venta

Me and my trusty notebook (by which I mean a spiral-bound paper thing) have fought dangers untold and trials unnumbered (and the painful LJ mechanism for reading poll results) and added up scores.

The glamour, honour and glory of first prize is split between Diffrentcolours, Shermarama, and Dr Bob[*], who all got 23 1/2 out of 45. Special mention to Dr Bob for being the only person to score 5/5 on a round (on the Sports round, no less). [**]

Wooden spoon award goes to Damerell. Not because he got the lowest score (he didn't), but for the entertainingly nonsense answers and generalised commentary he shoehorned into the poll. Plus getting at least two correct accidentally due to sarcasm. Also for being the only person across the whole of DW, LJ, and the quiz' original intended audience to get the channel 5 question right.

Any prizewinner is entitled to demand a pint from me in person as winnings, should we cross paths ;)


( The answers! )

[*] Since this is going to be crossposted, and some of those usernames exist on LJ-only, some on DW-only, and some on both I cannot be bothered fixing the tags everywhere ;)
[**] Recount! CEB also got 5/5 for TV. I'm going to stop counting now, because there is a fairly high chance I've got it wrong elsewhere too.

The weekend before last, I was seized with a sudden whim to have treacle pudding[*] to follow Sunday dinner. Although I'm sure I've been involved in pudding-making with the mother, I think I mostly did the fancy string-and-greaseproof-paper part at the end rather than actual cooking, so didn't have a favourite recipe.

The BBC is usually a good bet, so I took this recipe as a starting point. The executive summary is: put treacle in pudding bowl, top with 4/4/8 sponge mixture, do the fancy string-and-greaseproof-paper part (instructions in recipe), and steam for a couple of hours. Sorted.

( Pudding! )

[*] Just to make sure we're all on the same page: a treacle pudding is a steamed sponge pudding made with golden syrup. If you're reading in America, then my understanding is that there's no direct equivalent of golden syrup. Recipes I've found direct you to mix two parts corn syrup two one part molasses, but most of them also recommend you scour your local shops for the proper stuff first.

I've been doing some tidying up recently, and trying to sort through a massive stack of unlabelled tapes. Some have been easily dismissed as blank, or not things I recognise as mine. Some turn out to be taped-off-the-radio tapes from the late 80s/early 90s. Which has been fascinating, even as it has confirmed that my early teenage self had flippin' awful taste in music.

The most recent tape appeared to feature me inadvertently leaving the tape recording until it fell off the end, capturing me a fascinating slice of local radio. I think the overal quality of songs actually went up without my curation, despite it taking in Male Stripper. And it includes one of the fabulous "The one you've got to come back for" McEwan's Best Scotch adverts. The cars advertised were G-reg, meaning I can place it as somewhere between 1 August 1989 31 July 1990 (thank you, Wikipedia).

Anyway, I'm on to another one and I thought I'd have a little go at live-blogging it as I listen[**]. I have absolutely no idea what's on it. This may turn out very dull :)

( Side A )

( Side B )


[**] If you accept "typing it into a text file at the time then forgetting to post it for a few days" as a reasonably definition of 'live-blogging'.

When writing last week's BAYD post, I did what I always do: put up an mp3 (of Try This At Home) for download. Later on, when I wanted to refer in passing to Reasons Not To Be An Idiot, I just linked to YouTube.

And then I thought: why do I do that? Why don't I just link to YouTube for my BAYD posts? Unless it's something really quite obscure, it'll be there. Do people care that much about downloading an mp3?

And then I thought: er... good question. The answer surprised me. I first started BAYD as a regular thing at the beginning 2005. At that point, YouTube didn't exist.

( It wasn't even thought of... )

Many years ago, I was chatting to someone at a folk festival.

( And he told me a story )

( My story is rather shorter )

I feel this is both fabulous, and slightly sad.

Following a brief conversation in my office about whether or not you could get to heaven in a biscuit tin, I have to ask....

[Poll #1853005]