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
One day when I'm vaguely less tipsy I'm doing a "new woke UC is great" post but not in detail today maybe
― Tumbledown Duck (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 15:28 (two years ago) link
Flagging it now so when the Telegraph hate screeds start I've called it tho
Too late, Hitchens has already done it: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9433255/PETER-HITCHENS-claims-University-Challenge-questions-dull-obscure.html
― ailsa, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 19:08 (two years ago) link
The hate screening, obvs.
― ailsa, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 19:09 (two years ago) link
Of course he has god bless the crazy little monster
― Tumbledown Duck (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 19:21 (two years ago) link
Very likeable teams
Reading guess game is excellent
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Monday, 16 August 2021 19:56 (two years ago) link
Drake AND Folk Horror, very ILXy today
― kinder, Monday, 16 August 2021 21:03 (two years ago) link
midsomer was an answer on both OC and UC. possibly with different spellings. I've watched neither, but knew both answers.
― koogs, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 01:18 (two years ago) link
Was Victoria inexplicably wearing sunglasses this week?
― nate woolls, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 02:07 (two years ago) link
Last night's was the third UC I have watched this season. So far, my scores were 23, a miserable 10 and then 18, those being
Mexican wave, Christo, Cambrian, Hungary, Baldwin, Wilson, West End Girls, Edward VI, Guildford, Little Mermaid, Histogram, Ghent, Montessori, Calcium, Witchfinder General, integral, broch, Everton
Agree with darraghmac about the likability of the teams last night.
― Grandpont Genie, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 08:24 (two years ago) link
Yes, apart from specialist knowledge, they seemed to have a good range of general knowledge and the good old quizzing standby of "here's a name I vaguely remember that might fit, let's give that a go", which is good tactics.
― trishyb, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 08:54 (two years ago) link
Those guys on OC were a TERRIBLE team. They did not listen to each other and they didn't know much more than we did in our house. It felt wrong that they almost won just by storming the missing vowels round. It doesn't seem in the spirit of the thing at all.
― trishyb, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 08:56 (two years ago) link
yeah, I was wondering whether the guy team was actually really good at missing vowels or if the other team was playing safe with such a huge lead.
― braised cod, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 09:14 (two years ago) link
i do a simiar job to them, based on their team name, and i'd also expect to catch up in the missing words round. not really different (in terms of points available) to being good at walls.
(oh, that said, you don't get docked points for getting the wall wrong. and you can stab at random things and luck upon answers. plus you get a second go at connections you didn't find. maybe it is completely different!)
― koogs, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 09:30 (two years ago) link
I thought the team storming the mssngvwls round fell short by 1 point?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 09:37 (two years ago) link
they did, but they were behind 10 points before the final round so it was close.
― braised cod, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 09:40 (two years ago) link
And I knew they were going to storm the missing vowels, too, because they were so far behind that I thought "there's no way this team should have made it past the auditions. They must be really good at the missing vowels."
― trishyb, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 12:59 (two years ago) link
LOL the folk horror segment has been doing the rounds on various interested Facebook groups that I belong to. A lot of the discussion has been about if Blood on Satan's Claw should have a definite article, as Paxman favoured.
The thing about folk horror from the 60s and 70s is, there are only about three or four movies that remotely quality as such, so you could've guessed without seeing the pics - Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan's Claw, The Wicker Man (to be fair, UC did pick a not entirely obvious - in fact slightly misleading - still from the last one).
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 19 August 2021 16:12 (two years ago) link
Argument being tbf that if hadnt come up already you could safely pick is as the third option with yr eyes closed id say
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Thursday, 19 August 2021 16:24 (two years ago) link
(xpost true, I nearly didn't say "Wicker Man" at the end)
― Mark G, Friday, 20 August 2021 14:15 (two years ago) link
After “west end girls” and “integral” I was on alert for some sort of covert pet shop boys song title theme
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 21 August 2021 21:39 (two years ago) link
Really enjoying these teams
― cheesons to be rearful (Noodle Vague), Monday, 13 September 2021 19:46 (two years ago) link
Mays might be a bit of a cunt tho
― cheesons to be rearful (Noodle Vague), Monday, 13 September 2021 19:51 (two years ago) link
This is high qual stuff from all concerned
― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Monday, 13 September 2021 19:52 (two years ago) link