A while back I shared a self-devised Round Britain Quiz-type question with readers but couldn't find the cache of emails which I had sent to a colleague over the last few years which had lots more. Well, now I have - and the burden of these delightful notes shall occupy the next few posts.
Some questions were actually sent to the BBC programme and didn't make it, so maybe they weren't that good. Or maybe they were too much about my specific areas of interest.
Yes. Yes, that's the only explanation which makes any kind of sense.
So if you are a regular reader of this blog then you might have an idea of what to expect. And if you're not ... well, you'll already be three or four clicks away from this page, so it doesn't matter.
Looking over the emails I am struck by the melancholy thought that I was more amused, in the formulating, than my original emailee was in the reading. But he occasionally said he was tickled, so maybe he was. Who knows? Anyway, I am sending these out into the world in case others may be.
If you are unfamiliar with Round Britain Quiz, a description in that earlier post may help:
Round Britain Quiz is a longrunning programme on BBC Radio 4 where each week two teams from different regions strive to answer questions which require the making of unlikely and unexpected connections between a varied series of high and low cultural references. When, as is often the case when faced with anything relating to popular music, a team fails, the listener then has the chance to feel all smug and superior - until, that is, another strand in the same question exposes the limitations of that hypothetical listener's supposedly mature and eclectic sensibility.So let quizzing commence. Not sure how long I should leave questions up for - will see how long it takes to get responses. Go to the contact page, above, to send your answers ... if you dare. Alright. Ready? It'll be one question per post.
1 If a Dutch rodent's domicile initially leads you to a proprietorial disease, which organs might be affected by some additional Nancy-ish behaviour (without a late mime's soundbite)?
Hi, I am going for Rats, Weil's disease, jaundiced view of life, Kurzweil Organs and 'Blue Moon' by The Marcels or Frank Sinatra (Nancy's dad)
ReplyDeleteBrian O'Connell
Sorry, nothing out of sx on this occasion. But as I have already been berated by a colleague for the lousiness of this question so maybe I should just give the complete answer and promise that later questions will be better.
DeleteThe Dutch rodent's domicile is a windmill (in old Amsterdam, as the song says).
The proprietor of the Windmill Theatre, Vivian Van Damm, was known by his initials, VD.
Nancy Mitford wrote about U and non-U behaviour.
In the film silent movie the only word spoken was "Non!" - by Marcel Marceau.
So that gives VD and U - VDU. And computer monitors affect the eyes, which are the organs I was thinking of.
I can only apologise for the quality of the question - I'll do a quality control check on the next!