I’m here to strongly recommend (for a Strong Recommend?) a 2012 film called Compliance. The events, in the US, are all true. And in the current climate of “but surely people wouldn’t just do what they’re told?” it shows you that people *will* do what they’re told, on the most minimal authority. Available to rent on Amazon or Apple. No superheroes, no CGI, no car chases, just humans at their most worrying.
IQ tests are an easy and free way to push your brain to work. I do about three a day just to ensure that my ability to remember trivia has not been reduced by age. I am 87 and have a great fear of dementia.
I have a favourite joke about IQ tests, I used to think that the fact you took one of those online IQ tests who’s ads pop up on Facebook etc and trusted their result this proved you have an IQ in the low 70s, then one day I cracked and took one, getting a score of 142 so now I’ve decided that they are the ironclad gold standard proofs of intelligence and their results can’t be disputed
Hi, I'm afraid the link to the Alex Massie article takes you to the Front Page of The Times website for today. Google tells me that the article should be in Wednesday's edition.
Your mention of the Fushimi Inari shrine reminds me of a visit a friend and I made there in the early 2000's. I don't remember our seeing anyone else as we climbed the steps through the torii gates, and only a couple of people once we'd reached the top.
It was both beautiful and peaceful. Had it been crowded there would probably have been less chance of our mistaking the way of descent, but luckily we came across a policeman, seemingly in the middle of nowhere (Suggesting that others had taken the same route), and he pointed us in the right direction!
27/32. Some by a process of elimination if it's the last one left of the 4. The New Yorkie ones I would l know less about and the last cryptic ones. Don't want to think what the 2025 equivalent would be .
29/32 for me on the Vogue quiz. I'm good on film directors, but less so on Cuban hairdressers and I don't know my Wasserstein from my Wegmans. Thanks for the Kyoto article - a far cry from a lonely weekend I spent there myself just before Christmas 2001 -only spotted one other foreigner the whole time who gave me a grumpy stare for acknowledging him while walking down the Philosopher's Path. Other memory is getting punched accidentally by a very drunken local who kept buying me tequilas in a techno club. There's fantastic places to visit very close to Kyoto which could do with the tourist yen - especially on Shikoku just across the Inland Sea - a 3hr bus journey from Kyoto. I recommend Tokushima Prefecture especially - beautiful mountains, giant vine bridges down long long valleys and the writer Alex Kerr, who was mentioned in the article, has an amazing refurbished 300 year old samurai house in the mountains called Chiiori.
I knew only one of the mononyms (it begins with “V”) but I guessed the others correctly. I had a perfect score up to the last group (Art and art-adjacent), where I got three wrong. Which is much better than I expected. I’m not sure I’ve ever even read Vogue. Certainly not in the last 35 years.
Thanks for sharing the quiz. I’m feeling rather smug after scoring 29 out of 32 - I cocked up the same questions as you, plus one more of those four, they were hard, even though I’m currently reading David Niven’s memoir, and he mentioned one of those directors a few pages ago.
not that I have a high IQ or anything, but I got full marks on the Quiz.....
I’m here to strongly recommend (for a Strong Recommend?) a 2012 film called Compliance. The events, in the US, are all true. And in the current climate of “but surely people wouldn’t just do what they’re told?” it shows you that people *will* do what they’re told, on the most minimal authority. Available to rent on Amazon or Apple. No superheroes, no CGI, no car chases, just humans at their most worrying.
IQ tests are an easy and free way to push your brain to work. I do about three a day just to ensure that my ability to remember trivia has not been reduced by age. I am 87 and have a great fear of dementia.
This sounds like a great use for IQ tests. I also really like the NYT’s Connections (a riff on Only Connect) for maintaining lateral thinking.
Thanks for the Times freebie. I agree, an entertaining - and informative - read.
I have a favourite joke about IQ tests, I used to think that the fact you took one of those online IQ tests who’s ads pop up on Facebook etc and trusted their result this proved you have an IQ in the low 70s, then one day I cracked and took one, getting a score of 142 so now I’ve decided that they are the ironclad gold standard proofs of intelligence and their results can’t be disputed
Now I understand why I didn't get that job at Vogue....
23 out of 32 for me! You clearly went to prep school with the child of a Condé editor, Helen! :-)
22/32. But I realised at the end I didn't need to do it. If I ham up the accent.
Hi, I'm afraid the link to the Alex Massie article takes you to the Front Page of The Times website for today. Google tells me that the article should be in Wednesday's edition.
Can this be fixed? Thanks.
Here: https://t.co/vwRGQ3aNL6
Great, Thank you.
Your mention of the Fushimi Inari shrine reminds me of a visit a friend and I made there in the early 2000's. I don't remember our seeing anyone else as we climbed the steps through the torii gates, and only a couple of people once we'd reached the top.
It was both beautiful and peaceful. Had it been crowded there would probably have been less chance of our mistaking the way of descent, but luckily we came across a policeman, seemingly in the middle of nowhere (Suggesting that others had taken the same route), and he pointed us in the right direction!
"dock, Marten?" (I think) I see what you did there.
27/32. Some by a process of elimination if it's the last one left of the 4. The New Yorkie ones I would l know less about and the last cryptic ones. Don't want to think what the 2025 equivalent would be .
29/32 for me on the Vogue quiz. I'm good on film directors, but less so on Cuban hairdressers and I don't know my Wasserstein from my Wegmans. Thanks for the Kyoto article - a far cry from a lonely weekend I spent there myself just before Christmas 2001 -only spotted one other foreigner the whole time who gave me a grumpy stare for acknowledging him while walking down the Philosopher's Path. Other memory is getting punched accidentally by a very drunken local who kept buying me tequilas in a techno club. There's fantastic places to visit very close to Kyoto which could do with the tourist yen - especially on Shikoku just across the Inland Sea - a 3hr bus journey from Kyoto. I recommend Tokushima Prefecture especially - beautiful mountains, giant vine bridges down long long valleys and the writer Alex Kerr, who was mentioned in the article, has an amazing refurbished 300 year old samurai house in the mountains called Chiiori.
30/32. Fails were on the last question.
I knew only one of the mononyms (it begins with “V”) but I guessed the others correctly. I had a perfect score up to the last group (Art and art-adjacent), where I got three wrong. Which is much better than I expected. I’m not sure I’ve ever even read Vogue. Certainly not in the last 35 years.
Thanks for sharing the quiz. I’m feeling rather smug after scoring 29 out of 32 - I cocked up the same questions as you, plus one more of those four, they were hard, even though I’m currently reading David Niven’s memoir, and he mentioned one of those directors a few pages ago.
Which memoir? He wrote a few. I enjoyed, The Moon's a Balloon.
Yes, I know. It’s Bring on the Empty Horses.