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Hello, just before the jingle begins and the episode begins properly, I just wanted to say a couple of things right at the start.
At the beginning of that episode I mentioned that Paul Taylor, my friend Paul Taylor, is doing his final performance of his one-man show called Bizu Bai.
His final show, that's his final bilingual show, is happening at the Zenith near Paris.
Now, obviously this is mainly for people in the Paris area, of course, unless you are willing to travel abroad, you know, from another country or something.
But I mentioned that Paul's doing his final show right at this big venue.
Well, since I recorded that little announcement, Paul has actually invited me to perform at the show as well.
So I'm going to be one of the opening acts of the show.
That means that I'll come out and do maybe 10 minutes of stand up performance before Paul begins his show.
OK, so I'm kind of like a warm up guy for the show.
OK, so does that make a difference?
Does it?
I don't know.
I just wanted to let you know that I'll be performing on that show as well.
You can get tickets for it at PaulTaylorComedy.com.
The show is called Bizu Bai at the Zenith on the 6th of January 2024 in Paris.
And it's very exciting.
It's very exciting for me because I'll get to perform in front of a potentially very large audience.
The Zenith holds over 6,000 people.
It's like a big music venue.
It holds over 6,000 people.
And I don't know how many people are going to be at the show, exactly like you know what sort of arrangement they've got there, how many seats are going to be available and stuff and whether it will be sold out.
Hopefully it will, but certainly it'll be exciting to play to thousands of people and hopefully you will be there too.
All right to enjoy me doing stand-up and also then get to watch paul taylor doing his thing as well.
The show his show is bilingual.
That means that some of the show is in English and then some of it is in French.
So he talks in English and then he switches to French for a few minutes and then switches back to English for a few minutes.
OK, so obviously you will need a bit of French if you plan to come to the show.
But even if you don't speak any French, you know, there's quite a lot of it is in English anyway.
So there you go.
Just wanted to let you know about that.
Bizu Bai at the Zenith on the 6th of January, 6th of January 2024.
I'll be doing 10 minutes of stand up at the beginning of that show.
OK.
The second thing is that also at the beginning of episode 855, I talked about Spotify Unwrapped and I talked about how several listeners had shared the number of minutes that they listened to Luke's English podcast on Spotify last year.
And I mentioned that Erkam listened to something like 10000 minutes of Luke's English podcast this year and I thought that Erkam would be the champion there.
But then a listener who's just called D shared that they had listened to 18 about 18000 minutes of the podcast.
And I was like, OK, right.
This person's definitely going to be the champion.
Well then, just was it yesterday or the day before, another Lepster shared in the comment section of my website her Spotify unwrapped and she has completely blown Erkam and Dee completely out of the water, because Anita listened to my podcast for 41821 minutes this year, which is extraordinary.
That's nearly two hours a day.
So there you go.
I just wanted to share that.
I think that Anita is going to be the champion, right?
41,821 minutes.
So that's pretty extraordinary.
So if you are out there right, if you think that you've listened to the show for more than two hours a day, every day this year, then let me know.
But at the moment, the reigning champion is Anita.
I think Anita comes from Poland.
I'd love to know, Anita, how many episodes you've actually heard, right?
So how many episodes did you listen to?
Anyway, great, really good.
I'm glad that at least three people have been listening to my podcast every day.
I think it's probably more than that.
But, Anita, you are the reigning champion so far.
Unless anyone comes in and tells me that they've been listening to the show for even longer than that this year then Anita, at this stage, you are the reigning champion.
All right, that's all I had to say.
Let's now have the jingle, and here it is.
You're listening to Luke's English Podcast.
Hello listeners, welcome back to the podcast.
The title of this episode is Trivia Quizzes with Sarah and Fred and, as the name suggests, my guests are Sarah and Fred and it's all about trivia quizzes.
What is a trivia quiz?
A trivia quiz is a kind of game, a fun game.
You can play it at home with your friends or you might play it in a pub.
In that case it would be a pub quiz and there's a set of clever questions about general knowledge or about specific topics and the quiz master or quiz mistress asks the questions, and maybe there are teams competing against each other, or it could just be individuals and you have to either give your answers immediately or you write your answers down and then you see how many questions you've got right.
That's it.
It's just a bit of fun.
A trivia quiz.
Everyone enjoys a good trivia quiz, don't they?
I think so.
There are, in fact, three trivia quizzes in this episode for you to enjoy.
One from Sarah, one from me and one from Fred.
You can try to understand and answer the questions.
And also you can listen to us describing our thought processes while attempting to answer each other's questions.
And, of course, I encourage you to notice bits of vocabulary and other references along the way, some of which are explained by us during the conversation.
But the trivia quizzes don't start right away at the beginning.
OK, some of you might think while listening to the episode you might think it says trivia quizzes in the title, but they don't do trivia quizzes straight away.
I want my money back.
So this is just a warning.
We don't do the trivia quizzes right at the beginning.
They kind of come in the second half of the episode.
First of all, you will hear us doing some general chatting, with introductions and reminders of my two guests, Sarah and Fred, just so you get a good sense of who you're listening to, so you can train your ears to the rhythm and the speech patterns and all the rest of it.
We talk about their new trivia-themed podcast, which you can listen to wherever you get your podcasts.
And also we talk about writing trivia quiz questions and what makes a good trivia quiz question the anatomy of a trivia quiz, if you like.
So not only does this episode have quiz questions that you can enjoy a little bit later in the episode, it's also about the subtle art of writing good trivia quiz questions, as well as being the sort of natural and humorous conversation between friends that I like to present to you on this podcast as a regular dose of authentic English listening practice okay.
But if you want to just skip straight to the trivia questions, then by all means you are free to do that.
Be my guest.
Just skip ahead to about 40 minutes into the episode, okay?
That's right.
You can just skip ahead 40 minutes if you only want the trivia quizzing stuff, okay?
All right, then.
So without any further ado, let's now meet Sarah and Fred again.
And here we go.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome back to Luke's English Podcast.
I am joined today on the podcast by Sarah and Fred, both returning guests.
You've both been on the podcast before.
Sarah has been on one episode.
Check this out.
Episode 758, which was all about pub quizzes.
And Fred is a returning guest multiple times.
Fred's been on the show talking about crossword puzzles and word quizzes and word origins and Avengers Endgame as well, amongst other things.
So, yeah, Sarah and Fred, hello.
Welcome to the show.
How are you doing?
Hello.
Hi.
Hi.
I'm doing excellent.
Great.
So, okay.
So I think this episode is going to be called trivia quizzes with Sarah and Fred.
Okay.
So we're going to have some fun with some trivia quizzes.
And, like part of the reason you're back on the podcast is because the two of you have teamed up to create your own podcast.
We have assembled.
You've assembled the two podcasting Avengers.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
I mean, feel free, but it will go over my head.
So let's see.
I want to just introduce your podcast and get the concept of the podcast and also maybe just reintroduce the two of you, just in case any listeners have forgotten or if there are new listeners.
Right.
So let's first of all introduce each other.
So, Fred, can you just tell us about Sarah?
Just like, you know, what are the basics?
This is a fun game.
It's my honor to introduce Sarah.
Sarah was bored in Massachusetts.
Facts.
In the very late 80s.
Very late.
Very late.
Youngster.
A youngster.
Both of you.
She's been in Paris for 13 years.
Lucky number 13, yeah.
Ooh, 13 years.
Speaks good French.
Speaks excellent French.
She's American.
What else?
She's my quiz mother.
What do you mean by she's your quiz mother?
She's introduced me to the quizzing world of Paris and also the online quizzing world.
Um, let's not get into, it's too nerdy, let's forget about it.
Uh, it's called learned league, it's a whole thing.
That's just online online quizzing, online community community competition going on.
She hosts quizzes in paris.
She's the paris quiz mistress on instagram um, and uh, what else?
She's amazing.
She's amazing.
She's got great styles.
She's a biker.
She loves to bike.
Cyclist.
Cyclist.
Just so we don't get it twisted.
We're not thinking about leather clad motorbike stuff.
No, she's a cyclist.
No.
With a new bike on the way, you're going to get a new bike because your bike was stolen.
Well, my bike was donated to the universe.
Donated to the universe?
Yes.
Is this another way of saying stolen?
No.
No?
What happened to your old bike?
Returned to the ether.
Yep.
What?
It got destroyed?
It got crushed?
It got burned in a fire?
What happened?
I was distracted by all the excitement around going to see Matteo Lane perform, who is a He's a very funny comedian.
Anyways, I was distracted and I left the keys in the lock of my bike, which meant it was a donation.
So someone just came along and went oh, the keys in the Someone's just given, He's just giving this bike away, apparently.
And they hopped on and off they went.
Okay.
I can only assume.
The bag that had a name.
Yes.
The name was?
Fred baptized my bike.
Yeah.
Me and Fred... We and Fred go way back.
Yeah.
It was a purple bike, so I named it Wheelie Wonka.
Wheelie Wonka.
Wheelie Wonka.
Yeah.
I like it.
So we'll have to explain jokes on this podcast.
Like Willy Wonka, the guy who runs the chocolate factory from the book.
Is it called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?
Is that the name of the book?
Yes, it is.
Willy Wonka.
And he wears purple stuff like his.
Chocolate bars are wrapped in a purple shiny wrapping, aren't they?
The Wonka Bar?
I think it is.
There's a whole purple motif.
Exactly.
Definitely.
But this is not Willy Wonka.
This is Wheelie Wonka.
The wheel.
The wheel of a bike.
The Wheelie Wonka.
It's the wordplay.
Because I'm clever.
Okay.
That's Sarah.
That's Sarah.
The Paris Quiz Mistress.
My highlights and my most embarrassing moment, all in one intro.
Does lots of pub quizzes in Paris, is a trivia whiz.
And previous used to own a bike called Wheelie Wonka which was kind of stolen slash given away accidentally by you to just some stranger.
And new bike is coming.
All right.
And you've got a new podcast, which we're going to talk about in a moment as well.
Sarah, tell us briefly about Fred, then, please.
Okay.
Well, Fred, I guess I have to meet you where you met me, right?
Because that was a really nice intro.
Thank you.
Fred has also been in Paris for 13 years, originally from Cameroon.
But watched a lot of American TV.
So hence this whole thing.
You mean the whole American accent and everything?
The whole American accent.
Yeah.
Which, you know, sometimes has to be explained in a podcast context.
It does.
Well, we've been through that actually in the past.
I'm sure.
We've talked about Fred's origin story.
Yeah um yeah, great guy uh, comedian stand up very funny, sometimes.
The only funny person in the room which i found out last sunday um yeah oops, we don't know.
We don't know which sunday was that.
We don't know it could be any many sundays, so many possible people could be offended by that.
You've opened, you know what.
Everyone can just go ahead and be offended.
Yeah yeah, absolutely.
I'm feeling great.
Yeah, you were the funny one.
Yeah.
Yes.
But no, and then so we have.
We're actually collaborators much in advance of the podcast that we launched together.
We have been quiz co-workers, I would say.
Yes.
I would put us more on a co-worker's relationship than a mother-son relationship.
We can shift it.
It's okay.
If it makes you uncomfortable, I can... It's not uncomfortable.
It's just, you know... I see you as a co-collaborator.
Yes, I do see it was a bit odd to say that she was your mum.
I mean, well the way, so the way I didn't say she was my mum.
Sorry mum, I spelled it down.
Quiz mother mother, my mum.
Yeah, fair enough, that would be weird.
Yeah okay, The way that the online league works.
That we're not talking about is that you have to Just laughing at the idea that Fred was like.
This is Sarah.
She's my mum.
Which you did not do.
Anyway, sorry.
You just shortcut that.
Anyway um, you have to refer somebody and so then you become like part of their family, so there's like the person that referred, all the people and then so it's like it's kind of like a generational link in in in this, in this online league that you, you talk about, so so okay, so in the sort of online context, she is kind of like your mother because she brought you into the online world, as it were.
I am in her branch, to be Right, I see.
Part of the family tree, as it were.
Exactly.
And my grandfather is actually someone very well known in the quiz world.
What?
Is this real?
Really?
No, my quiz grandfather.
So the person that referred...
Not her real grandfather, everyone.
Her quiz grandfather.
Not her grandpa.
Her quiz grandfather.
In the world of quizzing, apparently there's the family idea is a metaphor which is used.
I think we're stealing it kind of from the world of drag and like ballroom yeah, with mothers and i don't know if they have grandmothers, but anyway um, your quiz grandfather yes yeah, is.
I don't actually know if anyone besides you and me applies this to quizzing, just as a caveat.
Okay, it's just you two, i think it's just us, but the person that referred the person that referred me, so fred's great-grandfather is james holzhauer Well, I don't know who that is.
That was supposed to be like James Holtz.
Holtzauer?
Who is that then?
Who's James Holtzauer?
He's the record person on Jeopardy.
The record person.
Yeah.
Has the most winnings.
On Jeopardy, the famous American.
Oh, it's still Ken?
Yeah.
Oh, sorry, second.
This guy you mentioned, who is your quiz grandfather.
He is like the record-holding Jeopardy contestant.
And Jeopardy, everyone, by the way, listeners, because a lot of people don't know what Jeopardy is.
Some people do, some people don't.
Jeopardy is a quiz game show.
It's the game show.
The quiz show in the US.
Yes, yes, okay.
All right, so he's a famous trivia person.
Guy, yeah.
He made a big splash on Jeopardy.
He didn't break the record for the longest, the number of days, basically. or the total winnings but he is i think he's second or third i think he's third in number of days anyways this is nitty-gritty but he basically broke the format because he is like a professional sports better so bets on on sports yeah um so he had no problem putting all of his money in every time he could um And so he... Well, in Jeopardy, you put your money in as well, do you?
You can bet, yeah.
Okay.
There's a major part.
And the way that he played, because he was very good at trivia, so he changed the way everyone plays the game, basically.
So he got all of the most valuable clues first.
To build up his pot and then went searching for the daily doubles, which is the ones you can bet on.
And then so he could just double up, double up, double up.
I mean, it was unheard of.
And now everyone kind of tries to emulate that style of play.
He's the Miles Davis of trivia.
Sure.
Yeah, pretty much.
He changed the game forever.
Right.
I see.
I see.
Okay.
And this is the guy who.
So you are.
You're in this family tree of like great quizzing trivia masters.
Yeah.
So it's sort of like deeply ingrained within your DNA.
That trivia quizzing is definitely part of who you are and what you do.
Sure.
And Fred is your protege.
Well, Fred had a strong relationship with quizzing before we began collaborating.
You wrote a board game.
Yeah, root questions for a board game.
Which board game?
It was an African-themed board game that I did with my cousin a while ago.
Yeah.
And then what else?
Yeah, I've done trivia for many years.
When I was younger, I did trivia competitions when I was in high school.
I've been on TV a few times for trivia competitions.
Mm-hmm.
I enjoy that very much specialist subject What's your favorite subject in trivia?
I think it's geography.
Mm-hmm.
I think it's geography.
Yeah, it's it's what I've been doing.
I remember Knowing about word capitals when I was quite young.
Mm-hmm.
I would say that.
Okay.
What do you have a specialist subject in trivia, Sarah?
I
I'm not that good at trivia.
You like making the questions.
I love trivia.
I'm not great at it.
I enjoy it.
I would probably... I'm good at... So kind of pop culture across the board.
And I'm good at... I'm really good at remembering what things happened in what year.
Yeah, so if you're like i, i pop history yeah, like what you know what?
What year did this movie come?
I'm like pretty good at placing things on a timeline.
Yeah okay um so yeah like yeah, even though i don't watch movies, but i know things enough about movies to answer questions about yeah, millennial connoisseur yeah um music yeah, all right, even though i don't listen to music either.
Yeah, the real answer is music, be pop or oh, you think i'm the best at music?
Yeah, you're good.
Okay, you certainly certainly know a lot about uh musicals uh, and also the, the band hansen, as we talked about before.
Let's not go into that now though, because please refer to episode Episode 758 listeners, you can hear Sarah and me talking about Hanson the band quite a lot.
Okay, and you've both got this new podcast, right?
I say new, it's been going for... We officially launched in May, June.
Okay, so it's like... 22 weeks ago.
22 weeks?
Six months or so.
Yeah.
Okay.
Season one is done now.
Yeah.
Right.
But there's going to be multiple seasons, we hope.
So what's the concept of this trivia podcast which you have launched?
Who wants to kick off with this?
What's the name of the podcast?
Is that a good way to start?
No, that's the worst way to start.
So the podcast, what we promise our audience is a quick trivia hit every Monday.
You get five questions on a theme.
You can play along.
Me and Fred switch off writing and solving questions each episode.
One episode, you write the questions and he has to answer them.
Next episode, he writes them and you have to answer them.
Yeah.
Okay.
And in less than 10 minutes, you've got your trivia for the week and you can play along.
And it's fun if you are into quizzing at all.
Everyone loves a quiz, don't they?
Everyone loves a nice trivia quiz.
Quick shot, espresso shot of trivia.
I think we're decent writers of trivia. frankly yeah you guys do good trivia questions so it's just like yeah we just we have fun writing questions and answering them and uh um i i mean i guess the specific part about this trivia podcast is where we get the themes from i guess yeah yeah so we basically realized that so you do you know the concept of like a tv recap podcast I do.
Yeah, I listen to some.
So, yeah, for example, The Last of Us.
I listen to that one.
And so after each episode of The Last of Us is broadcast, the podcast goes up as well.
And it's like, in this case, it was the producers.
The companion.
Yeah.
The official companion podcast.
This one was the producer.
Yeah, official companion podcast for The Last of Us TV show.
Is it named The Very Last of Us?
This is the end.
We're done.
This is it?
Yeah well, this is it we're not talking about anymore.
If yeah, if you watch the show then yeah, it's pretty much end of the world type stuff but um, so in the podcast it's the producers of the show discussing the episode and how they made it and what they wanted to achieve with it, and stuff like that.
That's kind of cool.
Yeah also, there are fan made ones as well yeah, where fans uh, you know, release episode, podcast episodes, where they discuss each episode of their favorite tv show.
Yeah, for sure um, and i've listened to a bunch.
There are so many of these that they've become, like you know, a parody of themselves.
I listened to one years ago about full house, which was very funny.
Full house yeah, it's called how rude the podcast is.
That that's a catchphrase from the show.
Yes, it is yeah, which i did not get, i know, neither did anyways, but there are, there are bajillions of these podcasts and most of them are horrific.
You mean, just like, really kind of boring, like nobody cares, just two guys talking like, just stop, like it's.
You know nope, nobody cares to listen to your thoughts on.
You know, i don't want to call it any specific shows but, like you know, two hours of deep whatever, so it's just people.
There must be one about friends.
There are probably nine million.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, taking this concept, I said OK, you know, what I would love actually is because growing up I was a really big fan of the show Alias.
I think it was kind of the first like prestige TV that I ever watched.
Like after Full House, I just went straight to Alias.
We need to make sure that everyone knows which show we're talking about.
Yeah.
Would you like to?
Sure.
Yeah.
But I might get it wrong because I'm not as familiar as you two are.
But you are a little bit.
Yeah, I've been versed in the show because you invited me on as a featured guest in a couple of episodes.
You can tell us in 60 seconds what you think.
60 seconds.
We need the TikTok, TikTok, TikTok sound.
So, Alias is a show about spies from, I think, the early 2000s.
I guess it was like the showrunner, the show creator is J.J.
Abrams, who's these days more famous for doing the Star Wars sequels and also Mission Impossible 3.
Star Trek.
Star Trek reboot and Lost.
Yeah.
And probably other things like... Super 8?
Super 8.
And the one about the monster.
What was that one?
Big monster in New York.
Yeah.
That's me being a big monster.
Cloverfield?
Cloverfield.
Yeah, he was involved in that.
I probably produced it.
Produced it.
So anyway, J.J.
Abrams is the showrunner.
And it's like a spy show set in the United States with the CIA and also another spy organization.
And, you know, no one knows whose side is on, who's on whose side and what's going on.
Jennifer Garner is the star of the show.
And there are other notable actors in there, including a young, what's his name?
Bradley Cooper.
Bradley Cooper is in there, of course.
Fred, you're very happy about that because you love his character, don't you?
Yeah, I do.
And other actors.
Victor Garber.
Yeah.
Victor Garber, which character is he?
Is he the dad?
The dad, yeah.
Right, okay, that's Jennifer Garner's dad.
And, you know, it's a kind of, oh, how do I describe it?
Quite a camp, over-the-top dramatic spy show with a lot of special effects and ridiculous moments costumes, costume changes it's stupid sound effects, a lot of kicking and um, disguises and special effects and wigs, wigs and things and it's.
It's very good fun and it moves along very, very quickly and i'm confused by it generally when i see it, but i enjoy it Yeah.
Did I summarize it okay?
Yeah, I'm satisfied.
Okay.
It was more than 60 seconds, I think.
Okay, so you love this show, Alias.
I loved this show growing up.
It came out when I was like 10 or 11.
I was hooked.
I set the VCR to record it every Sunday night, as we did.
Do we have to define what a VCR is?
I think we know.
Video cassette recorder.
Oh, okay.
Right.
So I wanted a nostalgic rewatch podcast for this show.
And there are a few of them out there, but it's a lot of nonsense and it's not good.
It's not a good listen.
And so I said, what if I could be the podcast that I want to see in the world?
And so I talked to Fred about it, and Fred has never seen Alias, and he was keen to watch it.
And then we were talking and thinking, and I was like, we are not cultural commentators.
So our podcast would be as bad as the other ones.
Basically, the point about them being bad is that it's two people who love a show.
Getting into all the specific details.
And unless you are as much of a fan as them, it's not very engaging.
Even if you are a fan, if you're not bringing the insights, it's a job.
It's a job to be a culture writer.
Actual research.
To bring new levels of insight and commentary that are engaging and bring new levels of understanding about the show.
It's not just like, oh, the bit when he did that was cool.
Exactly.
So with that in mind, we said, okay, what are we good at?
And we were like, trivia.
Trivia.
So we said we're going to make a trivia podcast and to give it a hook and a structure.
We're going to rewatch Alias and then not talk about it.
But that is where our themes are inspired from.
So the themes are not really anything to do with the show at all.
Absolutely nothing.
Nothing.
And this is why the show is called...
Not an alias podcast.
Right.
That's the name of the show because it is not an alias podcast.
Yeah.
So, right.
The point is that people who listen to the show don't need to be fans of alias, don't need to really see the show.
In fact.
So the structure of it is that the very first thing, and the episodes are short, unlike episodes of a certain other podcast that we could mention.
Which one's that?
I don't know.
The episodes are pretty short and sweet, right?
So then there's a clear structure.
The first thing that happens is in 60 seconds or less, one of you recaps the episode that you watched.
So everyone gets a bit of context, but it doesn't go on too long.
And then you get straight into the trivia quizzing.
And the one who writes the questions chooses the theme.
And the theme comes from some obscure reference from that episode.
For example, if the episode involves poison, If someone gets poisoned, then one of you might write five trivia questions on the subject of poison.
Or if there's a scene where someone fiddles a lot with cables to fix a camera, you might just write a quiz about cables.
Yeah, or quiz about cameras, or a quiz if someone travels to India, there might be a quiz about India, or you know Travelling.
Travelling.
It could be literally anything.
You just pluck some reference from the show and then a general knowledge trivia quiz happens.
The first one is a great example because it's bradley cooper yeah, mentions the film pretty woman in passing, and so i expanded that into a five question quiz about romantic comedies.
That's exactly that's so.
That's it great example.
So then that's the major part of the episode.
Is you two quizzing about, in this case, romantic comedies, or india or cables or whatever?
And then, once you've done that, after the 10 minutes of that has been done, then you get to indulge yourselves for five minutes yeah, talking about the episode of alias that you watch.
So if people are fans of the show, if they want the uh, what was the?
The genre?
Again, a recap show, is that it?
Yeah, rewatch show, recap show.
If they want that bit, then there's there's the bit where you discuss the episode and make a few jokes about it afterwards.
Yeah okay yeah, but with the full knowledge that nobody wants to hear us and so they're not.
They don't have to yeah, but there must be fellow alias fans out there who love that bit as well, though.
Right, i get, i'm sure there must be doing a bit of um, very casual audience research.
There are people who use the show as intended and and turn it off.
When we tell them to turn it off, we're gonna start talking about alias.
We're like okay, trivia's over, feel free to leave, or whatever.
And people are like great, that's a great signal.
You know, i got what i need go.
I even found some people that skip the 60 second summary, just go straight to the trivia, just take.
I understand.
It's fine.
Just click twice on that fast forward 30 seconds, tick, tick, and then you're in.
Yeah.
So that's also a good, you know, that means we're being very user friendly.
Not that I would want anyone to fast forward through your podcast, but it's nice of you to think.
It still counts.
It's nice of you to think.
Counts as a listen.
Yeah.
It's nice of you to be so thoughtful for your audience, to say to them you know, if you can skip past this and just skip straight to this other bit.
They get to the...
The entree, you know, they skip the little key here at the beginning.
They're like, straight to the meat.
Bam.
It's like they've come into your restaurant and instead of you saying, you have to have the starter.
Sorry, no, you have to.
No, sorry, this is my restaurant.
You're going to have to have the starter before you have the main course.
You're saying to them it's all right, you can skip the starter and just go straight to the main course.
If you want to just eat an apple, it's up to you.
You know, just do whatever you want to do.
In and so in this casual audience research, I have found I think three people That like the alias content two because there were fans of the show and one because she said that she likes hanging out with us Nice yeah and you've got like there's good banter between the two of you you know i'd like to think so yeah yeah it's some interesting banter banter there are some interesting talking points that come out of uh of of those uh episodes oh yeah i mean they're chock full of old technology crazy locations stuff you wouldn't see on tv anymore necessarily you would not definitely not um and uh and also like actual good moments i mean we i always find podcasts much more enjoyable with people who genuinely like the content that they're talking about um and and we do we really like it sometimes we're a little bit like persnickety oh yeah with continuity persnickety oh persnickety persnickety or persnickety persnickety choose your pronunciation i do not pronounce my t's no that's that's all right most people don't i think i think if you if you look to the pie graph of who pronounces their t's in the world there's probably there's just like most people and then there's me going pernickety and everyone else is like pernickety pernickety whatever anyway so what's what does pernickety mean pernickety or persnickety persnickety oh you said persnickety do you say pernickety Well, no, I shouldn't.
I didn't realise I did just then.
But no, persnickety.
I don't say persnickety either, but I acknowledge that that is a word.
Whereas pernickety, is pernickety a word?
All right, you explain what persnickety means and I'm going to see if pernickety is also a word.
Okay.
What does it mean?
It means, like, nitpicky?
Particular.
A bit particular.
Looking at the fine print, the details.
Yeah.
I suppose being a bit anal.
Can we say that?
Yeah.
So here we go.
That's persnickety.
Pernickety is also a word.
It's a different word.
Informal, British.
This is according to the Oxford Dictionary.
Hmm.
P-E-R-N-I-C-K-E-T-Y.
Placing too much emphasis on trivial or minor details.
So being a bit, as you said, anal.
Isn't that the same?
It's the same thing.
It's the same word?
It's the same thing.
So you say persnickety, I say pernickety, you say potato, I say patas.
No one says patas.
No one says potato.
We say leisure, you say.
Leisure.
Leisure.
Leisure, as Eddie Izzard would say in his comedy show.
Susie Izzard.
Oh, sorry.
Susie Eddie.
Yeah.
So, oh gosh, right.
We confused everyone by talking about potatoes.
That's from a famous song, everyone, which is from a musical.
Hello, listeners.
So this is one of those moments where I feel it's necessary to interrupt the podcast just to first of all check in on you and make sure that you're OK.
Hello.
Are you OK?
I hope so.
I hope you're managing to keep up with this conversation.
And we haven't even got to the trivia quizzes yet, but they are coming very soon, I promise.
But I do understand what's going on at this point.
So, Sarah and Fred, we're talking about their podcast, which is called Not An Alias Podcast, because it's not actually an alias podcast.
It's a trivia podcast.
And we were discussing it and Sarah said at one point that Fred and her, when they do discuss episodes of the TV show Alias which their podcast is not about, although it kind of is when they do discuss it they can sometimes get a bit persnickety.
Now, Sarah said the word persnickety, actually pronounced with her American accent, persnickety.
And I stopped her because I said, what persnickety?
What does that mean?
And then I started saying pernickety.
And Sarah and Fred said, wait, what?
Is it pernickety or persnickety?
And there was a bit of confusion.
I checked it out in the dictionary and the word is, in fact well, in fact there's a British word pernickety, and an American, I guess the American equivalent, persnickety.
They both mean exactly the same thing, paying a bit too much attention to specific details.
Like I am doing right now.
I'm being a bit pernickety right now by making sure that you understand exactly what's going on.
Anyway, then what did I say?
I said, you say persnickety, I say pernickety.
And that is a little reference which is going to come up a couple of times in this episode.
You say blah, blah, blah.
I say blah, blah, blah.
And this is a reference to a song from a musical.
I have mentioned this on the podcast before because this has come up.
So long-term listeners, maybe you will remember, but I don't know.
So it's a reference to a song called Let's Call the Whole Thing Off.
The song was written by George and Ira Gershwin for the 1937 film Shall We Dance?
Of course you know it.
You don't.
I don't know.
Depends on your knowledge of American musical cinema and how well versed you are in the musical films of the 1930s.
I don't know.
But do you know Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers?
If you don't know Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, then I highly recommend that you check out some videos of them on YouTube, because they were a duo who performed, sang and danced in movies.
And their dancing is an absolute joy to behold.
That's Fred, Esther and Ginger Rogers.
Anyway, the song is famous for the lines you say either I say, either you say neither.
I say neither.
You like potato, I like potato.
You say tomato, I say tomato.
And that those lines especially you say tomato, I say tomato those lines have become a sort of reference point for the fact that in English people say things differently.
There are different accents, especially between American English and British English.
You say potato, I say potato.
Actually, no one, I think no one in the world says potato.
Who says potato?
I don't know.
But you say tomato in American English.
I say tomato in British English.
Those lines are just a reference point for the fact that in English there are various accents and different people say certain words differently.
Okay, so that's that.
You say tomato, I say tomato, or in this case, you say persnickety and I say pernickety.
Anyway, where were we?
Pernickety.
You were saying you were quite persnickety or pernickety about what?
Alias?
The TV show.
Yeah, even though we do, we like it.
We enjoy it.
We like it.
It's coming from a place of genuine sort of amusement affection entertainment yeah, but the persnickety thing or pernickety thing is where you kind of point out oh you know, this happened look, you know like, like pointing out little flaws and faults in the show, which is always a fun thing to do with tv series.
It's very entertaining for me having, you know, been such a fan of the show from such a young age, and i certainly do not take this 2000 show too seriously like i'm not, like i cannot believe this plot, i'm like i don't, there's kicking.
I quite like to do that.
You're kicking people in australia?
Yeah sure, i quite like picking apart the sort of internal logic of films and tv, because a lot of the time, you know, just look at it twice and it's like whoa, that doesn't make any sense, which is quite good fun, definitely.
Yes, fred's phone is vibrating in a right, so so then, sorry about that.
So, since you guys love trivia so much and, by the way yeah, it's called not an alias podcast if you want your daily, your weekly dose of quiz trivia yeah, with with an interesting sort of concept, then you can check it out.
Wherever you get your podcasts links in the description blah blah blah, all the usual things that you would expect.
That's how you will find the show.
And if you just want more Luke content, please check out episodes 19, 20 and 21 of season one of Not an Alias podcast.
And we can hear Luke stumbling his way through some of these plot summaries and quizzes and actually quizzing us, which I think we might hear some of momentarily.
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So we have prepared, each of us has prepared a six question mini quiz.
Did I go Robert De Niro then?
Six.
Six questions.
You're quite good at that.
So I asked you to prepare six questions and that's what we've done, right?
So you guys are going to kind of team up.
So your questions, I think you are familiar with each other's questions already.
So I'm going to answer your questions.
It's pod versus pod.
It's pod versus pod.
Yeah.
Okay.
So who's going to go first?
That thunder sound effect.
Yeah.
One of you can go first.
Sarah, you go first.
You're the Paris quiz mistress.
I suppose I am.
Okay, go ahead.
All right, so this is a quiz for you, Luke Thompson.
Okay.
And it is six questions, and we're just going to get into it.
Listeners, feel free to play along at home.
Do you know the answers to these questions?
Let's see how stupid I am.
Are you more intelligent than... It's not about stupidity.
It's not about stupidity.
It's about ignorance.
It's not about either, really.
It's just fun.
Trivia has nothing to do with intelligence.
It's just fact retention and people who really like...
Being right.
I'll just say that one thing I learned, because when I started doing the online league it was a lot of daily trivia.
My average is three out of six, so there's always three a day.
You don't know, you don't know.
Oh, I thought I knew.
And the way to switch it is when I don't know something, I just learn it.
So learning opportunity.
Yeah, exactly, yeah.
It's like learning a language.
Little failures and mistakes are opportunities to learn.
Exactly.
And sometimes you have to learn something four times.
But no truly, it's like yeah, I have to get that again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, Sarah, would you like to begin?
I would.
Okay, your first question, Luke Thompson.
On October 31st 2001, the governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift, signed a bill exonerating the last five women still officially implicated.
In what event?
Hmm.
Oh my goodness.
So, right, run the question by me again, please.
So, October 31st, 2001, when the first season of Alias was being aired, I might say.
Coincidentally.
Yeah, very coincidentally.
Massachusetts governor, the governor of the state of Massachusetts, whose name is Jane Swift.
She signed a bill yeah, like a law.
Like a law yeah um, which exonerated the last five women who were still officially implicated.
In what event?
So, five women who were implicated, like people had suggested that they were guilty of doing something in relation to this event, and this legal bill exonerated them, which basically said they're innocent uh, of all charges.
Five women from what event?
Oh my god.
So I would say this is a good question to learn how to listen to trivia.
Yeah.
Because basically all the information you need is in the question.
So because so trivia is really it's there's a lot of pattern recognition.
Actually, it's very similar to crossword solving cryptic questions.
This isn't... Yeah, it's not cryptic, actually.
No.
It's just you need to know what to listen for.
Okay.
So this is actually... We're going to do an anatomy of a trivia question.
This is good.
I like this.
I like the insight into how you actually create trivia questions.
We're getting pedagogy.
So you have a few different pieces of information here.
You have a date, a year, a place, a name, the last five women, so there's five women.
These were the last, so there must have been others, and an event that we're looking for.
So...
There's a lot of information you don't need.
Oh, yeah.
And there's, I would say, two bits of information, two, three bits of information that you do need.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'm thinking now so the exoneration happened in 2001, but did the event happen?
I'm wondering if the event happened many years before that and if maybe these five women it's like a posthumous thing, you know, like the five something happened many, many years before and they were exonerated posthumously, meaning after their death.
So what is this old thing?
It's Massachusetts as well.
Massachusetts.
So Boston is in Massachusetts, right?
Yep.
What thing happened in Boston in America's history?
A crucial moment in American history?
Am I on the right path here?
I think your instincts are good.
You're going to need to find the rest of the information that's important in the question to get to the answer.
Five women.
So there were other women involved or other people involved.
Do you want me to read it again?
Yes, please.
Okay.
On October 31st, 2001, Massachusetts Governor James... I've got it.
I've got it.
Go on.
Sorry.
What if James... James Swift is not important?
No.
It's a misdirection.
It's the date, isn't it?
31st of October.
Is that significant?
Halloween.
I think it might be.
What happens during Halloween, folks?
Scary things like, for example, ghosts, goblins, and witches...
OK, I've got a book about this somewhere.
Somewhere here.
Really, I do.
They're the witches.
Left, left, left, left, left.
Bingo.
I think this is connected.
So is it about the Salem witch trials?
That's correct.
OK, so I actually have a book which, like most of the books in my room, I've partially read.
I haven't read all of it.
So in the 17th century, there were these witch trials in Massachusetts in a town called Salem.
You probably can tell me more about this considering you wrote the question.
You could probably tell me more about that considering the three chapters you read.
I've read 20% of this book.
I've never been to Salem.
I'm from Massachusetts.
I've never been to Salem.
I have to say, I think the story is fascinating.
And the idea that... So this kind of community of puritanical... How do you describe them?
Settlers that had come from Britain and settled in the United States, in the East Coast.
And they were extremely religious.
And these odd, strange things happened there um sort of late 17th century, and a group of girls were accused of being witches and they were uh tried in a sort of kangaroo court, as it were right, and there were uh trials in a sort of courtroom situation, like it's the kind of thing where it didn't rain for three days and we're like this is three women.
Maybe we should burn some ladies.
Yeah, probably.
Like that Monty Python sketch.
Have you ever seen that?
No.
It's from the Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
And King Arthur is going around trying to find knights for his round table.
And he finds this one knight who is in front of all these peasants.
And basically, it's a kind of a witch trial that's happening.
And they're all finding these ridiculous excuses for why she should be burned, and Anyway, that's a whole other story for another time.
It's a very funny sketch and does demonstrate the kind of nonsense and complete lack of logic or any sense in the witch trials.
So, okay, so it was five women who had been executed, I suppose.
Or found guilty, probably executed.
Found guilty of being witches in the Massachusetts area a few hundred years before.
And so these five women were posthumously exonerated.
And, yeah, a little bit late, but at least, you know, it's something.
So...
I think, yeah, I didn't do that on purpose, but I think that was a good example of how trivia works.
That's a really good lesson in making a trivia question.
I had no idea until I really drilled down into the question.
I definitely didn't know.
Every trivia question is trying to help you get there.
It's like you have whatever you need in your brain.
Every well-written trivia question.
Because some trivia questions are just like what happened on this day.
Yeah, either you know it or you don't know it, but the best trivia questions sort of lead you to the answer and also they they, they probably pick uh, answers that everyone like most people probably do know.
But you just phrase the question in a way that makes it a little bit.
There's a bit of a thinking process to get there.
Yeah yeah, that's the fun part.
For sure, we'll see if my quiz questions are actually any good.
They're probably going to be examples of how not to write a quiz question, but anyway, that's all i mean we're all learning here.
Yeah, Next question.
Yes.
All right.
Got one.
Got one right.
Good job.
So Highgate in London.
Yeah.
Arlington National, which is near Washington DC, and La Recoleta in Buenos Aires are among the most visited.
What in the world?
Cemeteries.
That's correct.
Cemeteries.
So Highgate Cemetery, famous for the grave of who?
Do you know who's buried there?
Probably lots of people.
Is it Boyle or Poe?
No, Poe is American.
Karl Marx.
Karl Marx's grave is there.
Is Pocahontas there?
I don't know.
What?
I think Pocahontas is buried in London.
Really?
I didn't know that.
Will you fact check this before you... No, not now.
Okay.
I haven't seen Pocahontas, the Disney movie, so I don't know.
She was a real lady.
I know she was.
I know.
Okay.
All right.
So Highgate Cemetery.
The other one?
Arlington National Cemetery.
Yeah.
In Virginia.
Okay.
Arlington, Virginia.
And La Recoleta.
Okay.
Famous cemeteries.
And then you could have added Père Lachaise to the list, but that would have been too obvious, I guess.
It would have been too obvious, yeah, for our Paris-based audience, but I guess... Yeah.
Yeah, okay.
Right, so... Parnassus, as well, is on that top list of most visited cemeteries.
Cemetery, perfect.
So, next question, moving right along.
Oh, did you find... Pocahontas.
Where's Pocahontas buried?
She's buried in Gravesend, Kent, in a grave that is now lost.
Gravesend in Kent.
Ironically titled Gravesend in Kent.
So a town in Kent, but no one knows exactly where she's buried.
I never knew that Pocahontas had ended up in England, in Kent of all places.
Yeah, because she got with that ginger in the second movie.
He's English, is he?
I have what?
Pocahontas 2.
There's a sequel, is there?
Yeah, it was straight to video.
But it is the rest of her life.
And she does end up in Kent at the end.
I think so.
There was actually a really good interview of a podcast of the woman that played her in the movies.
And she became really, yeah, she got really into the history.
I don't know.
It's certainly an interesting story.
Pocahontas.
I haven't rewatched it.
But I was right, she's in England.
Yeah, you were right about that.
Not at Highgate.
Not at Highgate, but at Gravesend in Kent.
An hour and six minutes from London, depending on traffic.
Six minutes from London?
An hour and six minutes.
An hour and six minutes from London, yeah.
Are we doing a live remake of Pocahontas, or is that like...
Probably at some point.
It's going to be difficult considering she's in Gravesend.
Anyway, so question number four.
Three.
Three.
Maths is my strength.
Oh, question three.
This is actually related to Pocahontas, sort of.
Okay.
What item is used in some Native American and First Nations cultures and and is woven to replicate a spider's web and used as a protective charm for babies.
It has largely been commercialized and reappropriated by non-native new age groups.
What is this item?
What item?
It looks like a spider's web.
It's woven together.
Yeah.
And it was used originally as a good luck charm for babies.
Protection, yeah.
Protection for babies.
But it's been co-opted by sort of annoying new age type people who have actually nothing to do with Native American communities.
And they're sold in gift shops and stuff.
They're dream catchers.
You're talking about dream catchers.
Okay.
You know what a dream catcher is, folks?
Just to find it.
We've just explained it.
They have feathers that hang from them as well.
Do you have inserts in your videos?
I can put a picture of a dreamcatcher on the screen.
There's a dreamcatcher, look.
Audio people, sorry, you didn't get to see that image of a dreamcatcher.
You can imagine it.
What you can do is just Google dreamcatcher, click on images.
Check out the link in the description for a link to dreamcatcher Google images.
Okay.
Well...
I'm going okay.
I've got what?
How many?
7 out of 7?
3 for 3 so far.
3 for 3?
343?
It's not been that long, has it?
May feel like it for some people.
Do you not say that in British?
3 for 3.
3 out of 3.
That's 7 cubed.
7 cubed.
What?
3 for 3 is 7 cubed?
I think so.
Is it?
Seriously?
Fred, you mathematical genius.
Math isn't trivia.
It doesn't count.
Okay.
Those are the threes.
Well, someone can... That might not be true, but... Three sevens.
What is seven cubed anyway?
What's the... How do you work that out?
What is cubed?
It means times... Multiply by itself.
There's actually a math question coming up.
Seven times seven times seven.
Seven times seven times seven.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Anyway.
If you want, you can check that, listeners.
What's seven times seven times seven?
Is it three four three or is is fred way off?
You can leave a comment in the comment section if maths is your thing, or math if you speak american english.
There are schools that say math isn't trivia.
Really, one of the schools is her, so also you.
I mean mostly me.
Yeah, i don't.
I don't write math trivia.
Okay, There is a math trivia question coming up in this quiz, but it's not really.
You'll see.
It's pop culture math.
It's different.
Yeah.
All right.
Next.
But next question.
In 2023, the year that is 2023, which actress and writer who's best known for playing Princess Leia posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Basically, who played Princess Leia?
Yes, but I gave you more information.
You did?
You see why asking who's Princess Leia is boring?
Yeah, because if the question was who played Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, everyone would be like yeah, whereas this is a far more dazzling, posthumous star.
Plus, we repeat the word posthumous, so people can learn it.
It's perfect, absolutely yeah, thanks for doing that.
You're welcome.
So just remind us of the question.
I think I know the answer.
So this year 2023, what actress and writer best known for playing Princess Leia posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Right.
It's Carrie Fisher.
Yes.
Yeah.
You like Star Wars?
Me?
No, it's all right.
I don't know, actually.
I'm re-evaluating my relationship with Star Wars as I actually grow up into an actual adult.
Ooh.
When did that happen?
When I grew up into about, I don't know, five, ten minutes ago, maybe.
Maybe in two years when I re-watch all nine, we can talk about it.
Yeah, I'm happy to talk about it.
You know, I'm happy to talk about Star Wars.
But I think, I don't know, I just got a bit fed up with it all.
Oh, because of the TV shows and whatnot?
Yeah, a lot of the shit that they've given us lately.
I'm just like, I'm not impressed by a lightsaber anymore.
I'm sorry, but the appeal, it's lost its shine.
Are you watching Ahsoka?
No, I haven't bothered.
I know what it is.
I've seen some clips.
It's just like i don't want to see it.
I'm not impressed by another lightsaber fight.
I'm done yeah, but i think i might be done as well.
But then maybe they'll do like the mandalorian season three and i'll be like this is awesome and then they're awesome.
Isn't it out, isn't it?
I don't know?
Oh yeah, i think it might be.
Yeah, does.
Did your star wars fandom have anything to do with you being named luke?
Well, I do actually have about 10 to 15 minutes of stand up which I won't be going into now.
If you ever posted when you are actually performing in anywhere that would be accessible to us plebes, then I might know that because I might come to some of your shows.
I don't know why I'm I don't I perform stand up comedy in secret.
I don't know why.
I do that me neither very silly.
I do actually have a facebook page, which every now and then i go on, but i go on facebook and i'm like, oh god, get off facebook.
Nobody goes on facebook, they just auto post to instagram so uncles can comment yeah, i need to be doing on instagram.
Yeah instagram, instagram.
Okay, i mean, they're all, it's all the same evil.
But you know, i know wait, is your podcast on instagram?
I've said before that if there was a 25th hour in the day, then I'd be posting on Instagram too.
Well, didn't you post on Daylight Savings Time this weekend?
Last weekend?
Sorry, what?
There was a 25th hour.
Oh, yeah.
That one day when the clocks went back.
Yeah, that was my chance to post on Instagram.
That's exactly what I did with my extra hour.
I was very happily asleep in my bed when that extra hour happened.
Paris quiz mistress updating regularly on Instagram and Facebook for the uncles.
Links in the description, folks.
Don't forget to smash that like button.
Smash it.
Okay.
So is that five questions?
No, that was four.
And we're doing six.
Grab a pen.
Aren't we doing six?
We're doing six for some unknown reason.
Yeah, I chose six.
But anyway, go on.
All right.
There might be some pen and paper math involved.
Pen and paper math or maths if you prefer.
So it's a math question, but it's not really a math question.
Do you ever lick the end of a pen before you write with it?
Only if it doesn't... That's a marker.
I know, that's a marker.
Only if it doesn't make me high.
Just wanted to get pinged on the pen.
Pen.
Anyway, so I'm ready.
I'm ready for my maths.
Ready guy.
All right.
What number do you get if you multiply the number of states in the U.S. of A?
Oh, God.
By the number of horsemen of the apocalypse.
Okay.
Now, for some reason, I have a weird mental block about the states.
Is it 50 or 51?
Well, I'll do the whole question.
I'll do the whole question first.
Go on.
So you multiply the number of states by the number of horsemen of the apocalypse.
Right.
And then you take that product and multiply it by the number of deadly sins.
And the result is Donald Trump gets reelected.
Especially if you do this while looking in the mirror and burning a candle.
Three times.
At midnight.
This might not be funny in a few months.
All right.
So wait a minute.
The number of US states multiplied by the number of horsemen of the apocalypse.
And then you multiply that by the number of deadly sins.
Very biblical of you.
Yeah.
So 50 times four.
Wait, it's not the end.
All right.
And then you add the number of the black billiards ball.
Add the number of the black billiards ball.
Yes.
Okay, listeners.
All right, let's talk through this together.
Okay, guys.
So how many states are there in the USA?
This is the one I have a mental block on because I can never remember if it's 50 or 51.
I'm going 50.
Right?
Just because the maths will be easier if it's 50.
How many horsemen of the apocalypse?
It's four.
Four horsemen of the apocalypse.
Don't remember their names.
Steve, Mike.
Inky, Blinky.
And Poe.
Pinky.
John, Ringo.
Yeah.
Pestilence, war.
Famine and death.
Famine and death.
Oh, look at us.
Anyway, four horsemen of the apocalypse.
We love them.
So 50 times four is 250.
And I multiply that by the number of deadly sins.
There are seven deadly sins.
Talking too much on a podcast.
Not editing your podcast.
Chewing with your mouth open.
Chewing with your mouth open.
Eating on a podcast.
No chapter markers.
No chapter markers.
And not compressing your audio.
Flicking your peanuts.
Flicking your peanut as well while recording.
So those are the seven deadly podcasting sins.
So 200 times seven is fourteen hundred plus the number on an eight on an eight ball.
What is the number on an eight ball?
Listeners, do you know?
I need to think about that one.
What is the number on an eight?
It's eight, eight plus eight.
So it's one thousand four hundred and eight unless there are 51 states.
Do you want to count?
No, I don't want to count.
No.
I'm going to go for 1,408.
Correct.
Yay!
Away!
Yeah.
Good maths.
Happy with that.
Maths.
Maths.
Maths.
M-A-T-H.
M-A-T-H.
M-A-D-T-H.
V-E-S.
Maths plural of math.
Oh my god.
All right, so that's five questions.
Uh, that was five questions.
Okay, there is a sixth question.
Come on, hit me with the sixth question.
What do you think the sixth question is?
I don't know what's five plus one.
The sixth question is your mystery theme, Luke.
I have been weaving a web.
Oh, God.
There's been scary stuff in these questions.
Scary stuff.
Scary stuff.
So the question officially is which prolific author's novels, collections and short stories inspired the mystery theme for this round?
Which is?
So you're looking for an author.
So you're going to have to go... Yeah.
Roald Dahl.
Your five answers.
What?
How is... Because he wrote a book called The Witches, but I might be wrong, actually.
I haven't thought it through.
The answer wasn't... Why don't you think it through?
Oh, the answer wasn't The Witches.
It was The Witch Trials of... It was... Yeah.
Yeah.
So the first question was the witch trials of Salem.
The second question I cannot remember.
Highgate.
Highgate cemeteries.
So scary cemeteries.
Cemeteries.
I've got to write this down.
Fred is very helpfully reminding me to write this stuff down.
But I can't write and talk and think at the same time.
So it was witches.
Okay.
Cemeteries cemetery, pet cemetery, stephen king uh, what was the third one, the native american object?
Uh, dream catcher.
Dream catcher sounds like a stephen king novel, but i have never read a steve.
I know i read kujo once and it was scary, scary big dog, oh no, and then number four.
Number four, It was who played Princess Leia.
Princess Leia.
Carrie Fisher.
Carrie.
Her.
Carrie.
And then your maths.
Maths was 1408.
Did he write Room 1408?
That John Cusack film?
He must have done.
It's Stephen King, folks.
You got it very good.
Sarah, give the novel.
Yeah, we can go through it.
Yeah good, good job.
Good job.
You luke.
Well done um.
So yeah, salem witch trials.
He wrote salem's lot right um the actually uh, cemetery or graveyard, both work they have.
He has titles with both.
I don't know what they are.
Pet Cemetery.
Pet Cemetery, yes.
Pet Cemetery, and then he wrote short stories.
The Rave Yard?
Probably, yeah.
I guess.
Dreamcatcher was a book from late 90s, early 2000s.
It was a movie as well.
Carrie, obviously.
And then, yeah, 1408 was a short story, which was also made into a film about a haunted hotel room.
Yeah.
All right.
Crazy story.
Brilliant.
All the digits add up to...
13.
Oh, I see.
It's a bad number.
Such a scary number.
Scary number.
OK, guys.
Hello, listeners.
So this is me interrupting the episode here to let you know that this is the end of part one.
I've decided to divide this long episode into two parts.
OK, I used to do this ages ago.
If you remember, if you're a long term listener.
I used to divide episodes into two parts if they were quite long, and then I decided that I would stop doing that and I'd just release these mammoth episodes.
You can let me know.
I'm genuinely very curious to know what you think.
What do you prefer?
Do you prefer one single long episode that could be an hour and 45 minutes long, or do you prefer that long episode to be divided into two parts?
For me.
I've got my thoughts as to the pros and cons of both options, but I'd like to know what you think.
So let me know in the comments section, what do you prefer?
One single long episode or the episode divided into two parts?
So part two of this will be available to you very soon.
It's gonna be uploaded In the next few days, you won't have to wait an entire week for part two.
It'll be uploaded in two or three days' time.
And also I'm curious to see the statistics, because what often happens when I divide an episode into two parts is strange things.
Like, for example, part two gets more listens than part one, which doesn't make any sense to me.
I mean people listen to the second part more than they listen to the first part normally, because it sits at the top of the list for longer.
Any episode that is at the top of the list gets more attention than episodes below it.
Anyway, never mind all that.
That's stuff for me to worry about.
But you can let me know what you prefer.
So that's the end of part one.
And you heard us talking about quizzing and stuff, talking about Sarah and Fred's new podcast, which is available wherever you get your podcast.
It's called Not An Alias Podcast.
And if you want to get a regular dose of quiz question...
Then look no further.
Not an alias podcast.
And if you're thinking to yourself, oh, but I don't know the TV show Alias.
Well, don't worry, because it's not an alias podcast.
Right.
There's maybe a minute of quite often quite amusing plot description and then you get straight into the quizzing on any possible subject.
And if you want the episodes with me, which ones was it?
Episodes 18, 19 and 20 are the ones in which I appeared.
And you know what?
We actually had a lot of fun.
There were some very funny laugh-out-loud moments in that, including me attempting to summarise an episode of a show that I really have no idea about.
So if you feel lost on the subject of the TV show Alias, then join the club, because I also felt pretty lost and it was very amusing to talk about it, even briefly.
And then get into the quizzing stuff.
So Not An Alias podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts and you will find links in the description.
Okay, but that's it for the end of part one.
Okay, and we'll carry on in part two and you're going to hear my quiz questions.
And then you're going to hear questions from Fred as well.
Okay, so just pure quizzing action in part two of this episode, which will be available to you very soon.
Leave your comments in the comments section wherever you're listening to this.
I'm very curious to know what you're thinking, if you do indeed have thoughts in your head.
I hope so.
If you do, put them into English.
Express yourself.
Leave your comments, okay?
Like, subscribe, do all that good stuff.
Tell your friends about Luke's English Podcast.
Thank you so much for listening. and I'll speak to you again in part two, okay?
But for now, it's just time for me to say goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.
Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast.
For more information, visit teachaluke.co.uk.
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