One of the fun bits about traveling to the UK is watching British TV. On the one hand, there are passingly few channels (compared to back home), and a lot of them are doing sports, news, or sports news at any given moment. Though the news tends to be interesting, or less fluffy, or certainly more international in flavor (heard the latest about the Brazilian presidential race?) than back in the US.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, there are game shows. Lots of game shows. And relatively erudite game shows. Tuned into what I grew up with knowing as "College Bowl" (here called "University Challenge"), and those questions were hard<\/i> (for example University Challenge S44E08 Glasgow vs Bath<\/a>). After that was "Only Connect," one I hadn't seen before, which is all about pattern matching (for exampl Only Connect – Series 10 – Episode 5<\/a>).<\/p>\n I mean, these are shows that make "Jeopardy" (the only popular US show of this ilk) look like the Dating Game. I wonder why these sorts of games are popular here and not back home — unless the UK likes the idea of snooty knowledge and smart people, and the US doesn't like the idea that "any pointy-headed intellectual knows more than me."<\/i><\/p>\n (That the score numbers are small and the cash prizes either low or not even mentioned, is probably also meaningful.)<\/p>\n I might need to add some of these to our home rotation, via YouTube and Chromecast.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n