Friday, May 26, 2006

I also incorrectly guessed the entry level for MENSA.

This morning, halfway though helping set up a whippet agility show, I was roped into helping out with a live quiz on Pirate FM, during which I forgot Woody Allen's name*, and heard someone claim that the capital of Sweden was Stockport. Later I was asked if I wanted payment in the form of fish.

Ladies and gentlemen: Cornwall.





It's 'Woody Allen'.

33 comments:

patroclus said...

Ex-Mr P and I once entered a pub quiz in Zennor. We knew we were unlikely to carry off the gleaming fish prize when the first question was 'what colour did Jesse's front door used to be?'

Anonymous said...

I want your life.

baggiebird said...

Random but fun !

Dave said...

Cornwall: as inbred as Norfolk, but more exciting.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes real life really is stranger than fiction.

Kelly said...

Oh, I miss Cornwall.

My Dad helped build the building that Pirate FM is broadcast from.

Anonymous said...

No, no, no, never mind the fish and questions I want to know more about the whipet agility show.

Angela said...

what kind of fish?

dead or alive fish?

James Henry said...

On Monday, at the Mabe Shindig, the world will see for the first time how agile the Cornish Whippet can be. "Gosh, they're agile" people will say, unless they turn out not to be, in which case they won't.

I turned down the offer of (dead) fish, as I had bacon defrosting, although with all the irony the world can throw at me, I'm now having cod and chips for tea.

I don't know how much longer I can live at this pace.

Anonymous said...

Bacon defrosting? You freeze your bacon?

Anonymous said...

someone posted this on the green wing livejournal today:

"Yesterday I sat a Forensic Medicine exam at Glasgow Uni. One of the multiple choice questions was about the names of the lobes of the brain. I thought "Aw, crap, another one I don't know"...until I saw their names. And in my head appeared the phrase "Foreign Politicians Often Zing Stereotypical Tunes Mayday Mayday Venezuela Neck!" and I could answer the question!
Then of course, I had to shove my fist in my mouth to keep from giggling hysterically and being thrown out of the exam room. So I just wanted to say "Hurray for Guy Secretan and Green Wing writers!"

see!
green wing saves lives! or at least exam results.

and your descriptions of cornwall life? wow. and there i thought where i came from was provincial.

James Henry said...

Excellent news - a new generation of surgeons raised on The Mighty Wing.

Never get ill.

Anonymous said...

Pirate FM? See now, that's exactly the sort of thing girls' schools want and need.

Anonymous said...

That head mnemonic scene was mine, so I can perhaps claim credit for the education of future doctors. Though it was about the bones of the skull rather than lobes of the brain so I'm not so sure.

Anonymous said...

Bloody software or bloody me. That was me above.

Dan said...

I've just spent a pleasant few days in your neck of the moors.

Can I ask....are you Cornwall's Most Wanted?

Anonymous said...

I just have to say I enjoy your blog very much! sometimes there are real gems like this entry here. :)

So, thanks for writing a blog! :)

James Henry said...

Thanks la (eurgh I've gone Scouse). I thought that was one yourn Richard. Because of the words.

Sad lack of 'yarr'ing on Pirate FM, I'm afraid to say. Although the logo is a parrot, with, I think, an eyepatch. Ace.

frangelita said...

Be thankful you're not in the Fens. You'd be more likely to be offered a barrel of turnips as a prize. But you wouldn't be able to understand what they were offering you because of the thick Fenland accident.

Rose said...

Patroclus, that is the greatest story ever.

I would have accepted the fish.

Dave said...

Rose, I think you meant to say "except, of course, for James' stories", didn't you?

I've just noticed the title of this post. It used to be 148. Is it still? (Mine's 152, but I don't like to boast.)

Rose said...

On reflection, James does have some much better stories. I was caught up in the moment. It meant nothing to me, I swear.

And there isn't an entry level for Mensa, as tests can vary wildly, even their own. You have to be in the top 2% of any test.

patroclus said...

Hmph - my moment of glory, shattered into tiny pieces. Sic transit.

James Henry said...

"For the crown of our life as it closes
Is darkness, the fruit thereof dust,
No thorns go as deep as a rose's..."

Rose said...

“Change in a trice the lilies and languors of virtue for the raptures and roses of vice...”

janey33 said...

I went to the Mabe country show a couple of years ago. It was awfully wet and muddy. There were all these old steam engine type contraptions which were belching out huge amounts of smoke and everyone was coughing and wheezing all day. Then my friend's son had an almighty tantrum, which drew almost as many onlookers as the dog show. Then one of the stallholders thought my husband was my dad! (He'd had a bit of a heavy night, bless him) All in all, not a completely successful day out, really.

Dave said...

When I joined Mensa, the IQ level for the top 2% of people in Britain was over 148% - so that was the entry level, that year anyway.

That was all a long time ago, and I left within a year anway, as they were too elitist for me.

Anonymous said...

dave, what did you actually do in mensa?

and james, what is alan statham's IQ? he is a member of MENSA, after all...

Dave said...

Mainly people seemed to sit around rubbing each other's egos/brains. It was very cliquey. I left quickly (I've still got the tie though).

By the way, when Statham mentioned his IQ on the show, it was, I seem to recall, less than 148. I nearly posted here quibbling the point, but I'm not a nit-picker, so didn't. But now you mention it...

Anonymous said...

Obviously your answer depended on what type of fish they were offering :)

Anonymous said...

Mensa is exclusively for the kind of person that would be excited by getting a nice set of shiny new pens engraved with their name and IQ. Whoot!

Anonymous said...

I got into MENSA when I was 14 (I did the child's test), cos i got a result of 150 apparently... dunno how that works!
I'm only staying for the moment, cos I ended up gettin into sixth form partly cos the person who was interviewing me's husband is in MENSA... so they might like it at uni as well... meh

its all a bit pointless though...

but i got a free mug out of it!

bathmate said...
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