Skip to main content

University Challenged at Christmas (3) (21.12.16)


While I’m enjoying the current daily instalments of University Challenge, I’ll be glad when they go back to the standard shows.

It’s not as fun to mock the ex-students; they’re just too well-established. I’ve nothing bad to say about Samira Ahmed or Wilko Johnson, for example, and I sure as hell can’t play ‘Spot the Murderer’ with them, or ‘Sniff Out the Most Socially Inept’. The last few episodes have been so alarmingly twat-free, I’ve almost abandoned my usual piss-taking and actually listened to the questions.

See below for tonight’s Twitter banter: normal service will be resumed when they bring the knobheads back.

City - London Vs. Newcastle (21.12.16)
7:32pm: Paxman looks world-weary tonight; I bet they threatened to overrule him.

7:33pm: "Their captain has been broadcasting for over twenty years". Long programme.

7:34pm: Needell loves it.

7:35pm: Newcastle's Scales was hit by a very precise gust of wind.

7:36pm: Astley likes to spin on his chair.

7:39pm: I seem to remember someone making Scale's hair on the Great British Bake Off.

7:41pm: Look Scales in the eye and you'll be turned into stone.

7:43pm: I like a flag with festive fringing.

7:45pm: Imagine Paxman's disdain whilst playing charades on Christmas Day.

7:45pm: Is City London's mascot a jaunty penis?

7:48pm: I'm making Paxman saying "Breast-shaped hill" my text tone.

7:50pm:            PROSPECTIVE BRIDE: "Will you marry me, Jeremy?"
PAXMAN: "....no."

7:51pm: ...it's the bloody Shining.

7:52pm: "...and later popularised by Freud." Something to do with my mum.

7:54pm: Super-charismatic expialidocious.

7:56pm: Needell's slimy pervy face.

7:58pm: For the last three days, the team in the bottom half of the split-screen has lost; it's witchcraft.

7:59pm: Surely NO-ONE has to do it?

Popular posts from this blog

Not The Bayeux One.

The Carole King album Tapestry has been my 'getting-ready-in-the-morning' soundtrack for the past few weeks.  It's been a favourite album ever since I was a student, which makes for a pleasantly gentle way to usher in the start of a day. I've always been a fan of a well-crafted song, which is something of a Carole King hallmark, ever since she started writing with her first husband in the early Sixties. Tapestry may be an unimaginative choice for a favourite LP, as it suggests I haven't delved that far into her career, but it's still an undoubted classic; anything with '(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman', 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' and 'You've Got A Friend' on it can't really fail; if nothing else, it proves she likes writing songs with long titles.  Next month, she's set to perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at a gig in Hyde Park, which I would have loved to have gone to, if it weren...

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream..."

While I’ve been practising meditation for quite some time now, I’ve recently taken to using the mindfulness app 'Headspace' . If you’ve never meditated before, or you’re an old hand at it, it’s a great resource, offering daily ten-minute guided meditations that create a sense of progress, rather than stagnating and going through the same process every day. Until I started using the app, I’d often listen to a handful of audio guided meditations I have on my phone in case of a brain emergency. If you see me with my eyes closed and my earphones in on public transport, I’m probably doing this (unless I’m sleeping and using this blog as an elaborate alibi). While the tracks on my phone are great, they can get a little repetitive as I become too familiar with them and start to anticipate everything the person on the recording will say. This is where Headspace is great, as it offers you a daily course with a different focus each day, as well as pl...