In the 1980’s the band Fun Boy Three sang ‘The lunatics have taken over the asylum’. That has no relevance to the topic of this narrative, however I thought I’d share it in the event you get asked it at the ‘Green Man’ pub quiz next Tuesday night.
Of course it’s highly unlikely you’ll get that question next Tuesday night…… The ‘Green Man’ pub quiz is on a Wednesday!
I haven’t been in a pub quiz for years. Last time I participated in one was in a bar on a Mediterranean cruise in 2011. With the challenge taking part on a cruise ship, the questions were a bit more upmarket than those in the ‘Green Man’ pub.
Instead of the usual enquiries surrounding capitals of countries, dates in history and sporting trivia, the questions we received, as we slowly meandered the Med, were the likes of:-
How long do you soft boil a quails egg?
Which Dow Jones stock lost 25 points on 28th February 2011?
On average, how long does it take to crush the spirit of the working classes?
I’m sure those type of queries have their place in the world of recreational general knowledge, however, to this working class northern English bloke it all came as a bit of a culture shock.
In fact the only question I got right all night was when a steward asked “What would you like to drink, sir?”…… Even then I still had to ask the audience and phone a friend!
I have to admit, I don’t mind partaking in the odd (or even) pub quiz.
Although, I’m no Barry from TV’s ‘Eggheads’ or that stern looking chunky lass on ITV’s ‘The Chase’, I have a reasonable level of general knowledge and ordinarily contribute towards a decent proportion of my teams answers.
If you don’t believe me just ask me who sang ‘The lunatics are taking over the asylum’ in the 1980’s…… Go on then!
Board game or DVD quizzes also have a place as a family diversion at Christmas time. In fact we bought two games for last Yuletide which took centre stage for a while post the Christmas meal.
In an attempt to stretch the Strachan brains, we’d purchased a James Bond trivia and TV’s ‘Gogglebox’ board games. Two games, unbeknown to Karen and I when we bought them, on opposite ends of the difficulty spectrum.
To have any chance at the James Bond game you had to be a real 007 geek. I’m talking about being in possession of real minutiae, such as “Where did Goldfinger’s henchman Odd Job get his lethal bowler hat?”, Where did Goldfinger get his trilby? And “Where did Dr No’s army get their caps?”
Coming to think of it, there was an inordinate number of questions about where Bond villains purchased their headwear!……..I should have known buying the 007 millinery edition of Trivial Pursuit was a mistake.
At the other end of the general knowledge scale, the ‘Gogglebox’ game was overly simple. Questions similar to “Name someone called Frank”, “Name someone called Jim.” and “Name someone who isn’t called Frank or Jim.”, were the order of the day.
As I say it wasn’t overly challenging, but there was family friction at one point over whether we were going to allow singer/songwriter James Taylor as a Jim.
Right, I must get going as I have to google ‘Where do James Bond villains buy their hats’ so I’m full prepared for this Christmas.
