XX Questions, Game LXII

[Hamish]

Just shows that you tend to overestimate people's celebrity when they are closer to you. I mean, to me Sergey Bubka is infinitely better known than this dude. But I am Dutch and have an interest in sports. I guess pole-vault is a lot closer to me than the American civil war.

[dargorygel]

I once heard an unconfirmed story that Johann Straus invented the sport of poke vaulting.

[JECE]

Can you imagine vaulting with chopsticks over raw fish? Epic

[DougJoe]

Just shows that you tend to overestimate people's celebrity when they are closer to you. I mean, to me Sergey Bubka is infinitely better known than this dude. But I am Dutch and have an interest in sports. I guess pole-vault is a lot closer to me than the American civil war.

I think this is the case. One of the people I was previously thinking about using in this game was the Native American Tecumseh, who played a large part in the (US/UK) War of 1812 in the Great Lakes area in the US and Canada - he united several tribes into a confederacy that fought on the side of the UK in that war, among other things. Now, it's pretty hard to grow up in SE Michigan/NW Ohio without being exposed to Tecumseh at some point in school, but I'd guess if you were studying the War of 1812 in, say, a school system in most of the other US states, exposure to that part of the war might have been minimal - maybe a line or two in a book and maybe one question on a test - and certainly anyone outside the US (not sure about the UK) would probably have never heard of him.

[dargorygel]

Can you imagine vaulting with chopsticks over raw fish? Epic

Ah the joy of typos...

[Jamiet99uk]

Just shows that you tend to overestimate people's celebrity when they are closer to you. I mean, to me Sergey Bubka is infinitely better known than this dude. But I am Dutch and have an interest in sports. I guess pole-vault is a lot closer to me than the American civil war.

I think this is the case. One of the people I was previously thinking about using in this game was the Native American Tecumseh, who played a large part in the (US/UK) War of 1812 in the Great Lakes area in the US and Canada - he united several tribes into a confederacy that fought on the side of the UK in that war, among other things. Now, it's pretty hard to grow up in SE Michigan/NW Ohio without being exposed to Tecumseh at some point in school, but I'd guess if you were studying the War of 1812 in, say, a school system in most of the other US states, exposure to that part of the war might have been minimal - maybe a line or two in a book and maybe one question on a test - and certainly anyone outside the US (not sure about the UK) would probably have never heard of him.

I have heard about Tecumseh, but only because I wondered why the even-more-famous American Civil War General, Sherman, had such an unusual middle name, so I looked it up a few years ago. I don't think a normal, reasonably well-educated British person would know about Chief Tecumseh.

[damo666]

Just shows that you tend to overestimate people's celebrity when they are closer to you. I mean, to me Sergey Bubka is infinitely better known than this dude. But I am Dutch and have an interest in sports. I guess pole-vault is a lot closer to me than the American civil war.

I think this is the case. One of the people I was previously thinking about using in this game was the Native American Tecumseh, who played a large part in the (US/UK) War of 1812 in the Great Lakes area in the US and Canada - he united several tribes into a confederacy that fought on the side of the UK in that war, among other things. Now, it's pretty hard to grow up in SE Michigan/NW Ohio without being exposed to Tecumseh at some point in school, but I'd guess if you were studying the War of 1812 in, say, a school system in most of the other US states, exposure to that part of the war might have been minimal - maybe a line or two in a book and maybe one question on a test - and certainly anyone outside the US (not sure about the UK) would probably have never heard of him.

I have heard about Tecumseh, but only because I wondered why the even-more-famous American Civil War General, Sherman, had such an unusual middle name, so I looked it up a few years ago. I don't think a normal, reasonably well-educated British person would know about Chief Tecumseh.

I hadn't and am probably a good litmus test.

[Jamiet99uk]

Damo, the British Everyman, the Joe Bloggs of Britannia.

[Jamiet99uk]

The Damo on the Clapham omnibus, for the legally-inclined amongst us.

[Bonatogether]

maybe the english education system should spend less time on king james and more time on american indians...

[Octavious]

maybe the english education system should spend less time on king james and more time on american indians...

I think spending less time on King James would take some doing. Outside of enthusiastic historians he is known for being "the Bible one" or not known at all.

What you have to consider is that the war of 1812 is a pretty minor war in the grand scheme of things, and one of a great many wars over the centuries. Most Brits haven't heard of it, and virtually none will be aware of the players. There's a vague notion that we might have burned down the White House at some point, but what the war was about and who won is very much minority knowledge.