Tuesday 24 February 2009

Well, well!

For just about the first time in my existence, I seem to have been ahead of events. A mere senight ago I remarked on the ferocious intelligence and lightening button-pressing of the captain of the Corpus Christi team on the television quiz show, University Challenge. And this morning - after her triumph in the competition yesterday evening - she is being feted as possibly the cleverest woman in Britain. Well, you heard it here first.


Interestingly, even Mr Paxman seems to have warmed to the young woman's charms. And the announcer-wallah's tone rose audibly as he fairly screamed the girl's name - "Corpus Christi Trimble!" - every time she won her starter for ten. And what a pleasant, modest, demure and - yes, intelligent - young woman she appears to be. Dear God, when I survey some of the half-dressed, extravagently-coiffured and utterly ignorant young ladies I have the misfortune to instruct in singing on a weekly basis, I despair. With their gum-chewing, tongue-piercing, high-heel clicking, bovine yeah-whatevah-ing manner one could be forgiven for assuming that the female youth of this city had emerged as a result of some rather unfortunate genetic experiment. A failed genetic experiment, at that.


So let us laud and magnify the fair Gail as she and her team emerge in triumph from the lair of the dragon Paxman. Let peals be rung, let poets (Laura - are you 'on your marks'?) write heroic odes and let choirs sing. In tune. And with the beat. And something that's worth singing.


Well, there has to be a first time for everything.

8 comments:

French Fancy... said...

I'm not such a fan of the Trimble. I know she's getting quite a mixed press at the moment but you've got to admit she does have an annoying habit of flicking her head back and smiling when she gets a question right. This is not sexism on my part - I've found it irritating when men have also done it on this programme - which is one of my 'must sees'.

I'll leave you to your Trimble love

Eryl Shields said...

If I had hair and ever got anything right, I too would flick and smile. Good for Trimble!

xerxes said...

I missed the Trimble extravaganza due to not being bovvered, but Mme Inkspot is a fan and has been raving about her in the same sort of terms as you, CB.

Gadjo Dilo said...

I have no idea who this woman is. What's she studying at Oxbridge? Hairdressing?

Ms Scarlet said...

Gadj!
Perhaps she could do with a few highlights.
I smile if I'm patted on the head.
Sx

Nota Bene said...

I wish I'd been paying attention earlier on, and had to read about this in the broadsheets. So sorry, I'll be more attentive in the future. Did the Paxman have a soft spot for her?

The Poet Laura-eate said...

I see a D-phil Fillies blue stocking calendar in the pipeline as we speak!

Can Bass 1 said...

My word, what an excellent idea Miss Laureate. After all, Gail will be rather keen to deflect media attention now, won't she?