[Sundae]

Watched an old episode of QI the other night. Linda Smith was on it, so that should give you a clue.

Reminded me of why I disliked it to start with - there were factual inaccuracies included, which made me think of it first as some weird sort of "lying for fun" show. I couldn't work out why some things I was sure were true were counted as false, and others that I knew were false were accepted without question.

As the series progressed the answers became more accurate, so it was obviously intended as a high-brow comedy quiz show. When you can trust the answers are correct, it helps redress some of the received wisdom we're all prone to.

Two glaring examples from that show; Sean Locke revealed that the Huntsman spider is the only spider with lungs. No it isn't. A number of spiders have what are known as "book lungs" but even they are nothing like what we would call lungs in mammals. And if that's what he meant, the Huntsman is by no means the only spider with them, nearly 50% have them.

Also, that catgut was not used to string violins as it was considered unlucky to kill a cat in Medieval times. Except that cat killing was rampant across Europe in Medieval times (the Plague, the witchhunts, burying a cat in the foundations for a house for luck)... The rumour was put about in the 17th century to discourage amateurs from taking up the work - sheeps gut was used instead. So the answer was correct in one sense, but the timing was at least a century out.

You can see why I was puzzled originally.