I have just received the letter confirming that I was fired on Monday. This is particularly good news, for reasons I shall outline soon. Enormous weight off my mind - all I have left to do now is pop my security pass into one of the college sites and I'm done.

Sometimes I write arts blog stuff on my other LJ, myopedia. I just did. Fancy going and looking at it?

Ta.

For reasons you will be aware of, I delayed these answers until, well, now. Thank you all for taking part, and for giving me a lot of useful ideas. Monday's quiz will be a little harder but, I hope, not too much.

1) Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me!
Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody

2) Here we come, walking down the street, we get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet.
The Monkees, Hey Hey We're The Monkees

3) So how can I ever refuse - I feel like I win when I lose!
Abba, Waterloo - It was tricky finding an Abba song where the title wasn't the hook.

4) You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you will join us, and the world will live as one
John Lennon, Imagine

5) Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh lord, why can't we?
Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder, Ebony & Ivory

6) If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten, and that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing
Eric Idle, Always Look On The Bright Side of Life - Monty Python was an acceptable answer.

7) She's just the girl who claims that she's the one - but the kid is not my son
Michael Jackson, Billie Jean

8) And through it all, she offers me protection, a lot of love and affection, whether I'm right or wrong
Robbie Williams, Angels

9) We're going where the sun shines brightly, we're going where the sea is blue - we've seen it in the movies, now let's see if it's true
Sir Cliff Richard, Summer Holiday

10) And now the end is near, and I must face the final curtain.
Oo, any of Eddie Cochrane, Frank Sinatra, Dorothy Squires, Sex Pistols, Elvis Presley or Shane McGowan, My Way. Thank you, stealthmunchkin

Quite a lot to say today, so I want to get the unpleasant stuff over with as soon as possible.

Cheryl broke up with me on Tuesday. No fault attaches to either side, and there's a lot more regret than there is bitterness - on both sides, as far as I can tell. We're trying to work out how to turn what we had into a solid friendship, and so far it seems to be working.

The work meeting that I attended last week, the one I thought they were going to fire me at, turned out to be a pre-meeting _before_ that one. So I'm back up in the air.

That's about it on the home front.

So there I am, wandering around the house, when I hear a "Dan, come and look at this!"

A White Van Man decided he was going to pull around some horses, walking up towards Old Trafford. And hey, only horses, so he revved his engine quite loud as he did so. The next thing WVM hears is "RIGHT, YOU, PULL OVER!"

The only horses I have ever seen up here were either pulling a hearse for a gangster, or carrying P.C. Clip-clop. So now his van has been called in for a police check, a ticket of _some_ description is being written, and he is about to drive off with his nose in a sling.

The moral of this story is; do not be cruel to dumb animals, even if they're riding a horse.

All the following lyrics come from songs in the UK Top 40 singles chart, from its inception in 1952 to the present day, as referred to on www.everyhit.com.

THE USUAL FORMAT DOESN'T APPLY! This week is a trial run, and while I'll put your scores on this post, I won't be putting any on the results post. The only thing that links this week's songs is that they're performed by staggeringly famous people, and they're the most obvious songs I could think of for those artists. Question Five is a duet and you get a point for either or both singers.

Even if you don't normally enter because you don't think you'll score well, please do it this week!

Name the artist of each song for one point, and get another for naming the song. Please don't use internet search services to look these details up.

Answers will be screened until Friday afternoon, when I'll post the answers.

( But the cut remains the same... )

* Just leave me a comment saying "GOBBLEDIGOOK" if you want to play.
* I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
* Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
* Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions. Simples!

My questions from celticwitch_0( Under this here cut )

I created the poll precisely because I felt uncomfortable about singing a song with words in it that are, at best inflammatory and at worst, actually racist. I thought the best way to tackle this, and to resolve my own doubts, was to ask my friends what they thought. It's worked up to a point, in that I'm now certain of what I feel. I agree that bowdlerising a song is a mistake, but to perform a piece with racist language in it - regardless of the original intent of the artist - would be a bigger one.

Finding this out has cost me a friendship I valued, and I don't think it was worth it.

1) When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don't be afraid of the dark.

Gerry & The Pacemakers, You'll Never Walk Alone

2) Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Glen Campbell, Rhinestone Cowboy

3) I can show you, I can show you, some of the people in my life
Genesis, Turn It On Again

4) Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty - oh, won't you please take me home?
Guns'N'Roses, Paradise City

5) Well, I guess it would be nice if I could touch your body, I know not everybody's got a body like you
George Michael, Faith

6) But I was as confused, my heart's bruised - was I ever loved by you?
Gabrielle, Out Of Reach

7) Well maybe I am the faggot America, I'm not part of a redneck agenda
Green Day, American Idiot

8) Windmill, windmill for the land, turn forever, hand in hand
Gorillaz, Feel Good Inc.

9) Your back's against the wall, there's no one home to call, you're forgetting who you are
Gossip, Standing In The Way of Control

10) Every time, just like the last, on her ship, tied to the mast
The Stranglers, Golden Brown

The Spotify playlist is right here!

Scores to follow!

All the following lyrics come from songs in the UK Top 10 singles chart, from its inception in 1952 to the present day, as referred to on www.everyhit.com.

Ignoring silly words like "The" and "A", nine of the songs come from artists beginning with the letter "G". The tenth and last song on the list has a title beginning with the letter "G".

Name the artist of each song for one point, and get another for naming the song. Please don't use internet search services to look these details up.

Answers will be screened until Friday afternoon, when I'll post the answers and the scores!

( And here's the inevitable cut text. )

I'm also looking into ways to run a samples quiz in addition to this one, so scaree might just get their wish of two quizzes a week...

American football may not be your bag. But it's enormously lucrative, holds the attention of fans worldwide pretty much all year round, and every year the Bowl Championship Series turns teenage boys into superheroic men. But there is one gaping flaw in how it is organised, and that flaw is at University - or, as Americans have it, collegiate level. It's so important that President Obama was asked about it during his campaign, and his answer could be filed under ha-ha-only-serious.

( The rest of it's behind here... )

( Answers are now behind this cut... )
And this *ahem* fortnight's playlist is right here.

Scores:

First Place: celticwitch_0, 18 points. Wow.
Second Place: trialia, 16 points.
Third Place: scaree and mr_parsnip, 15 points.

And thank you, everyone else, for taking part! Apologies for the delay - normal service will be resumed on Monday.

PS - "I'm a little man, and I'm also evil, also into cats" is a mondegreen from Number 8. See if you can spot it...

All the following lyrics come from songs in the UK Top 10 singles chart, from its inception in 1952 to the present day, as referred to on www.everyhit.com.

Ignoring silly words like "The" and "A", nine of the songs come from artists beginning with the letter "F". The tenth and last song on the list has a title beginning with the letter "F".

Name the artist of each song for one point, and get another for naming the song. Please note that Question 5 is a duet, and only the first billed artist's name starts with an "F". Please don't use internet search services to look these details up.

Answers will be screened until Friday afternoon, when I'll post the answers and the scores!

( And the cut hides the words... )

( Here's the cut )
First place: celticwitch_0, 18 points
Second place: scaree, 15 points
Third place: minnesatva, 14 points

Highly Commended: the_hunter, thisispoki and the_hatstand
Commended: ethyl_deadgirl, elfdragonlord, softfruit and haggis.

On Monday - F!

All the following lyrics come from songs in the UK Top 10 singles chart, from its inception in 1952 to the present day, as referred to on www.everyhit.com.

Ignoring silly words like "The" and "A", nine of the songs come from artists beginning with the letter "E". The tenth and last song on the list has a title beginning with the letter "E".

Name the artist of each song for one point, and get another for naming the song. Please don't use internet search services to look these details up.

Answers will be screened until Friday afternoon, when I'll post the answers and the scores!

( And the lyrics are hiding behind this here cut... ) Good luck!

Here are the answers, and now ( They're behind this handy cut! )

First place: therainbowqueen with 18 points
Second place: celticwitch_0 with 16 points
Third place: thisispoki and the_hunter with 15.5 points each.

Highly commended list: trialia and scaree
Commended: haggis and minnesatva

And thank you, everyone, for playing! "E" tomorrow...

All the following lyrics come from songs in the UK Top 10 singles chart, from its inception in 1952 to the present day, as referred to on www.everyhit.com.

Ignoring silly words like "The" and "A", nine of the songs come from artists beginning with the letter "D". The tenth and last song on the list has a title beginning with the letter "D".

Name the artist of each song for one point, and get another for naming the song. Please don't use internet search services to look these details up.

Answers will be screened until Friday afternoon, when I'll post the answers and the scores!

( And here comes the cut... )

Apologies for the delays...

1) I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightning.
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bad Moon Rising

2) Thanks for the times that you've given me, the memories are all in my mind.
The Commodores, Three Times A Lady

3) Precious kisses, words that burn me, lovers never ask you why
Culture Club, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?

4) Call me raider, call me wrong, call me insane.
Culture Beat, Mr. Vain

5) Cause someday, when the years have flown, darling then we'll teach
Cliff Richard & The Shadows, The Young Ones

6) You're coming on strong and I like the way the visions we had have faded away
The Chemical Brothers, Setting Sun

7) Got to rub me the right way, honey
Christina Aguilera, Genie In A Bottle

8) And if there's no tomorrow, and all we have is here and now
The Corrs, Breathless

9) Can you stay up for the weekend, and blame God for looking too old?
Calvin Harris, I'm Not Alone

10) We all get hurt by love and we all have our cross to bear.
Kylie Minogue, Confide In Me

No-one got the Chemicals or Calvin Harris, which not only confirms that I made the quiz miles too hard this week, but that our winners this week did exceptionally well to get 14 points out of 16...

First place: trialia and celticwitch_0, 14 points
Second place: emma_b79 and her team, 8 points
Third place: thisispoki, 6 points

Thank you all for answering - I shall do better with "D" tomorrow.