Snaking a meme that theferrett started... High-pressure contestant go BOOM!

[azurelunatic]

theferrett challenged us to name the questions (and answers) that we went boom on in any high-stakes competition we'd flubbed. He suggested a spelling bee. I didn't get high enough in any spelling bee to remember what word I'd bonked out on, but I do remember...

...the Geography Bee.

This was one of those national contests. There were quite a few, when I was a kid. It was a sneaky way to get kids to learn stuff, so they could spout it back under pressure. I did well on the MathCounts thing, or at least well enough.

But the one that's forever emblazoned on my mind is the geography bee.

I was in the 4th grade. I'd beat out the rest of my class and the rest of my grade. The other final contestants were 6th graders. I was the only 4th grader who'd made it to the top 10. If I won this, I'd compete against other schools in the district as the representative of my school. My class was cheering for me. I was up in front of the entire school, including my little sister swallowtayle. I was one of the top 3. I'd beat out all but two of the other students, and I'd never even had the US Geography class that we were supposed to have had in the 3rd grade. I was psyched, I was buzzing, I was on...

Name the two countries on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar.

The country on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco is Spain. Spain. How could I remember Morocco but not Spain, I ask you? Because I'd been reading King of the Wind, and the country the horse had come from was Morocco, and they'd had to sail across the blasted strait.

Since I didn't get both countries, I was out.

Comments

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I actually got as far as 26th in the state... But as crazy as I am I didn't get past the test round in the state finals. Just not enough useless trivia in my mind. I couldn't remember the Intercostal Waterway amoung other things.

[azurelunatic]

I know next to nothing in the way of useless trivia about the States. I was pretty good on general world geography, and terminology, though.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

You know where I chuffed it in the Geography Bee? What was the first national park in the United States?

Well, it was Yellowstone, of course, but the reason I got kicked out wasn't bcause I got it wrong, but because the teacher moderating the tie-breaker question (it came down to me and one other girl) misheard me and proceeded to pronounce to the audience that I had guessed "Jellystone".

Urgh. Just ... just urgh.

[azurelunatic]

Bleh.

As well as urgh.