of Worcestershire sauce, first produced in 1837?

4. Which Asian country invented fingerprinting?

5. From which ancient language does the word 'salary' derive?

6. What was the worst epidemic of the 20th century?

7. Sean is the Gaelic variation of which popular British name?

8. Nike was the Greek goddess of what?

9. For how many years did the Hundred Years War last?

10. How old is our universe estimated to be?

And now, the answers...

1. Universal

2. Fermented fish guts

3. Fermented anchovies (look, it's like one of those cards where all the answers are the same!)

4. Fermented anchovies... just kidding, god, this is like that Two Ronnies sketch... it's actually China.

5. Latin. It comes from the word 'salarium', which means salt. Quantities of salt was offered as payment in Roman times. Presumably the diet consisted of chips, fried egg sandwiches and Margaritas.

6. Spanish flu, which killed over 50 million people in 1918. Puts swine flu in perspective.

7. John. Now, some of you may have noticed this is not a question about history. The problem, you see, is that I dislike history so much, I subconsciously avoid taking on any information related to the topic. Starkey would be furious.

8. Sweatshops. Or maybe victory and strength.

9. 116 years. This is such a Trivial Pursuit question.

10. 15 billion years old today.

Next up, it's Art & Literature. I would like to point out, ahead of the unveiling of ten questions that vary between straightforward and factually dubious, that I have a degree in English Literature. A degree that took 3 years to earn, and which appears to have irrecoverably destroyed any interest I ever had in the subject.

Further Trivial Pursuits: Entertainment

<< Gerry Rafferty, literally waiting by his letterbox in anticipation of more royalty cheques





For those at the back not paying attention, I'm devoting 8.5 weeks' worth of facts to the newly-remembered catalyst for my love of trivia, classic board game Trivial Pursuit (to be more specific, the Genus edition, as if you had to ask). The previous post celebrated the notoriously unpopular Geography category - today it's the more mainstream pink cheese, Entertainment. Probably the most popular and accessible TP category, the big E however fills me only with a sense of trepidation. The reasons for this are multiple (well, two) - firstly, the memories of my dad carving a path to glory around the board using only judicious use of the roll again squares, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of every film or TV show ever made, leaving the rest of us trailing in his wake. Secondly, my personal knowledge of film/TV is embarrassingly patchy. To demonstrate, here are 3 films I haven't seen:





The Godfather


The Deer Hunter


Citizen Kane





Here are 3 films I have seen:





Pearl Harbour


Miss Congeniality


Addams Family Values





You get the idea with that - here's the questions (answers below - you don't have to invert the screen)





1. Which sci=fi BBC sitcom was originally intended to be a film?





2. In which leafy London suburb do Jerry Hall, David Attenborough and Richard E Grant live?





3. What was the name of Jade Goody's perfume, released shortly after her Celebrity Big Brother appearance?





4. From where does U.S. TV show 30 Rock get it's name?





5. How did Peter Andre first find fame in Australia?





6. What is Ronnie from Eastenders' real first name?





7. Which sci-fi film inspired several thousand people to create a new religion in the 2001 census?





8. What nationality is Chris Roy Taylor, the creator of The Omnipresent cartoons which feature in The London Paper?





9. Which Scottish singer started his career as a busker?





10. Which type of film did Alfred Hitchcock begin his career working on?











Deep breath, here's the answers -





1. Red Dwarf, which finally sort of got it's wish in recent 90 minute (though it felt a lot longer) special, Back To Earth, which was, in three words, weird, laboured and depressing.





2. Richmond-upon-Thames. Some would say it's not a suburb of London, and that it's a town in Surrey. They'd be wrong.





3. Controversial.





4. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the building the show is chiefly set in.





5. He appeared on the Australian version of New Faces.





6. Veronica. I know Ronnie is short for Veronica, OK? I ran out of questions.





7. Star Wars. Thousands put 'Jedi' as their religion on the 2001 census. Many a pub quiz bore will try and tell you that had enough people claimed to be Jedi, it would have become a religion. This is not the case.





8. Australian. He has an Australian e-mail address anyway. Good enough for me.





9. Gerry Rafferty, most famous for 'Baker Street' and being one half of Steeler's Wheel, who most famously soundtracked the removal of an ear in Reservoir Dogs. Rafferty recently went missing for several weeks, before reporting he had been relaxing at his house in Tuscany. Which begs the question: how can Gerry Rafferty afford a house in Tuscany?





10. Silent movies.





Next up, it's the last cheese to be obtained in 99% of Trivial Pursuit campaigns - the unattractive bright yellow Cheddar that is History. Does anybody like this round? Apart from David Starkey, who probably collects an entire roundel filled with 6 yellow segments, despite howls of indignation from Jon Snow, Tony Robinson, and him off Grand Designs. More soon...

Trivial Pursuits - Geography

<< "I'm afraid the card says Moops..."

As you may have noticed, the dawn of 2009 has seen me take a slightly less hands-on approach to posting - I've been learning plenty of new stuff, but haven't summoned the spirit to render it into something readable. Instead of becoming the billionth person to apologise for not writing a blog entry for 3 months, I'll press on as I have facts spewing forth from every inch of grey matter I possess. Maybe not every inch.

Anyway, the presence of the veritable fact mountain I've been stockpiling, like grain in a massive barn in Switzerland, has got me thinking - why do I do this to myself? From whence my love of trivial nonsense, to the extent that I spend my life racing around with a large metaphorical fact-net, trying to scoop them up and regurgitate them onto a bemused and indifferent public? Two words - Trivial Pursuit. The giddy thrill of a four-cheese streak. The horror of landing on the central victory podium, a full set o' cheeses glinting in the afternoon sun, only to fall at the last hurdle and spend another half an hour frantically trying to return, all in vain.

Trivial Pursuit is the best game ever, and I think it's what first turned me on to the irresistible glow of pride and achievement gained from knowing things nobody needs to know. In TP, this pointless knowledge makes you a champion. If only it were so in real life. And so, in an earnest homage to the world's finest board game, and in no way a barely concealed attempt to dump large chunks of my fact fountain into barely discernible categories, I begin at the beginning, with 12 questions on the blue cheese, Geography (my favourite TP topic - a specialist subject, no unwelcome surprises like Sport & Leisure). Answers below - try your luck, punks.

1. Which invented language is still spoken natively by thousands of people?

2. What is unique about the nations Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan?

3. Where in the world is Bedlam?

4. How many nations form the G20 economic group?

5. What is the capital of Alaska?

6. Which Latin American capital city was originally built on volcanic lakes?

7. True or false: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was given it's stupid and long name to attract tourists to the village.

8. Which German city was built in 1938 to house workers at the nearby VW plant?

9. Which is the only London Underground line to intersect with all other lines?

10. Which country on Earth is furthest from any ocean or sea?

And now it's answers time. I used to love reading the answers - by now you can probably imagine what an insufferable little turd I must have been, gleefully informing people of their slight inaccuracy and snatching the dice from their disbelieving hands:

1. Esperanto - those who learnt the language and married a fellow Esperanto speaker, who presumably they met at an Esparanto-based event, taught it to their children, who have now grown up as Esperanto speakers.

2. They are the only two nations on Earth to be doubly landlocked - this means that they are not only landlocked themselves, but border only other landlocked countries.

3. Bedlam was the name given to Bethlehem Hospital in Lambeth, South London. It is now a military museum.

4. Nineteen. Someone forgot to turn up.

5. Juneau.

6. Mexico City.

7. True - the name was made up in the 19th century to attract tourism to the otherwise unremarkable area.

8. Wolfsburg, in the central Saxony region, was founded to provide homes for a new car plant, and was originally named, slightly less romantically, Stadt des KdF-Wagens by the Nazis, who admittedly are not renowned for their sense of romance.

9. The Jubilee line, following an extension in 1999 which took it from Green Park to Stratford. A little bit of extra info thrown in, in what I like to call a 'Chris from Eggheads' manouevre.

10. Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia.

Next up is Entertainment... hopefully soon.

I Don't Believe It!

<< Robert Ripley: About to get served

The recent opening of the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! attraction in Piccadilly Circus, complete with five floors of baffling, barely related artefacts culminating in a killer spinny walkway thing, suggests that casual knowledge is becoming big business. In order to compete in this bold new marketplace, I'm going to have to raise my game. So for my latest post, ladies and gentlemen, I have assembled a bevy of actually quite interesting things, which I shall deliver with no small quantity of giddy hyperbole...

Davina McCall used to be a drug addict. Can you believe that?! She seems so clean-cut! Apart from the weird late-night game shows she used to do. You heard it here first!

High heels were invented in the Middle Ages, and were designed for horse riders, to keep their feet in the stirrups. Coo! Who'd have thought? The one article restraining the natural domination of women all over the world, and it was invented to stop people falling off horses. Madness.

Look over here! Traditional Bolognese sauce should contain pork, beef and chicken. That's mental.

A polydactyl is the name given to a creature with excessive fingers or toes. Doesn't sound that interesting? Well, check this out! Eww.

Phoenix Nights star and poor comedian Dave Spikey is vegetarian. But he's Northern! And slightly overweight and middle-aged. It doesn't seem possible! What's more - he really likes broccoli. What is this guy on?!

Brides before the 20th century used to wear blue rather than white. Can you even conceive of such a spectacle?

Behold the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles - at 3 miles high and over 2 years long, it's Japanese car maker Toyota! Weren't expecting that, were you?!

The Super Bowl, the single most widely enjoyed sporting event on the planet, was named after a toy called a Super Ball. A name that conjures image of titanic sporting struggle like no other was name after a mere ball - albeit a super one. My world is collapsing!

You can't buy a return bus ticket with cash on a London bus. We're not safe from this topsy-turvy madness out in the streets. Run for cover - it's factageddon.

Liberia in West Africa was founded by slaves returning from the U.S., hence the flag's similarity to the Star Spangled Banner. Is Spangled even a word? I don't know what to believe any more!!!

The Chinese had invented a form of gun in the 13th century, a full 600 years before Colt, Smith, Wesson and the like. Rip up your history books. They are now worthless. Do it!

And finally...

Fibre doesn't help to keep your bowel movements regular. In fact, it will probably make it worse. DID I JUST BLOW YOUR MINDS?!

And much like the fine institution I have aped so childishly, I have no more facts for you, and will now jettison you all into the cold London night air. Until next time...