And the winner is...
Amanda, a reader from Australia (I think), with a staggering 54 correct answers out of 56. What's more - Amanda isn't even a blogger herself. She's a Real Person! And to top her achievement off - the answers were submitted within the first 36 hours of the competition. But then, she did really, really want the CDs. I applaud her determination.
Amanda: a full set of "Old Curiosity Box" CDs will be in the post to you in the New Year. Just let me have your postal address.
Here are the correct answers in full:
1. Who devised a Blogger’s Code?
Leather Egg
On January 9th 2001, Ron posted his
Blogger Code Generator.
2. Whose shock revelation caused an outbreak of General Delighted Astonishment?
World Of Chig
On November 14th, Chig announced that his readers' favourite UK Number One single of all time was
Band Of Gold by Freda Payne - thus creating
a General Delighted Astonishment in his comments box (and elsewhere).
3. Who likes Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Fugazi and Mogwai?
Silent Words Speak Loudest
...as revealed on his sidebar, under the "bands" section.
4. Who pens epistles to a sleepy inspiration?
Barbara Fletcher
...whose strapline reads "writing letters to a narcoleptic muse".
5. Whose dating plans never worked (until recently, that is)?
Not You, The Other One
Sarah has a section on her site entitled
"Those dating plans that never worked". However,
she is now in fact dating someone. Hurrah!
6. Who took over the old GBLogs "recently updated" list?
Linkmachinego
...on
October 24th. And
here it is.
7. Who is spending Christmas in Berlin?
Life As It Happens
Rodney tells us this
on December 14th.
8. Who moved back to Sweden?
The Life Of A Fake Lintott
...as Simon tells us
on September 27th.
9. Who is a "London dwelling, roller coaster riding, Woody Allen watching, motorbike riding lover lover man"?
They Didn't Teach Me About This In School
Dave's self-description,
as supplied to the Google directory.
10. Who listed 500 fantastic albums?
The Big Man Restless
...and
here they are. Still not sure about the Village People's "Renaissance" album, mind.
11. Who likes Add N To (X), The Flaming Lips, Idlewild, Interpol, Jimi Tenor, Kings Of Convenience, Koop, Radio 4, Royksopp, Tricky and The White Stripes?
Parallax View
...as revealed on the "Sounds" section of Dead Kenny's sidebar.
12. Who went from Fifteen to Two?
It Makes No Difference
On his sidebar, in the "about me" blurb, Olav reveals that he was runner-up in the last series of the Channel 4 quiz show "Fifteen To One".
13. Who conserves mountain trails?
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Take a look at the "About Quarsan" section on the sidebar.
14. Who hosted the My Way awards?
How To Learn Swedish In 1000 Difficult Lessons
Francis came up with
this wheeze on
January 4th, and announced the results
on January 19th.
15. Who invites you to refresh, then stand back in terror?
Green Fairy
There is a world population counter on her sidebar which is accompanied by these very instructions.
16. Who asked for photos and their stories?
noipo.org
Martijn ran a project on his site entitled
"One Photo: A Story", announcing it on his journal on
September 15th.
17. Who worked in a supermarket?
Idiote
Remi wrote several pieces about this, such as
this one on January 18th.
18. Whose failure to recognise La Streisand caused his membership to be revoked?
Bitful
Luca received his official letter of notification (from the Commission for Assured and Motivated Poofters)
on July 23rd.
19. Who spotted the Circuit Pigeons?
one thousand secret kings
Peter spotted them
on November 25th.
20. Who works for the Interweb Tat Emporium?
The Flat At The Top Of The Stairs
Caitlin has made frequent references to this - such as
this one, on December 13th.
21. Who was pictured on this site, wearing sunglasses at night?
Kookymojo
...and
here's the picture of Anna (and Sasha), as taken on Saturday October 26th.
22. Who conducts an autopsy on the NME each week, thus saving you the cover price?
No Rock & Roll Fun
Although Ben (of Silent Words Speak Loudest)
called it an autopsy, the autopsy itself takes place on No Rock & Roll Fun.
Here's one example. And
here's another.
23. Who assigns fictional ratings to his posts?
Intersection
Kyle assigns a
FIC quotient to each of his articles, indicating what percentage of that article is ficticious. It's explained on his ABOUT page.
24. Who also has an academic blog?
Dust From A Distant Sun
Tinka's academic blog is called
6th Edition. She links to it from the top of Distant Sun.
25. Which three hail from Austin?
Analog Roam, (although Kenan
talks about leaving on July 28th),
Brucehoax (although PJ has come and gone during the year, he was back by
October) and
The Yes/No Interlude (the dead giveaway here being "Blogs & diaries: Austin" at the top of Nigel's sidebar).
26. Which Anglophile will turn 40 on April 19, 2003?
Prolific
For confirmation, check Caroline's
About Page.
27. Who fizzed, slowly?
I'm Hip To You
Slow Fizz is the name of Elisabeth's occasional 60s club night in Manchester - as linked to on her sidebar.
28. Who fragmented, festively?
Hydragenic
On November 21st, Stuart posted
35 "fragments" to commemorate his 35th birthday.
29. Who showed us her bollocks?
You Say Tomato
Junio's
Bull's Testicles Project kicked off
in October. And I won a T-shirt! Woo-hoo! Thanks, Junio (and the photographic evidence is still on its way - honest.)
30. Who coined the terms Tearful Tuesday and Weepy Wednesday?
Dave, Live In London
...
on March 12th, to be precise.
31. Who was "all cock and spite"?
Blogadoon
Ooh, a slightly inaccurate quote there - for which apologies. The exact line should have read "strong on cock and spite" - but you get the general idea. First mentioned at the end of
Ian's piece on July 19th - and you'll notice that the page title for that week also contains the same phrase.
32. Who knitted a hat and took part in a pr0n shoot?
The Search For Love In Manhattan
Here's
the bit about the hat, and here's
the bit about the pr0n shoot.
33. Who has "brit-lust"?
Trevor Wilker (Me And My Big Blog)
For conformation, check Trevor's
About page.
34. Who relaunched as an urban lifestyle magazine?
East/West
"Welcome to East West, the urban American online magazine for lifestylers." Not a weblog any more, see!
35. Who is loving father to a goblin?
Upside Down Hippopotamus
Strapline: "The life and times of Goblin Foo Uvula (and her loving father)." (Goblin is a dog, in case you were wondering.)
36. Who managed to escape the clutches of Sandra in Accounts?
So...
...on
December 14th.
37. Who has regular "issues" with bus drivers?
Vodkabird
...as compiled onto their own dedicated page:
The vodkabird.org guide to bus drivers from Hades.
38. Who saw Bowie at the Hammersmith Apollo?
Gina Snowdoll's Eeeeeks! it's a blog!
...as written about
on October 3rd.
39. Which two communicated in Xs and Ys?
Swish Cottage and
Bboyblues
Here and
here, for example. It's a Secret Code, doncha know?
40. Who disconnected their zeitgeist and took up peculiar poetry instead?
The Oddverse Journal
Alan called a halt to Disconnected Zeitgeist, and relaunched as The Oddverse Journal - as I mentioned here
on August 8th.
41. Who initiated a game of Consequences?
Wherever You Are
Here's
the first one - and here's
the last one.
42. Who went to Connecticut and Prague?
Groc's Bloggette
Here's the
Connecticut bit, and here's the
Prague bit. Not made easier by the fact that Groc has spelt Connecticut as Conneticut...!
43. Who closed his site for a few days to avoid the Googlers?
Insubstantial
Adrian helpfully gives the whole game away on
December 18th.
44. Who drinks in Camden and lives in hope?
London Mark
Check the "biography" section on his sidebar.
45. Who accidentally started the meme that led to Googlism?
not.so.soft
It started
here (on June 17th), developed in
the attached comments box, and ended up
here.
46. Who wants more Ikes and fewer Tinas?
The World, Backwards
That's what he said - on December 8th.
47. Which three were in Sydney during the Gay Games?
Mart In Oz,
Over Your Head and
Scalloblog
Martin lives there, and
wrote this. Jonathan and Scally were visiting, and both wrote loads of stuff in early November - such as
this and
this.
48. Who met Miss World?
Naked Blog
...on
February 26th. Oh, the glamour!
49. Whose partner repelled an attempted robbery at knife point?
Mad Musings Of Me
...on
November 13th. Oh, the bravery!
50. Who turned a bus shelter into a cause celebre?
Sashinka
Here, and
here, and
here, and
here, and
here, and
here.
51. Who had a steamy encounter in a Portugese cathedral?
Here Inside
...as written about on
August 13th, to a pleasing degree of detail.
52. Who helped to found XFM?
Blogjam
Once again, it's all on the
About page.
53. Who moved from a wee island to a big city...
little.red.boat
From Glasgow to Iona, as the
About page explains. The move was accompanied by a suitably symbolic redesign, which went live
on November 17th.
54. ...and who did she used to "work under"?
Kitchen Table
Okay, so this is quite a hard one. If you hover your mouse over the word "galligan" on the "links" section of little.red.boat's sidebar, then all is revealed.
55. Who has a regular "arrangement" on Fridays?
Embra Nights
Not only is this information on his sidebar (look for the "Cal" paragraph), but Martin also explicitly gives the game away
on December 17th.
56. Who found love on his Tag Board?
Dark Informer
It all starts with
Darren's November 19th entry...and continues on his Tag Board at frequent intervals. Genuinely heartwarming stuff!
I have this lovely, luxurious cotton dressing gown from Brooks Brothers, which I use to pad around the cottage on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It has long sleeves and reaches down to my ankles.
The only dressing gown which K owns is a nasty little piece of cheap crap in rather thin waffle-effect towelling, which reaches neither his elbows nor his knees. He hardly ever wears it.
Last week, K bought a smart new pair of grey Calvin Klein pyjamas, for padding around the house in Nottingham.
I had a sudden flash of inspiration. The next lunchtime, I trotted off to John Lewis - returning with an equally smart Calvin Klein cotton dressing gown. The perfect Christmas present for my beloved.
Fast forward to this morning in the car.
Me: "So what are you doing today?"
K: "Well, I've got a bit more food shopping to do - and then I'm going to go into town, and treat myself to a really good dressing gown. I fancy having something to pad around in during the week off."
I bloody
hate Christmas.
(There's also another To Do list as long as my arm, but I'm feeling too ill to do any of it. Whinging on the Internet does help a bit, though.)
As I have said before: there are Happy Hangovers, and there are Stupid Hangovers. However, I had forgotten about the third, most lethal category: Black Dog Hangovers. The type which only strikes rarely, but more often than not at this spiritually precarious time of year. And oh, how I have been suffering from one particularly large and hairy one over the course of this weekend. No longer
the irrepressibly chirpy little Pollyana of yore, I have now been re-incarnated as a torpid, irritable grouchbag of the highest order. The rheumy, wheezing croak that now passes as my speaking voice merely adds to the effect. Yes, I have come down with a stinking cold into the bargain. ‘Snot
fair!
Meanwhile, in a complete and startling transformation, K has miraculously morphed
from Ebenezer Scrooge to
Martha Stewart in the space of 24 hours. He’s baking mince pies on the kitchen table, even as I type. “There’s a lovely Christmassy smell coming from the Aga, isn’t there?” He has just said this, of his own free will, quite unprompted and quite devoid of any ironic undertones. Wonders will never cease.
We get this quite a lot, actually. Emotional role reversals, whereby one will suddenly take over custody of the Great Black Dog from the other. This often occurs when one of us, having striven long and hard to drag the other out of their personal Slough of Despond, finally snaps (“I don’t know why I
bother!”). At this precise point, like a pair of wooden figures in a
weather house, the previously afflicted partner will swing back out into the light, fully restored, sending the other back into the shadows.
In these situations, a stiff gin and tonic usually helps. But not before six o’clock, mind – I am almost superstitiously strict about such matters. Just another hour and ten minutes to go, then. Is
Antiques Roadshow on this evening? It is? Then there is Hope.
The first batch of mince pies are now coming out of the oven. The pastry is apparently a bit on the short side. In fact, the buggers are crumbling everywhere. K is looking a tad fretful about this.
There is definitely Hope.
Some of you might be wondering what happened to Friday’s ten-point “Memo To Self” posting. One of my recent favourites, that one. However, like July’s semi-legendary “Safe From Harm” posting before it (another personal fave, as it happens), I ultimately thought it wiser to get rid. As someone said to me only the other week: karma can be such a bitch sometimes. Best not to lay provocation in its way.
(For the record, and for those who saw the original posting: I ended up failing on two and a half. However, one of those was completely outside my control. But then, if you decide to embark on a detailed ten-part review of your own city, then what can you reasonably expect? Now, exactly how does that Google-confounding robots.txt thingy work again? But oh, what would this do to my stats graphs? My lovely, lovely stats graphs! My Indexes of Love! My Barometers of Self Esteem! Whatever would it do to them? Boo-hoo! Wibble! Pass the Gordons, and make mine a stiffy!)
