This week I nearly hyper-ventilated!! More than once!!!
On my way to work each morning I tune into the local radio station: Invicta FM. And each morning I listen to the show's quiz; Thousand Pound Minute. Every morning someone can phone in and have a go at answering ten questions in one minute; if they get all ten answers correct within the time limit, they win one thousand pounds - can't be bad. The questions range from general knowledge, to national headlines, to facts about Kent...the county we live in.
In my car, driving along, joining in, I usually get around seven to eight right.
On this particular morning I was flabbergasted!
The woman on the phone - Sarah from Folkestone - was doing okay. I think she'd answered nine out of the ten questions, and by my reckoning she was on to a winner. And then she was asked who wrote the story A Christmas Carol.
She didn't know.
She actually didn't know.
I was screaming at the radio Charles Dickens! Charles Dickens! How can you not know it's Charles Dickens? Everybody knows it's Charles Dickens!
That's when I started my first case of hyper-ventilation!
I couldn't believe Sarah from Folkestone didn't know the answer.
I thought the whole world and his wife knew the answer?
Oh how very wrong I was....
During dinner break, in the staff room, I threw the question into the air. Only about fifty percent of my colleagues knew the answer...and they're teachers! What hope do the kids they teach have?
But it got worse...
At home that evening I asked my hubby. He paused. He stammered. He thought about it -but he didn't know!! And he reads all the time (obviously not Dickens!).
I am married to a man that doesn't know that Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. Shock! Horror!
Finally I turned to my fifteen year old daughter.
'Oh I know,' She said. 'It's some man...you know that man...can't quite remember his name...'
'He wrote Oliver Twist,' I said helpfully. 'And Great Expectations.'
'Ahh...' she replied. 'Charles Dickens.'
Bless her.
Charles Dickens indeed.
What is the world coming too.....?
...Shakespeare?
.......Shakespeare who?
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4 comments:
Wonderful post Akasha. What is the world coming to indeed?
Not that long ago (something completely different, but on the same sort of ignorance level) some 18-year-old girls in the boarding house I work in were eating pot noodles. They chewed and chewed.
"A little hard" one mused. "I don't understand why it's so crunchy" said another. I looked into their dishes and saw quite large chunks of carrots.
"How long did you cook the carrot for?" I asked.
They looked at each other nonplussed and then one answered "we stuck it in with the pot noodle for the one minute"
Oh my. That's just a little disturbing. And it reminds me that I need to read "David Copperfield" some time this summer. :)
Middle Ditch - all I can say is: Bless them! x
Rapid Fox - I love David Copperfield, but Great Expectations is my best.
Unfortunately we witness more and more such shocking moments...
I loved this post! :-)
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