[Dixonary] Christmas Quiz

[Dave Cunningham]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ENII2LQOMZERHQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQ YIV0?xml=/portal/2007/12/22/ftqi122.xml

I amanaged a pretty poor 51 :( ...

[Judy Madnick]

Judging by the first group of questions, I have chosen to eliminate myself from this testing to avoid embarrassment. <G>

Judy Madnick
Jacksonville, FL

[Tim B]

52 - and a lot of those were guesses!

Best wishes,
Tim.

[Bill Hirst]

I had a bit of trouble with the scoring. For some reason
(humbugititis?) I only wrote down 9 answers for some sections. I think
I got a dismal 29. *<:-0

-Bill

On Dec 22, 5:01*pm, Dave Cunningham <cunn5... (AT) bellsouth (DOT) net> wrote:
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ENII2LQOMZERH...
>
> I amanaged a pretty poor 51 :( ...

[Bill Hirst]

I had a bit of trouble with the scoring. For some reason
(humbugititis?) I only wrote down 9 answers for some sections. I think
I got a dismal 29. *<:-0

-Bill

On Dec 22, 5:01*pm, Dave Cunningham <cunn5... (AT) bellsouth (DOT) net> wrote:
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ENII2LQOMZERH...
>
> I amanaged a pretty poor 51 :( ...

[Dodi Schultz]

>> 52 - and a lot of those were guesses!

Well, no wonder you did so well, Tim--a lot of those questions were
strictly British! ;-)

I racked up a 45. I actually knew or could figure out about 10 or 12 of the
100. All the rest were sheer guesswork, so I suppose getting 30-something
of those, with a onee-in-three chance of being right, beats the odds very
slightly.

--Dodi

[Lindsey]

52 - and a lot of those were guesses!
Ditto. I was guessing completely blindly on most of the British questions, but some of the rest were not entirely random guesses. Sometimes I could reason my way to a correct guess -- but then again, an attempt at reason also sometimes led me astray.

--Lindsey

[Tim Lodge]

Dodi

> Well, no wonder you did so well, Tim--a lot of those questions were
> strictly British! *;-)

Steven Fry is no doubt well-known to you as an actor, but you may not
get to see his TV panel show QI (short for Quite Interesting) on your
side of the pond. It's basically a general knowledge quiz in which
the answers are usually the opposite of obvious. As he deducts points
for wrong answers, it's not unknown for his guests (who are usually
actors or stand-up comedians) to end up with a minus score at the end
of the show.

I haven't yet dared to try this Christmas quiz - I've been saving it
up for after the turkey!

-- Tim L

[Dave Cunningham]

IOW 51 for an American is actually ok? Whew!

Dave

On Dec 23, 11:26*am, Tim Lodge <iel7j... (AT) sneakemail (DOT) com> wrote:
> Dodi
>
> > Well, no wonder you did so well, Tim--a lot of those questions were
> > strictly British! *;-)
>
> Steven Fry is no doubt well-known to you as an actor, but you may not
> get to see his TV panel show QI (short for Quite Interesting) on your
> side of the pond. *It's basically a general knowledge quiz in which
> the answers are usually the opposite of obvious. *As he deducts points
> for wrong answers, it's not unknown for his guests (who are usually
> actors or stand-up comedians) to end up with a minus score at the end
> of the show.
>
> I haven't yet dared to try this Christmas quiz - I've been saving it
> up for after the turkey!
>
> -- *Tim L

[Dodi Schultz]

Tim L writes:

>> Steven Fry is no doubt well-known to you as an actor...

Actually, not (although perhaps he should be).

>> ...but you may not get to see his TV panel show QI (short for Quite
>> Interesting) on your side of the pond.

Nope. And thanks for explaining the "QI": I wondered about that but forgot
to ask. And I'm wondering what makes this a "Christmas" quiz; certainly the
subject matter isn't focused thereon. Or does that just mean time of year?

>> I haven't yet dared to try this Christmas quiz - I've been saving it
>> up for after the turkey!

Let us know how you do, eh.

--Dodi

[JohnnyB]

Dave

I think 51 is probably good for most anyone but especially comendatory for a non-brit - I know of the QI program but as I do not
have a TV I have never seen it

I managed 53 of which at least a third were guesses

JohnnyB

>
>
> IOW 51 for an American is actually ok? Whew!
>

[Wayne Scott, MD]

Dodi, f you are a fan of Pl G. Wodehouse (and with your sense of humor you
should be) you may know about the many books and short stories he wrote
about a young upper class twit, Bertie Wooster. Wooster had a valet named
Jeeves who was wise and wily and maneuvered Bertie into doing what Jeeves
wished. There is a series seen here on PBS, "Jeeves and Wooster." In that
series Steven Frye plays Jeeves and Hugh Laurie plays the nitwit, Bertie.
If you have watched "House, M. D." you have seen Hugh Laurie as Dr. House.
That an actor could play 2 such disparate characters is quite remarkable.

Pelham Grenville Curm


> [Original Message]
> From: Dodi Schultz <SCHULTZ (AT) compuserve (DOT) com>
> To: <Dixonary (AT) googlegroups (DOT) com>
> Date: 12/23/2007 10:30:08 AM
> Subject: [Dixonary] Christmas Quiz
>
>
>
> Tim L writes:
>
> >> Steven Fry is no doubt well-known to you as an actor...
>
> Actually, not (although perhaps he should be).
>
> >> ...but you may not get to see his TV panel show QI (short for Quite
> >> Interesting) on your side of the pond.
>
> Nope. And thanks for explaining the "QI": I wondered about that but forgot
> to ask. And I'm wondering what makes this a "Christmas" quiz; certainly
the
> subject matter isn't focused thereon. Or does that just mean time of year?
>
> >> I haven't yet dared to try this Christmas quiz - I've been saving it
> >> up for after the turkey!
>
> Let us know how you do, eh.
>
> --Dodi

[Dodi Schultz]

And thank YOU, Curm.

I've never watched that PBS series. I mostly can't abide PBS (although I do
watch their nature stuff very occasionally) and can't be bothered fishing
around for actual programming in the boundless sea of pleas for donations..

Of course I follow House faithfully, although new episodes, like new
episodes of every series worth watching, are few and very far between these
days; all the networks are apparently carefully rationing the ones they
have left.

Of course I sympathize with the writers, but.....

--Dodi

[Tim Lodge]

Dodi

>> And I'm wondering what makes this a "Christmas" quiz; certainly the
subject matter isn't focused thereon. Or does that just mean time of
year? <<

Yes, it's just the time of year. As you may know, the UK stops for
about a week for Christmas, so, to entertain us during the break,
newspapers tend to publish a lot of quizes and puzzles. As well as
the QI quiz, Saturday's Daily Telegraph had four broadsheet pages of
crosswords, sudoku, and other mind games.

Stephen Fry is something of a polymath. As well as being an actor, he
has written screenplays and novels, and devised and presented the QI
quiz show. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of
Oscar Wilde in the 1997 film 'Wilde'. He famously walked out of a
play he was appearing in in London's West End, and disappeared to
Belgium, contemplating suicide. He later made an acclaimed TV
documentary, "The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive", about bi-polar
disorder.

<aside>I wonder why this thread has generated sponsored links in
Hebrew on the Google group website?</aside>

-- Tim L

[Lindsey]

As you may know, the UK stops for
about a week for Christmas
I certainly wish we would do that here! I don't really enjoy Christmas any more; it's just a great huge hassle. A week when everything more or less gets put on pause would be lovely!

--Lindsey

[Dodi Schultz]

Tim L reports:

>> As well as the QI quiz, Saturday's Daily Telegraph had four
>> broadsheet pages of crosswords, sudoku, and other mind games.

Sounds great; I'll have to stop around to the Website and see if any of
it's downloadable. All we get treated to in the local broadsheet is full
page after page of advertising, mostly for clothes and extremely expensive
perfumes.

>> Stephen Fry is something of a polymath. As well as being an actor,
>> he has written screenplays and novels, and devised and presented the
>> QI quiz show. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal
>> of Oscar Wilde in the 1997 film 'Wilde'. He famously walked out of a
>> play he was appearing in in London's West End, and disappeared to
>> Belgium, contemplating suicide. He later made an acclaimed TV
>> documentary, "The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive", about
>> bi-polar disorder.

Interesting! I'll keep an eye out for the Oscar Wilde film, which might
show up on TV.

--Dodi