They nearly said "Take That" for 'something to say' on the Flaming Lips question, but
― Mark G, Wednesday, 31 March 2021 15:50 (three years ago) link
Am I the only one who thought the final Only Connect walls were easier than usual?
Definitely. I think the netball one was the only group we didn't identify.
I have to admit I did get a chuckle out of them guessing Daft Punk for Flaming Lips, but in fairness there's really no reason a current college student would know the Flaming Lips.
I like how the teams all know that this music question only exists so that we can all laugh at them and feel superior to them for five seconds before they get back to answering obscure questions about amylases or whatever.
― trishyb, Wednesday, 31 March 2021 16:48 (three years ago) link
pretty much all my points come from genre films, with a couple more for punts on titian and sibellius. and 9000 Newtons (it's a wall so area so squared).
― koogs, Monday, 5 April 2021 20:00 (three years ago) link
I knew "pinion", and got a high five from the husband for getting a non-arts question correct, even if it was an easy one. I also knew Titian, because chubby cherubs = Titian.
― trishyb, Tuesday, 6 April 2021 01:36 (three years ago) link
heh, "pinion" was one of two where I was kicking myself afterwards - the other being "cavitation".
anyway, I did better in the final than in any previous round I think - 23!
hell, Bonny Prince Charlie, Tichbourne, smooth, Mendel, dominance, I4 (Blue & White Nile location), elephants, Pyrrhus, Only Lovers Left Alive, Bewick, OEU, hedgehog & fox, Platyheminthes, Escher, Titian, Perseus & Andromeda, Campbell-Bannerman, British Honduras, Belmopan, potassium, Hairspray Tchaikovsky.
― Grandpont Genie, Tuesday, 6 April 2021 18:30 (three years ago) link
bump.
OC and UC start again tonight, 8 and 8:30 on bbc2.
― koogs, Monday, 12 July 2021 14:37 (two years ago) link
About time. I've just run out of Jeopardy episodes on Netflix.
― trishyb, Monday, 12 July 2021 14:39 (two years ago) link
Yay! Pointless is back from the break too.
― braised cod, Monday, 12 July 2021 18:39 (two years ago) link
guess what i forgot?
― koogs, Monday, 12 July 2021 19:17 (two years ago) link
second time in about 10 days i've heard a question about the longest year when expressed as roman numerals (1888)
― koogs, Monday, 12 July 2021 20:24 (two years ago) link
thanks, forgot to look that up. Intrigued me at the time.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 13 July 2021 15:43 (two years ago) link
1888 is the set of numbers where each one is just before where you start referencing up to the next rounded digit like i before the letter innit.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 13 July 2021 15:48 (two years ago) link
m dccc lxxx viii
― koogs, Tuesday, 13 July 2021 16:08 (two years ago) link
ilx.wh3rd
― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 July 2021 17:51 (two years ago) link
St Hilda's College team, 3 dudes, fuck this shit tbh
― Southgate Serves Imperialism (Noodle Vague), Monday, 19 July 2021 19:36 (two years ago) link
"soddor" what
― kinder, Monday, 19 July 2021 19:50 (two years ago) link
How does the time limit on conferring with your team work? Sometimes teams are allowed a long time to chat, and other times Paxman is very fast with his warning. It feels sort of arbitrary.
― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Monday, 19 July 2021 23:48 (two years ago) link
I'm sure it's edit
― Mark G, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 08:09 (two years ago) link
― Southgate Serves Imperialism (Noodle Vague), Monday, July 19, 2021 7:36 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
enforced gender parity NOW, which would also have the welcome side effect of boiling the gammons' piss
― Neil S, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 08:29 (two years ago) link
hard to do with single sex colleges (are there any?)
― koogs, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 08:36 (two years ago) link
also, the guys on OC got their asses handed to them by the gals last night so...
― koogs, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 08:37 (two years ago) link
yeah that's a consideration but could be accommodated I think, and in any case AFAIK the only single sex colleges left are for women so in that case who would really mind?
― Neil S, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 08:46 (two years ago) link
obviously the "what about International MEN's Day?" crew would care but who cares about them?
― Neil S, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 08:48 (two years ago) link
olympics opening ceremony is a nice way of putting faces to a lot of Pointless answers.
― koogs, Friday, 23 July 2021 12:51 (two years ago) link
London Business School rocking the generic postpunk band look
― mogwai oh wai oh wai (Noodle Vague), Monday, 26 July 2021 19:34 (two years ago) link
What did they say when the answer was the Manics? Whatever it was, it wasn't as good as renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti being recognised as a San Marinan footballer on OC.
― ailsa, Monday, 26 July 2021 21:29 (two years ago) link
i only know her from the sky arts British library thing, where she looked into Italian settlers in Scotland, amongst other things (Beethoven's tuning fork).
early green Day, aerosmith. stone roses, i think one of them said and then dave gardo(?) for the manics answer. he looked confused when told it was the manics
― koogs, Monday, 26 July 2021 21:56 (two years ago) link
Evidently they guessed Dave Garda, which is the name of the person who uploads the University Challenge episodes on YouTube.
― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Tuesday, 27 July 2021 13:52 (two years ago) link
"You are about to hear a piece of... POPULAR music... from the 1990s..."
Me: https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltypofBBq21qzyewi.gif
The best music rounds are the ones where you correctly predict the questions, never mind the answersSadly they are about 1 per series for me
― kinder, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 20:00 (two years ago) link
We were actually discussing this after, about how Nicola Benedetti is a (posh-ish, but not exclusively so) household name up here and relatively less well known outside Scotland.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 July 2021 23:08 (two years ago) link
thought I was hearing things!
― Number None, Tuesday, 3 August 2021 09:57 (two years ago) link
don't they teach sewing in schools anymore?
'cross stitch?'. the clue is in the name.
― koogs, Monday, 9 August 2021 20:09 (two years ago) link
I just got irrationally cross at those
― kinder, Monday, 9 August 2021 20:31 (two years ago) link
Last week it was Drag Race, this week embroidery stitches and Elizabeth Gaskell. Things are looking up for me on University Challenge.
― trishyb, Monday, 9 August 2021 21:46 (two years ago) link
i bought Germinal yesterday, mainly because it sounded like a French North and South. but i missed the first q in that set.
― koogs, Monday, 9 August 2021 21:56 (two years ago) link
THere's a similar story of a mining strike in kentucky called Matewan that hasa young Will Oldham in . Just to take off at a tangent.BUt yeah got that Germinal question and a few others.There was a French tv version of Germinal in the 90s that I caught at least part of. Think it's good though, Gerard Depardieu etc in the cast.
― Stevolende, Monday, 9 August 2021 22:09 (two years ago) link
but i missed the first q in that set.
It was about a strike in 1936 by fruit workers in California that became a novel by a writer who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
― trishyb, Monday, 9 August 2021 22:18 (two years ago) link
grapes of wrath? date's about right for great depression. California is where they ended up. was some cotton picking on the book iirc.
― koogs, Monday, 9 August 2021 22:43 (two years ago) link
No a different steinbeck. Not as obvious.
― Stevolende, Monday, 9 August 2021 22:59 (two years ago) link
Yeah, Steinbeck was the correct answer. A quick google tells me that the book is In Dubious Battle, which I'd never heard of and would now like to read.
― trishyb, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 09:35 (two years ago) link
There was a French tv version of Germinal in the 90s that I caught at least part of. Think it's good though, Gerard Depardieu etc in the cast.
I read Germinal a few years ago in a book club, and it was great but extremely grim. Or maybe that should be great and extremely grim. I'm reading Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell at the moment, and it has similar bursts of angry descriptive passages highlighting the great gulf between rich and poor in 19th-century Manchester. It's tough stuff.
― trishyb, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 09:41 (two years ago) link
Did they ever teach sewing in schools?
If they did, then for most of us it's a long time ago.
I certainly couldn't have told you anything about any of those stitches.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 10:36 (two years ago) link
there's a "tapestry" up at home that i made at *primary* school 45+ years ago. (all running stitch, all terrible)
but certainly we had time on sewing machines in first two years of secondary school and (probably) hand-sewing in the same lessons (given that they didn't let us loose on the machine immediately)
― koogs, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 10:42 (two years ago) link
It's funny what's considered general knowledge and what's considered specialist knowledge. As someone who does do a bit of embroidery and did know the names of all those stitches, I thought it was a bit pathetic that the team couldn't even make a guess at them. They probably didn't learn knot-tying in school either, but I bet if they'd been presented with pictures of different knots, they could've guessed more than one type of knot. Mind you, if they'd shown different types of origami folds, for example, I would have been as lost as they were.
― trishyb, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 11:27 (two years ago) link
I couldn't guess the name of a knot either. I would say 'reef knot' a few times and hope it was right once.
I'm not proud of it, but it's a fact that many of us are very ignorant about most things.
And I don't remember anything that I learned in school.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 11:55 (two years ago) link
We did do a bit of textiles in secondary school art. Sewing machine, French knots etc. I didn't get blanket stitch or satin stitch but did get the other 2.The TV comedy ones I thought were a little harder than the usual pop culture Qs. I got them all but wouldn't be surprised if ppl didn't know Stath Lets Flats or know Steve Pemberton's name. Sad that Julia Davis was recognised mainly for Gavin & Stacey!
― kinder, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 12:19 (two years ago) link
I got blanket stitch,, didn't get satin. Was thinking of something else like on a sewing machine. NOt as good on hand sewing and embroider as sewing machine and noty sure how many technical names I know anyway.Think I know how to do a lot of it.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 12:21 (two years ago) link
Ah I'd have thought you'd get those for sure :D
― kinder, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:25 (two years ago) link
Kinder: no, I had no idea what those comedy questions were about.
Despite all this ignorance, I was still not much worse than the actual contestants last night, who were unusually poor.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 14:29 (two years ago) link
Not a fan of the team that won and their interminable havering but then if the opposition couldn't beat them then that's what they deserve
― Tumbledown Duck (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 15:26 (two years ago) link