University Challenge

[gradus]

Greenfinch,Chloris, it just seemed likely. Like almost all my attempts at UC questions, just a guess.

[Serial_Apologist]

The so-called scientific names of birds change so much that quiz setters should probably avoid them. English names: greenfinch, gannet, even blue tit, are more stable than the pseudo latin inventions that are alleged to provide clarity.

Also true of plants a few years ago - don't know if this is still the case, however.

[oddoneout]

Also true of plants a few years ago - don't know if this is still the case, however.

It's an ongoing process, but unless it affects a plant you encounter/use/know it won't be apparent. Some garden plant name changes seem to have an element of perversity about them in that the new/correct versions seem to be unwieldy words, and it's no wonder they don't 'catch on'. Calla and Arum lilies are correctly Zantedeschia, but guess which name is most often seen in florists or garden centres. Chaenomeles for japonica is another.

[vinteuil]

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.... I still call pelargoniums geraniums.


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[gradus]

It's an ongoing process, but unless it affects a plant you encounter/use/know it won't be apparent. Some garden plant name changes seem to have an element of perversity about them in that the new/correct versions seem to be unwieldy words, and it's no wonder they don't 'catch on'. Calla and Arum lilies are correctly Zantedeschia, but guess which name is most often seen in florists or garden centres. Chaenomeles for japonica is another.

Datura now Brugmansia limps to mind.

[Richard Tarleton]

It's an ongoing process, but unless it affects a plant you encounter/use/know it won't be apparent.

It's down to research ornithologists (and presumably botanists) spending more time looking at DNA than at actual birds (or plants) - either deciding something belongs to a different family, or that one species separated by geography is in fact two (or more) species. This can be great for armchair ornithologists - whoever decided that the subalpine warblers you find on Mallorca are in fact Moltoni's warblers increased my life list by one, with zero effort on my part. Splitting Marmora's warblers into Marmora's and Balearic made no difference to me as I'd only seen them in Mallorca.

The reclassification of greenfinch occurred between the first and second editions of the Collins Bird Guide (Svensson et al) which most people use these days. I keep a tatty paperback first edn in the car, a pristine hardback 2nd edition in the house. I really don't suppose the question setter was aware of this.

[LMcD]

Rarely have I been so pleased to see a team lose. 'Paxo' should take a leaf from Victoria Coren Mitchell's book when it comes to preventing almost every question resulting in a full-blown Committee meeting.

[alycidon]

What gets me about UC is despite the fact that I have been immersed in classical music for over fifty years longer than any of the contestants, they march in from planet Zog, or wherever, and always, but always, beat me to the draw in identifying music, very often having heard the first two notes! I know that my powers of recall are woeful, as they always have been, but to be bested by these twenty-something-olds is rather galling to say the least.

Sometimes I have to listen to well-known pieces for up to five minutes before I can positively identify what is being played so I am a bit of a duffer - and things get worse the older I get. I’m 75. Sigh!

[ardcarp]

Sometimes I have to listen to well-known pieces for up to five minutes before I can positively identify what is being played so I am a bit of a duffer - and things get worse the older I get.

The worst thing is being able to identify the piece in seconds...but taking five minutes to get the words out, e.g. 'You know, it's that thingy by whatsisname....'

[alycidon]

Yeah! Absolutely. Ha. Ha!

[oddoneout]

What gets me about UC is despite the fact that I have been immersed in classical music for over fifty years longer than any of the contestants, they march in from planet Zog, or wherever, and always, but always, beat me to the draw in identifying music, very often having heard the first two notes! I know that my powers of recall are woeful, as they always have been, but to be bested by these twenty-something-olds is rather galling to say the least.

Sometimes I have to listen to well-known pieces for up to five minutes before I can positively identify what is being played so I am a bit of a duffer - and things get worse the older I get. I’m 75. Sigh!

But is it just age? Have you at some point been able to do as they do, and now can't? I have always struggled with music identification, despite being immersed in music from day one(or even before arguably!) with a mother who was good at it, and decades of listening, playing, singing. It was a source of embarrassment to me and puzzlement to friends on quiz nights that I couldn't necessarily 'name that tune' just because it was 'classical' and therefore my kind of music. I find it most frustrating, but can't blame it on age.

[alycidon]

But is it just age? Have you at some point been able to do as they do, and now can't? I have always struggled with music identification, despite being immersed in music from day one(or even before arguably!) with a mother who was good at it, and decades of listening, playing, singing. It was a source of embarrassment to me and puzzlement to friends on quiz nights that I couldn't necessarily 'name that tune' just because it was 'classical' and therefore my kind of music. I find it most frustrating, but can't blame it on age.

No, I have always been slow on the uptake with everything from an early age. It’s just the way I am and I simply have very slow powers of recall. It’s a nuisance, but not the end of the world.

[BBMmk2]

Rather a good programme this week. I managed a few questions! Obviously the music ones, that whistling!

[LMcD]

Rather a good programme this week. I managed a few questions! Obviously the music ones, that whistling!

Did you not find UCL's occasionally endless deliberations a tad infuriating?

[Dave2002]

The worst thing is being able to identify the piece in seconds...but taking five minutes to get the words out, e.g. 'You know, it's that thingy by whatsisname....'

I get that with faces. "Mmmmm - that's the guy in that film, by you know who, the one where the ...." Except that now I don't even remember the film! I put it down to there being too many people to remember.