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    #51
    Originally posted by lambers View Post
    tidbit
    titbit. Unless you are American...
    Last edited by Gangster Octopus; 17-07-2020, 20:27.

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      #52
      Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
      titbit. Unless you are American...
      How do I not know that!

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        #53
        Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post

        Also famously Pat Gibson's specialist subject for the same reason.
        I was due to go on Mastermind in 2017. I picked The Euros since 1980, because I figured I'd seen all the games once, all the answers would be in my brain somewhere, and in any case, there weren't too many games to go on given the tournament is smaller that the world cup. I then had Belle and Sebastian, figuring that the source material was the music itself and a few books which I had. Then, for the final, I'd picked the life and work of Robert Moses because there's basically a single source - Robert Caro's biography - and because they fly you to a place associated with the subject of your questions, so that would get me a trip to NYC courtesy of the BBC.

        That part worked fine - all those rounds were accepted, and then I spent the next 6 months not reading the utterly tedious statto books they'd informed me they'd use as source material for the Euros questions. I belatedly started revising but was increasingly of the fear that I'd be shit and humiliated on national TV. The day before I was due to go to Manchester to film the episode, I had a stoke which I'm sure was affected by the levels of stress it was causing. We let the BBC know, and some poor bugger had less than 24 hours notice. I watched the first episode of the series and someone did do very badly. I was due to be in the first show taped, so there's a good chance he was my replacement. Soz like.

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          #54
          We should try a brief quiz session on one of the thons.

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            #55
            Originally posted by NHH View Post

            I was due to go on Mastermind in 2017. I picked The Euros since 1980, because I figured I'd seen all the games once, all the answers would be in my brain somewhere, and in any case, there weren't too many games to go on given the tournament is smaller that the world cup. I then had Belle and Sebastian, figuring that the source material was the music itself and a few books which I had. Then, for the final, I'd picked the life and work of Robert Moses because there's basically a single source - Robert Caro's biography - and because they fly you to a place associated with the subject of your questions, so that would get me a trip to NYC courtesy of the BBC.

            That part worked fine - all those rounds were accepted, and then I spent the next 6 months not reading the utterly tedious statto books they'd informed me they'd use as source material for the Euros questions. I belatedly started revising but was increasingly of the fear that I'd be shit and humiliated on national TV. The day before I was due to go to Manchester to film the episode, I had a stoke which I'm sure was affected by the levels of stress it was causing. We let the BBC know, and some poor bugger had less than 24 hours notice. I watched the first episode of the series and someone did do very badly. I was due to be in the first show taped, so there's a good chance he was my replacement. Soz like.
            Great if a rather saddening story.

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              #56
              NHH, next time you are here with an extra day, we should do a tour of Mosesland.

              I could even get a car and driver for the full effect.

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                #57
                When I was there in 2010 with Mrs NHH, we hired a car and went on an exciting tour of Long Island. We ended up doing the Triborough bridge, Throggs Neck, Verranzano and Battery Tunnel and Jones Beach via Southern State Parkway. This was when my main understanding of Moses came from Marshall Berman's essay in All That is Solid Melts into Air, as I'd not yet got around to reading Caro. When we all came in 2017, the kids got to go to Governor's Island, mainly because I wanted to see the ventilations shafted for the Battery Tunnel. Getting a genuine honest to god tour with you would be amazing and I am totally going to hold you to it.

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                  #58
                  Originally posted by NHH View Post

                  I was due to go on Mastermind in 2017. I picked The Euros since 1980, because I figured I'd seen all the games once, all the answers would be in my brain somewhere, and in any case, there weren't too many games to go on given the tournament is smaller that the world cup. I then had Belle and Sebastian, figuring that the source material was the music itself and a few books which I had. Then, for the final, I'd picked the life and work of Robert Moses because there's basically a single source - Robert Caro's biography - and because they fly you to a place associated with the subject of your questions, so that would get me a trip to NYC courtesy of the BBC.

                  That part worked fine - all those rounds were accepted, and then I spent the next 6 months not reading the utterly tedious statto books they'd informed me they'd use as source material for the Euros questions. I belatedly started revising but was increasingly of the fear that I'd be shit and humiliated on national TV. The day before I was due to go to Manchester to film the episode, I had a stoke which I'm sure was affected by the levels of stress it was causing. We let the BBC know, and some poor bugger had less than 24 hours notice. I watched the first episode of the series and someone did do very badly. I was due to be in the first show taped, so there's a good chance he was my replacement. Soz like.
                  Sounds horrific, NHH - hopefully no long-term effects on your health?

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                    #59
                    Well, part of my brain is dead, so I suppose that's long-term of a fashion, but it feels like the stroke was very much at the lower end of the spectrum, as well as being a clot-caused stroke, rather than a burst and bleed, which seem like are the real ones that do a damage more often. I just had the privilege of feeling my brain rewire itself and become better in a way you don't appreciate when you're a kid and its all you know, and the other long-term side effect is that I get tired more easily, so when I go to sleep, I just don't have the same fear of insomnia I used to.

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