Search found 1259 matches

by David Williams
Tue Apr 05, 2022 6:32 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Monday 4th April 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 66)
Replies: 6
Views: 742

Re: Spoilers for Monday 4 April 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 66)

Nice.
I thought Rachel struggled not to say anything when the contestant used all four numbers to make 16 out of 8 7 4 4.
by David Williams
Fri Mar 18, 2022 3:41 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Scrabble
Replies: 11
Views: 1954

Re: Scrabble

I've still got a set of Scrabble tiles I won from Stewart for being the only one on the forum who knew the 8-letter carriage that is an anagram of the plural of another carriage. Kindergarten stuff these days, I imagine.
by David Williams
Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:04 pm
Forum: Games and Puzzles
Topic: Wordle
Replies: 81
Views: 11416

Re: Wordle

I noticed a few people failed on yesterday's Wordle (CATER). They got the ATER and ran out of guesses for the first letter. I went for WHEEL. Took out WATER, HATER and LATER in one go. That's how you're supposed to play, losers. I went for something like CHUMP, which takes out (or confirms) four le...
by David Williams
Thu Mar 17, 2022 8:12 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Veganism Discussion
Replies: 117
Views: 11114

Re: Veganism Discussion

So you'd defend the right of a restaurant (or a council) not to offer any vegetarian option? This shouldn't be about veganism good, Jeremy Clarkson bad, case closed. Nothing to stop them changing their menus gradually and no-one notices, but the motivation seems to be to get into the history books a...
by David Williams
Wed Mar 16, 2022 3:20 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: What TV programmes have you been watching lately?
Replies: 758
Views: 565608

Re: What TV programmes have you been watching lately?

Marc Meakin wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:09 pm Watching the Ipcress file.
Very faithful adaptation of the book.
Not watched it yet, but if the lead character is called Harry Palmer that's one major difference from the book.
by David Williams
Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:26 pm
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: What Makes a Good Countdown Presenter?
Replies: 4
Views: 991

Re: What Makes a Good Countdown Presenter?

Four million people tuned in to see Richard Whiteley, and he had virtually no interaction with the contestants. Maybe that's the answer.
by David Williams
Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:36 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Fact or Bullshit
Replies: 27
Views: 2210

Re: Fact or Bullshit

This, of course, is essentially what a plane flying from London to the Aleutian Islands does. If they wanted to go the long way, anyway. What witchcraft is this? That's why I put the word 'essentially' in what I posted! If you ignore the fact that the earth is going round the sun, which I don't thi...
by David Williams
Mon Mar 07, 2022 8:44 am
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Fact or Bullshit
Replies: 27
Views: 2210

Re: Fact or Bullshit

Another factoid from my childhood. If a plane could leave the earth's atmosphere and hovered it could return to earth getting to Australia direct in around 12 hours due to earth's rotation. This sounds feasible but probably not practicle Maybe this answers my own question but an interesting read an...
by David Williams
Thu Feb 24, 2022 5:38 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 24th February 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 39)
Replies: 13
Views: 977

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 24 February 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 39)

Does anyone have an up-to-date copy of the rules they could share? What I've got is a real ragbag, with quite a few words that are count nouns or verbs (silk, steel, solder, clay, fluoride, soil etc.) and some I don't think you'd ever be allowed (ginghams?). Plurals of actions or processes such as L...
by David Williams
Thu Feb 24, 2022 5:24 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Monday 21st February 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 36)
Replies: 6
Views: 744

Re: Spoilers for Monday 21 February 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 36)

That is all true, but there's still the question as to why Oxford insist on what was correct 500 years ago being correct today. The dictionary is supposed to be of current usage, which I would say is overwhelmingly -ISE. In fact I imagine the few people who do use -IZE only do it because Oxford say ...
by David Williams
Mon Feb 21, 2022 10:26 am
Forum: Games and Puzzles
Topic: Wordle
Replies: 81
Views: 11416

Re: Wordle

Judging by the demand for Countdown folk like Jack and Ollie to talk about it on radio, it seems the Wordle hype train is still rolling! Surprised it's been this longaevous. Personally I got bored of it the day before it moved to the New York Times; a happy coincidence. I do occasionally like a sta...
by David Williams
Mon Feb 14, 2022 9:02 am
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Anyone Going To Watch The Superb Owl?
Replies: 4
Views: 581

Re: Anyone Going To Watch The Superb Owl?

When American football was first on TV here I was quite interested, but the half-time show is a real killer. The game starts at 11:30, it takes them till 01:00 to get to half-time, so there's still an hour and a half to go - and everything stops. That must be bedtime for a lot of people in the UK. I...
by David Williams
Tue Feb 08, 2022 12:22 am
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Monday 7th February 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 26)
Replies: 8
Views: 985

Re: Spoilers for Monday 7 February 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 26)

If you had to make 881 out of 75 25 9 4 2 1, can you think of any way of doing it that doesn't involve multiplying 98 by 9? And if you were writing the solution on the board, would you actually have to pause and work out that it made 882?
by David Williams
Tue Feb 08, 2022 12:16 am
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
Replies: 1615
Views: 630855

Re: Questions you've always wanted answered

On this general topic, the Six Nations rugby is going on at the moment, but also the BBC have been going on about Scotland winning the Calcutta Cup with no explanation. But having looked it up, it seems that the winner of the Engalnd/Scotland Six Nations game also wins the Calcutta Cup. I don't thi...
by David Williams
Mon Feb 07, 2022 7:54 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
Replies: 1615
Views: 630855

Re: Questions you've always wanted answered

On this general topic, the Six Nations rugby is going on at the moment, but also the BBC have been going on about Scotland winning the Calcutta Cup with no explanation. But having looked it up, it seems that the winner of the Engalnd/Scotland Six Nations game also wins the Calcutta Cup. I don't thi...
by David Williams
Mon Feb 07, 2022 7:46 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
Replies: 1615
Views: 630855

Re: Questions you've always wanted answered

On a similar subject, will Queen Camilla become the Queen Mother when Charles dies? Even apart from the obvious, when George V died his wife became the Queen Mother, but simply carried on being called Queen Mary. When George VI died that was a bit of a problem, because there would have been two Que...
by David Williams
Thu Jan 27, 2022 12:25 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 26th January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 18)
Replies: 9
Views: 760

Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 26 January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 18)

Having selected a host calculated to annoy the viewers, they are now selecting guests calculated to annoy the host. If it's supposed to be evening things up from the viewer's perspective, it's not working for me.
by David Williams
Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:37 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 20th January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 14)
Replies: 9
Views: 1125

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 20 January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 14)

Continuing yesterday's theme. Last numbers. Target 847. Numbers include 100, 9, 6 and 1. Contestant "100-6=94". Anne-Marie repeats and writes it out. Contestant "Multiply that by 9". Anne-Marie writes down the 6, slight pause, writes down the 8, longer pause, writes down the 4. T...
by David Williams
Thu Jan 20, 2022 1:46 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 19th January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 13)
Replies: 11
Views: 1097

Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 19 January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 13)

You also don't need to be great at mental arithmetic to be able to do Countdown numbers games. Except occasionally in 6 small I very rarely find myself "doing mental arithmetic". If you've watched Countdown as long as we have you know your 75 times table, but that would be mental arithmet...
by David Williams
Thu Jan 20, 2022 8:50 am
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 19th January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 13)
Replies: 11
Views: 1097

Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 19 January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 13)

Another thing that you've never thought of till someone else is doing it. Sometimes you know that the board is going to be quite full because there are going to be two near misses plus the actual solution, sometimes there isn't going to be much at all. But Rachel tends to use the available space pre...
by David Williams
Mon Jan 17, 2022 11:36 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Monday 17th January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 11)
Replies: 10
Views: 1019

Re: Spoilers for Monday 17 January 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 11)

https://www.lexico.com/definition/mileage She actually said that she was looking to see if the dictionary gave any examples of MILEAGES. Maybe she should have had a look at this, which has the plural in each of the first ten More Example Sentences. I'm also always irritated when there's a suspicion ...
by David Williams
Fri Dec 17, 2021 2:59 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 16th December 2021 (Series 84, QF 2)
Replies: 12
Views: 1530

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 16th December 2021 (Series 84, QF 2)

Thomas Cappleman wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 8:01 pm Great game there. Ruth had commented at the end of the last numbers that there seemed to be a lot of concentration for a clearly impossible one. Glad to see Stu had been making good use of it
From what I remember the closest you could get was 585 away. Is this a record?
by David Williams
Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:30 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
Replies: 1615
Views: 630855

Re: Questions you've always wanted answered

If whoever decided on the Greenwich Meridian and the International Date Line had had a sense of humour, they would have reversed them. Not only would East Anglia have been further west than Wales, it would also have been a day ahead.
by David Williams
Fri Oct 29, 2021 11:51 am
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: Premium VS Lexico (Countdown’s dictionaries)
Replies: 8
Views: 1267

Re: Premium VS Lexico (Countdown’s dictionaries)

The ‘restaurant rule’ is still there; it is based on around ordering a portion/unit of something. In fact it's never really been about restaurants. It covers all sorts of things other than food items. But even a few years ago when I checked through the list of examples they gave, an awful lot of th...
by David Williams
Thu Oct 28, 2021 11:23 pm
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: Premium VS Lexico (Countdown’s dictionaries)
Replies: 8
Views: 1267

Re: Premium VS Lexico (Countdown’s dictionaries)

Yes, interesting.

It made me wonder if there are many plurals left that are allowed only because of the restaurant rule, because there is no count noun sense in examples in Premium or Lexico.
by David Williams
Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:18 pm
Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
Topic: Tuesday 19th October 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 81)
Replies: 2
Views: 671

Re: Tuesday 19 October 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 81)

I thought she gave him a second too long if anything. Incidentally, whose job is it to call time on a contestant? Colin Murray would have stopped it sooner than Rachel did. Anne doesn't involve herself.
by David Williams
Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:54 pm
Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
Topic: Wednesday 15th September 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 57)
Replies: 1
Views: 450

Re: Wednesday 15 September 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 57)

<<< Given today's standards, I'm surprised WIMPED wasn't expunged as well. >>>
Not to mention GIMP, even if Pam did give a meaning I wasn't familiar with. RETARD has a perfectly acceptable meaning as well.
by David Williams
Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:45 pm
Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
Topic: Thursday 16th September 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 58)
Replies: 2
Views: 619

Re: Thursday 16 September 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 58)

<<< I'm not quite sure what Mike was thinking of >>>
Mike used to work in the City of London, where there is a road and a pub called The Minories, which I have been in. When he said it, my first thought was that it would be OK, even if I had no idea what it meant.
by David Williams
Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:48 am
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 1st September 2021 (Series 84, Prelim 47)
Replies: 7
Views: 1183

Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 1st September 2021 (Series 84, Prelim 47)

Not a fan of Johnny Vaughan. You can never really be sure, but one suspects that he's one of the best guests ever at spotting words. If he was taking it seriously he would be a match for all but the very best contestants. Or maybe they just all hate him so much they feed him invalid words through h...
by David Williams
Wed Sep 01, 2021 9:10 am
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Words and expressions that grind your gears
Replies: 108
Views: 21008

Re: Words and expressions that grind your gears

I get so angry at expresso. I've left a restaurant because it had expresso on the menu, it's completely irrational. If I had to choose between taking a kick to the bollocks every single day for the rest of my life, or hearing the word "expresso" once - I'm taking the no kids option. https...
by David Williams
Tue Aug 10, 2021 4:37 pm
Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
Topic: Monday 9th August 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 30)
Replies: 3
Views: 985

Re: Monday 9 August 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 30)

R14 7 x 8 x 9 - 75 - 2
You should never pass over a 504 opportunity.
by David Williams
Sun Aug 08, 2021 7:54 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Track and Field (and Road) Athletics
Replies: 252
Views: 49559

Re: Track and Field Athletics

I've always thought that athletics short-changes itself compared to other sports. If swimming was done the same way, you'd only have one 100 metre event. But if you can have backstroke and butterfly, why doesn't athletics have running backwards and bunny-hop events? My rule of thumb has always been ...
by David Williams
Sun Aug 08, 2021 7:35 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Olympics 2020
Replies: 135
Views: 16330

Re: Olympics 2020

Japan doing really well to come 3rd. It does seem like the host nation tends to do better than they normally would. And this time it can't be down to home support. I'm guessing some events confer some inbuilt home advantage (familiarity with the track/venue, or conditions) but mostly is because the...
by David Williams
Sat Jul 31, 2021 12:14 pm
Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
Topic: Friday 30th July 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 24)
Replies: 1
Views: 696

Re: Friday 30 July 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 24)

Is it only me who was a bit taken aback by all the "young Liberace" stuff? Especially when it got to being "far too sensible to be upset", which I don't imagine was a reference to Liberace apparently not being particularly good at playing the piano. (Younger readers may need to c...
by David Williams
Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:26 pm
Forum: Countdown - Current recaps
Topic: Tuesday 27th July 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 21)
Replies: 1
Views: 704

Re: Tuesday 27 July 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 21)

Rhys Benjamin wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pm Richard Coles who didn't drop a single point today.
It wouldn't have crossed my mind otherwise, but there can't have been many games ever that were easier to max than this one. I was quite pleased to see RHETORIC, but nothing else was very special
by David Williams
Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:01 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Why do ?.....
Replies: 21
Views: 6986

Re: Why do ?.....

Even worse is "We'll see you after the break". I'm pretty confident TV doesn't work like Zoom.
by David Williams
Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:18 pm
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: Is Banter With Contestants to be Encouraged?
Replies: 2
Views: 1022

Re: Is Banter With Contestants to be Encouraged?

Banter. The playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks. An exchange requires the recipient to respond in kind.

"You're an accountant. Is that as exciting as it sounds?"

"Maybe not. I've never been sacked for being drunk, for example."

Looking forward to it.
by David Williams
Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:42 pm
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: First impressions of Anne
Replies: 141
Views: 24509

Re: First impressions of Anne

Her approach really falls flat if you get contestants like the last couple. I'm sure you could have a decent conversation about bee-keeping or rowing, but her questioning is more like brow-beating, trying to shame or embarrass them. Fine on Watchdog, but these people have nothing to be ashamed or em...
by David Williams
Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:34 am
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 15th July 2021 (Series 84, Preliminary 14)
Replies: 11
Views: 2005

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 15th July 2021 (series 84 )

504 thing for R3 numbers - 9*8*7+1 = 505 I was surprised Rachel missed that actually. I think she started with 9*8, but then went off a different (less good) way. I suspect Rachel's first thought is to factorise. Mine with six small has always been to multiply the largest two together, divide the p...
by David Williams
Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:45 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: The C4C Football Thread
Replies: 1265
Views: 195262

Re: The C4C Football Thread

Am I the only person in the country able to actually remember the 1966 World Cup? Did anyone watch The Last Tommy ? There'll be a thing like that soon for people who remember the 1966 World Cup. I did sort of mean remember what it was really like. Until the semi-final England were dire, and the gen...
by David Williams
Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:01 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: The C4C Football Thread
Replies: 1265
Views: 195262

Re: The C4C Football Thread

Am I the only person in the country able to actually remember the 1966 World Cup? So far, from an England perspective, 2021 is so much better. A bit like this time, England were pretty pedestrian in the qualifying group. They played with a winger, Ball and Peters alternated, Hurst was very much thir...
by David Williams
Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:40 pm
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: First impressions of Anne
Replies: 141
Views: 24509

Re: First impressions of Anne

I didn't follow the Mensa thing. She asks Steve if he is in Mensa. If he says he isn't, but he could be, then "We'll be the judge of that" is a nice putdown. But when he says he isn't clever enough, it's a compliment, isn't it? Yet she still delivered it as a putdown, almost as if she wasn...
by David Williams
Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:30 am
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: First impressions of Anne
Replies: 141
Views: 24509

Re: First impressions of Anne

Sorry, but I thought it was "Bring your granny to work day". A pale imitation of the Anne Robinson I remember, and I always thought that was a bit stilted. Calling an accountant boring is not exactly original, and Shelley from Newcastle clearly wasn't expecting to be told the countryside w...
by David Williams
Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:58 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 24th June 2021 (Series 83, Second Semi Final)
Replies: 15
Views: 2510

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 24 June 2021 (Series 83, Second Semi Final)

I think James probably felt obliged to go for the 9, as he'd have been over 40 pts behind if Underbets was valid and he'd not gone for it. I daresay that's true, but at 23 points behind you have a chance to be either 15 points behind or 41. Against an opponent who really isn't likely to give you th...
by David Williams
Fri Jun 25, 2021 11:11 am
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 24th June 2021 (Series 83, Second Semi Final)
Replies: 15
Views: 2510

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 24 June 2021 (Series 83, Second Semi Final)

Surely the tactic when you're well behind, your opponent declares a nine, and you don't have anything cast iron, is to go for a definite eight or a seven? UNRESTED for me.
by David Williams
Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:54 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Tuesday 22nd June 2021 (Series 83, Fourth Quarter Final)
Replies: 22
Views: 3405

Re: Spoilers for Tuesday 22 June 2021 (Series 83, Fourth Quarter Final)

Nearly all these things are Countdown trying to make the best of inconsistencies in the dictionary, of course. If you're going to print lots of examples of a word being used in a count noun sense, it should specify that it can be used as a count noun as well as a mass noun. As they increasingly do f...
by David Williams
Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:33 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Tuesday 22nd June 2021 (Series 83, Fourth Quarter Final)
Replies: 22
Views: 3405

Re: Spoilers for Tuesday 22 June 2021 (Series 83, Fourth Quarter Final)

Allowing PICRITES was slightly controversial I think but it didn't make a difference in the end. I would have agreed it was slightly controversial, were it not that eleven days ago we were told VASELINE would not be allowed, despite the fact that it was lower case in all the examples. http://www.c4...
by David Williams
Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:16 am
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Friday 11th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 115)
Replies: 19
Views: 2959

Re: Spoilers for Friday 11th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 115)

It would be great if CD just switched to the Scrabble word list and be done with it. The reason they didn't do that in the first place is that they didn't want an elite group of contestants who would be so well prepared that ordinary mortals wouldn't stand a chance. I guess that ship sailed a while...
by David Williams
Fri Jun 11, 2021 11:45 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Friday 11th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 115)
Replies: 19
Views: 2959

Re: Spoilers for Friday 11th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 115)

Interesting. Mind you, the reasoning is pretty bizarre. Words and their meanings get into a dictionary by being in common usage. I don't see why that excludes the internet. And they didn't just arrive in the dictionary by accident. The OUP selected them. I wonder if we will see fewer mass noun plura...
by David Williams
Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:34 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Friday 11th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 115)
Replies: 19
Views: 2959

Re: Spoilers for Friday 11th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 115)

VASELINE is *not* valid and therefore will be removed from the Apterous dictionary (note that it lags behind Countdown). Where a headword is capitalised, it must have an un-capitalised sub-entry in bold to be valid So why does Susie go through the example sentences for mass nouns to see if any of t...
by David Williams
Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:57 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 9th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 113)
Replies: 5
Views: 1264

Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 9th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 113)

Just on that final numbers, I parked the 3 and 4, and quickly saw
5 x 50 +75 -100
Then I saw
5 x (75 - 50) +100
And finally
5 x 75 -100 -50
The actual solution escaped me entirely.
by David Williams
Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:51 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 9th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 113)
Replies: 5
Views: 1264

Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 9th June 2021 (Series 83, Prelim 113)

It's a shame there doesn't seem to be a Welsh language version of Countdown. In this, Y would be classed as a vowel. I guess W would be classed as a consonant but subject to the same debate as we have about Y. Welsh is pretty much a phonetic language. W is one of the seven vowels. There are 22 cons...
by David Williams
Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:48 pm
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: Next Champion of Champions series
Replies: 197
Views: 27777

Re: Next Champion of Champions series

CoC isn't the be all and end all, with regular series being just the preliminaries. If you always have all the runners-up it's a bit like having the last 16 of the FA Cup, giving the eight winners a prize, and then reinstating all the losers and doing the draw again. CoC has always had the series ch...
by David Williams
Tue Jun 08, 2021 9:55 am
Forum: Countdown - General
Topic: Next Champion of Champions series
Replies: 197
Views: 27777

Re: Next Champion of Champions series

Including Corrina Attwood is a really good idea. Series champions are there as of right, but everyone else has lost at least once - except her.
by David Williams
Thu May 20, 2021 4:16 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: People you shouldn't trust
Replies: 921
Views: 394549

Re: People you shouldn't trust

People who DON'T read out phone numbers as (xxxx) pause (xxx) pause (xxx). 01223 Cambridge 01224 Aberdeen 01225 Bath 01226 Barnsley 01227 Canterbury 01228 Carlisle A selection of area codes. I'd find it a bit odd if anyone in one of these places paused after 0122. Or maybe you shouldn't trust anyon...
by David Williams
Sun May 16, 2021 7:54 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
Replies: 1615
Views: 630855

Re: Questions you've always wanted answered

Before they discovered oil and gas in the North Sea, domestic gas supplies were made from coal. Coal gas, or town gas, had a distinctive smell, instantly recognisable. When they switched over to North Sea gas they put an additive in so that the smell would be the same.
by David Williams
Fri May 14, 2021 11:19 am
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 13th May 2021 (Series 83, Preliminary 94)
Replies: 3
Views: 999

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 13th May 2021 (Series 83, Preliminary 94)

Good to hear. Yet more evidence that I need to get my hearing tested.
by David Williams
Thu May 13, 2021 11:13 pm
Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 13th May 2021 (Series 83, Preliminary 94)
Replies: 3
Views: 999

Re: Spoilers for Thursday 13th May 2021 (Series 83, Preliminary 94)

Would someone with better sound quality on their TV and better hearing than me give some assurance that she didn't say PERCEDING. She was pretty hesitant about it, that's what it sounded like to me, and she pronounced it with the wrong emphasis on the syllables - similar to PERCEIVING, whereas it's ...
by David Williams
Thu Apr 22, 2021 6:22 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
Replies: 1615
Views: 630855

Re: Questions you've always wanted answered

Because a musket was so big you couldn't carry it around, it was a battlefield weapon.

Under current seating arrangements, how does a Dictionary Corner guest know to say "But Susie has a longer word"?