National Glass Centre, SunderlandWEDNESDAY 12 DECEMBER 2007
FESTIVAL OF TRIVIA
One of the features of The Nightshift over the upcoming ‘festive season’ (as I’m constrained to call it) is the 'Festival of Trivia'. I’ll be scattering provably useless information across the airwaves like damp confetti. And that’s where you come in. In order to squeeze the most benefit from this pointless exercise, I’ll need some useless information to scatter. It doesn’t matter what kind of information it is or what the subject matter is – animal, vegetable, mineral or abstract. It doesn’t matter if it’s trivia you were already aware of or factoids that you’ve looked up out of sheer curiosity or even boredom. To give you an idea of how unashamedly trivial you can be, take a leaf out of Truckshunter Maureen's book....
- your eyes are always the same size from birth, whereas your nose and ears never stop growing;
- ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter of the alphabet (I have a point to make about this on tomorrow’s Nightshift);
- tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous are the only words in English that end in –dous.
A sense of curiosity, and an accompanying sense of wonder, are two of the things that make us human. I suppose that’s why trivia like this – and things like pub quizzes and The Weakest Link - are so ‘satisfying’ (Anne Robinson notwithstanding).
Get your useless information and trivia to me as soon as you can. And while you’re about it, look up the origin of the word ‘trivia’. I suspect you’ll find it quite interesting. Trivial, but interesting.
IAN STOREY
You probably know I feel strongly that the north-east’s heroes don’t get the credit they deserve – not even in their own home territory. Where are the blue plaques honouring Gladstone Adams or Matthew Leach? Where are the statues of Robert (rather than George) Stephenson or Dame Flora Robson? Neglect of living heroes is even worse. Until I was carelessly scanning The Guardian’s arts pages the other day, I had never heard of Ian Storey. Have you?
THE SATURDAY MINDMANGLER
I know that quite a few listeners to the weekday programmes don’t - or can’t - listen to the Saturday edition of the Nightshift, which has a special middle-of-the-night mindmangling quiz of its own. It’s called Brahms and Liszt - a fiendishly clever play on words because the quiz is basically a list with one element missing. The first list was....Alabama, Alaska, Arizona. What is that a list of AND which one is missing? Last week’s list was....Steve McLaren, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Kevin Keegan, Terry Venables. What is THAT a list of AND which one (and only one) is missing?
GEMS
Amongst the Truckshunter Gems tonight were I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls, a traditional Irish ballad sung quite untraditionally by Enya. Her style may quickly have devalued into ‘coffee table Celtic’ but, when it was new, nothing like it had ever been heard before. You may also have heard My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m On The Stage, a rare oldie sung by 1930s comedy star Billy Bennet. Most of the tracks he recorded have dated very badly and sound puerile now. This, though, still has rings of truth and humour about it. I’m glad so many of you enjoyed it!
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
FESTIVAL OF TRIVIA
One of the features of The Nightshift over the upcoming ‘festive season’ (as I’m constrained to call it) is the 'Festival of Trivia'. I’ll be scattering provably useless information across the airwaves like damp confetti. And that’s where you come in. In order to squeeze the most benefit from this pointless exercise, I’ll need some useless information to scatter. It doesn’t matter what kind of information it is or what the subject matter is – animal, vegetable, mineral or abstract. It doesn’t matter if it’s trivia you were already aware of or factoids that you’ve looked up out of sheer curiosity or even boredom. To give you an idea of how unashamedly trivial you can be, take a leaf out of Truckshunter Maureen's book....
- your eyes are always the same size from birth, whereas your nose and ears never stop growing;
- ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter of the alphabet (I have a point to make about this on tomorrow’s Nightshift);
- tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous are the only words in English that end in –dous.
A sense of curiosity, and an accompanying sense of wonder, are two of the things that make us human. I suppose that’s why trivia like this – and things like pub quizzes and The Weakest Link - are so ‘satisfying’ (Anne Robinson notwithstanding).
Get your useless information and trivia to me as soon as you can. And while you’re about it, look up the origin of the word ‘trivia’. I suspect you’ll find it quite interesting. Trivial, but interesting.
IAN STOREY
You probably know I feel strongly that the north-east’s heroes don’t get the credit they deserve – not even in their own home territory. Where are the blue plaques honouring Gladstone Adams or Matthew Leach? Where are the statues of Robert (rather than George) Stephenson or Dame Flora Robson? Neglect of living heroes is even worse. Until I was carelessly scanning The Guardian’s arts pages the other day, I had never heard of Ian Storey. Have you?
THE SATURDAY MINDMANGLER
I know that quite a few listeners to the weekday programmes don’t - or can’t - listen to the Saturday edition of the Nightshift, which has a special middle-of-the-night mindmangling quiz of its own. It’s called Brahms and Liszt - a fiendishly clever play on words because the quiz is basically a list with one element missing. The first list was....Alabama, Alaska, Arizona. What is that a list of AND which one is missing? Last week’s list was....Steve McLaren, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Kevin Keegan, Terry Venables. What is THAT a list of AND which one (and only one) is missing?
GEMS
Amongst the Truckshunter Gems tonight were I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls, a traditional Irish ballad sung quite untraditionally by Enya. Her style may quickly have devalued into ‘coffee table Celtic’ but, when it was new, nothing like it had ever been heard before. You may also have heard My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m On The Stage, a rare oldie sung by 1930s comedy star Billy Bennet. Most of the tracks he recorded have dated very badly and sound puerile now. This, though, still has rings of truth and humour about it. I’m glad so many of you enjoyed it!
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
1 comment:
ian your xmas card is winging its way to newcastle...its handmade n has candles on.. i could never keep a secret...
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