No Lo Se

January Is Happening To Me Again

Lo siento, it's been one of those weeks spent drifting in the bewildersphere, suffering from messed-up sleep patterns and the all too common thought that my hair may be getting a bit too silly. I am also ashamed to say that I spent Wednesday watching the entire 13-episode run of Journeyman ("Quantum Leap meets The Time Traveller's Wife", and I ain't the first to say so) and learning Spanish because of the Tu.tv subtitles on so many eps. I say "entire" because it has been cancelled in everything but name, with NBC preferring to stick with their far more fun franchises Chuck and Life (both of which, as you know, I also watched in obsessive day or two-day long bursts: a growing and worrying addiction so symptomatic of the modern age, it is quite unbelievable, innit). It also helps that they've received markedly better ratings too. Bloody popularity contest.

And that's a great goddamn shame, because Journeyman had real potential to be affecting, poignant, fun and questioning about the implications of all this time travelling lark, even if it had the disconcerting sight of Tommy from Trainspotting in the lead Yankee-fied role. Kevin McKidd being a tad too albino for my liking.

So, another great US series dies young, but that is, as we have learned so many times before, the way of the cuthroat American TV world. Don't it get your hackles up? Oooh. Makes me mad this way of the world stuff. Madder than a cat in a fairy costume.

Next up, possibly Pushing Daisies. Or a full day of real life. I dunno. It's quite a dilemma.

League of Very Ordinary Gentlemen
Dang. We lost to Allsorts. How did this happen? There was a twist in the tale. In Round 7, it all went awry, with a 10-4 reverse in the former champions' direction. Kevin has commented that we - BHs - are "quite frightening" in an interview with Steve Kidd because we have the ability to replenish our ranks with first class quizzers without a problem, much like the Borg or the agents in The Matrix or the Myrmidons or something or someone else entirely with the same apparently terrifying ability of easy regeneration. (On the other hand, he could be saying this because we do have a BH duty rota in which each team member is assigned to go around Kevin's house every week and hang outside and intimidate him into relative quiz mediocrity with the threat of hammers and harsh language. It had done the trick in the league before, but no so now. We may have to use other psychological means).

But we were never going to be frightening on the current kind of QLL questions: designed for high-scoring and well-matched games rather than divining the kind of knowledge only one person in the match may know (usually Kevin).

I'll leave it to Jesse, without asking for his permission to reprint his team e-mail, to sum up the game:

"I'm sorry to announce our second defeat of the season last night against a resurgent Allsorts team. All was going fairly well in the first half of the game, with Broken Hearts maintaining a slim but consistent lead up until Round 6. Round 6 saw the lead eaten away slightly (sorry, I don't have the sheet with me so can't provide exact figures) but with Allsorts scoring 10 in Round 7 it proved impossible to return, with Round 8 deadlocked on 6-6. In the end Allsorts won 53-49, which was particularly disappointing given our earlier lead. Individual scores were TQG with 18, Mark with 9, Ian with 6 and myself with 16. Thanks to all who suffered and Jenny for reading.

This will make the remainder of the season relatively tight, particularly if the chasing teams do not slip up. Ideal for us would be if rival teams start recording defeats in the coming weeks but our fate is still in our hands and I would like to try not to lose or draw any further games this season."

And dang again, I knew I should have said "Comet" on my last question. I woulda got 20 for the first time in a long time in QLL. Instead, I gave Jesse a bonus point. A bonus point, I tells ya! This will not do (well, if he's going to make vocal statements about scoring more than me in the friendly, well then, well well well).