Failing to 'represent' ... again

If you want to find out where the real cultural differences are between Canada and Britain, go to an English pub quiz. It’s like playing the wrong version of Trivial Pursuit – one meant for a totally different generation or something. I normally consider myself rather good at trivia due to my eclectic reading, viewing and surfing habits, but I think I contributed only two correct answers in four rounds last night (Jeff added another one or two). Our British teammates carried the day, and we won! But I felt no pride, only shame at my inability to identify Peter Sutcliffe as the Yorkshire Ripper, William Joyce as Lord Haw Haw, A Touch of Class and Women in Love as the films for which Glenda Jackson won an academy award, Staffa as the Hebridean island on which Fingal’s Cave is located, and Alain Prost as a famous French Formula 1 driver. Even the table of Oxford undergrads near us knew the name of the Yorkshire Ripper, and I’m guessing they were all born in the late 1980s. (My obsession with the Tour de France did, however, provide the name Eddie Merckx for another question.)

The prize was drink vouchers! Lots! And it was fun, and so long as they’ll put up with underperforming Canucks we’ll join the gang again next week. And speaking of gang, did anyone know that the collective noun for elk is a ‘gang’ of elk? I argued that everyone in Canada would just say ‘herd.’ But I’m afraid that to all appearances I officially crapped out on the one question with any Canadian content. Where are the hockey questions? Donuts! Poutine! Leonard Cohen! Louis Riel! Avro Arrow! The seven tribes of the Sioux Nation! Ask me, ask me!

As another example of odd and jarring cultural disconnects, Jeff hasn’t found anyone here familiar with Napoleon Dynamite. Not that it was a great film, but it was so pervasive in Canada that no fewer than three out of nine teams in our Toronto rec soccer league were called ‘The Ligers’ one season. (Which must have been embarrassing for them. How sad.)

Anyway, I have a week to learn about all things British so I can contribute more to next week’s quiz. A good place to start would be football facts, given that the big tourney starts in a matter of days. This past weekend saw a friendly match between England and Jamaica, and everywhere people strung up banners, hung flags from windows, and dressed in England shirts (and in some cases, shorts and socks). Every second house (and every pub) had the game blaring, and on two separate occasions I saw a young man in England colours rushing down the street clutching a bouquet of red and white flowers, perhaps to appease the girlfriend who would be tolerating an afternoon watching the game with the lads. You read one paper and it’s all about how England is fielding the best team in years, and the next will say it’s a motley assortment of cripples, has-beens, and one ludicrously awkward (but endearing) beanpole. Who is right? Time will tell. But I’m hooked, and I just have to find some kindred spirits to watch the games with (since Jeff is possibly the most indifferent football fan EVER).

Q: Youngest player to score in a World Cup?
A: Pele

(But if Theo Walcott pots one for England, he’ll top it!)

Bring on the quiz!