Questions Game

Who can say? Maybe the human body will slowly evolve to tolerate and accommodate all these life-style changes and abuses- although I read a headline the other day that was attached to an article that said that the obesity epidemic in children will solve the pension crisis, as today's teens will be lucky to live past the age of 53. I didn't read the article, just the headline, so I don't know if there was any medical or scientific research it was based on.

Do you frequent pubs?

Not really. I have lunch in them sometimes, country ones, with friends, but never a la spendius, just going along of an evening to prop up the bar.

Do you?

I go to quizzes in them and sometimes on Friday nights I go to my local because they have great fresh fish dinners- and quite a good selection. I do enjoy the atmosphere though.

Do you like quizzes?

I hate them.

The quizmaster directs everybody's thoughts onto tramlines of his own.

The information available is disconnected and worthless.

The style of the questions can easily have a political bias and, on the reward principles of Pavlov et al, become a conditioning agent.

A pub is supposed to be about getting along with each other and not about competition.

The questions are framed in a specifically patronising fashion by experts in certain techniques perfected in nursery schools.

They are nowhere near as popular as they give a superficial impression of being.

They attract lower middle class twits to the pub most of whom make one drink last all evening and who depart with the intention of agitating to ban smoking for those who come in every night.

They render the pub safe and comforting.

I hate them goodstyle.

Am I wrong?

Yes I do, but at heart I'm a cruciverbalist, the very reason I found a2k when looking for assistance. We have no quizzes in pubs here but I do go there and enjoy a meal and a beer. I will make a confession here, although we have beautiful sea food downunder, the nicest piece of fish I've ever tasted was in a London pub, Atlantic Cod with chips, beautifully prepared and served.

Do you like dining out in Restaurants?

I do sometimes, moreso in Europe than in the US because there's a whole different mindset (for dinner at least). You book a table and it's yours for the evening, so it's a very relaxed and enjoyable affair, you don't feel like you're being herded through while someone is anxiously watching the clock and clearing the dishes out from under you to get you out and the next lot in as it sometimes feels is the case in US restaurants.
But sometimes, if the food isn't that great, I wish I had just cooked and eaten at home.

Do you think some people overanalyze situations and assign meaning to aspects of a situation that are not designed to provide meaning so much as to provide nothing more than mindless fun- as in "trivia"- which certain people seem to enjoy immensely on their own terms?
And isn't it fun sometimes to redirect your thoughts in a direction they'd never have taken on their own?
Doesn't teamwork encourage "getting along with each other"?
Should we still be so concerned with and assigning members of society to various "classes" in this day and age?
And finally: what is a cruciverbalist?
(Sorry, I couldn't pick just one, but whoever responds, feel free to choose whichever question appeals to you).

I'll take two.
Cruciverbalist is:
A constructor of crosswords.
An enthusiast of word games, especially of crosswords. That's me!

I absolutely abhor class distinction, in my eyes whether a person is a king or a pauper, they are both the same to me.


Are you concerned about terrorism in your country?

(I never knew that! I looked it up in my dictionary, but it wasn't there. See, you can learn something in trivial pursuits. I love crossword puzzles. Do you do the cryptic kind with the combined two word answers or do you do the concise type?)

I don't know how anyone will take this, and I'm almost afraid to say it, as I'm almost certain it will be taken differently than I mean it-but I don't see terrorism as the biggest threat to the world, so it's not something I spend a lot of time thinking about- although I think any act of terrorism against any person or country is abhorrent.

But I'm not a very nationalistic person, so I don't worry about the US or England any moreso than I do about Austrailia, Zimbabwe or Palestine. I don't really think in terms of countries as much as in terms of people- human beings.

What characteristic do you think is inherent in most human beings that seems to mandate separation into groups or associations of one sort or another?

That they are all boring, useless twits but it is necessary to be near some more like themselves who, as Philip Larkin famously said- " half the time were soppy-stern /And half at one another's throats."- so they form little associations and the ones who can't take it for long pack their bags under the impression they are going to " see the world" and some even head off into the outback and live on slugs and snails and muddy water. The fundamentalists become hermits.

Are you a fundamentalist anything?

I'm a fundamentalist "live and let live" believer.

how about you?

No. Not at all.

No.no! They have to behave themselves. I suppose if you have confused behaving yourself with "living!" you might not understand.

When Dylan said that you should never let other people get your kicks for you he might have meant don't think you're living listening to a song about jumping jack flash. He meant be jumping jack flash and selling bootleg merchandise in the street outside the concert hall.

A fundamentalist live and let live doctrine is pretty corrupt really. Maybe its widespread dissemination is one of the causes of more jails having to be built and more experts to be employed in the various fields of social disruption.

It's bad mannered and that's even worse.

Wouldn't it result in anarchy?

No, because, when I say "live and let live", I mean I tend to my business and you tend to your business and that implies the caveat that my business won't infringe on your business and your business won't infringe on mine, because if it did, then I wouldn't be letting you live as you wanted to and you wouldn't be letting me live as I wanted to...get it?

I didn't mean, "Do what you want to do without any consideration of the consequences for anyone else".

So is there a fundamental cornerstone of your personal credo or philosophy on which you have based the way you live your life?

Yeah- keep a clean head and always carry a lightbulb.



No. Because our business does infringe on the business of others. You would have to live in seperate boxes otherwise. Maybe some do but it is very few.

Are you one of them?

Do I live in a box? No. Do I do my best to mind my own business? Yes.

Do you often feel infringed upon by others in your day to day life?

Not really, as I live alone.

Do you fill the house with voices and sound if you are alone in the house?

It depends on what I'm doing. Reading, sleeping, writing, thinking, walking-I like silence-I'm distractable.

Cooking, cleaning- music.

Do you feel the need to be plugged into some kind of sound or contact with others (via ipods or cell phones-texting, etc.) constantly?

*I'm finally going up to Yorkshire- to Whitby- and to see all the sights. Any suggestions of what I absolutely shouldn't miss?

Not constantly no.

You might try going to a rugby match between two local clubs on your way through Yorkshire. It's best when it's pouring down and all the meat and potato pies are cold.

Do you fancy that?

Would you expect anyone to? I'd rather eat pig fat on a string and jiggle it about until I'm sick.

Have you ever been to Carnival ?

A small number of times.

Were you not ashamed in the cold light of the morning?

No, frankly, I was rather proud of myself.


Did you ever try to write with your non-dominant hand?