But still. Perhaps there is something in this.
In the balmy days of early summer, I went on a south-coast seaside safari. In a junk shop in Hastings, I found this:
It is the BBC Children's Annual 1959. It's a hell of a read. Look!
Informative!
Yet exciting!
Not to mention challenging! You would not expect a university-educated 36-year-old with an enquiring mind (that's me by the way. I know. I look younger) to struggle with a Picture Quiz in a children's book. But the one below is genuinely, to me, quite tricky. I could not answer any more than two of the questions below with unflinching confidence. Can you? [Click to make it big.] I can't help feeling – and call me one of the baying mob if you must – that picture quizzes in today's children's annuals are significantly easier than this.
(I like the way it non-specifies 'From a Programme for Deaf Children'. Can no one at the publishing house remember the title of the programme for deaf children? ['Oh, never mind. Someone will remember the proper name before we go to press. Just stick that in for now...'] Or is the programme actually called 'a Programme for Deaf Children', in which case a) there are some capital letters knocking about somewhere in search of employment, and b) those children deserve better.)
15 comments:
I would have bought this book too if I'd seen it - love this kind of thing. Inside my head, all I can hear are the clipped tones of Victoria Wood in black and white, reading it to me.
Pleased to see that the Picture quiz is for Deaf children. Their eyesight and powers of deduction are SO much better than us sighted bastards.
Picture 1: They are weeds
Picture 2: pass
Picture 3: There is a leaning tower of Pisa in this kitchen - which is just wrong. There is a cat in a KITCHEN and also a dish on the stove top....all so wrong!!
Picture 5 - little boy will be reversed over by motorbike cos he's looking the wrong way.
Picture 6: no idea. Do not have my glasses on.
Ali xxxx
On picture 1, you must be more specific. I know. I couldn't believe it either. Who knows that kind of stuff?
I can tell you that one of your other answers is correct!
Hello, came here prompted by the mention in the Independent article.
There was actually a TV programme called 'For Deaf Children', which by the mid-60s had evolved into Vision On (which gave us Tony Hart, Sylvester McCoy, Wilf Lunn and more). Guessing this was probably it.
Wow, that's good knowledge, Tim. I'm glad they got round to changing that title.
Oooh, I wonder how they'd do on "Are you smarter than a 10 year old" if they got the questions from this book.
I had a go. I'm not 10. And I'm clearly not that smart.
1. Buttercups. I'm guessing the 3rd one is the odd one out because the shape of the leaves are different (might be a water buttercup whereas the other two choose good old-fashioned mud to grow in)
2. An aerial self-portrait of a somewhat unkempt M Ford.
3. Yes, where's the wife at the sink washing dishes? It's either that or the cat's irises are the wrong way up (they should be vertical, not horizontal)
4. Wearing short socks when he's clearly not of grammar school age. I do love the formal structure of the sentence though. I'd have said "wrong" not "wrongly" but that's why I stopped English at O level (ask your mother, young un)
5. Yes, by the very fact that we are all unique so why can't we afford the same ideals to luxury headwear.
The boy is just about to get splattered by the motorbike.
In the kitchen, the right hand tap looks as if the spout is facing the window rather than the sink.
After that, I am stuck.
I loved Vision On. I used to send in pictures that I'd done for *makes rapid hand movements* The Gallery.
Maybe they could tell from the standard of my colouring in that I wasn't deaf. Or something.
Ali x
Is the picture in the top right the rear view of a cat?
Shrimptowers, your answers show great promise.
Arran, I can offer you half a mark out of five.
Simon, that is excellent guess, but sadly the real answer is somewhat more mundane.
No 2 is a mop. Just mopped my kitchen so easy peasy
The cat picture: Is it the saucepan handle sticking outwards?
The Boy: Will all the other boys pick on him for not having a skateboard/Gameboy. Mind you, he does look kind of dapper, so he just might get away with it.
Adrian - I think you might have cracked it on "The Boy" picture.
Miss Jones - enough is enough. Can you tell us what the official answers are please?
Yes, I will post the official answers tonight when I get home. But off the top of my head I can tell you that the Invisible Woman has played a blinder. So has Callaghan, although none of his answers are technically correct.
Roll up, roll up, it's answers time.
1. I am quoting this directly. I would have no idea how to paraphrase it. 'The flowers are Buttercup, Silverweed, Wood Anenome, Lesser Celandine. Silverweed's family is Reseaceae, others are Ranunculacae.' Thank goodness we've cleared that up. Kudos to Shrimptowers for hitting upon the word Buttercup, and for a highly commendable educated guess.
2. Invisible Woman got it bang on. It is a washing-up mop seen from directly above.
3. Yes, Ali and road safety fans everywhere. The boy is looking the opposite way to the oncoming traffic. He looks quite a lot like Preston from the Ordinary Boys/Big Brother without the tattoos. As fellow BB housemate Victor put it, 'Hello, Preston? The 1950s called. They want their look back.'
4. Again, props to Shrimptowers. The cat's irises are the wrong way round. But as Callaghan says, let us also consider how VERY VERY DANGEROUS it is that that saucepan handle is sticking out into room, just beckoning a curious child to pull boiling water all over themselves.
5. One jewel is missing in the row just above the ermine in the right-hand crown. You have to have the eyes of a hawk to spot this, really.
... and I'm pleased to be able to answer the "are you smarter than a ten year old" question. You're not. I tried the quiz out on Young Miss Jones the Elder (ten year old niece to THE Miss Jones, and sometime reader of this blog once her father has checked it for expletives). She spotted the missing jewel, the funny eyes on the cat, and the imminent demise of the boy under the motorbike. That's two more than I got, and in my view provided ample justification for me thrashing her at Cluedo last night in an attempt to restore some balance and respect in the houehold.
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