14 Dec 2006
Trivia Tag
I got tagged with the Trivia Tag meme by Matthieu Riou, and it must be getting near Christmas because I thought, ah, why not? Let's think of it as the blogging equivalent of having a glass of wine too many at the office Christmas party and thinking it might be funny to photocopy some hitherto hidden part of your anatomy.
So, five little-known things about me:
- I cry every time I watch the film ET. Every flipping time. Even though I tell myself that it's just cynical emotional manipulation on the part of Spielberg, it still invariably makes me blub like a baby.
- My favourite smell is that given off by the feathers at the back of a barn owl's head.
- My right leg twists outwards slightly, prompting my Tae Kwon-Do instructor (many years ago) to ask me if I'd ever fallen off a horse and fractured my pelvis. No, I'm naturally just rather badly put together. In those idle moments when you brood about such things, I've speculated that if I was unfortunate enough to ever face having a leg amputated, I'd be slightly less unhappy if it was my right leg that had to go.
- I like the combination of peanut butter (wholemeal, crunchy) and Marmite.
- My first and last appearance on the stage (at school) was as the speaking end of Arthur the Pantomime Horse in a production of Wind in the Willows. My portrayal of Arthur owed more than a little to Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I'm supposed to tag five more people to list their five bits of Trivia, but I'm feeling lazy and rebellious (an odd combination), so I'm just going to leave it open. If anyone feels like taking up the challenge, be my guest.
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I love both peanut butter and Marmite, and I often have the toast with one of each. But the thought of the two together on ONE bit of bread fills me with revulsion. Such pollution. What would Levi Strauss say? C'est la vie, I suppose. I love your blog but maybe this is an image/thought/taste too far.
by Bernard Knight @ 15/12/2006 2:16 am • Permalink
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Excuse the rogue 'the', please.by Bernard Knight @ 15/12/2006 2:20 am • Permalink
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Little known facts: -first single I bought was At the Edge by Stiff Little Fingers -I've lived more years outside the UK than in -Despite the fanaticism I've never been to Murrayfield (but will go in Feb!) -I broke my left arm when I was little and can only just touch my shoulder with it -I don't like heights (but do like climbing) Have to agree with Jonathan by the way about smells- cut grass, goood.5
Bsag, You must move with the stealth of a ghost at midnight if you can get close enough to the back of a Barn Owl to smell its neck feathers........by Jonathan Briggs @ 15/12/2006 9:35 am • Permalink
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1. I am often confused with Brad Pitt* 2. I love angling (but haven't for two years now) 3. I once played the drums. Just the once, mind. 4. I would dearly love to be able to paint (I make do with a camera) 5. I'm going to buy a motorbike (after the boat) * is he the one who looks like a young Robert Redford or Paul Newman?7
Oh dear lord. I cry every time I watch ET, too, and get endless ribbing about it from family and friends. I also cry during certain television commercials. How lame is that? The Marmite / peanut butter combination sounds revolting and strangely appealing at the same time. I must try this. A friend in Britain recently convinced me to try Marmite again (the first time didn't go too well, but he says it's because I used too much at once), so maybe I'll try it your way.by Debbie Ridpath Ohi @ 15/12/2006 2:27 pm • Permalink
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Back after a breakfast of poached eggs and BSAG-style toast. I admit I was quite surprised to find how good the marmite - peanut butter combination tasted. Yum. I'm definitely hooked. Out of curiosity, how did YOU find out about this unique taste sensation? Do you have an official name for this combination? I'd like to post in my blog about it, but want to ensure I use the correct nomenclature.by Debbie Ridpath Ohi @ 15/12/2006 3:10 pm • Permalink
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It's called "Wet & Dry" - the marmite makes you dribble, and the peanut butter dries your mouth out - perfect synergy.........by Jonathan Briggs @ 15/12/2006 3:46 pm • Permalink
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I feel for you bsag with your ET affliction. Whenever "The Railway Children' is shown on TV (at least once every Christmas - curses!), my wife and children always drag me in to watch Jenny Agutter meet her father off the train at the end and laugh at me blubbing. My wife has even on occasions re-enacted the whole scene (quite vividly) and still made me cry when it gets the "Daddy! Oh my Daddy!" bit. Very embarrassing for me, but it entertains the rest of the family, and so I suppose it must add to the gaiety of nations.by ThoughtBadger @ 16/12/2006 12:39 am • Permalink
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1. I laugh every time I read the story of 'The Judge' in Hunter S. Thompson's Kingdom of Fear - especially during the bits with the character 'Leach.' I think I would probably cry yet again at the bit in Armageddon when they are walking to the space shuttle and the little boy sees them on television and says to his Mum, 'It's that salesman!' and the Mum says, 'No, that's your Father.' (Nearly cried just then!) 2. My favourite smell is the smell from fried onions and dodgy sausages at food stalls you find at fairs and the like. 3. My left wrist is permanently disjointed after being broken, reset incorrectly, broken, reset, broken, reset. My fingers curve inwards on both hands, though I have nice half-moons apparently. 4. Fried food outdoors is irresistable to me. At festivals, fairs, car boots - whatever. I am addicted to diet coke, so a burger/dc combo gives me a seedy high. 5. My last appearance on stage was delivering a monologue from the young boy who reports on the death of Sikes in Oliver Twist - about 27 years ago. It was my third and final LAMDA exam whilst at stage school. I remember doing breathing exercises before I went on and holding my hand up dramatically and deliberately shaking, hoping the examiner would realise that this was not real nerves.12
Jonathan Briggs: I love the smell of grass too. Particularly when you smell it for the first time after the winter. That's my definition of the start of Spring, actually. Bernard Knight: Ah, go on, just try it I know it sounds revolting, but it really isn't.
Ian: Don't like heights, but do like climbing? How does that work then, I'm intrigued.
Jonathan Briggs: Well, you can only really get away with it with tame birds. I had the pleasure of smelling the neck of a tame Barn owl called Wol once, and I've never forgotten how nice the smell was. Very subtle, but lovely. Incidentally, I didn't just randomly smell the owl -- the owner suggested it.
Mr D.: I know what you mean about wishing you could paint. Brad Pitt, eh?
Debbie Ridpath Ohi: Yay! A convert! Actually, it's quite an achievement acquiring a taste for Marmite if you haven't grown up with it. I usually think that you need to be imprinted on it from a tender age (like ducklings on the mother duck) or it just seems revolting. I don't remember why I tried it the first time. I think I felt that peanut butter on its own is a little bit sweet, and I wanted some savoury, umami taste to tone the sweetness down. For the same reason, I've never understood why peanut butter and jelly (or jam, if you speak English English) is so popular, because they are two very swwet things. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of it, indeed, a quick google found a posting on the official Marmite forum about the combination. I also don't have a name for it, and just prosaically call it 'peanut butter and Marmite'. I'd call it 'black and tan' if that wasn't already a name for a [mixture of stout and porter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_Tan), and a rather nasty British paramilitary unit that did some pretty horrible things in Ireland in the 1920s.
ThoughtBadger: That's so sweet 
Some films (or songs for that matter) seem to just induce a kind of emotional Pavlovian response.
Lightus: Yikes! Your poor wrist has been through the wars a bit, hasn't it?
by bsag @ 16/12/2006 1:09 pm • Permalink
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These things are a bit like "Your 100 Best...." and are very much influenced by recencies© (One day I'll get one of my words in the dictionary). 1) Smells - a toss up between Castrol R and new mown grass; I think new mown grass has it as it takes me to all sorts of places. 2) Song - I give up. My LP collection encompasses Bach to the Beatles, Kinks to Kachachurian, through Ellington, Beiderbecke, Art Tatum and The Rolling Stones. When my cardboard coffin makes the final pass through the velvet curtains, I want it to be to the strains of Dudley Moore & Peter Cooke singing "Now is the time to say goodbye..." But if I really had to choose just one song it would be "Zadok the Priest", the 16 bar lead in still sets the hairs on the back of my neck quivering, and even though it is 44 years since I last sang it, I still come in on time. 3) Sound - A young child giggling. To me it is the most beautiful sound in the world. 4) Sight - Kings College Chapel seen from across the Cam when illuminated by the golden glow of sunset. 5) Food - Not Nouvelle Cuisine, if I want graphic art I'll go to a poster shop. One of my wife's salads. She manages to pack more different flavours in a plate of salad than most people can manage in a week of meals. So there you have it, my inconsequential list. Next please........by Jonathan Briggs @ 14/12/2006 9:36 pm • Permalink